Emphasis was placed this week on the specifics of collaboration:  group roles, logistics, administrative support, problem solving, and social marketing.  While the last item may not seem to fit with those listed previously, it may be the most essential element to establishing a collaborative relationship between the librarian and the learning community.  Can you see the woman in the picture to the left of her table, sticking her tongue out?  Requests for collaborative meetings may be met with just that attitude, if the librarian has not established the social marketing process of AIDA:  Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. 
 
So what does this mean for a brand new librarian like me?  It means that when I am hired for a library position, I'm going to have to market myself and the library program.  First, I'll have to gain the attention of my learning community through advertising.  I'll have to get my staff, students, and parents interested in what the program has to offer by tuning in to their needs and those of the curriculum, making my skills and the services relevant, timely, and easy to access.  Hopefully, this will lead to their desire to learn more about the services and utilize them.  Desire will lead them to action--allowing me to collaborate with them, and eventually seeking out my skills and services without having to jump through the hoops of the AIDA process!

I may have to take the lead in starting the collaborative process, but that doesn't necessarily mean I will be the leader in collaborative groups.  Roles change and are as varied as the teams who come together and the purposes they serve.  Ultimately, though, the goal of every collaborative effort on a school campus is student engagement and achievement.  

The two main hurdles to collaboration are time and administrative support.  Using technology to support collaboration may help with time constraints.  Convincing administrators to support my efforts to collaborate with the learning community may have me using that AIDA model yet again.  Being confident in my skills, the library resources, and connecting with my "Why am I a librarian?" statement that we discussed in the I-DO Lead module will help guide me in fostering collaboration on my campus.

This week's discussion focused on the feelings aspect of collaboration--passion for the job, building relationships with coworkers, and our own personal emotional intelligence.

I did not realize how passionate I was about becoming a librarian until I was well into my first semester of graduate school.  After all, it had to be passion that drove me to enroll at the same exact time as losing my beloved, eleven-year-long half-time position as an ARD facilitator and returning full-time to the classroom for the first time in seventeen years.  I believe it was the master's program that got me through that first year as a returning teacher; the act of learning, and the excitement I felt about the process and the content, spilled over to my colleagues and my students.  Passion is contagious, and people want to be a part of it!

As a special education teacher, I work with almost all grade levels.  The ARD process  is, by its very nature, collaborative, as is the "sharing" of students with their general education teachers.  I have to maintain good relationships with my colleagues in order to serve our students well and connect the learning from both settings for them.  I see this as good training for staff relationships in a future library position.

Dr. Long invited us to take a 146-question emotional intelligence test.  The questions were interesting, but the results were not surprising.  Overall, my emotional intelligence is "fairly good", with a high positive mindset and good skills at reading others' emotions with empathy and social insight.  I do need to work on managing conflict (I tend to avoid it) and being more assertive when marketing my own skills and ideas.  I will need to work on this if I am to make myself indispensable as a school librarian; by recognizing my strengths and marketing what I can offer to the campus, I can begin to lead in the process of collaboration.

The latest module of the I-DO series focuses on the role of the librarian as a collaborator.  This facet of librarianship seems like a no-brainer; after all, librarians should be supporting and working with the entire learning community, from students and parents to teachers and administrators.  This type of work can't be accomplished without some form of collaboration occurring!  Of course, for collaboration to occur, it must be involve both parties communicating with one another, and that's where issues may arise.  Librarians need to learn the communication styles of the members of their learning community.  For example, some teachers may like face-to-face time with the librarian while planning units or discussing needed resources; others may be better served through emails.  Some principals invite their librarians to periodic meetings for  program updates; others, again, may want brief written communication with only the highlights.  No matter how it's done, collaboration and communication must occur for the librarian to effectively support the learning community and maximize the benefits of the library program.  

While the ultimate goal of collaboration and school library service is increased student achievement, the effects of collaboration include an improved collection, a higher level of professionalism, and the chance to model my skills for others so that I am not seen strictly as an employee who checks out and shelves books.  I would also add that collaborating is essential in building rapport with the learning community, which can lead to increased use of library resources and better opportunities for leadership activities and acknowledgement/ job security.  Lastly, I need to collaborate to increase my own knowledge base.  Collaborating with others is one of the best ways to learn about librarianship!  When we share our successes, failures, and great ideas, we help each other become better in our chosen fields.