Why do librarians need a special day? (April 4–was our official day this year by the way; national school librarian’s day is celebrated annually normally at the beginning of April.) That’s a good question; Fiya’s glad you asked. We eclipse the world of education adding light for every learner, but some entities desire to block the profession. It is because in large part people are in the darkness about us and all the work we do to help our school communities which causes a shadow over this area of learning. We are often overtasked and underpaid. Librarians are bookkeepers, but we are so much more than that; we are innovators. Librarians syzygy vibrant collections of resources–print and digital, manage budgets, teach students, collaborate with educators, connect with communities for partnerships, lead literacy, and unregretfully guide the light of information and freedom. Few realize this unless you are a regular viewer of the library, and this is not your first contact with this institution. So, one of our jobs during this special month is to proclaim the unique ingenious that is the role of a librarian; therefore the beads of light come shining through. Yes, we ‘toot our own horn’ and we are not ashamed.
In addition to the ‘free’ premium resources, library specialists offer love. Our students need a lot of love. In an age of many societal ills like broken families, food deserts, childhood cancer, single parent homes, incest, human trafficking, prostitution, and much more, our students need the additional compassion and care that the library staff provides through human to human connection. This is the second contact. Librarians offer a brief moment–an half-hour, an hour, or two plus–of escape from the craziness that is reality. Sometimes it’s a smile, a hand shake, a hug, or the remembrance of a special day or a horrible day. Someone else shares the good and the not so good; a non-family member who knows that individual is alive and cares enough to enter that individual’s world to provide a ray of hope. This hope acts as a diamond ring, a bright spot in the child’s life. The librarian knows, the librarian sees, the librarian acts. Knowing, seeing, and acting make all the difference for each individual.
Why do libraries need a whole month to celebrate? Libraries have a history of value that many are not aware of or have forgotten. During National School Library Month, library programming works even harder to remind and/or introduce people to the well-rounded totality of the knowledge within its doors and the activities available for one’s deep dive exploration. In this eclipse phase, the smaller lights like the stars, appear to individuals who had not noticed them before because of the illumination of the regular curriculum serving as the sun.
The American Library Association’s (ALA) 2024 theme, Ready, Set, Library! is filled with campaign information, marketing tools, and historical facts of the wealth of information libraries circulate to its patrons. ALA recognizes and organizes all this knowledge–participant activities, resource tools, social media campaigns ideas, and prizes–for those willing to enter the world of knowledge, the library. Additionally, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) offers even more information about this annual time; this subset of ALA envisions this yearly celebration as a grand advocacy opportunity to educate why we should celebrate. AASL develops promotional templates, administrator toolkit items, and an archive of webinars for additional professional training. Although distant to some, through the all-round work of these organizations, we see the totality of the brilliance of the space encompassing the library world.
Throughout my campus library years, celebrations of the library were few and far between for many, many years; complete darkness covered the library’s path–#sadness. As a novice librarian, Fiya Librarian did not know about these striking celebrations. During the partial eclipsed time under the tutelage of a library coordinator, Fiya learned more and more growing in librarianship allowing more layers of the light to appear; however, her first campuses did not celebrate National School Library Month probably because they were not aware of it. But the district’s library coordinator was uncommon because she made district leadership aware of not only our roles as school librarians year round, but during this special time of the year, and she celebrated us at our monthly meeting, but campus leaders choose not to view the light. The sun was shining, but the watch parties only existed with one group of education professionals–the librarians. April 2023 was a whole new world because Fiya Librarian was blessed by the best with the “Big Book of Mrs. Haynes”. (smile) At the time, the dynamic assistant principal created a ‘book’ out of multiple poster boards folded in half and stapled together. Each of the teaching teams–PK, KG, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades–wrote sparkling messages to me, and some of the students wrote things as well. It was quite touching. It blessed my soul. This provided a special viewing lens for Fiya to gaze upon the library’s orbit as others did. Worthy of acknowledgement, this peak event was life-changing.
How do you celebrate National School Library Month? Well, let’s be honest. Sometimes due to time constraints, and several “Other Duties As Assigned” from the campus principal; literacy illumination ideas were none because the campus’ needs covered the library’s light and it may feel like dark times. One year we celebrated by having the school news team members share a short word about the importance of libraries individually. Every day one student would appear live on campus broadcast and share their testimonial. Because it was an elementary campus, Fiya Librarian always listened to the student at least one time during his/her lunch practice as a run-through before his/her actual on-air appearance. Another year, the campus book club read a blurb about the history of the week from student friendly sources Fiya Librarian had located from the above organizations.
Librarians encircle the education world with numerous stages to recognize and celebrate this National School Library Month and National Library Week. Educators, parents, guardians, librarians, administrators, and students do something. It is imperative that we remind everyone of the value of libraries, librarians, and library staff. Shine brightly and wear your special glasses so others can see the illumination the library may provide not just once a year but always. According to scientists, the next annular eclipse for Texas is scheduled to appear in 2045. We do not want it to be that long before our patrons visit us, so let’s share our phases in stages, often anticipating joyous excitement about the world of learning. Give us every contact moment. Help us celebrate now; the party is not as much fun without you present. Keep looking up with your new literacy lenses.
Lighting the way,
Fiya Librarian
Additional Reading
Comments