Interview With a Librarian - AASL Curate Competency

    The AASL National School Library Standards competency Curate was the topic of discussion during an interview with Marcie Burnip, the school librarian at Strom Thurmond High School.  Curating includes collecting and sharing resources, but also the ethical use of information from diverse perspectives.  

    Burnip shared how she implements the Curate competency (M. Burnip, personal communication, October 13,2020).  She stated that her goal at the high school level is to instruct students on how to find and use any resource independently, whether the resource is for research or just curiosity, print or digital.  

    Some of the resources she used to implement these competencies are books, databases, and digital workstations.  Most of the resources are books, like reference materials, nonfiction selections, and databases, such as SCDiscus.  She also has collaborative workstations in the library so students can work independently or in a small group on projects.  They are able to view projects on a large screen monitor that are connected to their Chromebooks.

(Collaborative workspaces in the STHS Library.)

    Burnip states that collaborating with teachers at the high school level is somewhat atypical of the elementary and middle school levels.  At the start of each school year, she sends out a survey to teachers for requests of topics they need for supplementing their curriculum.  Much of her budget goes to support her teachers.  She stated that she pulls biographies for the U.S. History teacher for a unit on influential Americans after the Revolutionary War, as well as a unit on influential leaders of the Women’s Movement.  During one unit for the AP Biology teacher, she realized the reference materials for a genetics unit were outdated.  She purchased the most recent volumes available to bring the collection up to date.  Although she almost never has formal meetings to collaborate with teachers, she often answers questions when teachers pop into the library, send an email, call, or bump into her in the hallway.

    The biggest challenge that Burnip faces when trying to implement these competencies is follow through.  She said it is frustrating when after giving a teacher requested lesson on how to use SCDiscus to students, they are still conducting their research by “Googling” the topic and using a blog site or other untrustworthy site, such as Wikipedia.  Another challenge she shared is that some teachers feel they do not need advice or guidance from the media specialist, which makes it difficult to discover what resources would benefit teachers most.  

Marcie Burnip tries various ways to Curate resources for teachers and students.

References:

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.