Interview I

 Librarianship is a discipline built on the shoulders of Giants, nurtured and cultivated by the accumulated knowledge passed down from mentor to mentee, generation by generation.  As such, I felt it only proper to begin this assignment by interviewing my own original library mentor, Mrs. Streets, who worked as the Media Specialist at ARC High School for nearly a decade.  While Mrs. Streets is no longer with Richmond County- she is currently working as a school Media Specialist elsewhere in Georgia- her guidance has always been invaluable to me, and I chose her specifically for this reason. 

For our discussion, I chose the very first AASL standard:  Inquire.  In my own practice, I consider it the most foundational of the six, but I was eager to see Mrs. Street’s opinion on the matter.  To open our discussion, I asked her about her familiarity with the AASL standards framework.  To my delight, she rummaged quickly in her desk drawer and produced a copy, bristling with tabs, of the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries.  With a laugh, she remarked that she may have been “somewhat familiar” with the topic. 

Moving on, I began to delve into her perspective on Inquiry.  As the basis of information-seeking behaviors, I asked her how she encouraged it in her students.  “One of the easiest ways,” she began, seemingly lost in thought, “is to collaborate directly with teachers on their projects.”  She went on to explain that centering programming around large-scale research assignments was a great way to help High School students “Learn to Discern,” a skill she considers invaluable.  We also shared a lamentation on the state of misinformation in Social Media, and discussed how important it was to prepare students to be critical of the information presented to them. 

I then asked how, with all the information flowing at them, she ensures students don’t become lost and overwhelmed in the process of research and inquiry.  For Mrs. Streets, the answer was a matter of scale:  By teaching students how to navigate specific resources, such as our Galileo database, she is able to narrow the scope of the information they receive, filtering out a lot of the “junk” that comes from Google or, heaven forbid, Generative AI. 

As we began to wrap up, I wanted to look at a practical example of these approaches, so I asked her about any recent collaborations that she felt might have showcased the standard of Inquiry.  In response, she told me about a recent collaboration she’d done with her Art teacher- an unconventional choice for library research.  She told me that, after discussing an upcoming unit on 20th century art, they had worked together to convert the library into a gallery, printing out posters of famous works from that period. 

Students were able to visit, view the artwork, and were encouraged to critique it, pointing out things they noticed or elements they liked or disliked.  After that, the teacher gave a lesson on the history of 20th century art, and the following day, the students were allowed to begin researching an artist of their choice.  The process, she noted, was greatly enhanced by exposing the students to the art first, encouraging them to wonder, explore, speculate, and, ultimately, Inquire. 

As I thanked her for her time and made to conclude our Teams call, she left me one final pearl of wisdom, a quote from Sir Ken Robinson (whom I was, admittedly, only tangentially familiar with):  “Creativity is Everything, especially Teaching.”  Stimulating the creativity of students, she clarified, is how she feels Inquiry is best implemented. 

Thinking back on our talk, I feel inspired.  At times, standards like the AASL framework can seem dense- almost impenetrable.  In a whorl of Competencies and guidelines and subsections, it becomes easy to forget the fundamentals:  Get kids inspired, nurture their creativity, and give them the tools to explore these new questions safely and effectively- that's what Inquire now means to me.