Practicum Summary

Leanna Hampton
July 2015
My Kent State MLIS practicum experience was hosted by high school librarian, Lizabeth Deskins,
at Hilliard Bradley High School in Hilliard, Ohio, from April 14th May 27th, 2015. In all, it was a
wonderful experience that has given me confidence in my abilities as a future school librarian! My first
impression upon entering the library for the first time was that it was one of the most beautiful and
spacious school libraries that I had seen. As I began to settle in, my second overall impression was that
Liz is an innovative librarian who incorporates technology into daily routines in order to streamline
practices and routines. For example, when students enter the library, along with providing a pass, they
each sign in on a Google Form that provides the class period, student and teacher name, and time. This
information is accessible by Liz and the teachers so that there is a record of students who attended each
period.
During my time at Bradley, I had three projects that I worked on, including a biography and
memoir collection development project, a pathfinder project, and the library showcase. For the
biography project, I looked at each of the titles in the 500 volume biography section. I weeded 173 lowperforming titles, and I moved 110 books that I determined to be memoirs into a separate section. The
goal is to increase circulation on the memoirs, which may have been overlooked in the biography
section. The pathfinder project was for a 9th grade social studies teacher who approached Liz about
pulling together some resources for his classes. I asked if I could help with the project, and over the
next few weeks, I created two pathfinders of articles from the electronic databases on the topics. The
last project I worked on was creating a display for the large glass showcase outside the library. I created
a display of local volunteer opportunities and QR codes for students to use in order to get more
information.

One unexpected observation during my practicum was how difficult it was for Liz to get buy-in
from other staff members about the expertise and resources that she has to offer to the school. Several
teachers were aware of the great information literacy help that she can provide, but the majority of
teachers did not take advantage of the copious opportunities she provided to collaborate. Because the
library is very spacious, many teachers bring in their classes to work in the open table space or to use
the computers for research. These in-person interactions were the most effective times for Liz to
promote her library services. She would celebrate the little victories whenever teachers, who had not
previously responded to her emails or needed her help, would want help finding information for
themselves or their students. The realization that not all teachers have the time or inclination to
receive help from the librarian was a little shocking to me, but it was a very good lesson to learn now
instead of in my first year as an enthusiastic and possibly over-excited librarian. Liz helped me to see
small ways to make inroads with the administration and teachers over time. Despite a general
indifference from administration on year-end reports about the library, Liz is vigilant in continuing to
promote the library and document the achievements and impact the library has made on the students
and teachers throughout the year.
When it comes to practical library experiences, there were several things that I was really
excited to see and learn during the practicum. I had not had any experience using an integrated library
system (ILS) at a school, nor had I seen the process of managing a budget, purchasing materials,
cataloging, and making shelf location decisions. During the practicum experience, Liz taught me about
each item on my objectives list and provided valuable practice using the systems required to manage a
library.
Several years ago, Liz decided to split her fiction section into genres and assign every book to
one of the genres. This was an interesting decision that I had not learned about in library school. Liz

explained that the decision to genrefy the fiction section has increased the ability of students to browse
for books that are interesting to them, and now, many more students are reading fiction!
I had the opportunity to attend several professional development days during my practicum,
and this may have been one of my favorite experiences. I really enjoyed getting to hear the very diverse
perspectives of the librarians that gathered for a district librarian meeting. The goal of the meeting was
to decide on a uniform menu of research modules that teachers could request from their school
librarians. While we did discuss these topics, much more time was spent talking about school politics,
library philosophies, pros and cons of genre labeling, best resources for information literacy, importance
of having professional librarians in each library, and much more. They were spirited discussions from
real librarians and teachers that had been on the front lines of school libraries, which is the big
difference between discussions in a class environment and discussions with professionals in the field.
When I reflect about the lasting impressions from the practicum, I realize that the experience
gave a solid shape to concepts that I had learned in my classes. It gave me the opportunity to live what
had previously only been words on a page or discussion with peers. As a tactile and visual learner, I
relished the chance to get my hands dirty with the real work of being a librarian. I am thankful for Lizs
expertise and kindness as I was learning so many new things each day. I feel that the experience has
prepared me to join the professional world of library media specialists!