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FEATURE | digital libraries

The virtual learning commons could be the secret power that turns your school website
into a participatory digital space that serves learning 24/7. BY DIAN SCHAFFHAUSER

WILL THIS
WEBSITE
SAVE YOUR
LIBRARY
(and Your Librarians)?
THE POSITION OF the school librarian is under siege by budget-pressed school
districts. Utahs Ogden School District laid off 20 in April, to be replaced by staff
assistants. Pennsylvanias Harrisburg School District laid its librarians off, with
Springfield Township High Schools former
VLC site scattered popular resources
______________
on a central home page that resembled a pinboard.

the expectation of replacing them with volunteers. The New York City Department
of Education asked the state to waive requirements mandating that schools employ
librarians, as The Wall Street Journal reported in August.

22

| NOVEMBER 2013

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FEATURE | digital libraries

who charge fines and focus on getting their books

of all, it serves learning 24/7. The librarian doesnt disap-

iansmany of them with a teaching certificate along-

back. Some are, he acknowledges. The stereotype

pear; she or he moves into the background.

side a masters degree in library scienceare so

wouldnt exist unless there were people who were like

What makes some administrators believe that librar-

Loertscher says that he has specific reason for us-

expendable?
David Loertscher, who is a faculty member of San
Jose State Universitys School of Library & Information Science, blames lingering librarian stereotypes
the ones that say librarians are bookish people

A STUDENTS TAKE
Click for Mac

David Loertscher asks, Why do you need a masters

degree to tend the warehouse? Librarians have got to
change. If theyve been out of library school very long,
theyve got to rethink everything they were taught.
that. That breed of librarian has a reason to be wor-

ing the word commons: Its a concept pulled straight

ried. People have figured out, why do we need a

out of American history and the forging of the country.

masters degree person tending the warehouse? And

The Boston Commons was a place everybody owned,

theyre quite right. Librarians have got to change. If

where everybody talked, where everybody worked.

theyve been out of library school very long, they have

Thats where democracy was really born. Renaming

to rethink everything they were taught.

the library the commons emphasizes that, while the library may still have books and materials, it has become

INSERT:

A Template for the Future

a very flexible, active learning space. When you walk

For five years, Loertscher and education consultant

in (or click in), it looks like a learning space, rather than

Carol Koechlin have been promoting a formula that is

a storage space, he says.

placing librarians front and center to help maximize the

learning impact of changes taking place in their schools.
VIDEO: Student Shannon Lawn shares her
enthusiasm for the virtual learning commons at
Springfield Township High School Library.
Click here for the captioned version.

23

| NOVEMBER 2013

The VLC has five essential characteristics, according

to Loertscher. The VLC:

A virtual learning commons (or VLC, as its called) turns

Is flexible;

the traditional library page on a school website from a

Is owned by the student and teacher;

one-way stream of stale information into a lively and par-

Becomes central to teaching and learning;

ticipatory digital space for students and teachers. Best

Extends the classroom; and

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FEATURE | digital libraries

Is always available anywhere with an internet

got different people posting in various rooms and tak-

school culture. Student artwork is also archived on the

connection.

ing responsibility. Its an all-volunteer thing.

library site, because, says Valenza, The library curates

In other words, grab all the tools and artifacts for

student life and the students helped do it. Students set

digital learning that must take place on campusas-

Student Drivers

up Skype sessions with authors and poets through their

signments and projects that could be shared among

At Springfield Township High School Library in Glenside,

virtual book club; they lead discussions during town-

teachers, samples of excellent work, and resources and

PA, the portal does seem to have run amok. Librarian

wide community reading events; they organize poetry

reference matterand place them online. While youre

Joyce Valenza taps students to upload photos of

slams; they post their school projects to the librarys

at it, mix in social media and community aspects

Springfield life, including coverage of sports and school

website in a Student Project Guide.

book reviews, photos, school updates, and the like

clubs events to the librarys Flickr page and Pinterest

to keep parents and kids coming back for more.

boardthe latter of which is tagged, A collage of

To make the ideas behind VLC concrete, Loertscher

and his graduate students employed wiki and web
page creation tool Google Sites to develop a template
that could be adopted and revised by librarians to help
them in building a VLC for their schools. Loertscher

Our nation requires and young people deserve

education geared to the demands of todays real world.

explains that the template includes five major rooms,

each one a different web page or area on the library
site. (See The Structure of a VLC, on page 27.)
The template lays out a tidy site in which everything
appears to have its place. In the real world, however,
the best VLCsthe ones actually being used by their
school communitiesare a messy lot, and they define flexible. Most have multiple colors, fonts, boxes,
graphics, and anything else that can be squeezed into
the format of a web page. That doesnt surprise Loertscher. Its not a one-person show, he says. Youve

24

| NOVEMBER 2013

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create a stronger, more vibrant generation of Americans
one that is ready for career and college.
Stronger teachers, stronger schools, stronger students.
Were Generation Ready. Are you?
Visit generationready.com

Valenza has an ulterior motive in getting students to

place their work and activities online: to bolster their

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FEATURE | digital libraries

digital presences in positive ways.

level. I want them to rise to it, not

Because of COPPA and CIPA and so

lower themselves.

many things that protect kids, weve

Because Kowalski says she can

eliminated access to the good work

already tell which ones are heading

our kids are doing, and all you see is

to engineering school, shes happy

the stuff that they post that may show

to hand off the management of some

them with a beer can in their hand

parts of the VLC to students. For ex-

or a red Solo cup, she says. When

ample, a teacher came to her wanting

people look these kids up, I want their

to put together a list of alternatives to

reputations as scholars and artists and

PowerPoint. Kowalski turned to one

poets and video/film producers to start

of her iStaff members and asked him

being visible.

to create a Symbaloo, a kind of home

The use of students to drive the VLC

page that allows a user to pull together

takes a more formal structure at the

a Windows 8-like spread of icons with

Pine Grove Middle School Library in

links to favorite sites or apps. He did

East Syracuse, NY. Librarian Sue Kow-

it in probably 10 minutes, she notes.

alski has enlisted dozens of students

The biggest, richest role that the

into a workforce she calls her iStaff.

iStaff plays is when its student volun-

Students come in for their shift and

teers get trained on something, and a

know what theyre supposed to do.

teacher says, Can you send two kids

That self-direction is important, she

down second period to do a demonstra-

says, because she doesnt have time

tion for my class and then walk around

to manage a group of kids who arent

the room? In those situations, notes

_____________________________

25

focused. Nor does she want to give

Kowalski, The teacher gets the support

them busywork. I do like to give the

they want. Im still able to continue with

kids higher level jobs rather than lower

what Im doing. And the kid has a rich

| NOVEMBER 2013

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virtual.fetc.org
_____________________

Teaching in a Digitally Connected World: Envisioning 2014

experience of being a teacher-leader.

freakIm not organized enough

Thats the perfect world for iStaff.

so what is the best way that all of the

things that come through the library

Teachers Helpers

are at everybodys fingertips? If Im

Kowalski has put a lot of effort into

there to guide, assist, or teach, thats

distributing the services offered by

wonderful. But if Im not, they can be

the library and making it as self-

pretty self-sufficient.

service as possible, especially for

Thats where applications such as

teachers looking to learn new things.

Symbaloo come in. However, Kow-

I wouldnt call myself a control

alski is also trying out LibGuides,

CONNECT TO MAKERS
MakeItAtYourLibrary.org is a new website tailored to librarians interested in
implementing makerspace projects in their libraries. The site, created in collaboration with Instructables and the American Library Association, connects
users to projects based on library-specific search criteria. Instructables is
an online DIY community where people over age 13 can make and share

FETC Virtual Conference is now available on demand

through January 10, 2014!
Log in and access this compelling educational content as many times as you
likeat no charge!

This FREE ALL-ONLINE event features:

their projects, ideas, and how-to information in such categories as technol-

Sessions presented by a select group of FETC 2014s featured speakers

ogy, crafts, home improvement, art, and cooking. With Instructables link to

A virtual networking lounge where you can share best practices

MakeItAtYourLibrary, librarians can identify and select projects that are

cost-, age- and content-appropriate for specific students. According to Victoria Rakowski, assistant director of youth services at Lisle Library District (IL),

Technology product and service demos in the virtual exhibit hall

Free content downloads and presentations-to-goand more!

A common misperception is that makerspaces require the purchase of highcost items like 3D printers, or the installation of full workshops. This site will
cut down on librarian anxiety.

Not registered? Sign up today for

free at virtual.fetc.org
____________________________

26

| NOVEMBER 2013

PRODUCED BY

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FEATURE | digital libraries

which are like a Microsoft SharePoint for libraries

in that users can set up multiple mini websites for

THE STRUCTURE OF A VLC

specific purposes. She compares the transition to

According to the model created by San Jose States David Loertscher and education consultant Carol Koechlin,

LibGuides to another of her projects: distributing her

there are five basic rooms in a virtual learning commons.

books on carts in classrooms, the cafeteria, and hall-

The main page and information center is closest in personality to the old library website. This is where the

ways. Not everything needs to be in the library. Not

databases are kept, Loertscher says, along with staff photos and contact details and a calendar of events; it

everything needs to be guided by me. If it is, things

also might draw students in by featuring a slideshow or student-made videos.

are used inefficiently.

The school culture is a living school yearbook, Loertscher declares. This is where the band performances,

Next up for Kowalski is to add videos and audio

the choirs, the football team, anybody who won an award get featured. This is what really draws the kids in.

tutorials to the VLC to explain the steps for using

And then you can grab them for these other things like learning and literacy.

resources. Then, she says, Whether Im in a meeting

Next, he says, comes literacy or reading culture, the page that serves as the center for celebrating literacy

or in a class or a teacher doesnt like me, they can still

and content creation in all their forms. This includes book and movie reviews by students, teachers, and librar-

get to all that stuff, and nobody is being cheated.

ians; reading list likes; writing contests; poetry readings; and book club outreach.

It isnt just the method of communicating with teach-

Fourth is the knowledge building center, where people come together to collaborate and co-teach on learning

ers thats changing. As the Common Core has infil-

projects. If a teacher has assigned a unit on the Civil War, for example, the librarian and teacher can work to-

trated instruction, connecting with teachers at all has

gether to pull together the resources that learners (and their parents) will need to access for that project.

become complicated for librarians. Teachers go to

The last area is the experimental learning center, where school improvement lives, Loertscher says. Po-

this whole new standard, and it becomes, I dont really

tential items might include a virtual teachers lounge with projects, opportunities, and announcements. There

have time for library stuff, because I gotta do Common

might be links to standards, professional development resources, or major documents. This area will probably

Core, says Kowalski, who has been helping teach-

offer schoolwide updates, and a place where administration and teachers can post their own materials.

ers pair nonfiction books and articles (an emphasis in

27

CCSS) from library databases with subjects theyre

The Librarian in the Background

the resources they need for their work whether the

teaching. Shes seen some success but now, she says,

There are plenty of reasons why a VLC is a smart idea,

librarian is physically present or not.

librarians need to work harder to get across the mes-

not the least of which is that as library staffs are down-

sage that we can help you infuse all the things into

sized, librarians may find themselves serving multiple

school to another during the course of the day, a VLC

your teaching that the Common Core is expecting.

schools. A VLC enables all of those schools to get to

allows you to stay in contact virtually with interested

| NOVEMBER 2013

As Loertscher says, if a librarian moves from one

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FEATURE | digital libraries

teachers across schools. And if it works in

two schools, he adds, then the VLC also
works across many schools.
Valenza sees no difference between building and maintaining a VLC and what libraries
have always done. Its merely a translation.
Were all about learning. The [American Association of School Librarians] tells us that
the four big words that we need to think
about are think, create, share, and grow.
Theres a million different ways to interpret
this, but in a world where kids can have an

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SHARE

5 TIPS FOR CREATING A ROBUST

VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMONS
1. Get a grasp on VLC best practices. The American Association of School Librarians issues an annual School Library
Program of the Year award, which Sue Kowalski and Pine Grove Middle School won in 2011. The year before, Kowalski
scrutinized the award rubric to understand where the gaps in her VLC were. I used it as a guide for the next year to say, All
right, if I were judging me, this is a weak area. She spent the next year aligning her program with criteria that she considered best practices.
2. The work is never done. Both Kowalski and Joyce Valenza at Springfield Township High School Library consider their
VLCs a work in progress. I dont think its ever a done thing, Kowalski says. Youre always looking for better ways. Valenza echoes that. Were never really at the ideal. Theres no textbook on how to do this, right? Were kind of recalculating,
recalibrating, reinventing, re-envisioning. Each community has different needs. Were responding to what folks want here.

audience and make a difference, we ought to

3. Become part of curriculum planning. I dont care how I get to the table, Kowalski says. She just thinks it makes more

be engaging these kids actively in both cul-

sense to be part of the planning on the ground level as opposed to 12 teachers coming my way needing the resources, or the

tural and social participation.

curriculum director saying, Can you send us a list of all the resources you have that match these topics?

Loertscher would probably agree. Instead

4. Focus on teaching users to fish, not on being the fish market. As requests for more nonfiction come in, for ex-

of a top-down approach, which most websites

ample, Kowalski would prefer helping her teachers instruct students on how to find current coverage of the topics theyre

are, suddenly, you create this flat network. Who

studying rather than compiling a list that never gets updated. Sudan today is going to be different than Sudan in four

are the people in the network? Well, its you and

months, she says.

me and everybody else whos interested, no

5. Dont think you have to do this alone. Valenza says that, just before the start of the school year, she was pondering

matter where we live.... If the librarian captures

what to do for orientation. Instead of dusting off the same scavenger hunt she has used in years past, she put a message

this, then theyve built this formal and informal

out on Twitter and a listserv she participates in. I was able to aggregate the best ideas of the crowd. When I did that, it

education system. I think its pretty exciting.

busted open my notion of what an orientation could be. I could see how many different ways people were doing it, she
says. So you dont have to start from scratch. Its all about remixing today. Its all about standing on the shoulders of gi-

Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing

editor based in Nevada City, CA.

28

| NOVEMBER 2013

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