I have been a Public, School, and University Librarian and have taught children's literature at Towson University in Baltimore. I am a member of ALA, MLA, AISL, IBBY and Beta PHi Mu. I am co-founder of the Peace Study Center, a non-profit resource center of peace materials to encourage teachers, caregivers, parents, and all educators to include teaching peace skills to young children ages 3-8 through stories, songs, books, and professional programs. Presently I am at Roland Park Country School, a k-12 independent girls’ school in Baltimore.
ESSAY ABSTRACT
Librarians on the ISS (Independent School Section), AISL (Association of Independent School Librarians) and AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) listservs were asked to respond to a short-answer (as opposed to multiple choice) survey about traditions/archives in their school libraries. Respondents were self-selected and the questions respondents chose to answer were also self-selected and self described. A large variety of independent school librarians responded giving answers representing large and small, co-educational and single-sex; boarding and day schools; religious and non-religious, long-time established and newly established , urban and rural and heavily endowed and less heavily endowed schools. Some of the responses were shared with the chapter on programs while this chapter focused on traditions connecting the library with the larger community. The answers all displayed a passion for sharing and promoting libraries, reading, books, research and school history. The traditions shared in this chapter show librarians and their communities as advocates for strong school libraries . While many of the traditions required planning, financial resources, space allocations, etc. most all of the respondents wanted to include an element of fun and joy in their school library traditions as well as simply describing what their tradition was.
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Discussion Group for NAIS Independent School Archivists
If you’d like to participate in this NAIS email discussion group for independent school archivists, please email Blake Major with your name and email address. NAIS membership is not a requirement for participation but if your school is a NAIS member, NAIS would like you to set up a profile on their site.
