Interview With the Librarian*

I interviewed Donna Edrington, the lead librarian for Rockingham County Schools. Donna has been one of my unofficial mentors over the past year, always quick with an answer to practical newbie-librarian questions. She is a veteran elementary school librarian, and had a great deal of insight on the influx of technology in school libraries over the past few years.

Wants vs. Needs: How to Tell the Difference
Aligning with what I see most often in my library, Mrs. Edrington explained that patrons want the whiz-bang fancy stuff, the newest and the shiniest of technology (regardless of cost, usefulness, etc.). Students want things like tablets that broadcast movies to their televisions with a swipe of the finger, or laptops that convert into tablets with smooth flicks of the wrist. Teachers want miracle software that stores all of their tests and alleviates the pressure of grading. What patrons (students and teachers) need is good, thorough, user-friendly software for things like class/grade/assignment organization, devices that have the ability to maintain CIPA standards both in and outside of school, and devices/programs that enhance instruction (methods for gamifying learning, supplemental material for individual subjects, digital ways to enhance student creativity, etc.).
More than anything, the recurring theme of the need to be 1:1 surfaced. My school is 1:1, which is something I often take for granted. When I was a classroom teacher, I was constantly finding nifty free programs and web content that I wanted to use, and it was a huge struggle to find the right days (and a sufficient amount of computers) to be able to put those lessons into action. Being 1:1 completely eliminates all of the extra frustration for teachers and students; instead of reserving days in a computer lab full of 5-year-old (or older) machines, students simply pull out their own devices and proceed with the lesson. Rockingham County's elementary schools are equipped with Nook tablets for students, but unlike the middle and high schools, Mrs. Edrington's school currently has one device for every three students. According to Mrs. Edrington, the Nooks are extremely popular with both students and teachers, as they combine learning games with digital books to get students excited about learning.

Finding and Buying the Right Technology
Rockingham County Schools has a very strong district-wide technology department. As has been Mrs. Edrington's experience (and mine), it's very helpful to be able to identify technology needs and present them to our tech department, who then have the adequate network knowledge/research time to find something that suits our specific needs. Mrs. Edrington also has a system for technology "shopping" that she compared to the selection process for any other materials in the library; it's easy to think of books in terms of starred reviews, and going through the same process for purchasing technology is only logical. She also mentioned that she especially looks for programs and devices with user-friendly help menus and a reputation for good customer service.

Lessons Learned
Mrs. Edrington related one story that added an additional factor to my point of view on technology "shopping;" I asked for success stories and stories of purchased technology that went unused, and that's where digital cameras were brought up. A principal had suggested the purchase of digital cameras/flip cameras, thinking that teachers were not filming/photographing the good things going on in their classrooms due to lack of AV equipment. A pile of cameras were purchased, and largely went unused. I surmised (though Mrs. Edrington didn't say as much) that the cameras went unused simply because teachers had no interest in filming/photographing their classes, and that lack of equipment had nothing to do with it. Even so (and I don't know how long ago this occurred), smartphones and tablets have largely rendered flipcams and even small digital cameras more or less obsolete; I can't help but wonder if anticipating "the next big thing" shouldn't play a role in technology purchasing as well. Predicting the future can be somewhat tricky business.

 *I am currently reading Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire. While Mrs. Edrington is significantly more pleasant than any of the novel's protagonists, I couldn't resist a silly literary reference.