Barrier #1: TimeTeachers often have little planning time embedded in their day.

Some

may perceive a collaborative effort with the school librarian as an intrusion on the few precious

minutes they do have. Conversely, school librarians with no support staff independently manage

administrative duties, circulation, and patron requests with time for little else.

Solutions: A school librarian can utilize support staff and volunteers to visit teachers

during planning periods or attend grade level meetings to learn about upcoming units of study.

At its best, this practice allows a school librarian to open the door for possible collaborations as

teachers gain awareness of a school librarian's knowledge, skills, and services. At a minimum, it

affords the school librarian an opportunity to recommend resources and activities that enhance

existing classroom lessons. An alternative approach, likely to become popular with the faculty, is

the implementation of a weekly free beverage day. One local elementary school librarian sends

school-wide email reminders to market "W.O.W.Wired on Wednesdays." On a portable cart in

one corner of the media center, she provides large pots of coffee and bot water alongside small

baskets with packets of creamer, hot chocolate, and tea. On Wednesday, staff traffic in the media

center is heavy. With informal chats, the school librarian builds rapport with her colleagues,

suggesting resources and collaborative services when the conversations turn to future curricular

plans.
 Barrier #2: Technology Troubleshooting DemandsConducted by LIBRARY MEDIA

CONNECTION, a February 2008 survey of 992 school media specialists revealed 65% consider

themselves "the secondary technology support person" in the building and 15% "the primary

technology person". The latter figure may be on the rise as many school districts, faced with

deep budget cuts, have downsized IT personnel. The result is an increased demand for school

librarians to troubleshoot staff technology concerns. Such demands sap time from collaborative

efforts.

Solutions: School librarians must create and maintain a balanced schedule. Collaboration

requires advance preparation and commitment. School librarians should keep appointments with

teachers and students for collaborative planning and lesson implementation while setting aside

specific blocks of time to address technology issues. To maximize efficiency, the school librarian

may keep a technology log of submitted troubleshooting requests, noting the date and time, the

teacher's name, and the nature of the concern. A log allows problems to be addressed in order of

receipt and documents frequently recurring issues. A school librarian may respond to common

problems by offering a school-wide in service training or publishing a step-by-step

troubleshooting guide. When one-on-one assistance visits to a classroom do occur, the school

librarian can use the opportunity to expand the teacher's technology skills while marketing the
librarian's expertise as an instructional partner, eager for collaborative efforts to expand student

knowledge.

Barrier #3: Narrow FocusThough well suited and eager to implement information

literacy standards, a school librarian may lack knowledge of content specific academic curricular

objectives. Such a gap impedes a school librarian's ability to align information literacy standards

with academic standards. Thus, no framework exists to provide classroom teachers with a

meaningful connection between the two sets of learning objectives.

Solutions: A school librarian must become well acquainted with state academic

standards, especially those assigned to the represented grade levels at her school. To garner a

faculty member's collaborative support, a school librarian must "illustrate the obvious connection

between information literacy and content related objectives [and] indicate the mutual benefit of

integrating the two sets of objectives where the accomplishment of one set promotes the

fulfillment of the other" (Wolcott part.l9). One need not memorize the academic standards but

become familiar with what classroom instructors are teaching. For example, at the start of each

school year, teacher-librarian Debbie Belue requests copies of faculty members' long range

plans. From this broad list of units, she creates an easy to follow matrix including teachers'

names, months of the year, and planned topics of study. Using this matrix as a blueprint for
proposing collaborative projects, she proactively gathers unit-related materials and reflects upon

ways to combine information literacy activities with the classroom teachers' existing plans.

While a unit matrix may be impractical for a school librarian serving a vast population, such as a

large high school, the librarian could target specific academic departments each quarter, i.e.

planning collaborative lessons with selected science classes the first nine weeks, social studies

class the second nine weeks, and so forth as required by subject areas and teachers.

Barrier #4: Faculty PerceptionsEnglish teacher Angela Gess notes, "In some school

environments, the library media center is viewed as a place for students to 'waste' time reading

fiction books, and the library media specialist is merely a babysitter who provides teachers with

much needed planning time".

Solutions: To promote an information specialist's expertise, a school librarian can approach

constructivist teachers to initiate collaboration efforts. Such teachers appreciate the school

librarian's influence on student achievement. The successful outcomes of these collaborations,

underscored by genuine student interest in a topic, may be too tempting for others to resist

climbing on board in the future. With those educators, less open to partnerships, a school

librarian recognizes opportunities, no matter how small, to market her services to faculty and

students. For example, instead of displaying annoyance that a colleague waited until the last
minute to seek resources for an imminent lesson, capitalize on the opportunity to exercise the

"information specialist role to the hilt" by demonstrating eagerness and enthusiasm for the

challenge (Wolcott par. 18). The librarian's positive attitude may be just the key for approaching

this colleague in the future with collaborative intentions. Finally, a school librarian can change

staff perceptions by increasing her visibility, actively participating in staff development,

attending grade level meetings, and volunteering on the school's improvement committee

(Colorado Department of Education, Your School's Team).

Barrier #5: Restrictive ControlIn some schools, teachers may feel detached and

uninformed of the media program's resources and the librarian's good intentions if the school

librarian exhibits tight control of materials through restrictive circulation policies or if she

independently executes collection purchases.

Solutions: In this scenario, a school librarian needs to revisit and reflect upon the media

program's mission. Resources sitting on a library shelf accomplish nothing but dust

accumulation! A true information professional worries less about managing the collection's

attrition, caring more for marketing every resource available to foster students' lifelong learning.

In addition, an effective school librarian actively solicits "assistance in evaluating and selecting

appropriate resources in the collection," especially those areas with noted deficiencies (Wolcott
par. 19). Collaboration is an ideal format as a school librarian may obtain formal or informal

feedback from the partnering teacher and students regarding the collection's strengths and

weaknesses. Furthermore, a school librarian may enlist vendors to display materials for purchase

consideration on tables in the media center and invite faculty members to stop by, browse the

options, and record preferences with sticky notes affixed to specific items. Not only will teachers

feel more invested in the school media program, they will appreciate the librarian for assigning

value and worth to their opinions.

Barrier #6: Lack of Administrative SupportPrincipals and school officials may simply

lack awareness of collaboration benefits. Perhaps students have always been served in the media

center on a fixed schedule and the principal has never doubted this practice as sound pedagogy.

Solutions: For uninformed administrators, a school librarian should supply copies of

sound research underscoring the positive effect meaningful collaborations have on student

achievement. Few principals can dispute hard evidence in the form of increased test scores, as

noted in this paper's section on collaborative benefits for students. To maintain effective

collaborative practices, a school librarian must advocate for partial or full flexible scheduling

over fixed scheduling, presenting administrators with additional research findings to indicate

"group library media center visits [do] not demonstrate . . . a correlation" with increased test
scores (Lance 18). To this end, a school librarian needs to be realistic, recognizing that

manipulating school-wide schedules is often difficult. An agreeable compromise may be a

combination of fixed and flexible schedules on alternating weeks.