Demonstrating Our Care
entry by Kathryn Whitehouse

Nesi, O.M. (May/June 2012). The transformative power of care. Knowledge Quest: Journal of the Association of School Librarians 40, 5. p. 8-15.

Is your current position merely a vehicle for paying the bills, or are you called to your current profession? If you feel genuinely called to school librarianship, then you understand what it means to care about school libraries. You will also deeply understand this article and perhaps be tempted, as I am, to tear it from the magazine, copy it, share it, save it in my journal, incorporate its major points in my SLIS e-portfolio, and use it to communicate passionately to school stakeholders why the school library is deserving of investment.

Some readers may feel this article shares significant conceptual overlaps with self help and business management guides. That is OK in my book. While librarianship has much to offer the world at large in terms of inquiry, the better run retail/service businesses have much to offer librarianship in the way of customer service and maintaining positive internal and external customer relationships. Nesi suggests communication and service based strategies librarians can use to increase the quality of their interactions with children, school colleagues, and administrators. She then relates how caring can be felt as librarians deliver instruction and coach children and colleagues to become more efficient learners. The suggestions for “reading guidance the caring way-with children” is especially impactful as it takes a respectful approach to students’ sometimes bumpy road to literacy. This article even touches upon collection development and care of the physical environment.

Nesi’s takeaway point is that care has the power to transform. School librarians can create significant impacts for students, colleagues, and school libraries by being “genuinely and consistently attentive, heedful, concerned, engaged, and interested” in their lifelong journey to reading and learning. I hope this inspiring article finds its way to your reading in-box.   

entry by Kathryn Whitehouse