2019-12-06 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 4, Issue 7

Featured Story

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support in Your Library

As a school librarian and a member of SPLAT! I am beginning to be well versed in future trends for the library sphere. While public and academic libraries tend to be well ahead of school libraries when it comes to most trends in the library world, I do feel that school libraries can help other types of libraries stay informed on some of the latest educational trends.

School libraries are dynamic places, particularly in the area of student and class management. Gone are the days of school librarians that only manage the school’s book and AV collections. Today’s school librarians are very much teacher librarians. As an instructor, school librarians must be able to manage student behavior in the library, and their management plan is most often aligned with the building’s plan for managing student behavior. School librarians are also finding what schools in general are noticing in their students; that is, students don’t always know how to act in certain situations. Helping students know how to act in the library reinforces the behaviors staff want to see in students in school building, and beyond.

Many schools are addressing the behavioral issues of students by transitioning to a more positive approach. Instead of addressing negative behaviors by giving negative consequences, schools are teaching and reinforcing the positive behaviors they want to see in their students. This is referred to as Positive Behavior Intervention and Support, or PBIS. My school, Syringa Middle School, has been using PBIS for the past two years. One of our counselors, Erica Hardy-Gutshall, agreed to sit down and talk to me about our schools implementation of PBIS, and how it has changed our school for the better.

What is PBIS?

Hardy-Gutshall: PBIS is a way to teach and encourage good behavior. We have found that you can’t assume they [our students] know the proper way to act at school. PBIS asks teachers to explicitly teach the correct behavior and then reinforce that behavior with a reward system. For example, in the library you would teach students how to be quiet in the library or how to take care of books, then reinforce that behavior verbally by saying, “Thank you for being quiet in the library” or “I appreciate how you respect our library books.” Extrinsic motivation is also a part of PBIS. We give our students “Schola Dollas” when they show positive behaviors that can be “spent” for things like eating outside during lunch.

Why did Syringa Middle School decide to implement PBIS?

Hardy-Gutshall: We were already on track to implement PBIS and we didn’t even know it! We had been trying to highlight positive character traits through our S.C.H.O.L.A.R. acrostic and kindness campaign. Our training with PBIS has just expanded what we were already doing.

How do students and staff benefit from PBIS?

Hardy-Gutshall: According to our training, which was through the Idaho Positive Behavior network, students benefit because it “improves school culture, decreases discipline referrals, increases student engagement, and improves social/emotional development.” For our staff, it gives them a framework and support for classroom management.

How can libraries of all types use PBIS?

Hardy-Gutshall: PBIS encourages us to, first of all, teach others the behavior we want to see. Again, we can’t assume whoever we are working with knows the proper way to act in certain situations. By also reinforcing those behaviors later we can help students and others develop emotionally and socially in positive ways. PBIS also encourages positive behavior by using extrinsic motivation, which gets the ball rolling towards intrinsic motivation.

When we think of future library trends, we tend to think of things like new technology or interesting programming. However, I think as we move into the future, libraries in all areas will need ways to meet the social and emotional needs of our users. PBIS helps us meet those needs in a positive and empathetic way, while helping foster the behavior we want to see in all our patrons.

To learn more about PBIS, visit https://csi.boisestate.edu/ipbn/

– Gretchen Perkins, Caldwell School District

Fail Forward

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

Book Donations

During the summer we get a lot of tourists coming to our library, many times donating books as they stop by. We also get a lot of donations from our local patrons. At times we get so many, we’re swimming in a sea of donated materials. Really… it’s a sea.

We also have some brand new staffers. What do they have to do with donations? Probably nothing, maybe something. The new staffers just gave me an excuse to reflect on my first weeks in the library and all the mistakes that I made. One of those was accepting donations that I shouldn’t have accepted.

Yikes!

A lady wanted to donate an entire set of, in pristine condition, Encyclopedia Britannica from 2000. My eyes lit up because I never had an entire set of encyclopedias at home, so I thought it was really amazing that someone was donating them. So I accepted them. The next thing I know, I was told “No! Don’t take those! Or Nat Geos!” I apologized profusely and after being told the reasoning behind donated material requirements, I promised that I would check before I accept any other donations. Apparently libraries don’t want to take in outdated materials because they are… well… outdated and end up going to the thrift stores or recycled.

Since then, many donations have passed through the hands of old staff and new. Every time I see a new staffer with a confused look on their face as they take a box of donations, I can’t help but remember my time when I mistakenly accepted outdated materials. Occasionally, they will ask and it feels good to share my experience so that they don’t make the same mistake as I did. Occasionally though, somehow a box of NatGeos will mysteriously arrive in the donation pile…but they weren’t from me! Perhaps they wouldn’t mind if I took a few to make book art?

– Vanessa Thiele, East Bonner County Library District

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

Maker Instruction Toolkit

I’m currently crushing on the Albertsons Library MakerLab’s online Maker Instruction Toolkit, “designed and created by Stephanie Milne-Lane, MLIS student at the University of Washington, 2019 in consultation with Associate Professor and Head of Emerging Technology and Experiential Learning, Amy Vecchione.”

I really appreciate the concentration of information and the way the toolkit grounds makerspaces in research. A great resource for academic libraries specifically, and a good font of information for other types of libraries hoping to communicate the rationale for having makerspaces in libraries.

– Donovan Kay, Capital High School

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-00-19-0013-19). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.