General Management, 2008

•  
• Twelve roles of facilitators for school change, 2nd ed. By R Bruce Williams (Corwin Press, 2008, 257pp. $_____, ISBN: 9781412961127)

  Teacher librarians who wish to be leaders in the school need to read the leadership literature, talk its major ideas, and walk them. Williams writes for anyone intent on school change through a very collaborative strategy. It is worth noting the chapters of the book:

  (1)    A process leader sees the big picture, builds consensus, and steers the process.

  (2)    A skills trainer devises strategies, leads the team, and announces the game.

  (3)    A resource consultant organizes the project, overcomes obstacles, and advertises success.

  (4)    A group energizer stays true to the score, harmonizes the environment, and celebrates the performance.

  The various chapters can be read individually rather than serially and what is really valuable about each chapter are the excellent graphic organizers and “worksheets” for the use of professional learning community groups who are focusing on the topic of the chapter. Thus, this book is instantly useful, not just for its ideas, but also for an immediate use with teacher, specialist, or administrative teams. The various organizers are reprinted in the back of the book for easy duplication. For teacher librarians who want to lead from the middle and not from the spotlight, read the various major ideas and pass the book to the person who will lead and together, you can plan the various techniques that will push a faculty to consider real change in the school.  Highly recommended for its combination of good ideas and practical strategies.

• We are smarter than me : how to unleash the power of crowds in your business by Jon Spector (Wharton School Pub., 2008, 156 p., $_____, ISBN: 0132244799)

  How does one capture the wisdom of many in shaping a business or organization? This book, written by thousands is an example of how one takes into account, through social networking, the reaction of customers to our library services as we try to move into the center of teaching and learning. How many organizations really listen to their customers? Recently, a student in Dallas published a critical letter in the press about how out of touch the teacher librarian was. The interesting thing was the teacher librarian’s perception was exactly the opposite of the customer.Spector’s book is a great reminder that we all must set in motion the appreciation or complaints of those we serve and use the ideas of the crowd to shape excellence.

   

 Create your own educational wiki!Support CommunityPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS