School library media specialists: An evolving profession in a pandemic

Abstract

In March 2020, Michigan’s school library media specialists, along with the entire educational community, found themselves facing unprecedented challenges brought by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. As learning shifted online, the roles of school library media specialists shifted as well. Three southeast Michigan school library media specialists were interviewed to obtain their perspectives regarding the adaptation to distance learning, as well as how they predicted educational practices will evolve going forward. The educational practices of learning commons, guided inquiry, co-teaching, and information literacy were found to be particularly valuable during the shift to distance learning. The increased dependence on these practices during the pandemic will likely result in increased implementation of these practices when face-to-face learning resumes.

Keywords

Pandemic COVID-19 Coronavirus school media centers school media libraries information providers distance education library and information science education North America

Introduction: school librarians before the pandemic

In recent decades, the role of the school library media specialist has evolved in response to technological developments and their implementation in educational practices. School library media specialists foster the development of students’ reference skills from their earliest school days. First, the role of school library media specialists will be described; this is followed by a description of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Michigan, “[e]ducators who hold the Library Media (ND) endorsement are certified teachers who have attained a Master’s Degree in Library Science or Library and Information Science (MLS or MLIS)” (Michigan Department of Education, 2018). Library media specialists serve as specialized teachers who collaborate with classroom teachers to deliver digital and information literacy instruction, as well as reinforcing classroom literacy instruction. They act as information specialists, curating materials for students and staff, managing the library collection, and researching best instructional practices to share with the school staff. They are program administrators, developing and implementing the school library program while acting as advocates for literacy and information instruction within the school community (Michigan Department of Education, 2018).

Investigation method

This article began as a final paper for the INF 6210 Access to Information class at the School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. A standardized open-ended interview of three Michigan school library media specialists was conducted via the Zoom teleconferencing application in the fall of 2020. The interview questions were shared with the interviewees in advance of the interview. These questions can be found in Appendix 1. Each interviewee received and approved a transcript of their interview. They each gave their consent to be quoted in this article. The completed paper was also shared with each interviewee prior to publication, and they were asked to review and approve their quotes, which they did via email exchanges.

The three interviewees were all female school media specialists in southeast Michigan public school districts. Each interviewee is the only school library media specialist at her individual school. They teach students of different ages. Each was asked the same general questions about their reference responsibilities before the COVID-19 pandemic, their experiences since the COVID disruption, and how they adapted their teaching practices to provide support to students, teachers, and parents during the pandemic. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Participants

Elementary school library media specialist (kindergarten–5th grade)

Jennifer (Jenny) Bachman has been the library media specialist at Hampton Elementary School for 16 years. Hampton Elementary has 492 kindergarten through 5th-grade students and 25 teachers, and is in Rochester Hills, Michigan (Great Schools, n.d.). Great Schools is an online resource that lists demographic information for public and private schools in the USA. Rochester Hills is a suburban community north of Detroit, with an estimated population of 74,516 (United States Census Bureau, 2019b).

The Hampton Elementary Media Center has approximately 12,000 books in its collection. Jenny Bachman has a Master of Library Information Science from Wayne State University (Jenny Bachman, personal communication, 29 September 2020).

Middle school library media specialist (6th grade–8th grade)

Gwenn Marchesano is the school library media specialist at Pioneer Middle School in Plymouth, Michigan. She is also a past president of the Michigan Association for Media in Education and an adjunct faculty member of the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science with a School Library Emphasis and has worked as a school library media specialist for 15 years (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020).

Pioneer Middle School has 869 students and 39 teachers, and is in Plymouth, Michigan (Great Schools, n.d.). The Pioneer Middle School Media Center has approximately 7500 print books and 1000 digital books in its collection (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 11 October 2020). Plymouth is a suburban community located to the west of Detroit, with a population of 9154 (United States Census Bureau, 2019a).

High school library media specialist (9th grade–12th grade)

Brenda Carlson is the school library media specialist at Rochester Adams High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan. She has been the school library media specialist for 10 years. Ms Carlson has a Master of Library Science from Wayne State University and her National Certification.

Rochester Adams High School has 1570 students and 100 teachers, and, like Hampton Elementary, is located in Rochester Hills, Michigan (GreatSchools, n.d.). The Rochester Adams Media Center has approximately 11,000 books (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020). Brenda Carlson is the only school media specialist on staff (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

An elementary school library media specialist’s perspective

Jenny Bachman meets with each class once a week. She guides students with book selection; reads aloud to each class; teaches digital and information literacy lessons; and teaches students to use the online databases provided by the Michigan Library—specifically, the Michigan Electronic Library Catalog (MeLCat). “MeLCat is an online catalog service that allows patrons of participating libraries to borrow materials—books, movies, music, and more—from all over Michigan and have them delivered to their home library” (Michigan eLibrary, n.d.). She makes use of PebbleGo, an online curriculum-based research tool for kindergarten through 3rd-grade students (PebbleGo, n.d.); World Book Kids (World Book, 2021); Explora, an online interactive STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) resource for elementary students (Explora, n.d.); and Britannica School (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2021). Most reference resources are now online, with the exception of almanacs. She encourages her teachers to use online databases with students, rather than defaulting to Google searches. She teaches students to write citations for their research assignments (Jenny Bachman, personal communication, 29 September 2020).

A middle school library media specialist’s perspective

Gwenn Marchesano also supports students with book selection for independent reading. She supports classroom teachers by helping students find reference materials for research projects. She reports that about 10% of her students’ research relies on print materials. The Plymouth-Canton School District issues Chromebooks at no charge to every student to use for schoolwork. Gwenn, like Jenny Bachman, uses the electronic databases and resources in the Michigan eLibrary, including Britannica School. She uses “Gale in context: Opposing viewpoints,” which presents different viewpoints on current social issues (Gale, n.d.). She makes use of BrainPOP. BrainPOP provides animated research resources for topics across subjects for kindergarten through 8th grade. It includes current topics like the Coronavirus (BrainPOP, 2020). Lastly, she curates Destiny (Follett, 2021) collections of print and online resources for classroom teachers as they prepare for research assignments (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020).

A high school library media specialist’s perspective

The majority of Brenda Carlson’s time is spent working with language arts classes. She also works extensively with seniors on their projects. She supports social studies classes as well. She makes use of e-books when working with the language arts classes and also uses the MeLCat resources like her colleagues at the lower grades. She curates collections for teachers to support research assignments and provides research and citation instruction while the classroom teachers cover the course content (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

Post-COVID: teaching through disruption

In mid-March 2020, everything changed in Michigan’s public schools. The COVID-19 pandemic forced school shutdowns. School districts scrambled to transition to distance learning. “The rapid advance of the virus disrupted and essentially disabled often well-structured face-to-face learning environments that were quite familiar to both learner and educator and relied on established learning modalities” (Schultz and DeMers, 2020: p. 3). Parents found themselves partnering with the school to ensure that their children’s education remained uninterrupted. The entire system needed to be rapidly reimagined.

School library media specialists were already teaching students to access online resources to complete assignments. In 2019, researchers at the University of Alberta studied the school library media specialist’s leadership roles. They wrote:

All of the participants identified their teacher-librarianship training as being integral to having the opportunity to take on formal leadership roles. Each of the participants in this study graduated from the same graduate level teacher-librarianship education program and many credit this experience as the beginning of their leadership journey. (Branch-Mueller and Rodger, 2019)

School library media specialists are uniquely positioned to lead school staff, students, and families through the transition to distance learning. The COVID-19 disruption brought not only challenges, but also opportunities for overdue change and growth for all of Michigan’s educational stakeholders.

Literature review

In the American Libraries Magazine, Kathy Carroll, the 2020–2021 president of the American Association of School Librarians, reported: “Some school systems have been online for a while, and they’ve purchased databases and had conversations about how to use online resources” (Keeker, 2020). School library media specialists’ expertise at finding online sources and providing technology support for faculty made them invaluable in 2020. Carroll continued: “For other students and educators, it’s been a new world. We heard stories throughout the spring about how librarians assisted other educators to get online” (Keeker, 2020).

School library media specialists are preparing for the eventual transition to in-person learning. Finding new ways to reach students, including joining online classes and using carts to bring books to classrooms, school library media specialists continue to be active participants in education. Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians, conducted a back-to-school survey. It was reported that:

School librarians have always found a way to reach learners at the point of need. School librarians whose school library will be closed or used for classroom space plan to meet learner needs by taking bookcarts to classrooms for in-class check-outs (50%) and continuing to teach remotely (55%) or co-teaching with classroom teachers (38%). (American Association of School Librarians, 2020)

As the pandemic shut down schools, librarians faced the challenge of providing independent reading material to students. In addition to working collaboratively with classroom teachers, school library media specialists began to reach out to parents. Rachel Grover, a librarian at Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, comments: “Consider reminding parents and staff that digital reading is reading, too! Whether or not there is access to your physical space, e-books, audiobooks, and other digital media can be excellent ways to keep students reading” (Gilbert and Grover, 2020: p. 22).

Across the USA, school library media specialists continued to find ways to encourage independent reading with their students. The Bemidji Pioneer reported on a Minnesota school, saying:

The roles look different across the district—at Bemidji Middle School, Pfleger [Bemidji Middle School Library Media Specialist] is helping students to access e-books with the new resources available to students due to COVID-19…Elementary library media specialists are connecting with younger children to encourage daily reading and asking them questions about their current books. (Olson, 2020)

School library budgets did not take pandemics into consideration when they were planned. School districts found themselves facing mounting unexpected expenses. Sheila Intner, Professor Emerita at Mount Holyoke College, argued:

We are providing the materials and information our people need to succeed in getting through the pandemic without losing themselves to ignorance and fear. They need our help and you have to make it possible for us to help them. That is the most important plea each library administrator must make and continue to argue until they get what they need. (Intner, 2020: p. 9)

An article in the Texas Library Journal looks to the future and the practices school library media specialists will continue to embrace, saying:

we can still take advantage of some really great programs to flip the classroom and allow students to learn at their own pace, finish their assignments online, while getting instruction time with teachers and more assistance from staff all over the school. (Santos, 2020: p. 68)

Educators found new online tools to engage their students in distance learning settings. While educators felt the stress of transition throughout 2020, it was clearly also a time of innovation and growth.

As school districts sought to re-engage students in new learning environments, the need for professional development and support for teachers was clear. Laura Summers (2020: p. 33), Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado, expressed concern regarding teaching staff: “Professional learning that is relationship-based, empowering, and grounded in social and emotional learning (SEL) will prepare educators to build equity and self-efficacy for re-engaging learners in the coming school year, whether teaching online or in person.” School library media specialists provided professional development as teachers transitioned to their new roles as online instructors, as well as social and emotional support as they created online gathering spaces for teachers to share and debrief (Summers, 2020). The COVID-19 disruption in 2020 highlighted the leadership roles of school library media specialists in the school community as they facilitated educational collaboration between teachers, administrators, parents, and students.

An elementary school library media specialist’s perspective

In the spring of 2020, information technology support became a larger part of Jenny Bachman’s job as she worked to provide support for overwhelmed teachers, students, and families. She needed to teach the students how to use Sora, an online reading application that gives access to e-books. She also provided consultation for teachers regarding how copyright laws apply to books being shared online. She has been encouraging her students to make use of the online resources available through the Rochester Public Library.

In the fall of 2020, Rochester Community Schools offered the choice between “remote learning” and a “virtual academy.” Remote learning students began the school year with online instruction. They would transition back to face-to-face instruction when the district deemed that it was safe. The virtual academy students had online instruction for the first semester. In December 2020, families evaluated whether they wanted to continue with online instruction through to the year’s end. This is a model that has been followed by many school districts in the metropolitan Detroit area.

As of fall 2020, Jenny Bachman had 10 “remote” sections and 15 “virtual” sections. She has been meeting with each section for 30 minutes. Pre-COVID, she was able to meet with each class for an hour each week. There is pressure to cover the same amount of material in less time. She is thankful that she taught her students to use Google Classroom and how to send emails before the COVID-19 disruption. The school still precludes the circulation of print books due to heightened health concerns. However, the Rochester Public Library has a bookmobile that has been circulating in the community (Jenny Bachman, personal communication, 29 September 2020).

A middle school library media specialist’s perspective

Gwenn Marchesano described the transition to online learning as “very abrupt.” Their last day of face-to-face instruction was 13 March 2020. Her primary goal was to “get books into the kids’ hands.” She shared videos with her students to help them navigate the library website. Since Plymouth-Canton already provided Chromebooks, her students had devices, but not everyone had Internet access. Plymouth-Canton requires families to pay an insurance premium for the Chromebooks, unless students qualify for free or reduced school meals (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 22 March 2021). Her district worked to provide hotspots for students in need. They found that many students did not have library cards, so Plymouth-Canton Community Schools worked with the public library to get them library cards, allowing them access to the public library’s online resources. Gwenn Marchesano provided training for students so that they were able to access e-books and audiobooks using Sora from OverDrive. In the fall of 2020, contactless curbside pickup of books was made available to the Pioneer Middle School students. The middle school library media specialists also provided digital citizenship tips for students every week as they adjusted to virtual learning (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 22 March 2021).

Gwenn Marchesano reported that classroom teachers began to plan lessons collaboratively. She has been able to provide not only lesson-planning support, but also social-emotional support. She hosted online gatherings to provide connection and support for the staff (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020).

A high school library media specialist’s perspective

Brenda Carlson used the word “nightmare” to describe the transition to online learning in the spring of 2020. She reported that her role shifted to include much more information technology support for staff and less interaction with students. Instruction had more structure in the fall of 2020 than it did in the spring of 2020. Her students were making good use of the public library resources during distance learning. Her language arts teachers were beginning to bring her into their online classrooms for co-teaching opportunities with research projects. She was pleased that her district was beginning preparations to phase back face-to-face learning (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

The practices that serve us well

Many districts in Michigan again found themselves in a liminal space in the fall of 2020. Some districts were beginning to transition back to face-to-face instruction. While the pandemic is not yet over, enough time has passed that school library media specialists have had an opportunity to reflect on what worked well during the disruptions of 2020. Below are some of the practices that proved their value in 2020 and will continue to serve them well as they press into the future.

Learning commons

As school districts seek to update aging library facilities, discussion inevitably turns to learning commons. While this is generally perceived as a new trend, its roots extend back to antiquity. The Greek library at Pergamum, designed by Attalus (241–197 bce), had reading rooms, spaces dedicated to public discourse, storage rooms, and a room dedicated to lectures (Buchanan, 2012).

The learning commons model is transforming school libraries. Sykes (2016: p. xii) describes the learning commons model, stating: “Learning Commons pedagogy incorporates both physical and virtual realms where students and teachers are welcomed, focused on learning, and able to connect and communicate locally and globally.” Learning commons pedagogy, rather than being simply the result of a physical remodel of library facilities, shifts the mindset of the entire school. Its implications are far-reaching. Classroom teachers and school library media specialists become partners in the instruction process, planning lessons together and co-teaching lessons. The library becomes the physical and virtual learning center of the school.

A high school library media specialist’s perspective

A few years ago, Rochester Adams High School remodeled its library. It sought to create a learning commons environment. There are booths that encourage students to use the space for group study. During lunch, the library fills with students. There are smart boards and classroom spaces available, as well as multiple computer labs. The school culture has shifted to a more collaborative environment. Since transitioning online, teachers have been using virtual breakout rooms in their online instruction to continue to foster student collaboration (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

Guided inquiry

An Australian-based study found that

teacher librarians are strong advocates of inquiry learning based on inquiry process models. The use of the inquiry process models and the emphasis on questioning ideas indicates that teacher librarians have evolved their practice from an information literacy or information-seeking focus to a more holistic focus. (Lupton, 2015: p. 19)

Guided inquiry models encourage students to determine their topic of study. Students become engaged researchers, honing their critical thinking and presentation skills.

In “Making the shift: From traditional research assignments to guiding inquiry learning,” Maniotes and Kuhlthau (2014: p. 9) offer an alternative to the “traditional k–12 research assignment.” Their model of inquiry-based learning has been widely implemented in K–12 schools. They differentiate between exploration and collection of information, arguing that a student must first explore a topic before being able to form a question to investigate. They submit that the formal question comes mid-investigation, rather than at the outset (Maniotes and Kuhlthau, 2014). An initial period of topical exploration prioritizes the value of research and develops skills that transform students into lifelong learners.

In their article “‘Just let me go at it’: Exploring students’ use and perceptions of guided inquiry,” Garrison et al. state:

GID [guided inquiry design] is different from other inquiry learning models in its emphasis on delaying the creation of a topic focus (i.e., an inquiry question) until the student is engaged by the topic and has some idea of its scope. (Garrison et al., 2018)

Inquiry-based models of instruction allow students more time for researching, which in turn gives them a deeper understanding of the topic. Students are allowed more control of their own learning and creation process and, as a result, take greater ownership of their work. Students also hone their presentation skills as they share their work with their classmates.

The Library of Michigan has adopted the School Libraries in the 21st Century benchmarks. The “Inquiry-Based Research” benchmark reads as follows:

The school librarian:

Provides instruction in research strategies and evaluating the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

Provides instruction in using authoritative sources and in appropriate citation of sources.

Instructs using an inquiry-based process.

Instructs in accessing, comprehending, and synthesizing primary source, data, scholarly and/or peer reviewed sources.

Instructs learners to create and share new knowledge in multiple formats. (Library of Michigan, 2020: 19)

The benchmarks recommend an inquiry-based approach. School library media specialists in Michigan are implementing inquiry-based approaches in their libraries and sharing inquiry research practices with classroom teachers.

School library media specialists’ perspectives

Jenny Bachman, an elementary school library media specialist, follows the Big6 model for inquiry instruction. She allows students to choose their own topics and asks lots of questions. She spends time with students, helping them to narrow their topic to a focus question (Jenny Bachman, personal communication, 29 September 2020). An overview of the Big6 process model is provided in Table 1.

Table 1.

The Big 6 process model.

Step Title	Step Description
Step 1. Task definition	Students define the problem and the information they will need to solve it.
Step 2. Information-seeking	Students plan the information-seeking strategies they will use and select sources.
Step 3. Location and access	Students locate sources and search for information.
Step 4. Use of information	Students engage with sources and extract relevant information.
Step 5. Synthesis	Students organize information into presentations or reports.
Step 6. Evaluation	Students evaluate their final product and reflect on their process.

Source: Eisenberg and Berkowitz (2018).

Gwenn Marchesano reported that the degree to which she uses a guided inquiry approach depends on the classroom teacher. About 30% of the classroom teachers follow a guided inquiry model when assigning research projects. Many classroom teachers still prefer to assign specific topics to students and follow a traditional teaching style (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020).

Brenda Carlson takes a guided inquiry approach when working with her language arts students. She described a research project on the USA during the 1920s (a time of transition between World War I and the Great Depression, which began in 1929, and of economic growth, when many cultural norms were challenged). Her students are exploring topics relating to the 1920s, developing a focus question, investigating, and reporting back to the class (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

Co-teaching

School library media specialists have long supported classroom teachers through collaborative planning and co-teaching. In March 2020, school library media specialists found themselves working with new collaborative partners: parents. As parents struggled to support their children’s transition to distance learning, school library media specialists were a vital link to the school.

Co-teaching leverages the school library media specialist’s information expertise with the classroom teacher’s content expertise. The relationship between school library media specialists and classroom teachers is critical to successful co-teaching: “Teachers’ feedback shows that the interpersonal aspects of co-teaching relationships are very important in establishing and maintaining successful co-teaching partnerships” (Donovan, 2018: p. 127). Students benefit from watching the interactions between the library media specialist and their classroom teacher, seeing collaboration modeled in their classroom: “When we co-teach in the school library or in her classroom, the students benefit because we keep up a dialogue, adding layers of meaning and suggestions to our explanations and giving students multiple ideas to foster their critical thinking” (Kilker, 2012: p. 43). Collaboration is critical in the online environment for both students and teachers: “In Zoom, features like Breakout Rooms enable students to collaboratively create meaning and presence” (Henriksen and Creely, 2020: p. 204).

School library media specialists’ perspectives

In the fall of 2020, Jenny Bachman was teaching 10 remote sections and 15 virtual academy sections each week. Unfortunately, with 25 sections each week, there was not much time left for co-teaching. She coordinated with classroom teachers and supported their research assignments, helping students find reference materials and teaching them to write citations (Jenny Bachman, personal communication, 29 September 2020). For co-teaching to be possible, library media specialists need some flexibility in their schedules.

The middle school and high school library media specialists both co-teach with classroom teachers. They have flexible schedules that allow them to work in collaboration with classroom teachers. Brenda Carlson is currently planning with language arts classroom teachers to begin their students’ inquiry-based research assignments on the 1920s in the USA. She uses graphic organizers to help students with their inquiry process and is planning to use these digitally whether the students are in a face-to-face environment or still online (Brenda Carlson, personal communication, 28 September 2020).

Information literacy

During the COVID-19 disruption, evaluating source reliability has become an issue of national concern. On social media, citizens share videos from very questionable medical sources. “About two-in-three U.S. adults (64%) say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues and events” (Barthel et al., 2016).

With the proliferation of unreliable sources on the Internet, the need to explicitly teach students information literacy skills has become clearly apparent. “Fake news is often used to describe false or extremely biased stories and the term has become a part of the cultural zeitgeist. School librarians have been able to use it to reinforce the need for information literacy instruction” (Spisak, 2020: p. 152).

“[W]e have the potential to see a social change whereby students will begin to excel in information literacy and technology both academically and personally as the common core standards push teachers to create activities that foster critical thinking” (Taylor, 2015: p. 118). It has become apparent that, as student instruction has moved online, they have to be able to identify whether an online source is reliable. Teachers have also been challenged to find reliable sources to share with their students and colleagues.

A middle school library media specialist’s perspective

Gwenn Marchesano shared that she has focused on students using information effectively and ethically. Her goal is that students will independently identify reliable sources. She teaches students to identify bias. “That’s a big one right now,” she shared (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020).

Conclusion: moving forward

In the face of the COVID-19 disruption, the practices described above have proven their value. A learning commons philosophy readily transitions to the online environment. Teachers and school library media specialists have realized the importance of working collaboratively, both co-teaching and giving students opportunities to collaborate. Guided inquiry skills have allowed students to make use of familiar online resources, such as the MeLCat system of the Library of Michigan. Information literacy skills have helped students to intelligently interpret data, seek the provenance of sources, and determine the validity of information found in the online world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed what school library media specialists already knew. The school library is the heart of the school, whether virtual or physical. The potential for collaboration, as promoted in the learning commons model, has become a lifeline for teachers who have struggled to regain their footing in this new world of distance learning. A desire to help their fellow teachers is often what drives teachers to become school library media specialists. In a study done on the development of leadership qualities among school library media specialists, one of the participants shared the following quote:

My focus was teacher-librarianship, educational technology, and inquiry learning. In that role, what we did was a lot of workshops for teachers, finding resources and making them available on our intranet. We did a lot helping teachers if they had questions, co-teaching, co-mentoring, working together as a group to say here is the new curriculum what are some ways to make it easier to implement it? (Branch-Mueller and De Groot, 2016: p. 4)

As the school library media specialist, Gwenn Marchesano was uniquely positioned as a person in the school who everyone already knew, so it was natural for her to bring teachers together online to support each other (Gwenn Marchesano, personal communication, 1 October 2020). The COVID-19 disruption has given school library media specialists an opportunity to shine in the greater community, beyond the school’s physical walls. As classroom teachers and parents have looked to school library media specialists for advice and support during the COVID-19 disruption, familiar practices have proved their worth, easing the transition to distance learning. These practices will continue to support success in the future.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Heather Kapanka

Appendix 1

References

American Association of School Librarians (2020) Back to School Survey results. Knowledge Quest, 10 September. Available at: https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/back-to-school-survey-results/

Barthel

Mitchell

Holcomb

(2016) Many Americans believe fake news is sowing confusion. Available at: https://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/

BrainPOP (2020) Coronavirus. Available at: https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/ (accessed 13 October 2020).

Branch-Mueller

De Groot

(2016) Becoming a celebrity teacher-librarian: Moving towards self-actualization and realization. School Libraries Worldwide 22(1): 79–96.

Branch-Mueller

Rodger

(2019) Taking it outside the school library: Teacher-librarians as school and district leaders. In: 48th annual conference of the International Association of School Librarianship and 23rd International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 21–25 October 2019. Available at: https://search.proquest.com/openview/7e8d40319d3dea9091b7d1c81fda36cc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=26551

Buchanan

(2012) Designing the research commons: Classical models for school libraries. School Libraries Worldwide 18(1): 56–69.

Donovan

(2018) Research based co-teaching practices and their realization in the New Jersey high school classroom. PhD Thesis, Rowan University, USA. Available at: https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/2551

Eisenberg

Berkowitz

(2018) The Big6. Available at: https://thebig6.org/thebig6andsuper3-2 (accessed 2 October 2020).

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2021) Britannica School Elementary Home Page. Britannica School Elementary. Available at: https://school.eb.com/levels/elementary

10.

Explora (n.d.) Explora. https://www.explora.us/ (accessed 10 October 2020).

11.

Follett (2021) Follett Destiny Library Manager. Available at: https://www.follettlearning.com/education-technology/library-management-system

12.

Gale (n.d.) Gale in context: Opposing viewpoints. Available at: https://www.gale.com/c/in-context-opposing-viewpoints (accessed 10 October 2020).

13.

Garrison

FitzGerald

Sheerman

(2018) “Just let me go at it”: Exploring students’ use and perceptions of guided inquiry. School Library Research 21. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1182159.pdf

14.

Gilbert

Grover

(2020) Branching out: Promoting reading and providing access when the library is closed. Knowledge Quest 48(5): 16–23.

15.

Great Schools (n.d.) Rochester Community School District. Available at: https://www.greatschools.org/michigan/rochester/rochester-community-school-district/ (accessed 9 October 2020).

16.

Henriksen

Creely

(2020) Folk pedagogies for teacher transitions: Approaches to synchronous online learning in the wake of COVID-19. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education 28(2): 201–209.

17.

Intner

(2020) It’s a pandemic—what do we do? Technicalities 40(3): 1–9. Available at: https://proxy.lib.wayne.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/trade-journals/pandemic-what-do-we/docview/2441572160/se-2?accountid=14925

18.

Keeker

(2020) School librarians face reopening challenges. American Libraries Magazine, 14 August. Available at: https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/08/14/school-librarians-face-reopening-challenges-covid-19/

19.

Kilker

(2012) School and community connections for collaboration and coteaching. Knowledge Quest 40(4): 39–45.

20.

Library of Michigan (2020) School Libraries in the 21st Century (SL 21) program. Available at: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/libraryofmichigan/lm_school_libraries_SL_21_measures_2018_653912_7.pdf

21.

Lupton

(2015) Teacher librarians’ understandings of inquiry learning. Access 29(4): 18–29.

22.

Maniotes

Kuhlthau

(2014) Making the shift: From traditional research assignments to guiding inquiry learning. Knowledge Quest 43(2): 9–17.

23.

Michigan Department of Education (2018) Library media placements. Available at: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/Library_Media_Placements_606360_7.PDF

24.

Michigan eLibrary (n.d.) MeLCat help. Available at: https://mel.org/help/melcat-help (accessed 9 October 2020).

25.

Olson

(2020) School library media specialists wear many hats through COVID-19 transition. Bemidji Pioneer, 21 April. Available at: https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/education/5497996-School-library-media-specialists-wear-many-hats-through-COVID-19-transition

26.

PebbleGo (n.d.) PebbleGo by Capstone. Available at: https://pebblego.com/ (accessed 10 October 2020).

27.

Santos

(2020) Libraries respond to COVID-19. Texas Library Journal 96(2): 64–70,72–73.

28.

Schultz

DeMers

(2020) Transitioning from emergency remote learning to deep online learning experiences in geography education. Journal of Geography 119(5): 142–146.

29.

Spisak

(2020) School librarian perceptions of the importance of information literacy. School Libraries Worldwide 26(1): 151–164.

30.

Summers

(2020) The right blend. The Learning Professional 41(4): 32–36.

31.

Sykes

(2016) The Whole School Library Learning Commons: An Educator’s Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

32.

Taylor

(2015) Promoting information literacy through teacher–school library media specialist collaboration. PhD Thesis, Walden University, USA.

33.

United States Census Bureau (2019a) QuickFacts: Plymouth City, Michigan. Available at: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/plymouthmichigan

34.

United States Census Bureau (2019b) QuickFacts: Rochester Hills City, Michigan. Available at: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/rochesterhillscitymichigan

35.

World Book (2021) World Book Kids. World Book Kids Brought to You by the Michigan ELibrary. Available at: https://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/home?subacct=O6106