If you piled up Long Island librarian Amy Jo Southworth’s ideas, they would reach higher than the school library stacks.
Allowing more books to be taken out of the library at one time, starting a V.I.P Club, and overhauling the physical space of the library are just some of initiatives that have earned Southworth attention in Bay Shore — on Long Island’s south shore — and beyond. She’s even using a new method of setting up books and databases in the library to improve access.
She’s a rebel with a cause.
Southworth has been named this year’s American Association of School Librarians Frances Henne Award winner, a $1,250 award for librarian leadership qualities. The prize allowed her to attend the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago, and she will be heading to the American Association of School Librarians Conference in November.
This energetic librarian is married to English teacher Peter Southworth, who is also a member of the Bay Shore Classroom Teachers Association led by Darlene Darch. They have several young children. On the job, Southworth is as hooked into technology as she is into books. Her space in Bay Shore High School is a place she views as a gateway to knowledge – and she stocks it with elements of both mediums to give teachers and students as much access as possible to the world outside.
Just five years into her job, she’s already rearranged the library with what she calls a “major book weeding” and moving digital resources to a more prominent location in the library.
The weeding process involved looking at gaps in what the library provided, pulling materials that were underused, adding materials to support the shift to Common Core and ordering books to support the global perspective for the school’s International Baccalaureate program.
Most significantly, she is moving the library away from the iconic Dewey Decimal System so that materials can be found according to issues rather than numbers. For example, in the past, someone looking for health-related information might have found it in different areas of the library, depending on the sociological aspect, the political aspect, etc. Now, the modified sections in the Bay Shore school library will provide a reader/researcher with all health-related books and databases in one area.
“We went more bookstore style,” Southworth said.
One section that is proving quite popular with teachers is the “primary sources” area, which Southworth said has the biggest demand from educators. It includes copies of original papers, documents, first-hand accounts, laws, etc. – all of value for today’s educational requirements.
Southworth updated the digital resources in the library and trains teachers in how to use multiple perspectives when researching.
Ironically, she said, with Common Core there is more need than ever for teachers to have the assistance and training from librarians – at a time when school librarians are being let go due to budget pressures and funding cuts.
Librarians also instruct students how to be critical users of material from the Internet, using it both ethically and responsibly.
And Southworth wants students to feel welcome, and to be encouraged to read, read, read. The first year she began working as a school librarian, Southworth was concerned there was a two-book checkout policy. “We have a subset of students who are avid readers,” she said.
She began a V.I.P. program for students who filled out an information sheet and were given a card, allowing them to take out more books, including reference books. As members, they are notified first of new books and materials that come into the library. The card also allows them access to the library during the sunny days of summer, which is a bonus for them, she said, “because the public library is way across town.”
The V.I.P. Club – which started with 30 members and now has 75-- also gets a party at the end of the year. But the books must be put away before the ice cream is dished out.
-- Liza Frenette
(Amy Jo Southworth is a member of the Bay Shore Classroom TA)