Learning Communities and the Library

As much as I have heard the term "learning community" used in my school, and even used it myself, I can't say I have really given deep thought to a definition. In my mind, a learning community was something I was a part of when my largest goal in my school setting was to contribute to the whole education of every child in my building. The community was the staff--everyone in the building does something to benefit children--as well as the parents, the members of the residential community, and the students themselves. We come together as one group, a community, for the overarching goal of learning. It's what we do, who we are. I feel I have a pretty good grasp of the concept.

So why was I stricken by reading about the role of libraries in learning communities? I have more or less studied this in every class I have taken over the last nearly-two years. But something was there for me in a way I didn't see it before. Maybe it was the simple definition of a learning community as "a 'whole picture' approach to education (Stripling and Hughes-Hassell, 190)." Perhaps it was seeing how I teach laid out as "an array of pedagogical approaches (190)."

I think, though, I gleaned most from the text's reference to Information Power's Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning. In the text, the standards were broken into their three groups and put into terms of how the Library media specialist in a learning community approaches these standards. It seems most often we are fed lists of standards--for our profession, for our students, for a combination of both--but the lists are abstract and seemingly out of context. Tying learning communities and media specialists together with the info lit standards felt very validating, and it gave me something I was looking for in trying to inform those in my learning community "what I do."

I started visualizing these bulleted points (Stripling and Hughes-Hassell, 192-194) assembled in one space, taped down on my desk, serving as a reminder to me and as an "a-ha!" for those I work with. This isn't something I have found in any of the other lists, texts, or ALA documents before now. Funny, after so much discussion, so many readings, I finally find a way to show my community "what I do." Now if only I can clarify for them how I do it! Hmmmmm.....

Works Cited
Stripling, Barbara K., and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. Curriculum Connections Through the Library. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.