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What鈥檚 a librarian鈥檚 role in school when children can no longer go to the library?

That鈥檚 a question many school librarians across the country had to grapple with when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools into remote learning in March 2020 and they had to figure out how to continue serving students and teachers as the K-12 landscape abruptly changed.

Nowhere was that disruption more widespread than in the country鈥檚 largest school district, New York City, with its 1.1 million students.

Teachers scrambled to find ways to adapt print materials for virtual classes, while many students, who may have had more time to read鈥攁s nearly everything shut down鈥攏o longer had access to school books.鈥�

For Melissa Jacobs, the director of school library services in New York City, it was a golden opportunity to rethink how her staff supports instruction for students and teachers.鈥�

鈥淲e are trying to get our students to be able to function in a world where digital plays a really important role,鈥� Jacobs said. 鈥淭o do that, we need to be immersed in that world. In retrospect, the pandemic gave us that opportunity to say, 鈥極K, we can create a climate conducive to learning in school, but we can also create a climate conducive to learning online.鈥欌�娾��

The shift was also a chance to ensure that students, who would be spending more time online, understand netiquette and the rules of digital citizenship.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a connection between these same social skills needed in school, in person, and the social skills that you have to master online,鈥� she said.

Curating, vetting, and supporting shifts to virtual

Jacobs led a team of district educators and media specialists in translating each librarian鈥檚 regular duties into practices for remote and hybrid instruction: everything from how to collaborate with a teacher in a Zoom class to how to ensure teachers and students can use digital materials in the classroom without violating copyright or privacy rules. While a librarian on campus teaches students to use the Dewey decimal system or format citations, for example, a digital librarian teaches students to use online annotation tools and curates e-books and electronic materials by subject to make easily searchable platforms.

鈥淯sing digital tools has always been a big part of the instructional role that we play in schools,鈥� Jacobs said. 鈥淭his is the work that librarians do. We should be curating. We should be vetting. We should be demonstrating how to use these tools in the classroom, how to use these tools for one-on-one student instruction.鈥�

Jacobs didn鈥檛 stop there. She codified her team鈥檚 work into a 鈥淭ranslation of Practice,鈥� a guide for media specialists around the world on how to support instruction across digital, hybrid, and live classrooms. Schools as far away as New Zealand have relied on it during the pandemic.

It 鈥渞eally helped colleagues learn how to actively reach out in a remote environment,鈥� said Russell West Jr., a legal counsel and deputy director of instruction for New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit that works with the New York City district on professional development for educators.

鈥淟ibrarians knew where all the digital resources you needed for research and reading were, and they learned how to reach out to teachers rather than wait for them,鈥� West said.

Jacobs secured more than $4 million during the pandemic to build a Citywide Digital Library of more than 20,000 unique books in multiple languages. The collection also includes specific catalogs for culturally responsive and LGBTQ books, in response to data suggesting students of color and LGBTQ students have been particularly at risk of becoming disconnected from school during remote instruction.

Through the digital library, students can access digital and audio books, as well as tools for note taking, cross-referencing, and discussion, from home or any school in the district. Moreover, the library has anywhere from 100 to 400 copies of the most popular titles, which has reduced wait times for borrowing, according to Patricia Sarles, an operations and instructional coordinator for the library system.

The expanded access dramatically increased the number of books students read. From January to December 2020, students checked out about 138,400 titles, but during the same period in 2021, they borrowed more than 850,500 titles. That number has risen to more than 1.3 million titles so far in 2022.

鈥淭here鈥檚 definitely been a complete change in the way we are teaching now, and I think many more teachers are aware of the digital practices and providing online opportunities for their students,鈥� Jacobs said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just like, here鈥檚 a PDF of that book that you should use, but here鈥檚 a platform that provides access to the title, that also provides audio, that also provides note taking, that also provides the ability to highlight and define words, and it changes the way you鈥檙e interacting with texts.鈥濃��

Ciro Scardina, a new library media specialist at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn and a former elementary teacher, called the digital library 鈥減robably the most amazing new thing that鈥檚 come along in a really long time鈥� in his teaching career.

鈥淚t came at a time [when] we really needed books to loan students at the beginning of COVID,鈥� Scardina said. 鈥淲hen we first went digital, we relied on the kindness of corporations, and book sellers, and stuff to sort of give us freebies,鈥� which required students to use a mishmash of different sites and procedures.鈥�

Training the next generation of school librarians

Like many districts nationwide, New York City has experienced a shortage of school librarians in recent years, with the numbers falling from nearly 1,500 in 2005 to 450 today.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg鈥檚 effort to break up large comprehensive schools into smaller ones in the decade from 2005-2015 resulted in massive staff cuts and meant that one campus may house multiple traditional and even charter schools that share resources. As a result, one librarian may serve as many as 10 school populations, cultures, and leaders, Jacobs said.

鈥淚t is a unique individual that can work in that environment,鈥� she said.

To grow media specialists who would be comfortable in the city鈥檚 schools, Jacobs partnered with Syracuse University in 2019 to create Teacher2Librarian, a pathway program for teachers to earn a master鈥檚 degree in library and information science, meet the academic requirements to become state-certified school library specialists, and ultimately serve high-need New York City campuses.鈥�

The city is expanding the program to John Fisher College in Pittsford, N.Y., next year.

Between John Fisher and Syracuse, the programs will train 73 teachers to become librarians by the end of this school year, and Jacobs is working to add 100 more over the next two years

鈥淭o me, that鈥檚 a huge success, because now these students have equitable access to resources and instruction and a qualified librarian,鈥� Jacobs said.

Still, she added, 鈥渢here is so much more to do.鈥� Hundreds of the city鈥檚 1,850 schools operate without a media specialist, relying on teacher and student access to the Citywide Digital Library.

Scardina was one of the first 20 graduates of the Teacher2Librarian program. He and his peers now run libraries in six of the district鈥檚 highest-need campuses, including about five schools each that hadn鈥檛 had a librarian for four years or more.

A classroom visit from Jacobs was critical to his decision to enter the program, he said.

鈥淪he came into my classroom, saw my library, and asked me if I was interested in being a librarian. And the thought had never crossed my mind,鈥� said Scardina, who taught 3rd grade at the time.

A 鈥榝ormidable leader鈥� and advocate for librarians

Jacobs, 49, has spent her entire career in Big Apple libraries: first as an elementary school librarian in Brooklyn; then 14 years as a library coordinator across the district; then stepping in to direct the district鈥檚 library system four years ago.鈥�

鈥淢elissa is a formidable leader,鈥� Scardina said. 鈥淲hen it comes to business, she is a total New Yorker. She knows what we need and really advocates for us.鈥�

She has always been driven to help media specialists to become more connected, both to each other and the schools they serve. As a local library coordinator nearly 20 years ago, she created the first listserv for school librarians in the city, which is still used today. She is dedicated to ensuring her colleagues have a voice in school decisions, even when being supervised by five to 10 principals.

鈥淪he knows how to meet everyone where they鈥檙e at,鈥� said Rachael Chapman, a secondary school librarian at the Westinghouse Campus in Brooklyn.

鈥淪he can do the feet-on-the-ground work, sit in your library and literally dust the shelves with you. She can be the spokesperson and help you get your program together. She can do it all and, 鈥� while obviously she has to prioritize, whatever you鈥檙e working with her on seems like it鈥檚 her priority.鈥�

Her biggest challenges remain the sheer scale of work and sustainability.

鈥淲e have made enormous strides in the programming and opportunities we offer, but when you drill down to the number impacted, it only reaches the tens of thousands [of students], and we should reach the hundreds of thousands,鈥� Jacobs said.

鈥淥ur students need equitable access, instruction that leads them to become digitally fluent citizens engaged in democracy, and strong school library programs that connect them to inquiry and learning about the world around them.鈥�