Serving the In-Between - E210

WEBVTT
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I'm Julie Saunders. I'm Jan Wilson. Julie and I both have experience as school
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librarians, and we've worked together as district library leaders.
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In each episode, we'll dive into our profession with interviews and meaningful content to inspire you.
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The ideas and opinions shared by any host, guest, or listener are their own
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and do not represent those of any respective school district.
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Welcome to Library Exchange.
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Does your library's reference section contain high-interest titles that draw
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kids in and produce large circulation numbers?
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the greatest advantage.
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Welcome, everyone. Hopefully, you're enjoying the start of summer,
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and we're glad you're tuning in.
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Our guest today is Amanda Hunt. You know her as the next-gen librarian on social media.
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She's been an educator for 21 years, 16 of those as a librarian.
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After working in elementary and middle school libraries, she's moving to the
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high school level this fall.
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Yeah, Amanda, do you remember what I call that?
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Uh, no. What do you call that? The school librarian trifecta. The trifecta.
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Okay, okay, back to the intro. Recently, she was named a 2026 Library Journal
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Mover and Shaker, and we're looking forward to our conversation with her today.
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Welcome to Library Exchange, Amanda.
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I'm so excited to be here. You guys are awesome, and I've been listening for
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a long time, so this is a pleasure.
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Aw, yay. So Amanda, let's start by highlighting your work on the AASL,
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which stands for the American Association for School Librarians,
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standards, and the six shared foundations of Inquire, Include,
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Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage.
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How long did you contribute to that project and what was the goal?
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I was so honored to be on that committee through AASL. We started the work and...
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2022, 2023, and it carried us almost three years.
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What we were doing is taking the first standards that released in 2018,
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and the standards did not change.
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And so a lot of people ask me, then, why would we buy the second edition, right?
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We had a lot of different age levels that were contributing to it.
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We had about eight people on our committee, and they were in all different levels of librarianship.
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And so it was really great to get all of our points of view.
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We did a lot of interviews, focus groups. We did a lot of polls and things like
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that to get feedback from librarians.
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And the main feedback we got was that the standards were a bit confusing.
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So our main goal was to make them more palatable.
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And so what we decided to do was kind of give them each I can statements,
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different age groups, right?
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So we have I can statements for K2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9 through 12.
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So we feel like that was a lot of great feedback.
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It made it real world and it took these kind of abstract ideas of what school
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librarianship should be and brought it straight into the library with example lessons.
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Great. Yeah, great work on those. So Amanda, as we mentioned in the intro,
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with your experience as a middle school librarian,
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we all know it's very common to hear how tricky collection development is for
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that level, because you have those cute little sixth graders, and then you have the
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adolescent, eighth graders, and everything in between.
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What are your strategies for selecting books for that range of readers?
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It is very difficult, and I've said it since I moved up to middle school 10
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years ago, because you're right.
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We have our little 11-year-old babies all the way up to our 14,
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sometimes 15-year-olds, and it's difficult, right?
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I feel like lately, it's been even more difficult in our current climate of librarianship.
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And so I, besides reading a lot,
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I feel like that should be a librarian's number one goal or priority is to be
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keeping up with the collection, what publishers are putting out,
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what the standard baseline is for middle grade,
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upper middle grade, lower YA.
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Upper YA, all of that big range that we have.
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And so I have some really great friends that decided to do the Young Teen Lit.
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So if you haven't checked them out, please.
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They were also Mover and Shakers for 2026. So I love following all of their
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posts because they're exactly right.
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It is a gap in publishing. A lot of times I think publishers are targeting adults
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that are reading young adults.
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And that sometimes that can really skew our, you know, reviews that we're having
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to look up when they do a blanket 14 and up and it's more like 16 and up or potentially new adult.
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So using them as a guide is great as well as all the reading that I do.
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But also, you know, our traditional review sources of school library journal.
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Book list, Kirkus reviews, you know, we get into then going to the actual publishers' websites and
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and looking at Mackin and Follett and all the different ones.
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And it does take a lot of time.
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And it's a side of librarianship that most people don't know that we do when
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we are curating our collection.
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So having access to reviews is so
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important and making sure we do our due diligence, as well as just like.
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You know, see like on social media, that's where I get a lot of,
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oh, that book just got a new cover.
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I need to check that out. I need to do multiple review sources and see what that's going to be.
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And our purchasing laws in Texas are a little different this year with Senate
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Bill 13, but it's something we really take seriously and we want to curate a
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collection for our students that represent all walks of life.
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Great. So in the middle school years, in addition to how difficult it is to,
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for collection development, how important that is to have the right books for the right students.
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Often you see that reading interest drop in those middle school years.
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So how do you keep them motivated to read?
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And, you know, along with your previous statement about selection,
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it kind of goes hand in hand, but how do you keep students motivated to read? It is difficult.
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I love my little sixth grade babies. They come to me, Thank you,
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elementary librarians and teachers, because they are still in that really wanting
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to read, you know, stage of life.
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But once they get to seventh grade, then it's like they're doing all the sports
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and all the clubs and, you know, their life gets busy and chaotic and dramatic.
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And so the reading does tend to go down. And then with eighth grade,
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I tend to see a little bit of apathy just across the board.
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It's so funny, though, because when they go to high school, then they get this renewed sense.
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I don't know. Thank you, BookTok or Bookstagram. because they get a new renewed,
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and then they're messaging me, and I'm like, okay, why couldn't we be excited
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in middle school about these books?
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I love that for you. But yeah, so it is tricky.
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We've tried, you know, I try lots of things, especially with all of the movies
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that are being adapted from books.
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It's been really great to kind of play into that, lean into it,
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do, you know, voting and polls and advertise.
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And I always do like March Madness brackets and all of those types of things. And that's great.
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This year, however, in January, a lot of the schools in the district that I
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worked at, we purchased Beanstack. And.
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It really has been a game changer. If your district is thinking of like, should we do AR?
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Should we do Beanstack? Like I highly recommend Beanstack. I think it really
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brings back the love of reading and just allowing students to read what they
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want to read and what they're passionate about without tying any state standards
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to it or an assignment to it.
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And so it's been really fun to introduce that to my kids.
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And I'm very competitive. so I'm about
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to post our stats on the socials this week
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because it's amazing how much we read 850,000 words
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like minutes sorry minutes in one semester
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just training my students to think about reading outside of the traditional
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having a book in front of you was also instrumental in that I say it all the
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time but they needed to hear it again and again that audiobooks town is reading
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graphic novels you know if their parents don't get the newspaper if they read
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the news on their on their device, like, it's reading.
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And when they read in social studies and they read in science,
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they're like, wait, I can count that? Like, that's reading? I'm like, yes.
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And so having to retrain this, you know, generation of what counts as reading
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was also, and that was my number one goal with this, was to just get them reading
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again and paying attention to it and being intentional.
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How about how many students do you have at your school? We have just over a
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thousand. Wow. So 850,000 minutes. Did I hear you correct? Yes.
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Wow, that's very impressive for just one semester. I'm very impressed.
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But, you know, you've also mentioned social media and using that to encourage
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reading. What types of things do you put on social media?
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Absolutely. So, you know, social media is different depending on the platform.
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Most of our students spend time on Instagram, whereas the parents are on Facebook.
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And so you got to kind of tailor it to the audience. And so also have a TikTok.
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And so whenever I see a trend that's happening, I take it and I adapt it to the library.
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So anything that, you know, is happening, if it's a dance, if it's a soundbite
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that's going viral, I will take it and make it applicable to like my students
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that are in the library and how they see me.
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And I tell them super cringe, but are you watching? Yeah.
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So, you know, I think you just got to lean into that. Social media is not for everyone.
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That is not something that should be globally used. Everyone has different communities
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and things like that. But I have found it to be really successful and fun.
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And as I said, I'm very competitive as well. So obviously those numbers not
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playing when it comes to wanting to win across the district. And we did.
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We beat, you know, an elementary school that is, you know, has more students
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than us and very active readers.
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So that was great. And to be able to partner with neighboring districts as well,
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we started going to like Beanstack trainings virtually so that we could kind
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of partner with another district because then we could take it into a bigger,
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you know, outside the four walls of our school.
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00:12:00.337 --> 00:12:04.837
Well, in addition to that, I think you'd mentioned your teacher involvement, too.
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And because, you know, it takes a village to get the middle schoolers to be
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motivated to read, right?
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A hundred percent, especially when we're talking about counting science minutes
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of reading their articles or, you know, that kind of thing. I needed to have everybody on board.
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And so, yeah, teachers can track their minutes as well.
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And I would do top advisory classes, top reading classes, just top class in
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general, like those kinds of stats every week. for like our parent newsletter,
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but also our staff newsletter.
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And then I would give like prizes out to the top teachers, the top three teachers,
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their favorite coffee drink on, you know, their, you know, their favorite candy
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snack, things like that.
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But then the top reader of the month, I would cover one of their classes just
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to kind of give them some time back, which is really important for teachers.
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Wow. Yes. That's a great incentive.
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Yeah. It takes all of those stakeholders to have a culture of reading.
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So Julie, if it's okay with you, can I ask a question?
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You may proceed. I don't know if you guys have noticed that I've been raising my hand over here.
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It happens, Amanda. So, seriously, Amanda, I love this short article about you
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in the May issue of School Library Journal, where you were asked,
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what advice would you give a new school librarian,
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which I want you to touch on, but also So what advice are you giving yourself
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since you are starting at a new level in a new district?
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One of my big things is to make sure that the library is the hub and the center of the campus.
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This is my last week at my current campus that has felt like a family for the last decade.
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And you want it to be really sad if that person leaves.
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And unfortunately, fortunately, we are all really sad.
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And so that's definitely a big part, but it really plays on the bigger role
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of the library being instrumental in all areas. A lot of people focus on the
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English language arts at the secondary level, and we're leaving out other groups.
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You know, you work with your ELL department, you work with your dyslexia teachers,
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you work with the coaches, you work with all the core content and electives.
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And so put yourself in there to where you are instrumental.
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Go to PLC meetings. Go to department chairs.
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How can I help you? How can the library help you?
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And that's going to be something that's going to be real important for me going
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to a high school that has probably been doing their thing and they're rocking
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and rolling and they didn't even know they needed an Amanda Hunt,
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but I'm about to show them what we can do together.
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Yeah, your first sentence and the answer was, be the person on campus.
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No one can imagine the school without.
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So that must be true for the school that you're leaving, which,
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you know, we like to say it's not all about us or the librarian.
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It's about the programming and everything that you brought to that school. So thank you for that.
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So I know that you probably use a lot of cool ed tech tools.
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What are your top tools that you use to encourage reading?
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I use, and a lot of times it's a double sword, right?
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Like I do lessons in the library that have to do with digital citizenship,
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AI, all of these things that are affecting our students' lives as they work
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on being good digital citizens.
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But then twofold, I want it to be fun and engaging. And so for me,
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I use Adobe Express a lot. It's free.
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It's something that is equitable because it's free.
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And all of our students have access to it. And so you can get in and you're
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teaching generative AI in a responsible and ethical way because they're not
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using open AI and images without giving copyright or compensation.
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They are actually using the Adobe stock images that they have in-house.
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So for me, yes, it's fun. They look so cute. I can make a hippo dance on a surfboard,
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like all of those things. It's fun.
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But now I can say, guys, why do we use Adobe Express?
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They're like, because it's ethical. like they can like repeat it back to me
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because I say it all the time and it's going to protect our kids.
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It's not going to let them search things they're not supposed to.
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So I feel like it's a real great tool to use and real easy for our students to figure out too.
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If you're ever feeling like, Oh, I can't do one more app. I can't learn one more thing.
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They have how-to videos embedded for kids to kind of teach themselves as well. So.
00:16:41.361 --> 00:16:46.401
So in your new district, do you know if they have the Beanstack subscription? They do.
00:16:46.981 --> 00:16:52.521
Great, great. So how, I wonder, how will you modify your program for high schoolers?
00:16:53.081 --> 00:16:59.841
So I have to learn my kids first. Like I have to learn my student community and where the gaps are.
00:17:00.021 --> 00:17:05.281
I have to really get into my collection and see what has been popular.
00:17:05.281 --> 00:17:09.621
I know that one of the reasons I think I was brought in was to increase circulation
00:17:09.621 --> 00:17:11.781
and excitement around reading.
00:17:12.321 --> 00:17:16.781
And I can do it. I just, I got to do the work behind it first.
00:17:16.941 --> 00:17:19.901
And I feel like once you know your kids, you know their needs,
00:17:20.041 --> 00:17:24.501
you know that their interests, like you can start to curate those resources for them.
00:17:24.601 --> 00:17:29.221
And then, you know, at high school, we tend to be competitive from what I remember
00:17:29.221 --> 00:17:30.401
when I was in high school.
00:17:30.721 --> 00:17:35.161
So like I'm down and we're going to compete against the other high schools.
00:17:35.281 --> 00:17:38.861
I've already messaged some of their librarians saying like, let's do it.
00:17:39.081 --> 00:17:44.501
So I just, I'm really excited to see what can come from that.
00:17:44.501 --> 00:17:50.261
And just, again, creating that culture of reading just across the campus as like a goal.
00:17:50.421 --> 00:17:54.141
I also kind of thought if they do the graduation chords, like if you hit,
00:17:54.141 --> 00:17:58.821
you know, so many words or so many minutes in Beanstalk, they could get,
00:17:58.941 --> 00:18:00.641
you know, one of the chords or something like that.
00:18:00.641 --> 00:18:05.561
So just kind of learning the high school life and what they'll let me do is going to be first.
00:18:06.281 --> 00:18:09.721
Yeah, I love that you're wanting to listen and learn and not just go in and
00:18:09.721 --> 00:18:11.921
take what you already know and just apply it.
00:18:12.081 --> 00:18:16.261
You know, customize where your new location is. Right. Absolutely.
00:18:17.001 --> 00:18:21.181
So I assume the library is open before the school day begins.
00:18:21.641 --> 00:18:26.361
So those are going to be the students you can kind of start forming connections
00:18:26.361 --> 00:18:29.501
with. And they'll have some ideas for you, too.
00:18:30.081 --> 00:18:31.961
Yes, I love taking students' feedback.
00:18:32.681 --> 00:18:36.641
Amanda, for our audience members who want to keep up with you, what's the best way?
00:18:37.081 --> 00:18:41.041
I am the NextGen librarian across all social media platforms.
00:18:41.701 --> 00:18:47.961
So, Amanda, we could talk shop with you all day. Thank you so much for joining
00:18:47.961 --> 00:18:54.281
us today, and you're definitely putting the next-gen in librarianship. I love that.
00:18:57.181 --> 00:19:00.781
Julie, we've exchanged ideas. It's time for our recap.
00:19:01.261 --> 00:19:06.441
I'll start with this. We really love talking to school librarians because they
00:19:06.441 --> 00:19:09.641
always remind us of resources that
00:19:09.934 --> 00:19:15.194
And Amanda mentioned the Young Teen Lit Librarians, so I wanted to give them
00:19:15.194 --> 00:19:18.934
a shout out as a great resource. Both are middle school librarians.
00:19:19.394 --> 00:19:22.654
Christina is in Michigan and Marcy's in Georgia.
00:19:22.894 --> 00:19:29.974
And they curate collections for ages 12 through 15. And you can find them at youngteanlit.com.
00:19:30.594 --> 00:19:35.574
Yay, thank you for sharing that tip. One of the biggest takeaways from this
00:19:35.574 --> 00:19:39.814
episode that I took away was Amanda's approach to collection development.
00:19:40.514 --> 00:19:46.254
Sure, we all have our favorite trusted review sources, but Amanda reminds us
00:19:46.254 --> 00:19:51.274
how crucial it is to cross-check those go-tos with other popular review sites.
00:19:51.554 --> 00:19:58.574
The real magic here is balancing all of that with how well you know your own student population.
00:19:59.074 --> 00:20:04.554
Yes, the amount of time it takes to curate a collection is a side of librarianship,
00:20:05.094 --> 00:20:09.754
that most people don't think about or they don't even realize that we do it.
00:20:09.934 --> 00:20:13.214
And I want to go back to what you just mentioned.
00:20:13.874 --> 00:20:18.894
She discussed professional reviews for selection. And so she mentioned the importance
00:20:18.894 --> 00:20:24.854
of reading reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus reviews.
00:20:25.214 --> 00:20:31.874
And I'm glad she called out those big three because they are written for librarians
00:20:31.874 --> 00:20:35.634
and educators, specifically for collection development.
00:20:36.494 --> 00:20:41.474
Common Sense Media is not a primary selection tool for books.
00:20:41.914 --> 00:20:45.474
And I just wanted to remind, yeah, I just, I'm on my pedestal about that a little
00:20:45.474 --> 00:20:47.514
bit. It's not a selection tool.
00:20:47.934 --> 00:20:51.954
Yeah, thank you for that reminder. So can we talk about her school's reading
00:20:51.954 --> 00:20:53.414
minutes? Oh my goodness.
00:20:53.854 --> 00:20:58.254
Right? So for her enrollment numbers, the stats are absolutely wild.
00:20:58.514 --> 00:21:02.394
And Beanstack has clearly been a massive game changer there. Yes.
00:21:02.674 --> 00:21:05.074
You know, it's healthy competition.
00:21:05.634 --> 00:21:11.334
And when you have teachers beyond the English language arts teachers who help
00:21:11.334 --> 00:21:14.434
to reinforce reading in their classrooms...
00:21:14.778 --> 00:21:20.238
That is so motivating. So she talks about, you know, when students were reading
00:21:20.238 --> 00:21:24.658
an article in science and the teacher reminded them, hey, this counts towards
00:21:24.658 --> 00:21:26.158
your minutes in Beanstack.
00:21:26.278 --> 00:21:29.198
That just reinforces the message to students.
00:21:29.398 --> 00:21:34.918
I am reading during the school day and it's not a physical book in front where
00:21:34.918 --> 00:21:38.078
they have to turn the pages and audio books count too.
00:21:38.538 --> 00:21:43.758
Absolutely. Breaking down those adult biases about what real reading looks like
00:21:43.758 --> 00:21:46.098
is so important for encouraging reading with students.
00:21:46.458 --> 00:21:52.778
Yes. So looking ahead to next year, Amanda's moving to a new school level and her mindset is spot on.
00:21:53.098 --> 00:21:57.458
Instead of just copy pasting her old programs because they're familiar,
00:21:57.758 --> 00:22:01.938
she will focus on listening, learning, and building relationships first. Yes.
00:22:02.438 --> 00:22:04.498
You know, Julie, there's still a learning
00:22:04.498 --> 00:22:08.618
curve when you're an experienced librarian moving to a new school.
00:22:08.818 --> 00:22:12.038
You need to learn about your students, your staff, the community.
00:22:12.941 --> 00:22:17.101
Oh, I'm making this a lot on her plate. You got to familiarize yourself with
00:22:17.101 --> 00:22:21.201
the collection and just watch how students use the space.
00:22:21.401 --> 00:22:24.541
She has great ideas for creating a culture of reading.
00:22:24.701 --> 00:22:31.861
But at the same time, she reminds us that it's just as important to sometimes sit back and be a sponge.
00:22:34.201 --> 00:22:38.301
Also, remember, it's important to find those teacher influencers,
00:22:38.301 --> 00:22:41.121
professors those ones that you can partner with who will
00:22:41.121 --> 00:22:43.941
then share with other teachers and even share with the
00:22:43.941 --> 00:22:49.921
principal this was a great episode i think you'll agree julie oh absolutely
00:22:49.921 --> 00:22:55.641
yeah amanda meets her students where they are whether she's revving up a school-wide
00:22:55.641 --> 00:23:00.661
competition or grabbing the latest social media trends all of it shows the reach
00:23:00.661 --> 00:23:03.861
and impact of our profession It sure does.
00:23:04.121 --> 00:23:09.201
Yeah. So follow her at The Next Gen Librarian. And Julie, we'll be seeing her
00:23:09.201 --> 00:23:13.621
next week at the Georgia School Librarian Conference. That's right. We can't wait.
00:23:14.061 --> 00:23:20.801
And if we're not seeing you, we'll miss you until our next episode on June 15th.
00:23:22.041 --> 00:23:23.701
Bye. Bye.
00:23:25.212 --> 00:23:29.292
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That's a lot of URLs, so I'm glad you had to say all of that, Julie.
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Thanks for joining us. We can't wait to have you back for our next episode of Library Exchange.