Reflection Blog: Hyperlinked Communities

As my understanding of the hyperlinked library grows, I have a greater appreciation for the various ways libraries reach communities. As a teacher librarian, I am always looking for books and materials that don’t just help students academically but that can help them outside of school as well. In “The Healing Power of Books: Using Reading to Address Social and Emotional Needs”, Jessica Klinker writes that books “provide a critical foundation for conversations that extend into political and social contexts and that focus on unity and healing rather than division and destruction.” I found this to be very insightful and helpful for when it comes to justifying my purchases in the library. My district has weekly SEL lessons for students in each grade, and I would love to be able to use my school’s library as a way to supplement these lessons with books and activities that promote student well-being.

Another fascinating component of this week’s module on hyperlinked communities was how libraries have found unique ways to promote the library and interact with the community. I love how the bookmobile increases the reach of literature to members of a community who aren’t able to access their library or aren’t aware of the resources in their local library. Though a bookmobile is not something I could necessarily do at a middle school, reading Christian Lauersen’s “The necessary nearness- an ode to bookmobiles” encouraged me to think of how I can reach students who don’t visit the school library often. I have put together a small cart of books that I can take around the school to different classes. My goal is work with teachers to visit classes and give students some time to look through the books on the cart and check them out. Hopefully, this will serve as a way to get more students who don’t visit the library to check out books while not using up too much class time.

As I continue to learn more about hyperlinked communities, I hope to expand the reach of my school library even further. I also want to include more programming and makerspace activities so that the library becomes a community on campus and not solely a place to check out books. I know there are so many ways to reach and impact students through the library, and I am looking forward to discovering how to be more accessible to students.