Digital Advocacy Stories: a Pedagogical Tool For

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Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool for Communicating and Strengthening Library Values Judi Moreillon School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, P. O. Box 425438, Denton, Texas 76204-5438. Email: [email protected] Ruth Nicole Hall School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, P. O. Box 425438, Denton, Texas 76204-5438. Email: [email protected]

Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool for Communicating and Strengthening Library Values is a case study conducted in LS5633: The Art of Storytelling. The purpose of this study was to investigate graduate student candidates’ development of library values through the use of digital tools to create and disseminate advocacy stories. While discussing, creating, sharing, revising, and reflecting on digital advocacy stories, candidates gave voice to values based on ALA and other competences. They also increased their expertise in communicating those values to library stakeholders via electronic and Web 2.0 tools. The researchers conducted a content analysis of several assignment data sources, including candidates’ online discussions, advocacy stories, and digital reflection scripts. The findings suggest this pedagogical process strengthened candidates’ library-related values as well as shored up their ability to advocate for those values and use social networking and digital tools to do so. Keywords: LIS education, competences, digital storytelling, advocacy, reflective practice, social media

Introduction that supports student achievement (Mar- zano, 2007). tandards are used to prescribe “what” Adopting and embodying the values of Sshould be taught and assessed (Heck, library science is one important part of an Banilower, Weiss, & Rosenberg, 2008; LIS education and can be viewed as en- Stiggins & DuFour, 2009; Tomlinson, culturation into a profession or community 2000). ALA has developed standards, of practice (Wenger, 1998). It is an aspect or competences, that form a framework of professional preparation that can lead to for assessing the achievement of library passion for, and sustainability in, the pro- professionals who earn their Master’s fession (Schön, 1987; Welch, Reynolds, & degrees in ALA-accredited programs Carroll, 2013). Candidates may begin their (ALA, 2010). Librarian educators use the coursework with little or no knowledge of competences to guide program decision- the core tenets of librarianship. Educators making and course-level student learning of pre-service librarians intend candidates outcomes. In addition, each ALA division to increase their understanding of the foun- has standards and guidelines for pre-ser- dations on which their future careers rest vice librarian educators to consider. When as they matriculate through the program, educators align student learning outcomes learn about the history of library science, and instruction with standards, they strive and develop the competences set out by to achieve a guaranteed, viable curriculum the profession. In the process, candidates

J. of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol. 55, No. 2—(Spring) April 2014 100 ISSN: 0748-5786 © 2014 Association for Library and Information Science Education Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool 101 can learn to tell a “library story” that reso- enrolled in a 15-week online course dur- nates with the values of the profession. ing spring 2013. The course is designed Advocacy is a story. The aim of advo- with a constructivist learning framework cacy is to influence outcomes. In order to in which candidates take responsibility achieve their goals, advocates make a case, for their own learning by building on their an argument or a claim about a decision prior experiences, interacting with course that needs to be made or a direction that materials and one another, and developing should be taken. Effective advocates sup- skills as storytellers. For the study, three port their claims with data and evidence. candidates gave full consent to use all data They then tell their story in order to help sources for the project: online discussion others see the problem, issue or solution postings, digital advocacy stories and digi- from their point of view in order to enlist tal reflections. Three additional candidates others to take up the cause and join the ef- gave consent to post their digital advocacy fort. Being able to frame a story in such stories and reflections on the course wiki a way that others respond positively is an at http://tinyurl.com/LS5633-DAS-DR. essential advocacy skill (Lakoff, Dean, & Candidates used creativity and critical- Hazen, 2007; Reinsborough & Canning, thinking skills to navigate this complex 2010). Advocacy is mentioned twice in assignment. They identified their library the ALA Core Competences: Competence values based on standards in librarianship. I: H and Competence 5: E (ALA, 2009). Candidates discussed their values in three As librarian educators who are commit- separate online forums. They shared their ted to sustaining the profession, the au- ideas, beliefs and considerations and re- thors of this paper, an assistant professor sponded to at least two other classmates’ and a doctoral student/graduate assistant, postings. The candidates also discussed are interested in pre-service librarians in- the audiences for their stories, reaching tegrating the values of librarianship into out for feedback via social media and se- their worldviews during their library sci- lecting appropriate tools for telling their ence education. Taking those values and stories. turning them into advocacy stories was a Candidates selected Web 2.0 tools way to address competences in the profes- from a menu to build their storyboards sion. Using digital tools to do so, situated http://tinyurl.com/LS5633-DS. Candidates candidates in current practices in librari- thought critically about the visual and au- anship. In developing this assignment, the ditory media that would appeal to their tar- researchers hoped to support candidates get audiences. Candidates were asked to in doing professional work during their post their memes or slogans, one-sentence preparation program. This effort attests to themes, audiences, and social networking the fact that the university classroom is a venues to the class wiki. The instructor laboratory for the practice of librarianship. responded with ideas and questions about In this context, what is learned is the direct the direction for their stories to help them result of what learners “do” during their narrow their audiences and hone their foci coursework (Jeng, 2011). before drafting an initial version of their advocacy stories. Study Context, Problem, and Candidates used various tools to cre- Purposes ate their digital stories. In order to receive feedback, they shared their stories with One goal of LS5633 is for graduate targeted audiences via social networks. student candidates to consider storytell- Based on feedback, the candidates re- ing as a vehicle for their advocacy work. vised their scripts, stories, and published The case study participants were public final versions on the Web. At the end of and school librarian candidates who were the assignment, the candidates produced 102 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE a digital reflection using a Web 2.0 tool ist university classroom, a community of that addressed three main components: practice, professors develop assignments the content of their story (values), the pro- and students become co-constructors of cess of developing the story and selecting knowledge as well as active, collabora- media, and finally, eliciting and respond- tive and passionate participants in their ing to audience feedback. The researchers new [librarian] culture (Yukawa, 2010). aligned candidates’ digital reflection ques- When LS5633 candidates participated in tions with the research questions for this the digital advocacy story project, the in- study. structors had a goal of igniting their passion for library values, digital storytelling Research Questions and advocacy work. Social networking tools help adult 1. How did candidates determine on which learners to become more engaged and library value to focus their digital advo- motivated to learn (LeNoue, Hall, & cacy stories? Eighmy, 2011). Applied in the univer- 2. What were their considerations as they sity classroom, these tools can facilitate determined the content used to commu- meaningful, communicative and col- nicate their selected values? laborative practices. Since social media 3. How did they use social media or par- allows users to build networking rela- ticipatory culture to reach an audience tionships, it provides an excellent way in order to disseminate their work, seek to share beliefs, passions or values and feedback and/or revise their stories? to reach wider audiences with content, ideas and opinions (Berger, 2010). When The researchers’ intent for this assign- learners connect with others inside and ment was to help candidates articulate outside of class, their experiences deepen their professional values and increase their (Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel, passion for the profession. One way to in- & Robison, 2009). By publishing their spire and sustain the profession may be to advocacy stories to social media, these construct passionate practitioners during candidates had multiple chances to build preservice education (Reynolds, Welch, a larger network for advocacy and assess & Carroll, 2012). LIS educators who are the impact of their stories. concerned about sustaining the profes- The central role of reflective practice as sion want to instill values in candidates an essential habit of mind (Costa & Kal- and develop coursework that inspires pas- lick, 2008) relates to the concept of meta- sion. The purpose of this study, then, was cognition, in which learners think about to investigate the effectiveness of digital their own thinking processes. Reflective storytelling as a pedagogical tool for com- practice is a way to self-assess one’s be- municating and strengthening candidates’ havior in order to further develop work- library science values. place skills (Dequoy & Stefl-Mabry, 2012; Schön, 1987). “Through self-reflection, Literature Review learners can effectively determine what they learned, how they learned it and how Communities of practice, social net- they integrated it into their prior knowl- working tools and metacognition form the edge or how it changed their schema” conceptual framework for the digital ad- (Moreillon, 2013). Self-reflection helps vocacy story assignment and this study. people develop the skills and behaviors In a community of practice, members associated with metacognition. Learners use the technologies of everyday practice who are able to employ metacognitive with each other, based on shared passions skills are more confident about what they (Lave & Wenger, 1991). In a constructiv- know and are more successful at indepen- Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool 103 dent learning (Coffield, Mosely, Hall, & ser & Strauss, 1967) to determine com- Ecclestone, 2004; Marzano, 1998). mon themes in how participants arrived Some researchers recognize that meta- at and described their values, the stories cognition is not only a private internal ac- they told, the tools they employed and the tivity but it is also socially situated (Akyol feedback they solicited and used to revise & Garrison, 2011; Moreillon, 2013). Re- their stories. Each researcher interrogated sponding to instructors’ prompts and other the data for each participant separately. classmates’ responses in online discus- After their initial coding, they shared their sions is effective for synthesizing learn- analyses and repeated the process with ing (Rice & Gattiker, 2001) and promotes each participant’s data to verify the valid- socio-emotional course components in ity of the process and directions taken to which discussants exchange empathetic further interrogate the data. Throughout messages and engage in self-disclosure this process, the researchers maintained a (Fulton, Botticelli, & Bradley, 2011). stance that both acknowledged their im- In their book, The Connected Educator: pact on the data and honored the emer- Learning and Leading in the Digital Age, gent nature of the data (Rossman & Rallis, Nussbaum-Beach and Hall suggest that re- 1998). By posing open-ended questions in flection is an essential component of self- the discussion board and providing open- evaluation for 21st-century productive ended guiding questions for the assign- citizens who use “collaborative tools to ment reflection, the researchers attempted reveal and clarify conceptual understand- to minimize their impact on the study par- ing and thinking, planning, and creative ticipants’ postings and scripts. It should processes, such as the ability to create, cri- be noted that the researchers did not par- tique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia” ticipate directly in any online discussions (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2012, p. 15). during the semester. Instead, the instructor Similar to an instructor’s prompts in an summarized feedback in twice-a-week an- online discussion, a guided self-reflection nouncements, whole-class emails or pri- provides learners with a framework for vate responses to individual candidates. metacognition. For the digital reflection, the instructor provided participants with guiding ques- Methodology tions related to three assignment objec- tives: determining a value, crafting a story Study data were analyzed through the and selecting media, and seeking feedback collection and comparison among partici- from a target audience in order to evalu- pants’ online discussion postings, digital ate their advocacy story before revising stories and digital advocacy story assign- it. Participants were required to compose ment reflection scripts. Hand coding was a script as well as develop the reflection used to interrogate these data in several product. The goal of the self-reflection ways. First, the researchers developed a was for learners to uncover the meaning biographical sketch of each participant in they ascribed to their digital advocacy sto- order to put her data in the context of her ries by showing their thinking, describing background and personal goals for librari- their planning and sharing the data they anship. Next, they collated the data from used to analyze and revise their stories. three discussion posting threads focused The researchers were then able to use the on values and developing the stories. Fi- participants’ own words and images to de- nally, they considered these three partici- scribe their meaning-making process. pants’ stories and digital reflections. These data are presented as vignettes Using a content analysis approach, that preserve the participants’ own words. these data were then coded and analyzed This format is most appropriate for shar- using a constant comparative method (Gla- ing data from a storytelling course and re- 104 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE flects the naturalistic quality of qualitative discussions. When prompts were posted research; story represents a way of know- by the instructor, candidates were required ing and thinking about values and action to make an initial posting based on course (Carter, 1993). The narrative format of readings and at least two thoughtful re- these vignettes expresses respect for the sponses to classmates. [In all, a minimum participants’ “lived through experience” of three postings was required.] Amy’s of this assignment while it represents an participation rates doubled the required attempt to be “sensitive to the storied qual- amount for each discussion. She was a ity of many qualitative data” (Coffey & dynamic contributor in the synchronous Atkinson, 1996, p. 52). The participants group office hours chats. provided member checks by reviewing Amy aligned her values with ALSC and approving the vignettes that follow. Competencies (ALSC, 2009) related to knowledge of client group, communica- Vignette: “Global Exploration is tion skills and user and references servic- Just around the Corner” es. Amy produced her story with the Web 2.0 tool Prezi (http://tinyurl.com/Amys- At the time of this study, Amy was in Digital-Story). She composed her digi- her final semester of study. Her career goal tal reflection with another Web 2.0 tool, was to support youth in the public library. VoiceThread, shown in Figure 1 (http:// She had worked as a library page and had tinyurl.com/Amys-Digital-Reflection). volunteered in the library. Amy’s passions focused on “early literacy outreach to edu- In Her Own Words cate parents/caregivers.” In LS5633: The Art of Storytelling, Amy’s digital advocacy story one- Amy was an active participant in the online sentence theme was: “The public library

Figure 1. Amy’s Digital Advocacy Project Reflection Using VoiceThread. Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool 105 encourages children to learn and practice planned my storyboard with Popplet . . . empathy and compassion by encouraging Then [in Prezi], I decided which visuals to curiosity, understanding and respect for use. The final touch was to add a musical diversity in cultural and ethnic values as soundtrack, and to post the project on so- evidenced by materials, services and pro- cial networking sites for feedback.” gramming.” In “Reflections on Our Values Audience Feedback: “I posted a link in Librarianship and Education” online to my project on Twitter, Facebook, and discussion, Amy conveyed “curiosity as Google+ pages. I also posted a link on two the most important value.” She explained personal blogs. This project allowed me to the basis for her value choice. “Libraries synthesize my values in a visual way that give users resources to investigate, inspire invited others to engage and act.” and create.” Amy’s background also influenced her choice since her “family valued Vignette: “Building Readers, Build- questioning and curiosity.” As a future li- ing Communities” brarian, Amy believed in “encouraging users to continue being curious.” Audrey’s career goal was children’s In the “Further Thoughts on Values” services in a public library setting. At the thread, Amy refined her thoughts on li- time she participated in this course, Au- brary values. “I am still trying to figure out drey was a stay-at-home mother. Through- how to translate words into visuals, but out the semester, Audrey averaged more I’m thinking that will come as I continue than twice the minimum required postings to re-define this value.” Amy considered on the online discussions and was an ac- the focus of her story. “I can see how fo- tive participant in the synchronous group cusing on one segment of parents would office hours chats. make this project more effective. After Audrey’s value for public library pro- some thought, I’ve decided to focus on gramming was a consistent theme through- parents/caregivers.” out this assignment. Audrey ascribed many benefits to the “power of program- Assignment Reflection ming,” including “educational, community building, and entertaining activities.” Amy, as directed by the assignment In her outreach, she targeted mothers, in sheet, framed her reflection using the guid- particular, in order to reach her goal of ing questions related the content of the building lifelong learning habits in library story, the process of developing it and the patrons. She connected her story to the digital advocacy story feedback venues ALSC Competencies related to program- and revision process. ming skills. Audrey used Windows Live Content: “As I explored children’s pro- Movie Maker as the production tool for gramming and literature and work[ed] with her digital story and uploaded it to You- children, I was able to clarify the values Tube (http://tinyurl.com/Audreys-Digital- that drew me to children’s librarianship . . . Story). She presented her final digital story I wanted to create a story to highlight how reflection using Prezi, shown in Figure 2 children’s services can help children learn, (http://tinyurl.com/Audreys-Digital-Re- grow, explore, discover, and become suc- flection). cessful citizens.” Process: “When I began this project In Her Own Words I struggled [with] how I could develop [my] value into a story. After brainstorm- Audrey’s one-sentence theme was: ing, I was able to come up with my slo- “Public library children’s programming gan, ‘Global Exploration is Just Around offers an invaluable venue to build and the Corner!’. . . Once I had this slogan, I share a love for reading, to begin voyages 106 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

Figure 2. Audrey’s Digital Story Project Reflection Using Prezi. of learning exploration and to build friend- sional value of excellent programming ships and a spirit of community.” Audrey skills because I believe these skills will wrote, “An excellent library will offer a make my library relevant and valuable in variety of well prepared, well targeted pro- the lives of my community. Digital advo- grams to their community as a way to pro- cacy stories help spread the word about mote outreach, highlight the value of the what is available to patrons and aid in library in the community and find a way to reaching out to the community to inform serve those who often go unnoticed.” them why they want to continue support- In threaded discussions, Audrey shared ing their local library.” her background as a library page in a coun- Process: “Once I identified the profes- ty library system. She talked about how the sional competency I wanted to share and library became a “busy and vibrant” envi- wrote my one-sentence theme, I then be- ronment frequented by children, teens and gan my project by collecting data on the families for the summer reading program. benefits public library programming of- Audrey also promoted staying current fers children and families. As I pulled this with technology and noted that digital ad- data and condensed it down into bite-sized vocacy stories are a pathway to leadership pieces I began thinking of how to repre- within an organization. “Digital advocacy sent my information visually. I knew this stories are a terrific way to distinguish our- was going to be a visual project where my selves as leaders within our organizations, pictures said just as much as, if not more motivate change in others and insert our than, my text . . .” voice into the policy and planning conver- Audience Feedback: “I asked for feed- sations of our organizations.” back from my target audience through social media tools like Facebook, my per- Assignment Reflection sonal blog and my book review blog, You- Tube and personal email invitations. I also Content: “I want to meet the profes- asked my personal network to share my Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool 107 video with their friends and family… This reading, and reading promotion and ALSC feedback told me that I had overshot my Competencies related to programming. audience by a more-academic tone rather For her story, Wendy used the Web 2.0 than a personal one . . .” tool, Animoto, shown in Figure 3 (http:// tinyurl.com/Wendys-Digital-Story). Vignette: “Cultivating Community She recorded her reflection as an mp4 through School Library Program- podcast shared in a Google Drive Doc ming” (http://tinyurl.com/Wendys-Digital-Re- flection). Wendy was living her career goal. She served as a librarian in an elementary and In Her Own Words middle school in Korea. She has worked as a classroom teacher in the U.S. and Wendy’s one sentence theme was “Pro- China. In LS5633, Wendy contributed her grams in school libraries help cultivate library experiences and added her insights community by creating excitement, fos- to online discussions; her participation tering learning, stimulating exploration rates doubled and several times tripled the and inviting inquiry.” In discussions, she requirements. described how a “variety of programs can Wendy valued cultivating a community reach so many people.” As a school librar- through library programs. This theme re- ian, she could see the far-reaching “effects occurred in her discussions, story and re- as a result of quality and diverse program- flection. In her discussions, she explained ming.” Wendy wrote, my “passion for programming was “the catalyst for inspir- programs in libraries was instilled in me ing already-readers and for igniting sparks when I was young. . . . My most powerful in students who are still discovering.” In memories are about programs.” her reflection, Wendy wanted “to convey In discussions she noted, “If we plan the fun [in] school library programming.” our programs with a purpose, they will Wendy’s values aligned with ALA/ have greater impact.” She stated, “social AASL Standards related to literacy and media can be used as a tool to reach pa-

Figure 3. Wendy’s Digital Advocacy Story Using Animoto. 108 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE trons more effectively.” However, “using and life experiences. Amy noted that cu- social media effectively takes planning.” riosity is a personal and family value and It can “engage our communities in the life she related that to library user services for of our libraries.” children and families. Audrey connected her value for lifelong learning to public Assignment Reflection library programming that reaches children through their mothers. She collected data Content: “I thought about what I want- from the published literature to support ed in my digital advocacy story. I wanted the benefits of programming to families. to talk about library programming, but Wendy, a practicing school librarian, also couldn’t decide how to encapsulate it . . . focused her story on library programming, Finally, I decided that since my target a value she has held since childhood and audience would be my community’s ad- throughout her library career. ministration, governing board and parent The digital story framework helped organization, it made sense to focus on my participants determine the content of their library programs . . . Then, I had to decide stories. They set their value related to a which programs to include in my story... standard and determined a one-sentence I wanted my end product to be something theme, and a meme, or slogan, for their people felt invigorated by.” stories. They also took their target audi- Process: “I struggled with how to pres- ence into consideration as they selected ent my story . . . I ran through several content and media tools. Candidates re- memes before deciding on ‘Cultivating fined and articulated their values, which Community’ . . . Deciding on a tool to pro- were both personal and professional, duce my story was another speed bump . . . through the online discussions and during I considered iMovie. . . . It simply wasn’t the story-making process. Amy and Au- flowing very well . . . I considered using drey worked to translate words into visu- Animoto . . . I was thrilled with how much als in order to reach their target audiences, easier Animoto was compared to iMovie!” parents of young children. In developing Audience Feedback: “I began elicit- the meme for her story, Wendy refined her ing feedback from my target audience . . . focus on school library programming as a I posted the video to Facebook and You- vehicle for cultivating community. Tube and I embedded the video in an email The assignment required candidates to to several specific people . . . Finally, I al- use social media and participatory culture tered my original meme from ‘Cultivating tools. For some, this was a new experience. Community’ to ‘Cultivating Community Amy created a Twitter account specifically through School Library Programming’ . . . for this project. Candidates did not receive I wanted to make sure my message wasn’t the robust feedback they had hoped for lost in the video.” from their postings on some sites, including their personal blogs. As a result, they Discussion also emailed their colleagues, friends, and family members who met their target audi- The purpose of this study was to inves- ence criteria to seek additional feedback. tigate graduate student candidates’ use of Table 1 shows the tools used by the study digital tools to create and disseminate ad- participants. vocacy stories in order to strengthen their Amy noted that using social media al- values. An analysis of the participants’ lowed her to invite others to “engage and discussion posts, digital stories, and reflec- act.” Audrey learned from feedback that tions revealed that they had been develop- her original story was too academic; she ing these values based on library standards revised her story to achieve a more person- and competencies as well as their work al tone in order to reach parents. Wendy Digital Advocacy Stories: A Pedagogical Tool 109

Table 1. Communication Tools Used of solidifying their values. In their assign- by the Participants. ment reflections, the three participants in the study further confirmed the importance Tools Amy Audrey Wendy of the creative process. Half the class not- Blogs X ed that the online discussions and the digi- Email X X tal reflection also contributed to strength- Facebook X X X ening their library values. Although the results of this case study Google+ X are not generalizable, they do indicate the Twitter X potential of similar assignments focused YouTube X X on digital advocacy stories to engage pre- service librarians in exploring their library used feedback to specify her meme as cul- values. In her final course reflection, Amy tivating communities specifically through noted that she is now clear about how to school library programming. use story elements to “create stronger, After all candidates completed the digi- more enticing stories.” Audrey noted that tal advocacy storytelling assignment, the she plans on “making more digital advo- researchers administered an anonymous cacy stories in the future.” Wendy realized two-question survey as a regular course that storytellers get a “mental ‘high’ when procedure. Twenty of twenty-one candi- they tell a story and someone connects to dates enrolled in the course responded. it.” If advocacy is about passionately tell- The responses in Table 2 show the can- ing effective stories, these candidates ap- didates’ perspectives on the process and pear to be better prepared to do so as a re- overall value of this assignment. sult of this assignment. Originally, the researchers intended to Conclusion analyze data regarding the participants’ involvement with social networking sites In this study, the researchers learned for both personal and professional purpos- that candidates in LS5633: The Art of Sto- es. In the past, the researchers noted that rytelling could articulate a value, develop many graduate students in this particular a credible digital advocacy story targeted program are late adopters of these tools. to a specific audience, seek feedback from The researchers also wanted to examine that audience using social media and, how engaging in this assignment may have through reflection, strengthen their library changed candidates’ belief in the potential science values. The candidates identified of social media and participatory culture developing the advocacy story as the most tools to influence or change people’s per- important part of the assignment in terms ceptions, values and behaviors. They also

Table 2. Post-assignment Survey. Question Response Percentage Online Discussions 50 Which part(s) of the process of participating in A.2.3 helped you Developing the Story 65 solidify your library/education value? Choose as many as appro- Seeking Feedback 40 priate. Revising the Story 25 Reflecting on the Story 50 Strengthened 60 As a result of participating in this assignment, the value I selected: Remained the Same 40 Diminished 0 110 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE wanted to know about participants’ previ- American Library Association Office for Accredita- ous involvement in advocacy campaigns. tion. (2009). Core competences. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/careers/ The researchers administered a pre- and corecomp/corecompetences post-assignment survey to collect data on American Library Association and American As- these topics. However, since only three sociation of School Librarians. (2010). ALA/ candidates agreed to fully participate in AASL Standards for the initial preparation of the study, the data was not robust enough school librarians. American Library Association. to analyze. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ ala.org.aasl/files/content/aasleducation/school- From this case study, the researchers library/2010_standards_and_items_with_state- learned that candidates need to develop ments_of_scope.pdf larger personal learning networks in or- ALSC Education Committee. (2009). Competencies der to gather more meaningful feedback for librarians serving children in public libraries. and make an impact on a wider audience. Association for Library Service to Children, a Di- Positioning the assignment at the end of vision of the American Library Association. Re- trieved from http://www.ala.org/alsc/edcareeers/ the course rather than toward the begin- alsccorecomps ning could have supported candidates in Berger, P. (2010). Student inquiry and Web 2.0. using social media more effectively. Had School Library Monthly, 26(5), 14–17. candidates had the opportunity to devel- Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study op social networks earlier in the course, of teaching and teacher education. Educational they may have had more robust feedback, Researcher, 22(1), 5–12, 18. which could have strengthened their sense Coffield, F., Mosely, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. of their stories making a difference. Future (2004). Should we be using learning styles? What research has to say about practice. London, Eng- research could also include how the assign- land: Learning and Skills Research Center. ment influenced participants’ use of digital Coffey, A., & Akinson. P. (1996). Making sense of stories in their professional lives outside of qualitative data: Complementary research strat- a course—in other courses, in their current egies. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage. library work, and post-graduation. Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (Eds). (2008). Learn- This multi-faceted assignment incor- ing and leading with habits of mind: 16 essen- porated several components in which tial characteristics for success. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision and Curricu- candidates demonstrated a passion for lum Development. the profession. The participants prac- Dequoy, E., & Stefl-Mabry, J. (2012). Retrospec- ticed 21st-century communication skills tive reflection: Insight into pre-service school li- through sharing and discussing and seek- brarians’ competencies and skill development as ing feedback. They embedded themselves revealed through field notes. School Library Re- in communities of practice and employed search, 15. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ social media to share their ideas, which aasl/slr/volume15/dequoy-stefl-mabry Fulton, B., Botticelli, P., & Bradley, J. (2011). 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