IL 2013 First Day First Session Reflection...Internet@School Zoe Midler and Embedded Librarian in School

After keynote and just morning sessions at IL2013 my mind is already boiling over with ideas. One thing has bubbled to the top and it is about library research. The presenter stressed doing follow-ups after research activities. Presenter Zoe Midler is Google Czar at her school. She gave lots of ideas on her topic, being an embedded librarian in her school's environment. She uses many online tools for this.  Lots of wiki ideas are included. What stood out the most for me was special activities that she does after a research activity:
1. First she has a followup form for collaboratiing teachers where they describe their project and tell what standards were achieved in the project. She said she learned that teachers are competitive! They really want to outdo one another as to standards met. These are shared on the school server. Idea of followup form is great!
2. Then there is a CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY for teacher where they share reactions to how things went, how to improve, etc.
3. Finally she does what she calls a POSTMORTEM in which she herself sums things up. This is how she documents what she did, and also teachers use this information in their portfolios.

That's a lot of follow-up! By doing these follow-ups she is able to learn from constituents and also document her work. This is so important for her to continually justify her position. Further she can critique her work and come up with ideas about how to improve in the future.

Thinking back to my school librarian days I can instantly see how I could have benefitted by doing all three follow-up activities. Further I am going to pass this on to my stucents and also think how I can consider more following up in my present role as a professor in a MLS program.