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Librarians as Instructional Designers: Strategies for Engaging Conversations for Learning School, academic, and public librarians often cite collaborative partnerships as one of the greatest challenges of the profession—how do we invite collaboration, how do we nurture and sustain those partnerships, and how might those efforts translate into additional endeavors? Identifying common goals and cultivating trust are two fundamental building blocks in this process, but libraries and librarians being sensitive to the needs of the community, whether it is an individual, group, or organization, is also paramount. As a school librarian, I have found over the years that my thinking and work as an instructional designer and learning architect are the tasks I dwell in most of the time since they are so critical to the ways that the library can impact the learning culture in very direct and important ways in the larger school environment. As a new librarian here at Norcross High, I’m in the infancy stages of planting and growing trust “seeds” with faculty and students. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Professional Development Ideas for Librarians Catherine Hakala-Ausperk Cathy Hakala-Ausperk is a library administrator, advocate, speaker and trainer who believes the future of our libraries depends on our attitudes towards innovative service! She is currently the Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System (NEO-RLS), a 28-year public library veteran and an adjunct faculty member of Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science.