Jessica Fitzpatrick is a high school librarian in Houston and is in her eighth year of education. She holds a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Houston and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She is the 2020 TLA Branding Award Winner for Community Engagement. Jessica is an active member of both ALA and TLA. She enjoys running, reading, and spending time with her two daughters and husband.
Jessica is also a contributor to the Librarianship Studies & Information Technology blog. Her contributions to the blog are listed below:
Here are some Librarian Influencer strategies Jessica shared for early-career librarians:
Be aware of the change you are making and how it impacts everyone. Not everyone will like the changes you make.
As she transitions to a high school library, she wants to focus on supporting her students’ mental health and help them manage their stress.
She is making plans for online and in-person mental health activities.
Go to as many Professional Learning Committees (PLCs) as you can. Try to focus on more than just English Language Arts teachers. She focused on collaborating with a different content area each nine weeks: ELA, Social Studies, Science, and then planned for Math which didn’t happen due to school closures.
Jessica connects with other librarians primarily on Instagram. These librarians form her Personal Learning Network (PLN) and she has never even met them in person.
Jessica engages with her students to help make the library the heart of the school.
She works hard to make her library programming fun. She writes grants to fund the fun things she wants to do with the students.
She hosts student lunch and learns to teach them how to use the 3D printers and use a green screen.
She is making plans for a library breakout/escape room for her new high school students.
Jessica’s advice for new librarians:
Grow your PLN.
Join your state library organization.
You can follow Librarian Influencer Jessica Fitzpatrick at:
Twitter:@librarianfitz https://twitter.com/librarianfitz
Instagram:@librarian_fitz https://www.instagram.com/librarian_fitz/
SEE ALSO
REFERENCES
- Libraries Are the Heart of the School: with Jessica Fitzpatrick. https://www.laurasheneman.com/post/libraries-are-the-heart-of-the-school-with-jessica-fitzpatrick (accessed on April 28, 2021).
