Future Vision Project Part 3: Introducing @singinglibrarian33

My Future Vision Project for LIBE477 has been to create a interactive infographic (see below) that describes the benefits and uses of having a professional Instagram account as a Teacher Librarian (TL). In addition to this, I created my own TL Instagram account where I can learn from others and build the confidence to share my own ideas with others. My username is @singinglibrarian33 – come check out my account and follow me:)!

Rationale

I realized early on in this class that an area that was lacking for me was my own professional learning network (PLN). While I had this earlier in my career as a classroom teacher, I have taken a 10 year hiatus from engaging in these platforms professionally due to having a young family and busy life. I have yet to create a PLN as a TL.

Richter et al’s (2022) article says that “Teacher collaboration is an important source of social support for teachers that reduces professional isolation and allows teachers to learn from each other. While collaboration among teachers traditionally occurred primarily within schools, nowadays many teachers use social media platforms for various self-directed collaborative activities”. Carpenter et al. (2020) stated that there are numerous benefits for educators in participating in social media platforms such as Instagram. Two of these benefits that stood out to me are the easy access to facilitating connections with other educators who have similar interests and an increase in educator self-efficacy, content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge (Carpenter et al., 2020). This will naturally have an enormous impact on both teacher confidence and student learning experiences. Farch (2022) also highlights the benefit of using Instagram to create a positive vibe for your library and to tell your story to your community. Visuals are powerful story-tellers and an Instagram account can show the story of your library growing and changing over time, giving you something to look back and reflect on (Rendina, 2022). This story can be powerful for both your community and the stakeholders who make decisions about your library (Rendina, 2022).

I am choosing Instagram as a platform for this project because it is a place I can search for and share information (Richter et al, 2022) becoming a more confident, networked TL. It is also a space that I know my community and colleagues are already using. Murphy (2022) says that “we use social media to meet people where they are”. Using Instagram can provide new ways to interact with your school community, promoting interest and curiosity in your library (Farch, 2022).

Carpenter et al. (2020) stated that “Instagram appears to be a portal to access professional affinity spaces where teachers exchange ideas and affirmation.” Spaces such as this will address my concern that being a digital mentor is not a stagnant endeavour, but one where we have to lead in a space where the “landscape of digital tools and access is constantly shifting” (Miller & Bass, 2019). Becoming a digital mentor takes “commitment to continuous learning and exploration” (Miller & Bass, 2019). A professional social media account will address these challenges and give me a space to tap into keeping myself current in my own commitment to continuous learning and exploration.

As I went through the process of developing the Instagram account, I realized the need to support other TLs and educators in developing simple, but effective Instagram accounts. It was a challenge for me to find all the information I needed to be successful in one spot. So I decided to create my Infographic to support the project and share my learnings with others. My infographic highlights my learnings from Richter et al’s (2022) article around collaboration on Instagram (information seeking, information sharing, and co-creating) and my research on ways to promote your library (Alexandria, 2020) (Farch, 2022) (Rendina, 2022). It also includes a compilation of ‘Tips for Engaging on Instagram’ that I learned along the way. Finally, the Infographic seeks out feedback from its users to help support my ongoing efforts in learning about the best practices of engaging on Instagram. The infographic is created in Canva and is a live link, so it can be easily updated and changed based on the feedback I receive.

Goals

• To begin to build a robust digital PLN of digital and TL mentors to support my development as a teacher librarian
• To develop the confidence to share my own learnings and ideas with my PLN in areas of digital citizenship, librarianship, and available resources
• To keep a visual record of my library space and program – showing how my space transforms, what my collection looks like, and how students engage in my programs (Rendina, 2022)
• To develop a meaningful and useful tool that I will take with me as I finish my TL Diploma after this course
• To explore social media as a tool for microlearning for my colleagues. Microlearning is “the process of breaking information into bite-sized, usable chunks” (Melnikova, 2023)
• To create an Infographic to share my learnings and research with other TLs educators

Where I started

As of November 3, 2023, my Instagram account had 1 follower and 1 post. I had committed to the username @singinglibrarian33 in an attempt to eventually use this account to tap into both my career as a TL and a music teacher. I spent my initial days finding other teacher librarians to follow, making my privacy settings public, and reading a plethora of posts. My early goal was to learn how I could use Instagram posts best to further myself as a TL – connecting with other TLs and my community. Through reading many posts, I discovered what kind of posts were useful to me and what kind of photos made a post more impactful. I also did some research on how to use hashtags and which ones were most commonly used in the TL community.

I was initially surprised by how Instagram doesn’t allow me to put links in my posts (only in the stories and in my profile). I did some research to find out how other users navigate this, and discovered that many people use linktree as an quick easy way to share links. I set up an account for myself and linked it to my instagram profile for situations where I wanted to share links.

^{My @singinglibrarian33 Linktree profile}

Memorable Moments

One of my first posts was my post about the book “Diwali in My New Home” by Shachi Kaushik. I had tagged Shachi Kaushik in my post and was excited to receive my first like (from someone other than my husband) and comment from her! She even shared my post to her story. This instant connection to the author gave me a boost of confidence in post creating. I also experiences this when I shared my review of the Library Bus by Bahram Rahman. Both the author and @charmaghz.library in Kabul liked and shared my post.

Another thing that surprised me was how quickly my own colleagues and community members found my account. Within a couple of days, I had several colleagues and parents from my school following me without any attempt to do so. Removing this layer of anonymity added to my anxiety of posting publicly. As an avid and lifelong ‘over-thinker’, I had to fight against the urge to consider what each individual person would think of me when they read my posts. Since adding local teachers and colleagues had been a long term goal of this project, I decided to stick with it and accept that my PLN was growing quicker than I had initially planned.

In response to having my colleagues start to follow me sooner than expected, I made more of an attempt to make my posts and stories connect to them. For example, I shared this Diwali resource from @joysofkinder, but personalized it by letting the teachers at my school that we had the resources they needed to do this activity if they wished.

Implications of Vision

At this point, my Instagram account is growing and I am posting regularly. I am excited about the PLN I have developed but would like to focus growing it in my local community.

Now that I have met many of my initial goals through building this account and infographic, the next steps are that it is time to share my learning with my colleagues and continue to maintain and build my social media presence and PLN. My plan is to share my Infographic via email initially so see the response I get. I also plan to continue to post regularly on my Instagram account, and engage with the connections I’ve created throughout this course. In building my PLN, my next step is to tap into my school community. I have a couple parents following me, but I would like to expand this so that I can put into practice what I have learned about promoting my library via Instagram.

Final Thoughts

LIBE477 has been a course immersed in inquiry type learning that has taken me on a journey through learning about PLNs, mentorship, and digital citizenship. I has taught me about being a leader and advocate in my library, and a champion of a vibrant reading culture in my school. Moving forward, I plan to take these learnings with me to help me create a meaningful inclusive library learning commons for each student that walks in my door.

My key take aways from this course are:

• A deeper understanding of the value of collaborating with my colleagues and PLN
• The importance of being an advocate for reading, learning, and digital access
• A final project that both gives me a robust PLN – developing my skills as a mentor and mentee.
• A final project that is easily shareable with my colleagues so that they can learn with and from me as they attempt to use Instagram to develop their own networks

As I wrap up this project and my TL diploma, I think it is appropriate that I leave it with this growing PLN of peers and colleagues, on the same journey – all of us focused on bettering ourselves as TLs, providing meaningful, authentic learning experiences in our spaces, and making connections with other like-minded educators. TLs and educators who engage in meaningful ways on social media are more likely to develop enthusiasm for their job and a sense of self-efficacy (Richter et al., 2022). Educators also receive and give emotional support in these online communities helping them to combat professional isolation (Carpenter et al., 2020). I know that this project and course will stick with me as I move beyond this diploma and into my career as a teacher librarian.

Works Cited

Alexandria (2020). 7 Ways to Promote Your School Library Using Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.goalexandria.com/7-ways-to-promote-your-school-library-using-social-media/

Apels, A. (@joysofkinder), (2023). Can you create a Diwali napkin book? Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CzVQeuYuFTN/

Carpenter, J. P. et al (2020). How and Why are educators using Instagram? Teaching and Teacher Education. 96. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X20313408

Farch, H. (2022). Why do I use Instagram to promote my school library? Schools Catalogue Information Service. 120. Retrieved from https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-120/why-do-i-use-instagram-to-promote-my-school-library/#:~:text=%27Social%20media%20can%20help%20you,your%20library%20welcomes%20student%20involvement

Lin, M. (2023). Module 10: Final Vision Project Design Considerations. Match-ing into the World, Blogspot. Retrieved from https://michellelovesmatcha.blogspot.com/2023/11/module-10-final-vision-project-design.html

Miller, S. M., & Bass, W. (2019). Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. International Society for Technology in Education

Murphy P. J. (2022). Social Media Mavens: How Teachers and Librarians are Harnessing Online Platforms. Retrieved from https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/91107-social-media-mavens-how-teachers-and-librarians-are-harnessing-online-platforms.html

Rendina, D. (2022). The power of Instagram to connect with students. Renovated Learning: Building a Culture of Creativity + Discover in Education. Retrieved from http://www.renovatedlearning.com/2022/04/30/instagram-connect-students/

Richter, E. et al. (2022). Instagram as a platform for teacher collaboration and digital social support. Computers & Education. 190. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131522001956

Robinson, L (2023). Pause (Inquiry Blog 5). Laura’s Learning about Libraries, Blogspot. Retrieved from https://lauraslearningaboutlibraries.blogspot.com/2023/11/pause-inquiry-blog-5.html