If you were a superhero, who would you be?

Catwoman!

Tell us about your library! What makes it unique?

Well, for starters, it is in an old, repurposed barn :-). We have to meet the needs of 4-year olds to 14-year olds in one library, so we have a lot of different sections for books.

What is a challenge that you faced in your library recently?

A constant challenge is building student’s independence in searching for and finding the books they want.

How did Accessit Library help you solve this challenge?

The catalog is so user friendly for the kids. The layout of the catalog and how the filtering works makes it so much easier for kids to use!

How has your attitude changed towards the challenge you solved with Accessit Library, now that you’ve worked through it?

Well, I think that younger kids are able to have more independence, especially when the visual search was completed.

What do you like the most about Accessit Library?

EVERYTHING!!! It is so customizable. I love the landing page for students. I can add and remove various content so easily. I love how easy it is to manipulate and edit catalog records in the background. There are so many features. I also really love the customer service. Anytime I have needed support they have been really responsive, even making changes to the system to make something work better for me.

What tips could you give to librarians to help improve their remote learning experience?

Oh wow, I think it’s helpful to offer multiple modalities for students to access your lessons and your online library. I try to give students choices, such as post a flipgrid video or post to padlet or share a document with me when they are responding so they don’t have to do something they aren’t comfortable with. I’ve been having students write reviews in the library catalog as one of their remote options! I use screencastify to record short instructional videos on how to use the catalog to write reviews and make lists.

Welcome to Librarian Talk, the place where Librarians get to discuss about their roles, their unique situations and how Accessit Library has helped them. This week we speak with Jill Adler – Library Director at St. Anthony’s High School about her library and the types of challenges that she faces being a high school librarian.

Superhero of choice

Captain Marvel

Tell us about your library! What makes it unique?

We are only as unique as the people who come in and use the space – and let me tell you we have a few “unique” people! We are a private, catholic high school and students can join us any free periods that they have. No pass needed – we pack the house most days, most periods.

What is a challenge that you faced in your library recently?

It’s an ongoing challenge getting people to go to our library page that we work so hard on and houses all our resources!

How did Accessit Library help you solve this challenge?

Although we have not solved it completely, we are EXTREMELY proud of what we have been able to create. The look of the dashboards are so much more engaging then what we could do before. We feel much more confident in pushing people to visit us.

How has your attitude changed towards the challenge you solved with Accessit Library, now that you’ve worked through it?

We feel very confident that we are putting out a great product. We love that the system is integrated allowing us to make dashboards for whatever we need. Before we were just using a static LMS platform and a separate website. We had to send updates to our webmaster. We had limited space and we could not do much with it. Now we have a very interactive and lively place to showcase.

What do you like the most about Accessit Library?

How easy it is to use. Most of the library day to day functions took us forever to accomplish – when we figure something new out we are like – wait, is that it? It was so easy! We also love the flexibility of it allowing us to use it as central hub for all our Library resources.

What tips could you give to librarians to help improve their remote learning experience?

Don’t be afraid to ask if the system is not doing what you want it to. Customer Service Team is awesome at taking suggestions and offering solutions. You can teach yourself almost every aspect of the program by using their tutorial videos.