Your School Librarian Belongs in the AI Conversation | My EdTech Life 375

Welcome, Sponsors, And Guest Return

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 0:10

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another great episode of My Ed Tech Life. Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day. And wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world, thank you as always for all of your support. We appreciate all the likes, the shares, the follows. Thank you so much for sharing our content, engaging with our content. This way, it helps all the wonderful algorithms get our content out there to your ears and to your eyes. And I want to give a big shout out to some great people that make this happen. I want to give a big shout out to Comeback Coffee for keeping us creative and caffeinated as always to bring you these amazing shows. Big shout out to Book Creator, EduAid, and Peelback Education. And I am excited for tonight's show. One, because this is a two-time guest now. And number two, we are amazing friends, and she has been a follower and a fan from the very beginning. And now I get to bring her on the show and let her know how big of a fan of the work that she is doing I am of her. I think I that kind of made sense. But anyway, I would love to welcome to the show Dr. Karina or otherwise known as Dr. Q. How are you doing today, my friend?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 1:28

Hi, Dr. Fonz. I'm super happy to be here with you today. When's the last time I was on the show? Like in 2022.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 1:35

Oh my gosh, it was like during COVID. Yeah, it was like 2020 that you were on the show. It was that long. I mean, I'll go ahead and find it right now in a little bit, but that way I can pop it in.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 1:50

And you've had so many amazing guests. I love listening to your episodes. Everyone brings such valuable perspectives, and you always share really great information. So I'm super honored that you asked me to be on your show again.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 2:04

Of course, my friend. As always, like I said, we go way back. We do. So it's just been an amazing experience just to watch you, you know, go through your studies and grow both, you know, professionally, personally with life and everything. So it's been great that we've been able to keep in touch. And now you're in the higher ed space. And I'm really excited because I really want to showcase a lot of the work that not only you've done in the K-12 space, but now what it is that you're bringing to the higher ed space. And of course, talking about the importance of libraries, librarians, talking about AI and the importance of AI literacy and how libraries can teach and supplement all that learning too as well.

From K-12 Librarian To Professor

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 2:50

So, but before we get into the heart of the conversation, can you give us a little brief introduction and what your context is within the higher ed space?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 3:00

Oh my gosh, so much has changed since the last time we spoke in like spoke in this context. Um, so I think you know that I used to be a middle school librarian. I was the Tri-City District here in the Rio Granley for 10 years. Before that, I was a middle school teacher. And everything that made up school librarianship when I was actively in the school library was amazing. Uh, I think I accomplished a lot. Um, but I pursued my doctor of education with Sam Houston State University. I graduated in 2025, and I through, you know, grace of the universe and everything just fell together perfectly. I landed a job as an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University within the same department that I got my doctoral degree with. So uh I am now an assistant professor for the library science and technology department. I support both the instructional systems design and technology programs and the library science programs. So I help uh current educators uh with who are interested in pursuing school librarianship as a profession. Um, and then I also help uh people who want or students who want to pursue instructional design as a profession. So balancing both worlds has been really great because I get to, I guess, use both of my backgrounds. I'm a school librarian, you know, by education and training and an instructional designer. And it's just great to be able to bridge both both professions and share those perspectives with students who either want to tackle one or both. And just it's just been so great. I have I work with the best faculty ever. Uh, I work my my work is rooted in in you know online learning. So it's really great to, I don't know, just learn from other professionals who have been working in higher education for so long and learning about the ins and outs of academia. It's very, very different from working with public school systems, but there's also a lot of overlaps and similarities. And I just love learning. Right now it's all about learning. I'm very new, very green, um, but I'm learning as I go. And I I just honestly couldn't ask for anything better. It's been so great. I get to do research, I get to teach, I get to, you know, promote the amazingness of library science and instructional design, and you know, get to be creative with how I do that. So it's been really, really awesome.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 5:58

Oh, that is great. Big shout out to Sam Houston State University.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 6:02

Yes, the best university, you know, cats.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 6:07

There you go. And by the way, I did want to let you know uh the last time that you were on was episode 15. Oh, and that was July 18th of 2020. Wow. So it has been a while, my friend. And just again, yeah, and so just to see everything that you've been able to accomplish, you know, with the K-12 space in library, you know, with librarians and all your work through the library, and now in now you're in academia. So it's been great to see that transition, your growth, and obviously, you know, your two big passions that I think are just fit right in, which is libraries and instructional design, which you always did very well when you did uh presentations and so on. So that's fantastic that you get to do that and share that with all the amazing uh, you know, soon-to-be uh instructional designers or soon-to-be librarians, because I think that really does go hand in hand. But uh, Karina, I want or Dr. Q, I should say, I I did want to talk to you a little bit more about the importance of libraries.

Libraries As The Learning Hub

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 7:12

As you know, I know we there was a lot of things happening in the news, and especially now with budgets and funding and so on and so forth. You know, for myself, and and this is my experience coming in from high school, elementary, and having that background, I always saw that the library was the central hub of all learning. For me, that was my greatest resource was the library. My greatest resource was the librarian who had access to, of course, databases when we would do research or a lot of the things for robotics and you know, some technology in there. So it was a great mix. And so for me, I I I hold the library near and dear to my heart in that sense of being that hub for all students and for teachers as well. Tell me a little bit about what it is that you're seeing and you know, just really just the importance of uh libraries and librarians in totality there.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 8:15

Well, Dr. Fonz, you uh you bring up a lot of interesting points. And I love that you refer to the library as a hub, the central hub of learning, um, where learning takes place, you know, without judgment, uh without limits. Uh what we hope as like as librarians, you know, speaking on behalf of all school librarians, and I hope it's okay to do that, and I hope school librarians are okay with me doing that. But uh I love that you know, you're you're bringing that type of discourse to the show because you're right, school libraries have been the center of a lot of discussion, and there's been a lot of news out there where the public have, you know, viewed the librarians or collections unfavorable unfavorably, and it's it's resulted in a lot of tension and a lot of uncertainty regarding what the future of school librarianship looks like. What I think is most important to consider, um, especially in the context of technology and future innovation, is that what I notice now, and as far as you know, current and even emerging trends, is that librarianship and libraries of all sorts, school libraries, academic libraries, public libraries, special libraries, law librarianship, you know, I think libraries just become more important as technology becomes more sophisticated. And there's often a misconception that librarianship is all about books and it's all about what's on the shelves. And, you know, there used to be a stereotype of librarians just sitting behind the desk all day wearing their little cardigans. And even though we do love cardigans, uh, you know, librarianship has never really been about books. You know, books are obviously the cornerstone of what we do. It's a huge part of what we do. But our larger responsibility as librarians is helping people access, find, and find information. That means, you know, not just finding it, but evaluating information, making meaning from it, creating with it, um, and helping people understand how to use it ethically and efficiently. Um, you know, for a long time, one of our biggest challenges was helping students find information, uh, you know, with the World Wide Web and how you can just Google things. You know, now we have the opposite problem, and that's that students are surrounded by information. It's just everywhere. And you can type something into a search engine or ask an AI tool, you can watch a TikTok, uh, you know, a reel on social media and get an answer within seconds. So now I think a larger part of school librarianship and the discussion regarding what our profession entails is how we help students with um gaining skills and honing skills, refining those skills and shifting from simply asking, you know, can you find the answer to this? Can you find information about this? To asking, can you determine whether or not this information is deserving of your trust? You know, should you believe what is being put out there? You know, what is the criteria that we now have to, you know, consider when we're presented with information at mass? So

From Finding Info To Trusting It

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 12:02

um I know that you mentioned what or what we hope to discuss was, you know, what role AI has in the context of librarianship. And I think that this discussion is actually really important because with generative AI, students can receive something that is beautifully written, in some cases, not always, grammatically correct, you know, uh, it can sound confident and even authoritative sounding, which is pretty scary, but it can also be completely wrong. And even though an output can have citations and look legitimate, that doesn't necessarily mean that they exist, right? So as librarians, we're now being tasked with teaching students to stop and ask where information came from, whether a claim can be um independently verified, whether a source actually exists, and you know, what evidence supports uh the information at hand and also what perspectives might be missing. I always had, you know, when AI was first on the scene, you know, at least in in K-12, uh, because it's been around for a while, I had to make sure to tell my students, I want you to be, you know, cautiously aware and cautiously um considerate of what it is that you're digesting as an information seeker, right? Because I don't want students to become, and even adults, the the adults that I teach now in the graduate programs, like I want them, I don't, I don't want them to become 100% cynical and believe that nothing online is real because the internet is a very powerful tool and it can be very, very helpful. But, you know, cynicism isn't to be equated with information literacy either. You know, I want them to develop healthy cynicism, I guess, or healthy skepticism, I should say, right? And now, you know, what we're trying to advocate is that the goal is not to teach students to distrust everything, the goal is to teach them how to decide what deserves their trust, which is why I keep saying, and I've said this before in other presentations, is that AI and new technologies, whether it's AI or not, any type of emerging new technology, does not make information literacy, media literacy obsolete. What it does is it makes information literacy an emergency, is where we're at right now.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 14:46

Oof, I love that last phrase. That that's a soundbite right there. Oh, okay. And but but you know what, everything that you shared is right on point, and it actually kind of worked into kind of my next question, but you kind of answered it because you did hit on a lot of those points. But one of the things that I was noticing, and and again, going back to maybe obviously generative AI hitting all the classrooms and and being out there, and just almost every platform has some sort of generative AI piece or will produce something. And so I love that you mentioned, you know, as students are seeking information, how cautious it is that they need to be. But I think that even as far back as I can remember, and right as you were talking, I was remembering my elementary librarian, Missy Barra at LBJ Elementary. And I was remembering her because I just remembered how helpful she was, how she would obviously help us with books, but there was still, you know, some of those pieces of technology, but she would always help us, you know, with finding sources and information and so on. So even as far back as I'm remembering elementary many years ago, and even now that we're here today, I think that some of those library skills, those skills that libraries are teaching, such as questioning sources, tracing information, understanding the context, evaluating the credibility which you you hit on from the K-12 space, the importance of that, and even in the higher ed space, I think that that is something that is gonna continue. And and those skills are the skills that we need during this time where generative AI has taken over the interwebs and everything or devices. So we gotta make sure, like you mentioned, is is this a reliable source? Where are these sources from? You know, is it somebody somebody that's credible? Is it a credible source? Let's trace it back. And even during our research studies, I mean, how we had to do that. We had to make sure that we cited our sources. Where are we getting, you know, our our research papers from, our, you know, our citations and everything. So we got to make sure that all of that gets done and taken care of. So I really like that. To me, the the spirit of the library, the skills that I learned from, even remembering, like I said, Miss Ibarra in elementary and the librarians that I have, and the amazing librarians that I've had the opportunity to work with, I have seen them all be able to do this for students. And maybe at the time they didn't think, like, well, what am I ever going to use this for? But I think that's for such a time as now that we're living in with you know the of the technology that those skills become very important.

What AI Literacy Should Mean

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 17:36

The other thing I wanted to kind of hit on because you talked about it as far as like media literacy, but I I want to get your your input on this and what your thoughts are, because we always hear the phrase AI literacy. And we hear it so many times from so many presenters, and there's never really a lot of consistency. It's like each presenter has their own spin on what AI literacy is, or each company has their spin on it, or uh consulting firms and so on. So it just seems like it's thrown out there, it looks nice, it reads nice because we got to talk about it. But you know, AI literacy, media literacy, information literacy, you know, all of these literacies there there's so many out there, but I want to ask you, you know, what is it that we should really be focusing on? Maybe just in that library or librarian perspective, how can librarians and libraries together in in schools be able to help our teachers really bring AI literacy to the forefront so that as students go back to their classes, they can be like, okay, I this is what I've learned, this is what I've done. So, what are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 19:03

Oh, okay. Well, how much time do you have? Because it it no, it's it's a huge, it's a huge, it's a monumental task, and there are only a certain number of hours in a day. Um so just to kind of backtrack, so I can kind of weave in how I want to answer this. I think the school librarians' responsibility to teach AI is reflective of what and how the schools or districts have um created AI education and policy. If a school or district's AI policy or technology policy is weak, then there is going to be limited opportunities for the school librarian to actively participate and engage in opportunities that allow them to teach and lead student lessons or technology trainings for staff. And this is probably one of the biggest reasons why school librarians need to be involved in AI education, because generative technologies dramatically lower the barrier to creating convincing information, right? A polished article, let's say, no longer necessarily requires a strong writer, which is kind of sad, but a professional-looking image no longer necessarily requires advanced design skills. Um, synthetic audio video make it increasingly difficult to assume that seeing or hearing something automatically makes it evidence, right? And because of that, I think that we need to move beyond information literacy as a worksheet or a checklist and start thinking about verification as a habit and yeah, as a daily habit. And students need to learn to leave the original source and invase and investigate elsewhere, which brings the school library as a really great place to do that because there are so many tools, databases, uh, you know, websites, curated lists of reputable sources uh where students can explore that, right? They need to, yeah, find the original claim, look for independent reporting, investigate who is behind a website. You mentioned all these things that you did, right, in school. And those are all skills that have stuck with you as an adult, right? So maybe students are tracing quotations back to the source and finding. An original study instead of relying on someone's summary of it or a Google search summary of it and compare information across credible sources, right? And one of the hardest things that we may have to teach students right now is friction. Like slow down, you know. I mean, do not immediately share something because it makes you angry, you know. Do not immediately believe it because it confirms something that you already think. You know, don't assume that the first answer you receive is correct. Pause, you know, stop, investigate. Teaching students that thoughtful pause and reflection is has to become increasingly important in an information environment designed around um speed and reaction, right? Technology media just moves so, so fast, right? And I don't want to put the sole responsibility of teaching AI or multiple literacies just on the school librarian. I think it's everyone's responsibility if you work in K-12, right? In any education space. But I think that school librarians are very uniquely positioned to help lead it. And I want to emphasize the word lead, lead, okay? Not own, but lead. And I don't want AI literacy to become one more thing that gets dropped on the librarian's lap simply because it involves a computer, right? And we're really good with computers, you know, but teachers, admins, um, instructional technologists, curriculum specialists, IT departments, families, everyone has a role to play. Um what we do have as school librarians is expertise in information and information access and how that information gets uh gets found and used. And we're already teaching research, inquiry, source evaluation, uh, copyright, ethical information use, digital citizenship, media literacy, how to use a database, when to use a database, uh, information creation. AI intersects with nearly every one of those areas, uh especially since they're so embedded in all the tools that we use now. I can't open an application or my web browser and not find some sort of AI feature within it. So, in many ways, AI literacy does not require school librarians to reinvent our uh, I guess like our professional identity. Um, I think it requires us to apply the professional identity we already have to a new information environment, right? And one of the biggest practical concerns that I hear from school librarians, even students in my courses, is we cannot keep adding new literacies to our plate as though somebody secretly gave us, you know, a 37-hour day. It's just impossible. So, what I've told, you know, my students, especially for those already in the school library and they're finding themselves at a crossroads, I was like, you can't maybe add this to your plate, right? But we have to consider that we already have professional standards. We have, in addition to our state standards, the American Association of School Librarian standards, which are national library standards, we have the ISD standards, which help us target technology skills, we have a future-ready librarians framework, uh, we have district priorities. Um, and all of these things happen in the school library. So I don't think that the answer to teaching any form of new literacy or specifically AI literacy can be, you know, answered in creating an isolated AI week, right? Like we do with coding week, with with, you know, and trying to squeeze another unit into the calendar, I think we have to just already embed AI literacy into what we're already teaching, right? So if students are researching, let's say, uh, you know, the Civil War, okay, well, we can talk about AI-generated search summaries and verification. If students are evaluating sources, then we can introduce synthetic information. If we're talking about copyright, we can bring in questions about generative content and attribution. Um, if we're talking about digital citizenship, we can talk about AI privacy. And if students are creating media, we can talk about appropriate assistance, disclosure, authorship, uh visual hierarchies. You know, so we don't necessarily need to stop everything and teach AI as a separate subject. I think we need to recognize where AI has changed the things we already are responsible for teaching and adapt.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 27:18

I

Librarians Lead Without Owning Everything

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 27:19

love it. All of that that you said times a thousand, like you really hit the nail on the head, honestly, because you're absolutely right. We we've separated, I and I love what you said, teaching so many literacies because everybody has their own version of AI literacy. Then you've got the digital literacy or digital citizenship, and you've got everything going on. But I love what you stated and being able to just bring it all together. And of course, looking at you not only the state standards, but the professional standards, you've got ISTE standards. So there are ways to be able to blend all of that in. And now with the changes, like we said, with generative AI coming into schools and platforms that are using that, what better way to still use that that same knowledge, but now using it through the whole year, as opposed to I love what you said, just siloing it to like, oh, one week a year. Yeah, you know, or you know what, here we're gonna do our 15 minutes compliance check just so we can check the check mark and do our digital citizenship lesson. And oh, right, hooray, we did it the beginning of the year, and then everything else just falls by the wayside. So I really love what you shared there, but most importantly, also what to me it seems like, and and and please forgive me again, just for for using this phrase, but it in the K-12 space, this is a phrase that I heard often and stating that librarians are support staff. And that's something that I just it it just made me just like, ugh, you know, that why are you calling librarians support staff? So in my mind, I'm thinking that because the way that you described it, the librarian role should be also seen as that instructional partner. It for, I mean, whether it's for a teacher, whether it's for admin, and so on, because like you said, the access to information, that knowledge, the knowledge base, the research. And I often feel that the librarian role, being that it is seen as a support role, should actually have a seat at the table when maybe schools are developing AI policies or even selecting AI tools and helping design professional development as well. Now, I know that may sound like, oh man, that's like adding more to the plate, right? But I can't think of a better person that would be capable of doing such a thing with the axis. And they already have that literacy knowledge that I we said, like it just seems like everything is intertwining and overlapping. So to me, it just seems like they should have a seat at the table and not be seen as support staff. But like you said, in leading, you know, the learning that is taking place, and that is where there is such huge value. And I think that there are so many wonderful librarians out there that are trying to do that, but oftentimes kind of like, well, it it's librarian, let let the instructional coaches do it, or let's do this. But that librarian is very well equipped to do those things, and also to have a seat at the table and be part of those decisions that are being made. And I think that's something that is amazing, and that you definitely highlighted there where you said that you know, to lead, not necessarily be like, okay, this is I just add it onto my plate, but I can help with the information and the knowledge and with what I'm teaching. I uh again, I I'm just thinking everything that a librarian knows can definitely easily be translated to into policy, yeah, and help determine those policies that are there. So that's something that is important that I just kind of wanted to throw in there because that that phrase just irks me. Like, oh, it's there's the support staff. No, they're not, you know, so they are professionals as well. So uh thank you so much for definitely highlighting, you know, that as well. But um, and now I want to ask you, you know, because this is something that is very important, and because I also see you, you know, going to conferences and presenting and providing professional development to librarians or media specialists, anybody that is working in that field and working with students and helping them find

Practical AI Training For Librarians

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 31:58

information. And so I know that you've done significant work in professional learning and professional development, but I want to ask you right now, at this time, if there is a training or a specifically in generative AI training for librarians, how should well, what should that training look like? For example, some of your students that are coming in, how is it that you're working with them to equip them to, you know, be well prepared for you know libraries now and where they may go in the next five to ten years because of generative AI?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 32:38

Oh, that's a really good question. Um, and there's no concrete answer because technology moves so fast, and all these platforms that are on the scene right now are gonna be, you know, providing updates in the next week or two, I'm assuming. The you said that I was on your show, what, in 2020? In the past six years, technology changed so fast and dramatically. Uh, there are now defunct apps that I loved using in the school library that no longer exist. And you bring up a really good question because I think what comes to mind is anytime I'm leading a professional learning um session is well, what should we do? What should we be doing tomorrow? You know, how can I use this the next day? What give me something that I can take back and implement immediately. And I always tell, I tell my students and I tell librarians, and this is applicable to any tech tool, is librarians do not need to be tech engineers, AI engineers. You know, start with something that you're already teaching, make it familiar. If you teach research, introduce an AI-generated response and have students verify it. If you teach digital citizenship, you know, bring in privacy and data sharing, as a matter of fact. Um I've been really careful about and intentional about mentioning uh companies who provide curriculum for AI literacy, but I think common sense media does a great job at offering educators free bite-sized lessons because school librarians' time is limited. Um and if you teach copyright, that's a great opportunity to introduce authorship, attribution, uh, generative content, where that comes from. Um and, you know, I think, like you said, there's a misconception that school librarians are just support staff. And I don't think that AI or new technologies are replacing research. I think AI has just become the thing that we're critically researching now. So it feels very aligned with what we do, with the role of the school librarian. And I think librarians are actually more prepared, if anything, that we sometimes realize because this is not fundamentally a machine learning problem for us. It's an information problem. And we're experts at finding and evaluating information, right? Who created this information? Where did it come from? Who owns it? Can I trust it? How should I use it? What are my ethical responsibilities? Who has access? You know, whose voices are represented, whose are left out, what information am I giving away? What does this platform know about me? All of those questions should, should sound really familiar because we've been teaching versions of them for decades. The only thing that's changed is the platform. And the technology has changed, but the information environment itself, the ecosystem in which it's exchanged, you know, but but the underlying professional questions are very much within our wheelhouse. And, you know, this often leads into discourse about, because I see it online from librarians that I follow, is should I be an optimistic or pessimistic uh, you know, user of AI? And I don't know personally if I would call myself either one because it's hard. I would say though, that I'm curious and I'm critical, you know, maybe cautiously curious. And I think I heard that phrase somewhere. It might have been from you, actually.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 37:00

Well, I was gonna say it's like cautiously curious. I haven't heard that one, so I'll attribute that to you because I heard it from you, but I don't know. We'll need to find the source. But I I always use cautious advocate, so that's a big shout out to Dr. Nika McGee, also because that's yeah, the same thing. Cautious advocate, yeah.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 37:18

Yes, cautious, yes, definitely requires some cautious advocacy, some you know, cautious curiosity, because I think that there are genuinely exciting possibilities for any new technology. And I think that there are concerning ones too, right? I also don't think, and this is a personal opinion, that educators owe technology enthusiasm. You know, I think we owe students thoughtful decision making, uh, that we should be able to, you know, have due diligence and investigate a technology, test it, ask difficult questions, evaluate the evidence, change our minds if we need to, and decide that a tool may or may not be useful in one situation and inappropriate in another. That's part of our responsibility as educators, and especially if you're a decision maker influencing policy, you know, it's not resistance to technology, it's literacy. We have to practice our own form of literacy and evaluation of the things that we are promoting to and for children. And oftentimes, you know, there's blind adoption. I think a question that every educator should ask, you know, librarians, classroom teachers, administrators before using AI and before promoting it in the classroom is asking a very simple question. And that's, you know, what part of the thinking and learning process am I asking the machine to do? You know, and was that thinking part um what the student was supposed to learn? Or am I outsourcing it? You know, if the machine is removing an irrelevant barrier, great. I'm all about efficiency. But if it's, you know, supporting accessibility, that could be powerful. Uh if it's automating something that has nothing to do with the learning objective, maybe it could be completely appropriate, right? But if the machine is doing the exact cognitive or creative work that I'm supposed to be teaching, then I think that's where we need to stop and reconsider how we're using it.

Designing Libraries Around Play

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 39:36

Nice. That was powerful. I love that. Now, I want to ask you too, like, so as we're kind of you know on the tail end of finishing up our conversation here, but you know, the work that you've done, very spectacular. I've gotten to see it with my own eyes, you know, on social media, and then of course hearing of all the great things that you've done at presenting and receiving accolades and so on. So the one thing that I have loved about your work though is that you have always, always, I don't want to say gone against the grain or anything, but just you know, you've challenged the stereotype of what happens in a library, you know, talking about esports, you know, talking about library ambassadors, you know, one of the first ones to do that, I believe, like the whole library ambassadors, and then after that, others followed, you know, and so on, and doing those things. But, you know, I want to ask you, what is it that we need to start thinking about now in how we should start designing the library space for our students? And maybe, you know, for for the next five to ten years, what are some things we need to start considering now that you see would be very helpful? Or maybe some may feel like, oh, maybe that's that's a little out there, but again, with your experience that you have have had, everything that you've done that normally goes against, you know, libraries has always provided and produced a lot of wonderful fruit in students and just you know, a lot of great things that students get to take with them. What are your ideas and what would that look like?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 41:23

Oh, I love the in a perfect world type of questions. What would you do with unlimited funding, unlimited resources, unlimited support? And I used to, I still do. I daydream of what kind of you know, what kind of library I would have if, you know, money, budgets, staffing weren't an issue. What I found to be most successful in the school library that I led was, like you mentioned, students at the forefront of their learning. You mentioned esports, library ambassadors, and all of those things have been were, I should say, were highly successful because kids learn through play. And that's something that's often missing in schools. We have I have a lot of strong feelings about the current climate of public school systems and the emphasis that is put on standardized testing. And the most successful library programs that I had all put creativity and play at the center of student learning. And I think I have said to other librarians that I feel very strongly about it because kids need to learn through play. It's a fundamental experience. And when I say play, I don't mean because I have a kid, you know, I don't mean wasting time or doing something frivolous. You know, play at its core is experimentation. You know, they're learning about the world around them for the first time. They don't have the experience that we do as adults. So it's giving them an opportunity and a space to try something new, realizing that maybe it doesn't work, maybe it does, you know, moving it around, laughing because something's ridiculous, you know, something that they changed or did. Learning that failure is okay, and that the library can be a safe space to practice that. And providing them the opportunity to try again without judgment, you know, and you know, this actually kind of reminds me of a conversation. was having with the librarian on social media because they brought up that they did not want they didn't want to use technology for a lesson and it was really a conversation about you know we're gonna make something creative and don't outsource it to gen AI you know and it was something as simple as you know asking students to make a poster and you know while new technologies can make something look beautiful or you know depending on what your taste is you know it's asking ourselves now what role do the tools that we introduce into the school library bypass?

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 44:43

And I think in the future when we're developing strong school library programs what we need to ask ourselves is what what do student what can students get out of this learning experience right we want them to use their brain to its highest potential right we want them to be able to push their intellectual boundaries we want them to experiment and we want them to feel safe doing so so if I could you know propose a blueprint of what a successful and you know I guess impactful school library program would look like in 30 years it's not outsourcing school programming to a new innovation but putting its patrons at the center of all decision making nice awesome oh my gosh that like you that was very eloquently said uh I love every piece that you shared there and I think that's something that hopefully all our audience and all our school leaders are listening to and maybe changing that perception of what the library is and what the library can do can already offer and maybe that they are overlooking that which brings me to my next question for you which is if you could challenge every superintendent principal or district leader that is listening right now to this episode to rethink one assumption that they have about libraries or librarians what would you want them to reconsider

What Leaders Get Wrong About Libraries

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 46:41

that we are not just keepers of books our role is multifaceted and also that there is a constant pressure to adopt the next new thing you know there's often an initiative overload with upper admins disguised as innovation and I think that we need to they need to place trust in their library faculty to teach to lead give them the time that needs to be allotted to do their jobs well trust their professional expertise because they're trained in this area and if they are in Texas school librarians need to be certified teachers first.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 47:47

They bring that that pedagogical experience that rapport with students that can't always be you know experienced in a in a traditional classroom so I would I would love to to have a conversation with superintendents and administrators and show them that school librarians provide so much more than what they think because their perceptions may be rooted in what they experienced as a kid and school librarianship has changed so much. It's changed so much in the past five years you know and it's constantly evolving its ecosystem is constantly adapting and school librarians are just the best people ever and I can honestly say every school librarian that I've met has just been so willing to help innovate partner with just you know just trust them. That's what I would say trust them to do their jobs the way you want someone to trust you to do yours.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 49:07

Love it. That's wonderful now my last question so we can wrap this one up with a nice little bow on here just to really get and and you've been so great at answering these so honestly and from the heart but also for librarians that are out there right now that are listening and maybe right now still might be feeling a little overlooked or may feel a little unsure of themselves right now with so much change in technology and with generative AI. What

Encouragement, Where To Connect, Closing

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 49:40

would you want them to hear from you today?

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 49:43

Aw that they're magnificent and they're doing everything that they can with what they have and they were trained for this they're an expert in their field they're amazing and I think sometimes we take libraries and librarians for granted because they've always been there and libraries and librarians are just some of the few spaces and people that are built around the idea that like our core belief is that access to information knowledge technology opportunities to learn should not depend entirely on what we can afford but what we're willing to learn and share.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 50:26

Nice. Awesome well Dr. Q, it has been an honor it has been a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you so much for being an amazing guest. Thank you so much for the work that you do all the advocacy that you do and for libraries and it's such an important space and there are so many wonderful librarians out there that are doing it every single day and those that are really trying to do it because you know either budgets or you know directives and things of that sort but thank you so much for giving us your perspective and really highlighting the amazing work and the talent that is in a library like I said it's like I always thought of it and as the learning hub. When I was teaching Atlanta Mentory hey this is my learning hub this is the heart of what helps me be a better teacher you know in the classroom and so thank you for that and uh just I wish you the best continue doing what you're doing my friend but before we wrap up let our audience members know how it is that they might be able to connect with you.

Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza 51:31

Oh so I always joke that I'm chronically online so and uh I have a meme sharing problem. So if you want to reach me I'm on Instagram at q the librarian and it's spelled C U E the librarian. That's usually where I'm at. I don't have any other social media or maybe LinkedIn but I don't even use that to be honest with you. Instagram is where you can find me or email email yeah that's the one I use but more than anything yeah social media. And um yeah honestly if anyone has any questions or they just want to chat or just need some reassurance or they need someone to be their cheerleader and tell them they're doing a great job perfect person. Hit me up.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 52:16

Perfect we'll definitely make sure that we put that Instagram link there in the show notes so all our audience members can go ahead and reach out. But again thank you so much for this wonderful conversation and it was wonderful to catch up with you and again just to see everything that you've been able to do and accomplish has been just wonderful and I'm glad that you know that you and I have crossed paths because we it's similar paths in many ways. So it's just fantastic to have you on the show and be able to talk to you as well and you're my ed tech brother there you go yes I love it and then also I get I got to you know hang out with your husband a couple of times too as well and you guys both fantastic so he's awesome so big shout out of you by the way big shout out to Oscar all right thank you and Oliver who's probably there and might be listening. So it's awesome. So as you can see folks it's almost like we almost grew up together in that sense. So it's been fantastic but thank you so much my friends and for all my audience members please make sure you uh hit the subscribe button on YouTube. Follow us on all social media as well make sure you visit the website at myedtech.life where you can check out this amazing episode and the other 375 plus episodes that we have available where I promise you you will find some knowledge nuggets that you can sprinkle onto what you are already doing great. And again big shout out to Comeback Coffee Book Creator Eduaid and Peel Back Education for your support so we can bring you some amazing conversations that'll continue to help us grow professionally and personally as well. So my friends until next time don't forget stay techie