A few weeks ago I attended the Third International Research Symposium at Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CiSSL) in New Brunswick, NJ . The theme this year was Digital Youth, Inquiry, and the Future of the School Library … Research to Practice.

The focus question was: How can schools prepare to deliver a 21st century education for digital youth?

I always like to sit at a table with people I don’t know when I go to these types of conferences or workshops so that I meet new and exciting school librarians. I have met some of my now dearest friends and favorite co-collaborators that way. And the same was true for this event! I sat at a table with some wonderful school librarians and school library coordinators from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington. I experienced two full days of engaging and energized learning with this group. We brainstormed as a group on what we think schools should be doing to address the needs of today’s learners. Then we listened to a variety of speakers that included international guests, practitioners, and academics speak on their views, experiences, and research in this area.

Another focus of the conference was also to celebrate 10 years of CiSSL and 30 years of Dr. Carol Collier Kuhlthau’s research centering on the Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry.  Guided Inquiry serves as a framework that can give learners a foundation for developing deep knowledge and understanding. It was inspiring to hear Dr. Kuhlthau speak on how she developed the Information Search Process from observing real world students and their information needs and seeking processes. Also her daughter Leslie, who is also her co-author, spoke about bringing in the teacher’s point of view to this process and how they developed the Guided Inquiry Design book. Practitioners from across the globe including England, Sweden, and Australia shared how they were using the guided inquiry framework and new technologies to address the information needs of digital learners and learning in a variety of environments.

It was great to see the element of collaboration in each of these presentations – how school librarians and teachers were working together to create deeper learning experiences for kids. It was refreshing to see and hear about these experiences and to experience some good professional collaboration myself. I often find that I learn just as much from my colleagues through informal chatting as I do the formal presenters. It was a treat to get to talk with and share ideas with school librarians from across the globe. As we enter the summer, be sure to think about yourself and your own professional growth – what do you have planned to expand your thinking and grow your network?

We’ve had a cold spring, but finally the ground is warming up.  As the sun set last night, my husband and I put in a small garden: tomatoes, squash, okra, eggplant, and melon plants and some bean seeds.  Overnight we had some welcome rain and the corn in the farmer’s field behind our house appears to have grown a foot.  Another farmer nearby has planted a field of potatoes, and my husband chuckles when he remembers the first time I dug up potatoes.  I thought I had found buried treasure as right below the ordinary surface of the garden, I uncovered these rounded jewels.  A garden provides these small surprises almost daily.  I will eagerly watch that row of bean seeds for the delight of those first, green leaves.  I believe we put in a garden as much for these small daily gifts as for the vegetables we hope to harvest.

Where I’ve been fortunate to be a part of a “culture of collaboration,” I have found the same sort of delight in planning with other professionals.  There’s the same sense of putting your hands in the dirt and coming up with nuggets of great ideas that will nourish the learning of our students.  Or, planting seeds of lesson ideas and walking into a classroom several days later to discover they have sprouted into student projects on walls and desks.  Or, receiving an unexpected rain of support from an administrator, who recognizes the importance of collaboration and allows it to grow in unexpected ways.

Often, I believe it’s the small gifts that cultivate and sustain a collaborative culture.  When we meet face-to-face, there is the chocolate on the table, the family photographs someone shares from their phone, or the humorous classroom anecdote shared by a teacher. It’s quite simply the laughter, the raised eyebrows, and the sharing of a time and a space.

Many of my collaborations today take place online.  It’s exciting to meet with colleagues around the country or in Australia.  We share documents in GoogleDocs or Dropbox.  But I often find myself wondering online, “where’s the chocolate?” or “what small gifts might I offer to sustain this relationship?”  Because ultimately, while the collaboration is task-oriented, it’s the relationships that provide the rich soil, sunlight, and rain needed to nourish and grow that work. Relationships provide the medium for collaboration.  They are the heart and the chocolate, and we need to find the small ways to nourish those relationships whether it’s face-to-face or online.