Libraries as Academic Innovation Centers

     Every time I read “academic innovation center” (AIC) in this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, I saw “librarian.” While the piece discusses the role of AICs at the college level, the problems they seek to solve, the technology and instructional innovation they cultivate, and the collaboration that is their hallmark, seems a role for librarians at our level to assume, if they don’t already.

      An AIC (at least the one reviewed at Michigan State) “blends interdepartmental collaboration, academic technology, and new forms of pedagogy” to analyze instructional practice and design improved ones. It is not necessarily supposed to lead change, but to be the catalyst. It is in the business of convening stakeholders, encouraging open-minded proposals rooted in scholarship, and most importantly being a real agent for helping to improve student engagement and success.

      As I think of our district; the number of students on academic support and the degree of their classroom engagement, the idea of an in-house AIC with a librarian as the hub, holds out the promise of being a workable vehicle, however modest, to broker the expectations of administration, the frustrations of teachers, and the possibilities of instructional design.

    Perhaps no other professional on staff is better positioned to integrate collaboration, instruction, technology, and innovation than the school librarian. Plus, I think we are viewed/respected as being not exclusively allied with any of those factions; giving us agency to facilitate discussion, expect professionalism, and represent the high road to student opportunity.