Off-the-Shelf Educational Services
http://www.offtheshelflibraryservices.net
Susan Dubin, the owner/director of Off-the-Shelf, is an educator who has experience teaching all subject areas and age levels. As director of Off-the-Shelf, Susan designed and organized several school libraries and introduced children of those institutions to information skills. For more than eighteen years she was the full time Library Instructor and Administrator at Valley Beth Shalom Day School in Encino, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. As the head of the Library-Media Center, she taught all the children from preschool through grade six. The curriculum, which she wrote for the California Association of Independent Schools Library Network, combines literature appreciation and library information skills in a program that mixes fixed library visits once a week and flexible scheduling to allow students to use the library as needed to enrich the classroom curriculum. In addition, she was responsible for computerizing the library, purchasing and cataloging all general studies books, setting up and maintaining the web page, and putting the catalog on the web so it is accessible from anywhere. Her curriculum encourages independent reading as well as research skills using print and electronic media. Her position also involved working closely with classroom teachers, administrators, and other specialists to integrate the library program into the child’s total experience. Susan has been honored as a teacher and librarian by receiving the National Council Teachers of English Centers of Excellence in Education Citation in 1989-91, the Dorothy Schroeder Award for contributions to the field of Judaic Librarianship in 1993, Teacher of the Year nomination in 1993, Fanny Goldstein Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association of Jewish Libraries in 2001, and the Milken Distinguished Educator Award in 1998.
In addition to teaching, Susan is very involved in professional organizations where she often gives workshops and presentations at conferences. She has presented workshops in storytelling to children and adults. She also served on the planning committee for the Arroyo Seco Region 4 Library Network of the Library of California. From 2002-2004, she was National President of the School, Synagogue, and Center Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries, an international professional organization of librarians who work with Judaic material. She also helped to organize and present a Generation WWW.Y workshop that taught students to be technology mentors to faculty members. She presented a three day kivun on pedagogy at C.A.J.E. She also led the Tools for Toleranceâ to Enhance Library Services as the LSTA grant coordinator. In 2002-03, she was the project coordinator of the MCLS/SLS Young Adult Programs LSTA grant.
Before becoming a library instructor, Susan taught kindergarten, second grade and preschool (ages 2-4). She owned her own school, Canby Hall, where she served as administrator and teacher. She also was a home teacher, recognized by the Los Angeles Unified School District for first, second, and third graders. She has a California life teaching credential for Elementary and Early Childhood, and she has experience teaching Japanese college and high school students English as a second language through the California Homestay Institute.
As a teacher, her greatest joy is working with children and helping them to develop their potential. She believes that teachers must find the spark within each child that will inspire him or her to want to learn. She tries to get to know each child as an individual and help find his or her special interests. Her library program uses writing skills, analysis, art, music, drama, puppetry, and physical movement activities to teach in ways which will best fit the diversified learning styles of each student.