Moving From Decoration to Documentation I've been thinking a lot about first impressions lately and about what our physical spaces say about the work that goes on in the library. I visit a lot of school libraries and when I do I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who a) knows very little about what happens in these spaces BUT who is also b) charged with making funding/staffing decisions for libraries in the coming year. (This may sound silly, but think about it. What does this librarian value? What happens in this space? How does what happens here impact student learning? Why do we still need libraries? Whether you work in a brand new, state of the art library, or one that hasn't been updated since the day it was built, your work should look like the future. Now... don't get me wrong, I know that what happens in our spaces is far more important than what we hang on the walls. And here are some suggestions to help...
Discovering the Impact of Library Use and Student Performance Brian Cox is Manager Quality and Marketing, and Margie Jantti is University Librarian at the University of Wollongong Library. Key Takeaways Without a valid, reliable way to collect data from various library and enterprise systems, it's difficult to quantitatively assert how a library adds value. The University of Wollongong Library developed the Library Cube, a tailored database and reporting function that joins library usage data with student data, including demographic and academic performance information. By providing access to information resources, academic libraries play a significant role in the student experience. Collecting and Leveraging Reliable Data At the University of Wollongong Library (UWL), we lacked ongoing valid and reliable data collection from both library and enterprise systems, which prevented us from making assertions about the value provided by the library. How the Library Cube operates: Creating the Library Cube Meeting the Challenges Figure 1. Figure 2. Table 1.
Your Winning Strategy | SLWorkshop When I blogged about writing a Mission Statement two weeks ago, I said it would help focus you so at the end of next school year you would not feel overwhelmed, exhausted and unsure of what you had accomplished. If you took my advice and wrote one, along with a Vision Statement as I recommended last week, you can use them to chart your course for the coming year and take your program to the next level. Now is the perfect time for you to create a small strategic plan. While organizations, corporations, and sometimes school districts bring together key members and a facilitator for one or more days to develop their strategic plan, you can do one on your own, although if you can get others to join you it’s likely to be even better. The reason why strategic planning is considered important is that you set a direction for the next three years, understanding where, why, and how to concentrate your efforts. How will you accomplish each of your Action Plans?
School Libraries Transform Learning This digital magazine produced by AASL in partnership with American Libraries, is designed to be shared with parents, colleagues, administration, and policymakers. Available electronically or as a PDF download, this tool can open the door to discussions on the multiple ways school libraries transform learning. Articles "I'm an Expert" School Librarians Transform Learning Reimagining Advocacy for School Libraries "Do Kids Even Use the Library Anymore?" Creating Coalitions Building Advocacy before a Crisis Extras Give printed copies to your stakeholders during your conversations! School Library Advocacy Packs These advocacy packs are intended to be used as tools to spread the word about the many ways school librarians are transforming teaching and learning. This pack includes: 2015 | Item # 9200-2015 | Free.
The Art of Self-Promotion Or how I learned to stop being quiet and talk about how great the library is. I am an introvert. Susan Cain’s Quiet was a revelation for me to read. So, it should not have been a surprise when I jumped at a chance to work as the sole librarian at a very small independent school. Working alone provides a number of advantages. On the downside, while I had the opportunity to develop working relationships with many of the teachers, administration had little reason to wander into the library. Being on my own in the library has meant learning how to become my own biggest cheerleader. Hill Top is a very small community. This was a great start to making myself known. So I recently took a page from blogs such as YALSA blog, The Hub, and Knowledge Quest. Some advantages to this new schedule were easy to anticipate. Administration took notice. The biggest unexpected outcome from this planned presence was the increase in student involvement in the library. Categories: Blogs
Building Relationships for Back to School As summer draws to an end, it’s a good time to start thinking about back to school activities to build collaborative relationships and create a warm and welcoming place, both physical space and virtual, for our students, parents, and faculties. Let’s take a quick assessment: 1) How’s the signage in your library? Does it project an air of possibilities and not a list of rules and dont’s? 2) How do you introduce yourself to your faculty? 3) How do you greet parents? 4) How’s your online presence? While recreating your library culture is harder once you’ve been somewhere for a while, it’s never to late to make a good start! Categories: Blogs, Uncategorized Tags: Back to school, collaboration, collaborative culture, parents Library Reports are Fun with Digital Storytelling Tools Library reports? Fun? I know, they are a real drag to compile, and not so much fun to read, but creating library reports to inform stakeholders of how effective your program is one of the most important things you can do to advocate for your program! Challenge I challenge all of us to have fun creating our reports this school year and share monthly reports with each other through AASL’s social media platforms, adding #libraryreports to the post. Digital Storytelling Tools for Gathering Evidence iTalk: This is a free, intuitive app for the iPhone that does a great job with recording sound. Vine: If you haven’t used Vine with your smartphone yet, give it a try! Camera: Any camera will do! Digital Tools for Sharing Library Reports Storify: If you enjoy gathering snippets of online conversations and creating a story out of it, Storify is the way to go. Haiku Deck: Haiku Deck offers a free version to create a digital story with a slideshow using a few words and pictures. Categories: Blogs
Thing 34: Annual Reports – Make Them Matter In the first 2 topics of this track you thought about Evidence Based Practice and how to collect information that can help you better demonstrate how the library supports student learning and other school-wide goals. Then you considered new ways to reach out to the various stakeholders in your school and community in Thing 32. The next piece of the puzzle is taking all you’ve learned and put use it to create effective reports, ones that will catch the attention of your administrators and actually get looked at. Some of you may have been lucky enough to have attended Jennifer LaGarde’s “Being a Data Super Hero” workshop last fall. We spent a bit of the day looking at lots of reports from school libraries and identifying things that worked well, things that didn’t, what data had been collected and who the target audiences were. This was a great exercise to get the creative juices flowing and we’ll do that as part of the learning activitiy for this lesson. Tips for Getting Your Report Read
It's a Fact: School Libraries Work | Scholastic Book Fairs By John (Mr. Schu) Schumacher, Featured Blogger Anyone who has spent time with me or follows me on social media knows I care deeply about creating positive library experiences for children and teachers. With the release of the 2016 edition of School Libraries Work! To accomplish this, Scholastic compiled national- and state-level findings from more than 30 separate research studies demonstrating the integral role school libraries play in teaching and supporting student learning while confirming that when school librarian staffing is reduced, achievement in English Language Arts (ELA) suffers. To download the full School Libraries Work! Here are highlights from the report: When school librarian staffing is reduced, achievement in ELA suffers.
AASL Advocacy Brochures Advocacy Brochure Series Helps School Librarians Speak to Stakeholders Developed and distributed through a grant from the Bound to Stay Bound Books Foundation, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) presents a new advocacy tool to help school librarians generate and guide discussion with stakeholders about quality school library programs. School Library Programs Improve Student Learning is a series of advocacy brochures each designed to speak to a specific stakeholder audience within the school library community, including administrators, policymakers, parents, and teachers. The School Library Programs Improve Student Learning brochure series unfolds AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs in a way that allows each stakeholder group to visualize a model school library program from their perspective. Downloading and Ordering Interested in customizing your brochure?