New Librarian Tips: Policy Development and People

 The School Library Learning Commons needs to be looked at as a place of opportunity, learning and possibility. Although the physical space holds books and technology, these are not the SLLC’s main foundations. What makes the space meaningful is how we take on our role as teacher-librarians, which in turn, helps transform the space and creates opportunities for our students. “The LLC strives to empower students to be inquiring citizens and lifelong learners” to do so it “must provide a safe and welcoming space,” (BC Teacher-Librarians' Association, 3) for all clientele. As teacher-librarians, our role is to serve our clientele which includes staff, students and administration. It is impossible to begin to create appropriate policy and procedure without understanding the needs of the people in the building. One of the first things that could be updated is the signage outside your door. As you stated, it currently says “School Library,” which does not fully embrace the space you are trying to create.

 Colleen MacDonell states that “essential documents answer questions and comments that continue arise in school libraries” (18). Although building these policies and procedures will undoubtedly take time in the beginning, doing so will be a great benefit in the long run. By building these documents “you will be able to justify you practices to parents, teachers and administrators, and set goals in a thoughtful manner” (Daly, Module 3). Due to still being in the beginning stages of crafting your policies and procedures, keep in mind that the school district and other teacher-librarians will be a vital resource to help you in creating these essential documents. In her article “Essential Documents for School Libraries: Do you Have Them?” MacDonell has outlined some sections that will need to be considered when writing your essential document which includes:

1.     Library Programming – This section will help to not only explain your role as a teacher librarian in the school but also clarify how you facilitate inquiry based learning and promote reading.

2.     Collection Development – This document will explain how money is spent as well as provide clear guidelines for informational texts and fiction texts. Making sure to include a budget guideline will help with purchasing and weeding policies that need to be developed and maintained yearly.

3.     Library Rules and Regulations – This part of the document will outline the expectations and responsibilities of anyone who uses the library. Topics to include are borrowing rules, library fines, and hours of operation as well as a guideline for behaviour.

 

4.     Procedures – A simple and easy to read one pagers can be put together for those tasks that are not often worked on and easy to forget. This section can help volunteers and new staff to get accustomed to completing tasks such as inventory, acquisitions and book processing.

5.     Planning – This section can include your strategic plan (2-year) and operational plan (annual). Having a planning section will allow you to remember your short-term goals and analyse your overall progress. These plans can also be updated throughout the year to reflect changes in library services and needs.

6.     Teaching – These are our go to documents for teaching inquiry and research. Making sure to keep these on hand will help both teachers and students. Some documents to include are research process handout, fill-in bibliography forms how-to, in-text citation and online search how-to. (18-19)

Creating policy and procedures from the ground up is a cumbersome and lengthy undertaking. Before moving forward with creating these documents, it is important to ask oneself what the purposes behind these documents are. At the end of the day the Library Learning Commons exists to serve the needs of its clientele. So, our next step must then be to find out the needs of our staff, students, parents, and administration, which can be done by creating an advisory group. Johnson “believe[s] that it is not enough to go in alone’ working with a planning team will help keep the focus on what the clientele needs and expects” (Daly, Module 3). Having a planning committee can help you create a solid mission and belief statement, craft and work towards long and short term goals as well as create a budgeting plan. You will want to keep your group small but also have a wide representation, reassuring that it is completely fine for members to come and go. Johnson states that there is no “set selection process for membership, but no one usually serves for more than three years”. Keep meetings streamlined, agendas should be clear and minutes can all be kept electronically so everyone has access to the information. Another good point Johnson makes is to “have few, but important, meetings”, we understand that the advisory group is full of volunteers so meetings should only be helpful if input is needed from the committee. He advises to only meet three to four times a year; the first meeting can cover budgets and policies and a final meeting to go over reviews and objectives for the year to come. Asking for advice and making ourselves vulnerable to the critics of others is never simple or easy, but their objective opinions are beneficial for the growth and betterment of the Library Learning Commons. Johnson also reminds us that “if they offer advise that you believe is not in the best interest of your students, you may respectfully not take it.” Although challenges could arise while working with an advisory committee, it is an overall useful tool in helping to create useful policies and procedures.  

One of the most important jobs we have as a teacher-librarian is to build relationships with our cliental group. One of our main goals should then be to make sure that our cliental group should be represented in ever action, police and procedure we try to put into place in the Library Learning Commons. This can include cultural representation in novels or books that can be accessed by English Language Learners as well as sexual and gender orientation. We should aim to welcome diverse viewpoints and in turn create a welcoming environment. Different designated areas are a must in the Library Learning Commons, to ensure that students have space to stand, sit, collaborate, or work quietly. Having the expectations for different areas available to students will show them what their responsibility is when they are in the library. Access to technology should not only be restricted to school work. While in the library, students should also be allowed the freedom to pursue their personal interests. Ellen Goldfinch says “compassion and empathy are truly important” (36). Our goal is to have students using the library; this could mean keeping the library open before school, at lunch and after school. Alicia Vandenbroek looks at how to bring students into the library with creative programing. She recommends looking at library circulation and which books are checked out on a regular basis, taking a survey of student’s interest that looks at what they enjoy doing and what they want to learn how to do. By creating a plan and a consistent schedule, cliental will know what to expect (42-43). Allowing clubs to run out of the library is a great way to help students feel welcome and to build community as well. But we might then ask ourselves does building community take precedence over shelving, weeding and overdue books? The truth is without a community and our clientele, there is no library and no use for a teacher-librarian.  Goldfinch comments on over dues and late fines in her article “The Friendly School Library: Making Students Feel Welcome”  and in her practice of Zen Librarianship she “recognizes that everything is impermanent, including the status of books on the shelf. A book is not here today – it may be back tomorrow. Librarians must accept that an overdue book is a book that has been used and aren’t they there for that?” (37). A tip to sustain a positive relationship with your students is to thank them when the book is finally returned.

Remember that collaboration begins with you building those relationships, so we must present ourselves to the teacher, be willing to work as an instructional partner and also show knowledge about the curriculum. Whitney Husid quotes “only about ten percent of personnel in your school are really interested in working with you; third percent might be interested; and the rest will never work with you” (43).  Building a culture of collaboration will not just happen overnight and the truth is many teachers will not have the time to sit down and fully plan a lesson or unit with you. “No teacher-librarian has to be an expert in everything instructional, technology” (Daly, Module 4) but we have the ability to learn on the job and pick up new skills. Be open to continually learning. In her article “Connecting with the Curriculum” Library Collaborations that works for Students and Teachers” (2013) Lambert outlines how she was able to create a culture of collaboration overtime, she noticed that the library was not being utilized to its full potential which could have been due to a flexible schedule or a teacher not understanding how to work in a partnership with a teacher-librarian. Without being prompted Lambert took it upon herself to create a useful library based activity that could be taken home with students. After this, slowly teachers began to reach out to ask for her help with specific lessons or topics and eventually they would just send her the learning standard and some ideas. Collaboration happened over e-mail and Lambert was willing and open to feedback to implement improvements and changes.  Overall, she “tried to minimize the teacher workload” which allowed Lambert and her colleagues to work in a true collaborative partnership. To build the capacity to collaborate, you must put yourself out there, build relationships and be willing to shoulder the work at least in the beginning. “Collaboration: Make it Happen in your School” (2013) reminds us that collaborative teaching is time consuming especially when we are just starting out, thus it is okay to pace yourself. This could look like one collaboration a term and over time you will have built up resources that can be reused. Husid ends with the reminder that “as with any relationship, true collaboration, in the sense of teacher and school librarian sharing equally in planning implementation and evaluation, can take three to five years to develop” (44).

 

Reference:

BC Teacher-Librarians' Association. (2017). From School Library to Learning Commons: A Pro-Active Model for Educational Change.

Daly, H. (2021). Module 3: Learning Material: Crafting Your Policy [Online Class Module]. Retrieve from Canvas: https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/60428/pages/module-3-learning-material?module_item_id=2620765

Daly, H. (2021). Module 4: Learning Material: Your Clientele: Staff, Students, and Administrators [Online Class Module]. Retrieve from Canvas: https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/60428/pages/module-4-learning-material?module_item_id=2620769

Goldfinch, E. (2005). The Friendly School Library: Making Students Feel Welcome Links to an external site.. Library Media Connection, 23(4) 36-37.

Husid, W. (2013). Collaboration: Make It Happen in Your School Links to an external site.. Library Media Connection,31(4), 42–44.

Johnson, D. (2012). Twenty + Years of Working with Advisory Groups. Blue Skunk Blog.

Lambert, N. J. (2013). Connecting with the Curriculum: Library Collaborations That Work for Students and TeachersLinks to an external site.. Library Media Connection, 32(3), 48-49.

MacDonell, C. (2004). Essential Documents for School Libraries: Do You Have Them?. Library Media Connection, 22(7), 18-19.

Vandenbroek, A. (2013). Beyond Books: Bringing Students into the Library Through Creative ProgrammingLinks to an external site.. Library Media Connection, 32(2), 42-43.