{"id":125,"date":"2018-04-13T15:14:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T15:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lauramustard\/?p=125"},"modified":"2018-04-17T18:09:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:09:29","slug":"breaking-down-library-walls-reflections-on-my-action-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lauramustard\/2018\/04\/13\/breaking-down-library-walls-reflections-on-my-action-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down Library Walls: Reflections on My Action Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image from the WSJ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I began this school year with a fresh perspective on my school’s library, keen to think big about library advocacy and design. My goal was to increase my ability to advocate for the library as a learning space of central importance in our school community. I wanted to make sure people were aware of our programs and areas of expertise, saw our value, and that we understood how we were meeting the expectations held by students, staff, admin and parents. This would allow us to make plans for how best to manage the library’s resources, space and people.<\/p>\n

Through the Cohort process<\/a>, I identified a central question to address many of these concerns: How might we leverage experts in our community to improve library collections and services?\u00a0<\/strong>Bringing down the library’s metaphorical walls has allowed me to move a number of discrete projects forward, welcome the community into the library in a new way, and improve what we do everyday.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick update on how ALL THAT has been going:<\/p>\n

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  1. Collection development of non-English language materials<\/strong>. I am pleased to report that our Languages Department was super excited to be involved in this project to make the French and Spanish collections more engaging for students and useful for them in their teaching. They have designated a department liaison to work with me as we weed and purchase new French materials. For those librarians in the Cohort (hey friends!) here are the questions guiding the initial phase of our work together:\u00a0Are there any particular titles, series, or authors you\u2019d like us to have in the library? What is your favourite French-language book store in the city? Is there an educational distributor you work with that you would recommend?\u00a0Is there anything currently in the library\u2019s collection that we absolutely need to keep?\u00a0<\/span>Do you know of any essential professional development resources for language teaching we could acquire for our teaching & learning collection?<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. History of children’s books workshops.\u00a0<\/strong>Planning is underway for two scheduled sessions taking place with our resident antiquarian book expert and the Grade 4 class. We will be working with reproductions of the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books<\/a> to discuss the evolution of children’s literature as a reflection of changing attitudes towards the concept of childhood. Did you know that our modern notion of childhood didn’t exist the 19th century? It’s fascinating stuff. Based on conversations with students and their conceptions of childhood and what children need to know, we will be creating our own children’s books.<\/li>\n
  3. Formalized data collection of student feedback. <\/strong>Who is more of an expert in whether the library is meeting their needs than the students themselves?! The second F2F empowered me to ask our most important stakeholders how we might improve their library for them. After the success of my sticky-note-placemat approach<\/a>, I was inspired to create a survey for students in Grade 7-12. Please take a look<\/a> and let me know what you think. I can’t wait to wade into all this data and use it to inform library decision-making and conversations with admin.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So that’s where I’m at! Please check out my reflections<\/a> on the whole shebang. There’s lots more to be done this year and it really is only “the end of the beginning” of my thinking about the big topics that got me here. It’s a journey I can’t wait to continue. I would like to express my gratitude to my amazing SCS peeps (@adamcaplan<\/a> @pcobban<\/a>), my inspiring fellow Season 6ix librarians (@sneesham<\/a> @sgupta<\/a> @nbrooksbank<\/a>), and everyone in the Cohort for helping to push my thinking forward.<\/p>\n