The meeting today went well. We met for about 45 minutes (about 15 minutes
longer than they wanted because there was another meeting scheduled
afterwards). I had some "visuals" prepared---graphs, charts, and a pamphlet
of our library program--that I handed out to each one of them.
We discussed only a few issues (basically staffing, funding, and
technology). My goal was to get them to answer questions about what they
wanted from me in the library and they began with asking me about the
staffing and the budget. They did tell me that they had placed funds in the
budget next year to hire another full-time librarian for the MS /US library.
(We still need a part time person...but I'll take on that later.) They will
be making arrangements in that area later in the year--hiring and a contract
for the new person. It won't help with some of the problems right now--long
hours, no planning, lunch missed, etc., but I will be addressing those
issues with my principals as we move forward, so don't think I've forgotten
about that!
Then they asked about my library's budget (which is generous, but we are
very outdated in our print collection, so we need much more than what we
currently have available to catch up). I had asked for an even distribution
of funding (more funding) for our library because we served twice as many
students. With the information that I had before the meeting, I created an
Excel chart of the funding between the two libraries AND I included some
"pretty pie charts" with lots of primary colors (administrators like
visuals, I've learned).
The pie charts showed the distribution dollars and how I was spending my
money. I also shared with them how much each area of the library
costs---(such as the databases, the print collection, reference, etc.)----in
both dollars and the percentage of the budget spent.
I also included a complete analysis of the library's collection age (a big
issue with me)---this was done through Follett's report program. I cut and
pasted the information into a word document; provided them with each of the
categories / divisions within the library (000, 100, 200, etc., included
fiction, reference, media, etc.) and the age of the section, the number of
titles in each, and the age of the collection as a whole. I also
highlighted my top three priorities within the collection (based upon the
groups that used those areas the most AND the age) and told them how much it
would cost to bring those areas up-to-date (to at least 1999 copyrights).
We then discussed our students, how they used the library and the issues
that I had with them not understanding how to use the resources because they
weren't being taught (teacher issues, technology issues, etc.).
After showing those charts and graphs, I shared with them the pamphlet that
I had made for our Open House this evening which described "What We Do"---a
three sided color pamphlet (created from Publisher) that was just a brief
overview of our program using excerpts of our library's collection
development policy, our Information Literacy Policy, our visiting author's
program, and a few photos that I had taken of the library and the students /
authors, etc. throughout the year(s).
My headmaster said that he had never seen the library's statistics broken
down in this manner and he liked the pamphlet information that we had
created ---all of which is something "we are taught in library
school"....(thank you to the University of Oklahoma and the SLIS library
administration courses--- I actually pulled out notes and my textbooks to
review over the weekend to get ideas about how to address this issue ~ Dr.
Rhonda Taylor and Dr. Kathy Latrobe rock!)
The results:
Our school has a group of parents and teachers who work together to "adopt
problematic areas" of the school and offer solutions, including funding
resources and ways to bring things "up to speed" quickly. My headmaster
said that he wanted the librarians to speak to the Program Committee in
January to address the issues of the library program --specifically areas of
need in the MS / US Library---and he also wanted to look at the curriculum
to see how we could implement a formal plan to get everyone involved in the
Information Literacy curriculum. He said that he felt it was important that
our students knew this and that it should be something important to the
teachers.
So, in 45 minutes....we added staff for next year, increased the library's
budget, started the process to involve parents and teachers in raising funds
to buy additional technology for instruction and updates to the collection,
AND began a discussion toward implementing the Information Literacy
throughout the curriculum in my areas (making it a top-down request / demand
that the teachers use the library with their students).
No, I didn't get to cover copyright....and I will be hovering over every
issue relating to this so that I can once again create some type of document
that might impact them (perhaps one with districts that have been fined for
copyright violations).
What I did learn is that administrators WANT and NEED numbers, charts,
figures, and answers.
Hopefully, in January, I will be able to create even more documentation
about our library, the services we COULD provide, the collection we MIGHT
have one day, and the responsibilities and duties of real librarians in the
education of our students---and since I'm talking about an investment that
these parents find most important (their kids), I'm hoping that I'll get the
support that I need to add an additional part time person to our staff for
cataloging, shelving, and circulation work, so that I can provide in-depth
instruction to my high school while my "new full-time librarian" provides
instruction to the middle school.
I don't think I did too badly....(although I'm still a bit disappointed with
some things not being addressed or discussed...but as some of you
stated..."You have to eat the elephant one bite at a time!"
Now, if I can only make it until January....
Thanks, guys!
~Shonda Brisco
Trinity Valley MS /US Librarian
Fort Worth, TX
sbrisco021@charter.net
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