Doug Johnson

Starting off on the right foot

Head for the Edge, Library Media Connection, May/June 2009

Dear Great Brain*

I need to write up my goals for the year and give them to my principal. I have a few general ideas such as collaborating with teachers as much as possible, becoming a good resource for them, teaching students to use the databases, starting a lunch time book club, and decorating the library with student art. If you could send me any other ideas that seem reasonable for a first year in high school it would be much appreciated…I love creative ideas.

Diane

I suspect quite a number of LMC readers are asking themselves Diane’s question as they read this final issue of the school year. Whether graduating from library school or beginning a job in a new building, newbies should give consideration to starting off on the right foot with students and staff a high priority. What’s the old chestnut? “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

While the tasks Diane lists in her e-mail are important, they aren’t particularly strategic. In other words, Diane is planning day-to-day activities. A big part of one’s first year ought to be laying the foundation for growing and strengthening the program in future years as well. One should plan for both a happy and a long tenure in any new position.

My advice to all LMSs beginning new jobs is based on Johnson’s Three Commandments of a Successful Library Program:

1. Thou shall develop shared ownership of the library and all it contains.
2. Thou shall have written annual objectives tied directly to school and curricular goals and bend all thy efforts toward achieving them.
3. Thou shall take thy light out from under thy damn bushel and share with others all the wonders thou dost perform.

Say, that’s pretty good. What do you think the job of biblical prophet pays nowadays?

Based on these commandments, I’d recommend these first year goals for any library program:

• Establish a library advisory committee comprised of teachers, parents, and students. The library programs that are the most effective, the most appreciated and the most secure are those that everyone in the learning community has a stake in. An official committee is the best way of creating that ownership and shared responsibility for success. Oh, get on your building’s improvement committee/leadership team ASAP as well. Shared governance goes both ways.
• Establish yourself and program as ally to your principal. If you know and can help solve your principal’s principle problems, you will establish yourself as an important member of her/his team. All the principals I know are being asked to make some serious changes in educational practices. If you can help midwife new methods of instruction and programs, you will be gold. If you are seen as irrelevant, you will be gone.
• Work with your committee and your principal to establish collaboratively created goals and a realistic budget. You may wish to conduct a library survey and do a collection evaluation to give direction to these goals. These do not need to be long and arduous, but the information should help you determine the past program’s strengths and weaknesses. Conducting a staff survey also shows you are genuinely interested in helping teachers meet their needs. A good collection evaluation will help form the basis of writing a budget that is specific, goal-oriented, and realistic.
• Quickly establish a formal communication plan. Think of the four main groups with whom it is vital to communicate: your students, your staff, your principal and your parents. Identify current communication tools (newsletters, web pages, e-mail lists, display areas) and establish a library presence in all of them. Develop your own means of communicating with those you serve or whose support you need. Parents, especially, need to know how the services, resources and skills your program offers benefit their children. And all this needs to be done on a regular, repeated basis.
• Start thinking about how you will demonstrate your program’s impact on student achievement. Start collecting data your first day on the job. Circulation stats, of course, but also track how many lessons you teach, how many collaborative units you do, and how many individual requests you fulfill. Figure out early what numbers are most meaningful to your principal and teachers. You will need numbers one day and you might as well have the right ones.

By all means, newbies, develop those individual collaborative projects with teachers right away. But don’t neglect a long-term, systematic approach to developing a program that has buy-in by the entire school and community. You need an entire learning culture that values and uses the library’s program and resources, not just a few enthusiastic teachers. Being strategic means getting off on the right foot – in anticipation of a long, successful journey.

* This e-mail was addressed to the collective brain that is LM_Net, not me. But you guessed that.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in my latest book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.