Your school library budget This guide provides advice on what to include in your library budget, and on planning and tracking the expenditure. Contents Responsibility for your budgetDeciding on a budgeting methodLibrary budget contentBudget allocationBudget management and reviewAdditional sources of fundingBudget Proposal template Responsibility for your budget Responsibility for managing your library budget depends on the composition of your library team. It's important to include the budget processes followed in your library, in the following documents: All school budgets are GST-exclusive. Deciding on a budgeting method The two approaches most commonly used by schools are ‘needs-based’ and ‘lump sum’ budget allocation. Needs-based budget We recommend needs-based budgeting. Once you have assessed your collection and gathered information about your community you'll be able to prioritise and collate your needs into a collection requirements plan. Lump sum allocation Library budget content Budget allocation
The TL Toolkit for Student Success Home Think you don’t? Yes you do! Teacher-librarians can and do make a difference. There is a considerable body of documented evidence that proves that schools having a good school library and program have a positive impact on student achievement. Although the data is mounting globally it is also clear that school administrators need to have evidence at the local school level when planning for school improvement and making tough financial decisions. Evidence-Based Practice is not complicated. Some Benefits of Evidence-Based Practice: Improving and demonstrating student achievement Becoming learning central Empowering the learner and the professional Highlighting the school library’s role in school improvement Providing accountability: funding, staffing, scheduling Planning more effectively Increasing your job satisfaction Reflecting on your practice Moving beyond advocacy
Marketing for Libraries In this section, we'll examine the design of communications and explore the stories that bring library products alive. Key Questions Each of the following questions will be addressed on this page. For quick access, click on the question of interest. What's the message? Each library and service has a story to tell. The photo below is courtesy of the Utah State Library (Flickr). Example: The Lafayette College Library was looking for a way to increase use of their Personalized Research Assistance (PRA) service. According to Rebecca Metzger, "PRA cards get the faces of reference librarians out to students in a comedic format that shakes up the stereotype of librarians as stodgy and serious, hopefully making us more approachable. Each semester all students are mailed the current postcards that feature reference librarians superimposed on movie or TV skills that reflect pop culture (an example is shown blow). Accessibility - Can people easily navigate the library building and website? Timely.
Ten Things Your Administrator Needs to Know as the School Year Begins 10. That you are a teacher who teaches not content but process. You teach children to be information literate, digitally literate, media literate, and visually literate. The skills that you teach, the dispositions that you help children to develop, the responsibilities that you foster, and the self-assessment strategies that you instill will serve children not only in school but also in life. You are, first and foremost, a teacher! 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. If your administrator already knows these things, wonderful! Author: Audrey Church, Leadership Development Committee Chair and 2017-2018 AASL Past President Like this: Like Loading... Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Community, Presidential Musings
The Future of MLS We’ve all seen various reports and discussions around the future of libraries. From Pew (“The Future of Libraries: 7 Questions Librarians Need to Answer”) and the Aspen Institute (“Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries”) to forums (ALA Summit on the Future of Libraries) to articles (Slate’s “What Will Become of the Library?”), and our own white paper (“Re-Envisioning the MLS”), there is no shortage of data or discussion on the topic. State and local government workforces have faced significant reductions since 2009. Given these challenges, there is need to engage in a parallel discussion regarding the future of librarians. To seed this discussion, the iSchool at the University of Maryland launched its three-year Re-Envisioning the MLS initiative. Our first year is focused on engagement, with years two and three focused on redesign and implementation. What have we learned to date? Adaptable. Lindsay Sarin is MLS program coordinator at University of Maryland’s iSchool.
The School Librarian as Learning Alchemist The landscape of learning is changing. Children and young adults learn not only in school but fluidly across home, school, peer culture, and community. This transformation in learning and the school environment has prompted educators to ask challenging questions about how to develop learning spaces to meet these needs within the sometimes competing economic, social, and political realities. At the same time, school librarians continue to serve their communities by linking children, young adults, and teachers with both the information they need and the skills to use it. We’ve identified three trends that we see as most affecting the role of the school librarian in the near future. Information on demand In the near future, there will be a significant reduction in physical library space and collections. Even as some schools move to virtual collections, the opportunities for school librarians to influence learning will actually increase. Connected learning The school librarian of the future
The Future for Teaching and Learning What does the future hold for librarians’ participation in teaching and learning in colleges and universities? Many are already taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the emergence of new technologies and faculty interest in giving students assignments that will engage them in their learning. I believe that the greatest opportunities for librarians lie in deeper connections to the curriculum, adapting to new modes of pedagogy, linking technology-rich and collaborative spaces in libraries to learning, and ensuring that individuals who enrich the library’s role in teaching and learning are on staff. Overall, the trajectory is for the increasing integration of librarians and libraries into the teaching and learning program of the college or university. Librarians, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Departments, colleges, or individual faculty might deliberately add the development of technology and information skills within the discipline as new objectives in the curriculum.
Discovery Services: Basics and Resources – Library Technology Launchpad Why learn about discovery services? Most libraries use discovery services in addition to, or as a replacement for, their OPAC. Whether you are a technical services librarian whose job it is to administer them or a reference librarian who uses them as a major research tool, it is helpful to know how discovery services work. You need to know their features and their limitations. The Basics For this article, we will use Summon (with Serials Solutions) as an example. Summon is a discovery service developed by ProQuest and now managed and supported by Ex Libris (since their merger). In my library, Summon works in conjunction with Serials Solutions 360 Link using a Summon Unified Index to provide links to ebooks (and chapters), journal articles, audio, videos, library catalog records, institutional repositories, LibGuides, and more. The Summon index contains citation metadata, subject terms, abstracts, full text, and direct links (when available). Summon Indexing Relevancy Ranking and Filters
The Librarian as an Instructional Partner – Inspired Ideas – Medium When I first saw the Alliance for Excellent Education’s Future Ready Librarians Framework, I was excited to note the inclusion of “Collaborative Leadership” and “Builds Instructional Partnerships” as descriptors of an excellent school librarian. These are two areas of the job that I enjoy the most, so their inclusion only seemed natural to me. I do recognize, however, that some librarians’ strength may lie in other areas of the Framework, like “Budgets and Resources” or “Community Partnerships,” and that coming alongside teachers in an instructional partner role might feel a little intimidating. I also recognize that there are many classroom teachers who have never, for whatever reason, been exposed to the power of a collaborative relationship with the school librarian and may not naturally seek him or her out. Classroom teachers: You may be asking yourself what the benefit of partnering with a school librarian for instructional design or lesson delivery might be.