Building Relationships

Like I mentioned previously I am new to my TL position which I will be starting in the fall. So my biggest goal and plan for the new school year is to start building relationships with the students, and staff and larger community. It is really important to build strong relationships and connections with them to understand how best to serve them and how to define my role. I found a description taken from International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’s publication “IFLA School Library Guidelines” (2015); it succinctly lays out the role of a teacher librarian (although it still has its limits) which includes: Instruction, management, leadership/collaboration and community engagement. My relationship with my patrons permeates all of these facets of the role of a TL. So in my early days I’ll try not to get overwhelmed with all of the tasks and  expectations placed  on me, but rather, focus on building lasting and meaningful relationships and developing a strong and purposeful philosophy to support my role.

My plan to build relationships with the staff…

I would like to personally meet with teachers, non-enrolling teachers and support staff as well as admin to help build relationships and start the collaboration process. Husid (2013) suggests a variety of approaches to initiate collaboration:  1.Building relationships, 2.Presenting yourself as a teacher first, 3.Working as an instructional partner, and 4. Being knowledgeable about curriculum. I will keep this framework in mind when I begin collaborating with the staff at my school.

My plan for building relationships with the students…..

I am also excited to get the opportunity to start working with and collaborating with the students. I want to ask a lot of questions to determine how best to serve the students, such as: How do students react to spending time in the library? Is there something I can  do that will make the  SLLC a kid-friendly environment? I will start by looking around at the space itself. Lilian Carefoot (2003) has some great ideas on how to make the learning commons more appealing to students. For example she describes questions to ask oneself when thinking about making the LLC more inviting, like mine above. I plan on relying on her excerpt to see where I can make the library a more inviting place to maximize its appeal and fulfill its philosophy.

My plan for building relationships with the community…..

I also want to look into collaborating with the ‘outside ‘ community. I want to work with the local public library to bring in the summer reading club and just see what other options and opportunities there are to collaborate. I think this will help create interest from the students and make the learning commons a more exciting place to be. The IFLA School library Guidelines (2015) does recommend “A (teacher-librarian) should, if possible, also liaise, with other library groups within the broader community, including public libraries and library associations. In order to improve library services for children and young persons in a given community, school libraries and public libraries should endeavour to cooperate” (pg. 29).  I think this is important and will help strengthen my role as I will learn from others, but also help build community within  (and outside) the school. I also will try and stay connected with other TL’s from around the district, province, country and world through social media and blogging.

Collaborating on crafting a philosophy

I would also like to focus on creating my philosophy for the school library and defining my role in the Library . I have been looking at my future school’s website and school page and they do not have a philosophy anywhere in sight. So my plan is to help create a philosophy for the school library. I want to create a philosophy that supports the vision for my particular school community. I will be working with a technician and a teaching partner so I will need to collaborate with them on this undertaking. However, I can lay the ground work beforehand for the philosophy, so that the process is seamless. Toor and Weisburg (2014),  recommend creating a philosophy that is short (25-50 words) and easy to memorize. The philosophy should also be succinct. The first sentence should describe the purpose and the second sentence describes the role of the librarian, or the ‘how to’. Once we have a strong philosophy in place it will help guide our entire practice and perhaps make my new role a little more clear to myself and my patrons. I plan on using the blueprint provided in ,“ New on the Job: A School Librarians’ s Guide to Success.” (2014), in it they provide step by step guides in developing a great philosophy for the school library. I was very excited to come across this resource because it takes a daunting task (like coming up with a perfect philosophy) and breaks it down into simple, doable steps. I think my new teaching partner and library tech will appreciate it as much as I do.

*first image from shutterstock.com and free clip art from http://clipart-library.com/community-cliparts.html

References:

Carefoot, L. (2003). Student Access to the School Library.Teacher Librarian,30(4), 69–71.

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

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines. 2nd revised edition

Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2014). New on the Job: A School Librarian’s Guide to Success. 2^nd edition. Chicago: American Library Association.