Toolkit

• Develop goals and action plans, and show them to administrators.
• Host lunch, brunch, or breakfast browsing sessions for teachers and staff
before new books are shelved for student access.
• Create a presence for your school library on social media. Post regularly
for parents, students (if applicable), and staff members to update them on
developments and acquisitions.
District Level: Your district includes stakeholders with whom you may not
interact frequently. However, your library “brand” must be evident to them at all
times. These stakeholders typically ration funding from the district reserve. To
continue to support your school library, they must be aware of your program’s
importance to students’ learning.
• Present at Board of Education Meetings.
• Introduce yourself to district public-relations staff and ask what you can
do at a district level to help promote school libraries to parents.
• Publish an article for the district website or blog.
• Maintain a visible website for your school library and promote it
frequently.
• Present new trends and services at Parent Teacher Organization meetings.
• Meet quarterly with district school librarians to share ideas, issues,
strategies, and tools—and make sure the meetings and accomplishments
are visible at the district level.
• Mentor new school librarians in your district.
• Invite school board members to your library events (with supervisor
permission).
• Be present and participate in district-level activities, even if they are not
strictly library related. (Examples include attending curriculum writing
meetings, sitting on district-wide committees, presenting at Board of
Education meetings, and attending or presenting at parent forums.)
• Find district-level committees you can be a part of (literacy, curriculum,
technology, policy, etc.)
Community Level: The community in which you work may be considerably
different from the community where you reside. Remember that your aim is to reach
the taxpayers and business leaders or future employers in your school’s community
and effect change there. Garnering support from your school’s community members
helps you extend your reach.
• Introduce yourself to the public librarians and library director; establish a
rapport and partnership.
• Plan quarterly meetings with the local public librarians to cross-promote
both your programs and theirs, and to coordinate curriculum-based
collaborations.
Leadership 3