Whether you're looking towards the new year or want to reset at the beginning of a school year, now is a great time to begin setting goals. Goals for school librarians can vary. Do you want to improve your interactions with students? Grow your professional knowledge? Find work-life balance? Whatever your focus, maybe some of our goals will work for you.
1. Do a better job of helping students find books they're interested in.
Get out in the library during checkout times. Order some new books or series based on student interests. Take time to ask students what they want to read. Having books students are interested in on hand will ensure they love coming to the library.
2. Encourage student reading outside their comfort zone.
Create a genre challenge where students have to explore books of different genres. Use reading challenges to get students to embrace new books. Set up book clubs or reading groups so students can share new books with their friends.
3. Focus on student promotion of books.
Initiatives such as an Adopt-A-Shelf program can help increase student awareness of books they've never noticed in the library before. You could also work on more engaging library displays or student book review activities that help get them involved in sharing books with their peers.
4. Continue to collaborate with other faculty.
A truly successful school library is formed by teachers and the school librarian collaborating together. Let your colleagues know what resources and expertise you can offer them. Partner with them on projects. Build your professional knowledge together.
If you don't have a lot of co-worker or struggle with collaborating with them, consider finding a community of librarians to talk to online.
Did you know that Elementary Librarian has a Facebook page? Be sure to like it if you haven't already. Our community features over 17,000 librarians who are constantly sharing questions and resources with one another.
5. Focus on what's really important.
You and your students are most important. Be sure to take time to decompress and relax. Maybe you can even set up a special chair in your library just for you so you can sit down and have a few moments to yourself.
Leave a Reply