Monday, May 1, 2017

Reaching Out to My New School

I know that relationships are vital in being the best librarian I can be for my new school. In an effort to reach out to my new students and teachers, I created a quick video introduction and asked for feedback using a Google Form.
I used Snapchat and Animoto to create an introduction video.

I created a separate survey for students and teachers.
Here is a copy of the teacher survey.
Here is a copy of the student version.
I was very happy with the number of responses and useful information for planning. When asked about social media the students answered that Instagram and Snapchat were their favorite sites/apps. I shared this information with the principal and asked for permission to create a library account in each of these platforms. She agreed to Snapchat as long as it was only active after school hours and said that next year I would have access to use the school accounts on the other sites. Thanks to Nikki Robertson and other librarians for sharing how they use Snapchat in the library.
Sixty percent of students felt that they had enough opportunities to visit the library even though half of them visit only when teachers took them or once a week and a full 30% visited rarely or never. A few stand-out answers for what would make them visit more often included "if books were arranged in a way I understand", "I didn't have to pay fines", and the most popular answer: more variety of books. One student recommended bean bags and cotton candy machine. Yum! I'll consider it. This is good evidence for me to support my move to genrefy fiction and drop overdue fines. The most popular answer for "favorite thing about the library" was the quiet. That lets me know that even though I'm not a shushing librarian, I do need to maintain some areas for quiet study. I also added 27 books to my order list that students requested.
The teacher survey illustrated to me that they are not accustomed to co-teaching, something I'd like to work on. Almost 60% of teachers are interested in coming to a monthly tech session with me, which could be a way I can build some collaborations. Eighty percent were interested in summer PD, which is why I organized and shared the Camp Readamorra program last week.
I have already met with a few teachers as a result of the survey to discuss ways we can work together next year. I look forward to sending another survey next year and comparing the answers to guide my library goals. If I can share something here with you to make your efforts easier, contact me.

2 comments:

  1. Looks like the teacher survey is set to private. I'd love to see it - could you make it public?

    I love the idea of doing surveys to get a feel before going in. I am stepping into the director role at a library that I've been at for 3 years and am thinking of ways that I could do something similar.

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    1. Oops! Sorry. Just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know! These surveys were very eye opening for me. Good luck in your new role.

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