Section VII: Planning for the Future

In this constantly changing time of technology and education it is important for

the School Library Media Specialist to show they are willing to change with the needs of
the school and its goals. The media center is the heart and base of schools, so the
SLMS must plan and evaluate the school library program based on the strengths,
weaknesses and needs of the school. In the text, Empowering Learners: Guidelines for
School Library Programs (30) The school library program is built on a long-term
strategic plan that reflects the mission, goals and objectives of the school. In order for
the SLMS to know the strengths, weaknesses and needs of the school, an assessment
must be conducted. The SLMS can complete this assessment by conducting a survey
among teachers and administrators. Once the SLMS has the results of the assessment
they can determine the goals of their media center.
The Harlem Middle School media specialist has determined the following goals
for the media center. The goals, objectives, evaluation measures, and timelines for each
goal are listed below. These goals are set to recover the weaknesses and build on the
strengths.
Goal 1:
Improve the physical space of the media center to allow easier accessibility for
handicapped and special needs students, encourage collaboration, and create quiet
spaces for silent reading.
Objective 1a:
Begin weeding nonfiction and fiction sections following the CCBOE Collections Policy
on pg.30 of the Media Handbook.
Evaluation 1a:
SLMS will run circulation and history reports from the Destiny system on all nonfiction
and fiction books in the library. Books that have not circulated (checked-out) in five
years will be discarded. Complete weeding of books should take approximately three to
four months.
Objective 1b:
Re-arrange, re-purpose, and/or discard bookcases to create new spaces for students.
Evaluation 1b:

The current setup of the bookcases take up the majority of the space in the library. The
bottom shelf on every bookcase is also not being utilized for shelving books. Therefore,
the amount of bookcases that are currently in place are not needed to shelve books.
Some bookcases will be repurposed for student centers, while others will be available to
teachers for classroom use.
Objective 1c:
New areas will be added to the media center. These spaces will include multiple silent
reading areas and collaboration areas for small and large groups as well as whole class
instruction. New furniture will be purchased to increase collaboration efforts as well as
accommodate wheelchair bound students.
Evaluation 1c:
SLMS will investigate options for updated furniture to include comfortable seating,
tables, and chairs. The SLMS will determine the most appropriate furniture to purchase
while keeping in mind the needs of our special education students, and the movability of
the furniture. The SLMS will then develop a budget for the new items to present to the
school principal for approval.
Goal 1 Timeline:
The media specialist will run circulation and history reports from the Destiny
system on all nonfiction and fiction books in the library. Books that have not circulated
(checked-out) in five years will be discarded. Complete weeding of books should be
done within 4 months of beginning the weeding process.
The current setup of the bookcases take up the majority of the space in the
library, and the length of the bookcases make it difficult for students in wheelchairs to
navigate around them. The media specialist will rearrange the bookcases for to ensure
better accessibility for all students. The bottom shelf on every bookcase is also not
being utilized for shelving books. Therefore, the amount of bookcases that are currently
in place are not needed to shelve books. The media specialist will evaluate the need for
bookcases in the media center. Some bookcases will be repurposed for student
centers, while others will be available to teachers for classroom use. Bookcases will be
moved and repurposed once the weeding of books is complete. Rearrangement should
take approximately two weeks, this will also allow time for re-shelving.
The media specialist will investigate options for updated furniture to include
comfortable seating, tables, and chairs. The SLMS will determine the most appropriate

furniture to purchase while keeping in mind the needs of our special education students,
and the movability of the furniture. The SLMS will then develop a budget for the new
items to present to the school principal for approval. The estimated time for developing
the list of new materials to include specific items with three price quotes from different
vendors should take 2-3 weeks.
Goal 2:
Provide a technology device for each student to use during the school year.
Objective 2a:
Survey teachers and students to assess the preference of tech devices to include
iPads, E-Readers, and Chromebooks.
Evaluation 2a:
SLMS will create a survey in which teachers and students will complete in order to show
the need and use of devices.
Objective 2b:
Create a technology committee of teachers, students, administrators, parents and
media specialist to establish a plan of action to obtain devices.
Evaluation 2b:
SLMS will recruit teachers, administrators, students, and parents to become a member
of the technology committee.

Objective 2c:
The committee will research different resources for funds to obtain these devices for
students.
Evaluation 2c:

The committee will look at different devices, budget sources including funding, donors,
and grant proposals to purchase the devices, along with success of other schools in
obtaining devices.
Goal 2 Timeline:
Providing students at Harlem Middle School with a technological device for the
school year, allowing the school to become 1:1 aides in the transformation of the
students becoming 21st century learners. Having the teachers and students take a
survey to assess the preference of tech devices allows the media specialist to see
which type of devices would better suit the overall student population. What are the
teachers looking for in consideration as to how their students would use the device.
The media specialist will create a survey in which teachers and students will
complete in order to show the need and use of devices. The link will be given to
students and teachers to access and complete the survey within two weeks. The
survey will be completely online and the media specialist will be able to interpret the
data through Google drive.
The school media specialist will be responsible for recruiting teachers,
administrators, students, and parents to become members of the technology committee.
The estimated time for the SLMS to recruit for the technology committee is within one
month from the time the survey was administered.
The committee will look at different devices, budget sources such as funding,
donors, and grant proposals to purchase the devices, and research the success of other
schools in obtaining devices. This will be an ongoing timeframe until devices have been
obtained. The committee will choose to meet monthly or quarterly to give updates on
progress. It could take one full school year or more to complete the process of
obtaining all the devices.
Goal 3:
Develop a Professional Learning Network that consists of both physical and virtual
resources, for teachers that will enhance student learning.
Objective 3a:
Survey teachers to assess the specific technology and resource needs.
Evaluation 3a:
SLMS will create a PLN survey for teachers. This survey will determine tools, resources,
trainings, and materials that have been requested by teachers for general and specific
needs.

Objective 3b:
Virtual Space: Develop and maintain a virtual PLN that is easily accessible and user
friendly to teachers.
Evaluation 3b:
The SLMS will create and maintain a PLN that will host a curated variety of resources;
tutorials, lessons, Web 2.0 tools, databases, etc. This PLN will be linked to the Media
Centers webpage under the Teacher Resources tab for ease of access. Teachers will
be encouraged to create their own PLN to be shared on the webpage.
Objective 3c:
Physical Space: Provide hands-on training workshops and an updated Professional
Learning section in the media center for teachers.
Evaluation 3c:
SLMS will attend vertical team and departmental meetings to establish a focus for
purchasing new Professional Learning material for core content areas. The SLMS will
also provide a calendar of scheduled learning workshops for teachers to attend at their
convenience and research having a professional trainer come to the school.
Goal 3 Timeline:
The media specialist will create a PLN survey for teachers. This survey will
determine tools, resources, trainings, and materials that have been requested by
teachers for general and specific needs. The media specialist will share the survey with
teachers with the expectation that it will be completed by them within two weeks.
The SLMS will create and maintain a PLN that will host a curated variety of
resources; tutorials, lessons, Web 2.0 tools, databases, etc. This PLN will be linked to
the Media Centers webpage under the Teacher Resources tab for ease of access.
Teachers will be encouraged to create their own PLN to be shared on the webpage.
After the survey has been completed, this will be an ongoing process (seeking new
resources and posting them to the PLN).
SLMS will attend vertical team and departmental meetings to establish a focus
for purchasing new Professional Learning material for core content areas. The SLMS
will also provide a calendar of scheduled learning workshops for teachers to attend at

their convenience and research having a professional trainer come to the school. This
will be an ongoing process.
Goal 4:
Create opportunities to collaborate and co-teach lessons and/or units using the media
center resources.
Objective 4a:
Survey teachers to assess the interest of collaboration and co-teaching with the SLMS.
Evaluation 4a:
The SLMS will create a survey in which the teachers will complete to show the interest
they have to collaborate and co-teach with the SLMS.
Objective 4b:
Based on the results of the survey, SLMS will determine the focus of collaboration and coteaching with teacher.

Evaluation 4b:
Teachers that are interested in collaborating with the SLMS will provide a needs
assessment to the SLMS. What areas are students struggling with? How can the SLMS
provide assistance to the teachers in a collaborative lesson?
Objective 4c:
Based on the results of the survey, the SLMS will facilitate the organization of
collaboration times as well as collaborative lessons with teachers by using an
asynchronous shared calendar.
Evaluation 4c:
Using the Outlook or Google calendar, teachers and the SLMS will schedule
collaborative lesson planning times. Since time for planning is a concern, SLMS and
teachers will plan collectively when face-to-face meetings are not possible by
Using e-mail for communicating quick moments of reprieve
Inputting information in a planning template that will allow everyones input
to be shared and passed around until the template is satisfied by all
Creating a collaborative curriculum unit plan template together

Goal 4 Timeline:
The media specialist will create a survey in which the teachers will complete to
show the interest they have to collaborate and co-teach with the SLMS. The survey will
be administered over a two week period at the beginning of the school year.
Teachers that are interested in collaborating with the SLMS will provide a needs
assessment to the SLMS. What areas are students struggling with? How can the SLMS
provide assistance to the teachers in a collaborative lesson? The needs assessment
will be turned in by each participating teacher over the next two week period after
completing the initial survey. Once received, SLMS will review the information within
one week and provide the teachers with the suggested focus of collaboration and coteaching by the end of the following week.
Using the Outlook or Google calendar, teachers and the SLMS will schedule
collaborative lesson planning times. Since time for planning is a concern, SLMS and
teachers will plan collectively when face-to-face meetings are not possible by
Using e-mail for communicating quick moments of reprieve
Inputting information in a planning template that will allow everyones input
to be shared and passed around until the template is satisfied by all
Creating a collaborative curriculum unit plan template together
At the first face-to-face meeting held one week after the needs assessment is received,
teachers and SLMS will create a planning template to be used as the guide for
collaborative teaching. Collaborative lesson planning will be set to quarterly face-to-face
meetings in order to revisit the plan and determine if there are any necessary changes
that need to be made. In between, everyone can communicate via e-mail. This will be
the process until the end of the school year.
Advocacy:
At the first faculty meeting of the school year, the SLMS will share the details of the
strategic plan, goals, objectives, proposed budget, and timeline to all stakeholders at
Harlem Middle School. Each stakeholder will be provided with a copy of the strategic
plan and also given the opportunity to ask questions regarding the plan. Throughout the
year, at quarterly faculty meetings, the SLMS will update stakeholders of the continued
progress of the strategic plan. Information will be provided using a detailed report of the
previous three months operations, changes, and progress of goals. In between quarterly
progress reports, a brief newsletter/flyer will be distributed electronically to promote the
amazing things that are happening in the media center. A calendar of learning

workshops, displays of student work from collaborative lessons, and tech tips will also
be included in the newsletter/flyer. The Media Specialist will continue to encourage all
stakeholders to support the efforts of the SLMS and promote the goals of the HMS
Media Center to improve student learning and achievement within the school library.
References:
Columbia County School District Site
CCBOE Collections Policy
Empowering learners guidelines for school library media programs. (2009). Chicago, Ill.:
American Association of School Librarians.
Survey used for creating the Goals: Stakeholders survey
Responses from the survey were used to create goals for Harlem Middle School
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/D0544E4C-45EC-4038-BA78616DB87C193A/33406/Section24.pdf