Katie Menges

SLM 501 Summer 2016

17 July 2016
School Library Assessment
I. Librarian Interview
I met with an independent school librarian who works with 9th and 10th grade students
on a regular basis and with 11th and 12th grade students ad hoc. She is very open about the
triumphs and foibles of the independent private school setting, and in speaking with her I learned
a great deal about the similarities and differences in expectations of the private and public school
systems. We quickly established that the Assessment Rubric: Teaching for Learning from
AASLs A Planning Guide for Empowering Learners was a better and more accessible tool than
the Learning 4 Life tool also available through AASL. Many of the difficulties that this librarian
faces are endemic to the private sector, as we are not a part of as many tiers of organization as a
public school: often these are standalone establishments that operate independently but
communicate as part of larger networks like AIMS (the Association of Independent Maryland
Schools). Taking this into consideration when assessing the librarian and her program, it seems
to me that she is already making gains in her relatively new position, and currently has a strong
program that she is optimizing to make into a truly exemplary program.
When we discussed the areas of the L4L Performance and Evaluation System tool, we
established that some areas of the library program and librarian practice are stronger than others,
as is reflected in the Assessment Rubric that follows later in this document. Overall, we found the
L4L tool to be more forgiving than the Assessment Rubric, in part because it is less specific and
in part because it seems to focus on more general ideas. Mrs. Librarian is strongest in Domains 1,
2, and 3, with some areas for improvement in Domain 4. She collaborates with teachers of 9th
and 10th grade students and promoting digital literacy and research skills, using a flexible
schedule and providing distinguished support for faculty and students. The overall library
environment is distinguished as well, with some areas that we established as basic, but that the
L4L tool does not specifically mention. Under Domain 3, Mrs. Librarian provides for excellent
student engagement, and works directly with the subject-area teachers to provide meaningful
student assessments. The only weakness comes in Domain 4, because Mrs. Librarian does not
regularly communicate with the local community beyond the school and there is currently no
written collection maintenance and development plan. As a one-librarian library with no regular
 SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 2

volunteers, Component 4h: Managing Personnel does not apply. In the end, we decided to
focus more on the tool that provided more meaningful assessment and specific areas for
improvement, and completed the Assessment Rubric.

Assessment Rubric: Teaching for Learning

Note: Descriptor choices are color-coded according to desirability of answer: green is most desirable,
orange is neither most nor least desirable, and red is least desirable. This is intended to dispel
ambiguity of descriptor terms.

Aspect 1: Developing Visions for Learning: Mission

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Statement Comprehensive The mission statement is pulled from AASLs mission statement and the
Alignment Integral schools mission statement, and is published on the librarys website and
most library materials. Ethical use and generation of information is very
Publication Publicly important to the school, and students are trained in critical thinking and
Recognized
research.
Aspect 2: Teaching for Learning: Collaboration
Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Team Roles Informal and The librarian meets all 9th and 10th grade students once in each 8-day cycle
Defined for an hour. Collaboration is the primary concern during these research-
based classes: the librarian uses current curricular goals to teach relevant
Participation Informal and
research and presentation strategies. Teachers of 11th and 12th grade
Integral students occasionally seek collaborative opportunities, but on an informal
basis. Students and faculty are surveyed once a year and after each project,
to establish how well the materials available meet stakeholders needs.
Aspect 2: Teaching for Learning: Reading
Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Instruction Basic The librarian schedules author talks and skype sessions throughout the year,
Promotion Responsive and and is available both before and after the school day to help students locate
reading materials that interest them. She leads a student book club during
Initiating
the clubs block, and promotes reading throughout the school by using
Continuous interactive bulletin boards and word-of-mouth book promotion.
Intrinsic

Beyond School

Aspect 2: Teaching for Learning: Multiple Literacies

 SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 3
Subcategory Reason for Descriptor Choice

Learning In-Progress and For the learning process, the librarian has identified visual literacy as an
Process area for professional growth; she uses new technology tools to support
Comprehensive
multiple literacies and guides students to use new and emerging technology.
Legal, Ethical, Articulated
She has signage and direct instruction in place to ensure that students see
and Social
Responsibilities legal, ethical, and social responsibility as an aspect of information-seeking.

Aspect 2: Teaching for Learning: Inquiry

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Educational Ongoing The librarian is always reading up on the latest technologies, using
standards professional learning networks, other librarian blogs, and trade magazines
Differentiation Consistent and websites to stay on top of the latest tech trends. She constantly
incorporates technology into lessons, and instructs teachers and students in
Information Integral
Search Process
the use of new and emerging technology. Classes are differentiated to meet
the same outcomes by changing the process appropriately, so that all
Evaluation Comprehensive students are held to a high standard of digital citizenship ethics while
Role of Integral mastering research resources and strategies.
Technology

Aspect 2: Teaching for Learning: Assessment for Learning

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Formative Integrated The librarian is involved in creating the rubrics used for assignments that
Assessments involve library research. After each project, the librarian chats informally
Summative Comprehensive with students to hear what worked well and what did not; as each project
Assessments culminates, a short survey is sent out to students to gain official student
input. Student learning is assessed throughout the process, including entry
and exit tickets, and peer review of work.
Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Planning and Evaluating
Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Planning Comprehensive The librarians administrators have never asked for or discussed data. Data
Process analysis is present but minimal. In the strategic plan of the school, the
Strategic Plan Comprehensive* librarys budget is present but there is no library-specific strategic plan to
modify the space or budget for larger, irregular purchases (such as system
Stakeholder Unilateral
Participation
upgrades). There is no formal evaluation of the library program, and the
librarian establishes her own library plan, with no outside help or input. It is
Evaluation Informal unclear that others in the school community fully understand the purpose of
the library.
 SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 4

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Staffing

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Quantity Basic The librarian works alone without an assistant. The librarians job
Position To Be Developed description is very vague and does not define the librarians role as an
Descriptions instructional partner or resource expert. Training is offered for library
volunteers as needed; training and professional development for the
Training Informal
librarian is at the librarians request.

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: The Learning Space

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

User orientation Passive The physical library space is small and inflexible, with heavy furniture that
Access Flexible & Open cannot easily be moved to accommodate different class formats. There is
Access not enough seating for most larger classes, but space for materials is
currently acceptable.
Function Limited

Storage Accommodating
Students have access to the library during the entire school day, and the
librarys website is very user-friendly. Wi-Fi is fast and dependable,
Website A Virtual Library allowing students to research easily and efficiently with the librarys web
Technology High Speed & resources.
Infrastructure Reliable

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Budget

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Planned and Basic The librarian receives an adequate budget from the school and has complete
data-driven freedom to order materials, including database subscriptions, at her
Funding Level Basic discretion. No purchase justification is required, but she seeks regular
feedback from faculty, sending our a survey regarding the usefulness of
Accountability Fully Accountable
library resources for facultys curricular goals. Students are surveyed
regarding resources used in projects as well, to help gather data.
Outcomes- Outcomes
oriented

Proactive In-Progress

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Policies

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Stakeholder Unilateral Currently there is little to no stakeholder involvement in the librarys day-
Involvement to-day functioning. Occasionally volunteers will help, but this is rare and
Collection Informal they are not involved in policy or decision making. Collection development
 SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 5
Development is not well documented and does not follow a published policy.
Ethical Use of Inclusive In the past year, the librarian has worked with all members of the school
Information
community to ensure that students and faculty are ethical users of
Technical Informal information.
Services
Like collection development, the reconsideration policy is highly informal;
Resource Basic there has only been one complaint in the last several years, and this was
Access
handled on a personal and compassionate basis. Policies are not delineated
Reconsideration Informal and published for any of the library functions.
Policy

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Collection and Information Access

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Diversity Multicultural Multicultural materials are popular and sought-after during the purchasing
Levels of Client-based phase. The collection includes a wide range of materials in many formats,
Difficulty meeting student needs at all levels of the program. Student assessment is
considered in the level of difficulty for material, and student input is
Intellectual Informal
Freedom
regularly reviewed but irregularly gathered.

Curriculum Curriculum- The collection is current overall, but not weeded according to a specific
Support Related schedule. Materials purchase is based on high-quality standards, but there is
no specific selection criteria currently in place. Learning goals are often
Adequacy Adequate
considered but not officially incorporated into selection policies at this time.
Quality Quality- Based
Intellectual freedom is important to the librarys program but is not
Alternative Ample published in any formal way.
formats

Currency Mixed &

Current

Responsive to In-Progress
student input

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Outreach

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Advocacy Plan Basic The librarian has discussed the librarys goals with the principal, but these
Partnerships Beginning nascent plans are neither published nor shared with other stakeholders. The
librarian frequently promotes the library but rarely advocates for herself. In
Communication Effective part due to the nature of the independent school, the librarian has only
relationships with a few community groups and local decision makers. This
being said, the librarian maintains excellent and highly creative
communication with all members of the school community.
 SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 6

Aspect 3: Building the Learning Environment: Professional Development

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Plan Comprehensive The librarian has a good long-term plan for professional development and
PD for school Comprehensive regularly attends librarian gatherings and annual meetings. The librarian
community keeps up with professional literature and library trends, and constantly
members shares trends in material and technology with the school community.
PD for school Active
librarian

Aspect 4: Empowering Learning Through Leadership: Leadership

Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Involvement Initiative The librarian is very active in the school community, constantly
Innovation Change Agent participating in innovative plans for implementing new technology and
teaching practices. She is published in the AIMS journal and in SLJ, and
Professional Professional has presented at the National Association of Independent Schools
Activity Engagement
conferences.
Aspect 4: Empowering Learning Through Leadership: Relationships
Subcategory Descriptor Choice Reason for Descriptor Choice

Principal Supportive & Although the principal values the library highly, he does not seem to fully
Shared Vision understand the librarys full purpose and potential.

Parents One-Way & Parents receive information regularly but do not participate actively in the
library program. Occasionally parents volunteer or participate in library
Involved
programming, but this does not yet happen on a regular basis.
Community Indirect
Organization The librarian is not currently involved with area organizations or
businesses, or with other libraries. This is in part due to the location of the
Libraries in the Indirect
school, which is not easily accessible to local businesses or to public
Greater
Community libraries.
SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 7

II. Library Goals

Mrs. Librarians library and professional standing is overall good, but there are areas for
improvement that will immediately elevate the librarians practices and the library program
itself. The biggest threat to the overall program is lack of clearly defined standards and policies,
paired with a lack of data. This is reflected in the Assessment Rubric as well as in the interview
itself: Mrs. Librarian mentioned that her administrators do not fully understand what she does,
and that she is encouraged to simply use her best judgement. Right now, Mrs. Librarian would
highly benefit from formalizing her standards and policies, optimizing the librarys collection to
more fully meet all stakeholder needs, and extending the library planning - especially as regards
the budget - beyond the upcoming year. Below these goals are articulated, along with objectives
to meet along the way to realizing each goal.

Goal One: Formalize and publish collection standards and policies.

Objectives:
1. Articulate and publish an Intellectual Freedom statement, both on the schools website
and to be posted in the library and school offices.
2. Create and publish selection criteria, reflecting the necessary quality and advancement of
learning goals that all materials must illustrate. This should also be accessible through the
librarys website and in print at the library.
3. Create a formal and systematic process for soliciting student input, to include interests,
motivation, and curricular needs, reflecting both print and digital resource use.
4. Create and publish procedures for challenging and review of challenged material. This
should be made easily accessible for all members of the school community and published
near the selection criteria.
Goal Two: optimize the collection to best suit the diverse needs of learners.
Objectives:
1. Create a regular weeding schedule and overall yearly collection review policy for
weeding and purchasing decisions.
2. Collaborate with teachers to map the librarys collection to curriculum, in order to ensure
full curricular support for student resources and learning.
3. Schedule regular meetings with stakeholders, including parents and principal, to establish
the library as an integral part of the school and to encourage parent participation in
continuing the library improvement plan.
Goal Three: extend library planning into the future to (1) project library funding needs and (2)
ensure the library programs security.
SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 8

Objectives:
1. Form a friends of the library committee to include representatives from all stakeholder
groups, with the purpose of reviewing and revising the librarys strategic plan each year.
2. Perform regular, data-driven assessments to evaluate the librarys performance and
ability to meet the needs of students and faculty. Once assessment is complete, use data
to set priorities and improve the efficacy of the library program.
3. Prepare a budget that projects into the future, based on results of strategic planning; the
budget should identify priorities and use newly gained supporting data.

III. Areas of Personal Growth

When I created my Professional Development Plan a few weeks ago, I identified that I
need to work on collaborating actively as a member of a social and intellectual network of
learners, improve the student experience, and plan for continued professional growth and
leadership opportunities. After speaking at length with Mrs. Librarian, I have seen that there are
areas of improvement for my own library that will be easier to implement than others. In our
discussions, we talked about how she works to her strengths to accomplish some improvements
almost as soon as they are identified as areas for improvement, while other improvements to her
professional development or to the library program are more long-term projects. In looking
through the L4L tool and the Assessment Rubric, I have found that I am already strong in some
areas, that some areas will be almost immediately made right by simply publishing my policies
and procedures, and that there are some areas for (sometimes drastic) improvement. Looking at
the L4L Performance and Evaluation System, I was happily surprised to find that I am fairly
strong in Domains 1-3 with a few exceptions, but I do also have areas in which to improve. My
weakest elements fall within Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities.
Many aspects of my current situation are products of pre-existing circumstances. One of
the greatest pre-existing conditions is that I currently have no library budget. I am not sure that I
could even be considered as good as unsatisfactory for Component 4g: Managing the Library
Budget Elements, since I do not even have a basis for determining whether I have over- or
underspent. I have not yet established data to create a data-driven budget development, in part
because there has been nearly no spending over the last several years. This is an area that I must
undertake to improve immediately, in partnership with my school administrators. Luckily this is
something that I am currently working to remedy; unfortunately, this is not an item that has a
quick fix. I see this area as directly relating to improving the student experience, as I mentioned
SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 9

in my original Professional Development plan: as I gather data on student and curricular needs, I
will build a data-driven budget that addresses these needs and improves the student experience
both for curricular needs and for personal reading interests.
The next area for improvement comes from Domain 4f: Collection Development &
Maintenance. This is an area that is heavily influenced by Domain 4g with the budget issues: I
am afraid to weed the librarys collection because I do not wish to (a) make it appear that I am
getting rid of material to create a man-made hole that now needs to be filled or (b) get rid of
materials that are less than ideal but are better than nothing, in case I am not able to replace
substandard materials. For instance, with student interest in household pets, I want to get rid of
titles that feature outdated pictures and training techniques and which have tatty covers;
however, I am afraid to remove these titles from the collection without new titles to take their
place.
I have collected data and have already assessed the overall collection and some specific
areas of the collection, and I keep track of student and faculty suggestions and requests for
material. I need to become a stronger and better advocate for increases in funds, so that our
technology and print materials can stay current and meet student and curricular needs. Once I
accomplish this, I will have a budget and will be able to create a long-term plan that is
dependable, allowing me to weed appropriately and to maintain a current and relevant collection.
With the positive impact that a dependable budget and long-range plan will have on our faculty
and student library experience, I am very optimistic that I will be able to work with my
administrators to create a workable plan over the next school year.
Both from discussion with peers and from the L4L tool and the Assessment Rubric, I
know that I need to clearly define and publish library policies and procedures. This comes from
Domain 2c: Managing Library Procedures, and the Performance and Evaluation System focuses
on circulation and scheduling above other procedures. According to the distinguished
category, the circulation and scheduling procedures should provide optimal, flexible access to the
resources, equipment, the facility, and the expertise of the school librarian. Currently my policies
are not published, although they are available in print at the librarys checkout desk. This is in part
because of recent bureaucratic changes that require too many approvals in order to get something
posted to the schools website, so hopefully this will be updated in the coming school year. In order
SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 10
to provide optimal and flexible access to resources to include the space and my self, communication
needs to improve. One way in which to accomplish improved communication in this way will be to
upload my full class schedule to my Outlook calendar, so that all in-school personnel will be able to
see at a glance when I am unavailable. Similarly, I can create a room in Outlook for the library
itself, and load that schedule with library classes and event requests. This will help with the
location and my own availability, but I will need to work further in order to make all resources
optimally available. Online resources and database access may be accessed through a school library
website, if such a thing is approved; similarly, an online catalog may be linked to our website,
pending a software update and administration approval.
Overall, I think that I have a good plan in place and that I am moving in the right direction,
improving my professional abilities and my school library program incrementally to meet my goals.
Some of these tasks will be completed almost as quickly as they gain approval, but other tasks - like
creating a long-term plan based on a nascent and as-yet unapproved budget - will take months or
years to complete. I feel that the first step to accomplishing any goal is identifying the goal and then
creating a plan with a timeline and steps for completion. Now that I have identified these goals, I am
on my way to gaining the requisite approval to continue moving forward, gaining knowledge and
improving myself and my library program each day, each week, each month, and eventually each
year.
SLM 501 Assignment 3: School Library Program Assessment pg. 11

Works Cited
AASLs L4L Sample School Librarian Performance and Evaluation System. Londonderry School
District: AASL, 2009. PDF. Web. 17 July 2016.

"A Planning Guide for Empowering Learners with School Library Program Assessment Rubric."
American Association of School Librarians. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2016.

Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs. Chicago, IL: American
Association of School Librarians, 2009. Print.

Mrs. Librarian. Personal Interview. 8 July 2016.

Standards for School Library Media Programs in Maryland. Baltimore: Maryland State Board of
Education, 2000. PDF.