Assessing and Strengthening

School Libraries in the

English Montreal School Board

Presentation for 81st ABQLA Annual Conference, 9 May 2013

Gelber Conference Centre, Montréal, QC

Julian Taylor,

Librarian

Pedagogical Services Department, EMSB

Abstract

School libraries have a number of obstacles preventing them from being their best for our students and teaching staff. While this is not a new phenomenon, the idea of doing an objective board-wide assessment of our libraries and the needs of their school communities, in order to collectively work towards making our school libraries more reflective of our students' needs and becoming more relevant in their minds, is relatively new idea. This presentation aims to explain the planning and process of this assessment at the English Montreal School Board, as well as the results it has achieved and its long term goals.

Assessing Library Service?

Used with permission from “Unshelved.com”

http://www.unshelved.com/2002-8-30

Assessing Library Service?

What is actually being measured / assessed?

Is the person involved getting good data?

Is the person involved reporting the data from an

unbiased point of view?

“Data for the sake of data” or “to serve a purpose”?

Why Assess Our Libraries?

Need to objectively and universally understand what

the current state of our school libraries is.

Stories are often told out of context and with no concept

of it being an isolated issue or a common / systemic

problem.

Need to determine what the common needs are in

our schools in order to:

better utilize limited funds and resources,

work collectively with school-based personnel towards

making our school libraries more reflective of the needs

our modern students and teachers.

Why Assess Our Libraries?

Need to use the language and tools of administrators

and other decision makers to:

demonstrate to them what an underutilized resource

school libraries are

that school libraries need to be improved.

Context

~ 38 Elementary Schools

Most have a library technician 2 days a week

See all students by class in each school in those 2 days time

Very little time to do anything other than basic library operations.

~ 14 High Schools

Library open and staffed by a library technician 5 days a week.

~30 library technicians and 3 librarians in our schools.

For the sake of brevity, “Library Personnel” will be used when

discussing all school-based library technicians and librarians.

All library personnel handle the day-to-day library operations

completely alone.

Context

Assessment is a current and powerful trend in the world of education over the last few years; very business model approach. Libraries often overlooked as a part of the school community.

The superior of all library personnel is a former teacher turned administrator; not someone with specific library training or background.

School libraries are often the last spot on the hand-me-down list for computers or other technological equipment.

School libraries have often been one of the first places administrators look when it comes to reducing budgets.

Outdated Libraries

Card Catalogs at the Library of Congress

Eric Spiegel CC BY-NC 2.0

Background

Hired into new position in April 2009.

A number of projects aimed at improving library

service across the school board in specific targeted

schools.

21st Century Library Project

(ABQLA presentation May 2010)

Basically, school by school projects with limited

impact and long term gain.

Development Spring 2011

Addition of Danielle Juneau to the “team”.

QSLiN G. Nadeau and D. Robert, typologie des bibliothèques scolaires

Fall 2011 Launched a board-wide initiative to meet with each principal and their

library personnel in their school.

Winter 2012 EBSI Intern reviews with fresh eyes

Numerous revisions

2011-2012 school year Visited 14 Elementary Schools and 5 High Schools.

Fall 2012-Spring 2013 ...

Questions, Questions, Questions...

Survey broken into 3 sections:

Pre-Survey

Dealt with some of the more time consuming questions about

how long certain activities took and how often they were

required

Meeting with the Principals

Questions concerning the library from the point of view of the

administration and the school as a whole.

Meeting with the school’s library personnel

Why Principal and school library personnel separate?

Standard Operating Procedures

“Who are these librarians and what do they want

with my school library?”

“We aren’t the library police.”

Reassure all parties that we are not looking for problems,

just trying to help.

Same person always asks the same questions & the

same person always records the responses.

To increase consistency between surveys.

Questions, Questions, Questions...

Pre-survey for the school’s library personnel

How many days / year do you spend purchasing books (in bookstores or placing orders from the school)?

How much time, or how often during the year, do you take to evaluate your collection for the purpose of planning, develop and diversify the collection?

How many damaged books are repaired per year?

How many damaged books per year are removed from the collection?

Questions, Questions, Questions...

Meeting with the Principal

20 to 45+ minutes

Often other members of the administration took part.

Library Budget

Role of Volunteers

Their Vision of the Library

Open ended,

Personal stories about the school library.

Questions, Questions, Questions...

Meeting with the school’s library personnel

~1 hour

Questions about:

library services,

library usage,

budgets,

role of volunteers,

nature of the collection and its development,

physical layout of the library

Physical measurements recorded and photographs taken.

General Findings So Far...

Much of what was known unofficially is now being seen as part of a recognizable pattern; carries more weight.

Budgets

Volunteers

Communication between administrators and library personnel is often the root of any problems.

Many administrators do not have a clear understanding of what a library technician or librarian does or could do.

A large number of inspiring programs are taking place in our schools, many of which are now being shared.

Long Term Goals

Publicise and share the great innovations and projects

taking part in our libraries.

Show how library service in our schools is not all it could

be, and potentially not even as good as people feel it is.

Demonstrate what could be done with increased

resources and time to make our libraries meet the

demands or today’s students and teachers.

Push for increased staffing at the elementary level,

without reducing staffing at the secondary level.

Unintended Results

Higher visibility of board level librarians

Drastic increase in the number of school administrators

and school-based library personnel who request

assistance from board level librarians.

Exceptionally good PR tool.

Higher visibility of school libraries and their

personnel

Wide-spread increase in desire to involve libraries and

their personnel in school wide issues.

Development Revisited

2011-2012 school year

Visited 14 Elementary Schools and 5 High Schools.

2012-2013 school year

Visited 2 Elementary Schools and 1 High School.

Main focus diverted from the assessment project towards projects that are brought to us by school-based personnel, very often as a result of doing the survey.

3rd Board Level Librarian, Annette MacIntyre, added to the team.

2013-2014 school year

Renewed focus on the assessment tool in order to achieve our original goals.

Assessing and Strengthening

School Libraries in the

English Montreal School Board

Presentation for 81st ABQLA Annual Conference, 9 May 2013

Gelber Conference Centre, Montréal, QC

Julian Taylor,

Librarian

Pedagogical Services Department, EMSB