Evaluating what a TL does

When I read the following two articles, I felt like I had been slapped in the head. It was a real OF COURSE moment for me. It seems so obvious.

Teacher librarians should gather evidence to show how what they do has positively impacted on student learning and how the students have benefited from them. This data can then be used to back what you say. It gives you hard facts to share when you are making a request for new resources or changes.

“Move away from advocating the value of school libraries and start documenting tangible outcomes” (Todd, 2007).

(Todd, R. J. (2007). Evidence-based practice and school libraries: from advocacy to action. . In S. Huges-Hassell, & V. H. Harada, School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-78). Westport, CY: Libraries Unlimited.)

This is further reinforced by Diane Oberg in 2002 article "Looking for the evidence: Do school libraries improve student achievement?" School Libraries in Canada. Vol. 22, Iss. 2, p. 10-13.

Gathering evidence to prove that what you do makes a difference is going to be a challenge for me as it is not something that I have had to do before. Diane Oberg does recommend starting small as even a small project is time-consuming.

Standard 2.4 of Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians provides some indicators that an excellent TL will evaluate.
Below I am gather some some different ideas and tools I can use to gather information if I ever work as a TL.

These pages has lots of different tools for polling and surveying tools.
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Quiz+and+Poll+Tools -
http://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com/Polling+tools


New idea - online *http://www.polleverywhere.com// Survey the users using their phone or online.

Some more ideas to keep in mind for evaluating what you do and or the collection include:

• analyse units of work that have resource based learning components and check holdings in those areas to ensure that there is sufficient breadth and depth;

• monitor requests from users and identify areas where there are insufficient resources to meet their requests;

• check the reports generated from the stocktake for any areas within the collection which have a comparatively high number of resources missing;

• analyse statistics: circulation, number of resources and varied formats in topic areas, age of resources;

• note age, physical condition and appearance of resources and furnishings;

• compare published lists recommended resources with the library’s holdings;

• seek verbal feedback from staff and students about how well the collection meets needs; and

• conduct a formal survey designed to give information about user satisfaction with the collection.

Taken from Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Schools and the Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians (VCTL). (2007). Australian School Library Association (ASLA). Retrieved from A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/manual.htm