I have written about our journey with annual library reports many times in the past. If you have never shared an annual report with your library stakeholders, please, consider creating one this year. Library annual reports can convey a lot of information as an advocacy piece for your program, and it can help change the perspective of what you do each day. Reports can also speak to administrators using data and statistics. It is important to provide a return on their investments in library resources and staff.
Changes for the 2017-2018 Report
We chose to streamline our report to contain both library and textbook circulation statistics, teacher collaborations, and tech work orders. (We serve as technology support in our building.) Photos of new collaborations and linked blog article reflections of those events are also included. Hopefully, this will help some of our stakeholders find our two library blogs and read more reflections from our school library adventures.
Things We Will Add Next Time
We keep a Google Form for student sign-in/ sign-out. I failed to put that in the report. Next year, I will make a note to include that statistic so stakeholders will view data indicating how many students visit the library during free flow times. I also should have shared how many books we added and removed from the collection. That statistic is easy to pull from the circulation system. I think that stakeholders would like to see evidence of how the collection changes through the year. To have a current collection, items must be added and discarded!
The Report (Completed on Sway):
Next Steps
This year we will be collecting tech support evidence when we assist teachers with classroom technology problems. This will show how many work orders we keep away from our district technology team. It will also show how much of an impact this service has on our building. You may have special services you provide in your building (in addition to librarianship job duties). Consider collecting data related to that job to share with your stakeholders. In our situation, seeing how much technical assistance we provide the building may help add value to our positions now and/ or in the future.
None of us in the education profession should think that we are always protected and/ or are owed a job position by a school. Assume no one knows what you do and find statistical ways to share the value of your job and your program. Try to approach each day and each year as if you have to re-apply for that job at the end of the year. How might students and teachers benefit from our professional actions if we all had that goal each day?
I have seen many examples of annual library reports over the years. Ultimately, every teacher librarian must select what data they want to share with their stakeholders. Remember, you know what is best for your audience. These data choices may change from year to year. The important thing is that you tell your library stories through some type of annual report. These stories are about student and teacher growth through the lens and services of the library. If you don’t share these stories, who will?
