Mission Possible: Leadership, Vision and Personal Professional Development

by Dorcas Hand, Editor, TASL Talks; School Library Advocate; Co-Founder Students Need Libraries in HISD

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So here it comes, ready or not. A new calendar year starting right on time in the middle of a school year that has been fraught with even more challenges than usual. How are you preparing yourself to cope? Do you have a considered vision of what you want your school library program to look like, and a set of steps outlined to accomplish that goal? Instead of a resolution that is impossible, why not try setting a goal, and measuring progress in the right direction? A mission and goals give you an anchor to hold you on track as the days are crazy.

When you read about Mission, it is generally discussed with Vision as a core of a strategic plan. And yes, really you should take the time to develop a full plan with the help of your stakeholders. (Burns, Elizabeth. "Take Action! Advocacy = Building Stakeholder Relationships." School Library Connection October 2015; Foote, Carolyn. "School Libraries: Leading the Way into the Future." School Library Connection October 2015.)

But I get it – school is starting already. You need the down and dirty way to start with a new outline that supports your work in the direction of recommended best practices. What is a Mission anyway? Or a Vision? Well, actually, I just started you on a path of Personal Professional Growth that can inspire your work in 2018. I went to the first competency listed in the Todaro Initiative The Expert in The School Library, and found the two articles I linked in the last paragraph. Those are a simple way to understand the strategic planning process, and mission/vision. And now you can return to the full document anytime you want for ready help in any of the 11 competencies.

Back to Mission/Vision. “The mission of xxx is to provide activities and resources that will assist students and staff in becoming effective and discriminating users of information, developing a pattern of lifelong learning, and in fostering a love of reading.” (slide 8 from Koren, Johan. "Vision Mission Goals and Objectives for the School Library Media Center." 2008. SlideShare. Lecture. Even though this is 2008, it covers the overview beautifully.)

From AASL, “The mission of the school library program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information; students are empowered to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information.”

For the most current thinking, look to the six Common Beliefs underlying the new AASL Standards, especially #s 3 and 4:

• Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life.
• Reading is the core of personal and academic competency.

Try tweaking these two models with some verbiage from your school and district missions to be perfect for your own local situation. No more than two sentences! This shows you to be both professionally aware of library standards as well as aware of your local directives.

So far, the only surprise may have been the idea of writing a formal statement for public consumption – but think how impressed your administrator will be to see that you have been thinking hard over break.

Now, what are two steps you can take to implement your vision. Hint: You are probably already doing these things but had not seen them as part of the big picture. As the term progresses, you can add additional items that look towards next year – but two goals for January-May is plenty. And how will you measure your progress? You’ll want to be able to have some numbers AND an anecdote or two to illustrate your impact.

So, let’s look at the “activities and resources” bit in the first example above. You might say “plan monthly thematic displays and related activities to encourage love of reading widely.” Measure? Class visits for theme activity. Or circulation of themed books. Teacher requests for related books. Or something else that suits you.

Alternatively, you might choose “support classroom reading with special collections of books focused on a classroom topic.” Measure could be details of classroom support.

Both of these ideas are likely ideas you already do – but here they are framed as part of the envisioned library program within the larger frame of school and district goals.

Congratulations!:

• You’ve made a Mission statement and two supporting goals.
• You’ve discovered and used a Personal Professional Growth resource.
• Most importantly, you’ve made an outline of your new year to guide you even when life gets a little crazy.

You are ready to start the 2018 portion of the current school year!