MEMO

To: From: Date: Re: Dr. Sonji Leach, Principal, Swainsboro High School Mac Barron, School Library Media Specialist 30-Nov-11 Library Media Program Evaluation

Message
As you know, it is important for the Library Media Program to evaluate itself every year to ensure quality of service. Upon my last evaluation I found several parts of our program that are exemplary, but I also found several areas in need of improvement. Please use this rubric for reference. The good news is that we are exemplary in the following areas: #4: The library media center resources encourage and support reading, viewing, and listening. #5: With our recent push toward reading, I have begun collecting data on readers and resources.

#7: Staffing We have a full-time Media Specialist even though we are below base size. All items under Category 3 - Facilities, Access, and Resources with the exception of GALILEO use(#13). #14: We have a system media contact person (Ann Rogers) who is in frequent contact with all the Media Specialists in the district. #19: I have had several oportunities to expand my own professional knowledge and have been active in planning and providing staff development for administration and faculty.

We were proficient in the following areas: #2: In the are of collaborative planning, I am encouraging teachers, but am not actively engaged in collaborating with teachers beyond showing them how to use technology. #15: We are fortunate enough to have a school and district administration that take an active role in encouraging teachers to integrate our resources into the curriculum. #18: The library media program budget exceeds the mininimum state allocation and is supplemented by local funding. Unfortunately we only rated as basic on the following requirements: #3: I have failed to institute a program of basic orientation and instruction on information location skills. #6: I have not taken an active role in assessing student achievement. #13: Largely due to #3, I have not held instruction on GALILEO use and therefore student use of this resource has remained the same. #16: Our technology committee is effectively working as our library media committee and we meet often, but do not evaluate the media program and there is no overarching media policy guiding day to day or long-term operations.

There was one area in which we did not even rate as basic: #1: There is no formal integration of Information Literacy Skills into the curriculum.

Next Steps:
Let us begin at the bottom. Step #1: Working with administration, classroom teachers, and the adhoc library media committee, I need to develop a long-term information literacy program beginning with orientation of library resources and instruction on the Big 6 model of information literacy. Coupled with this push should be active collaboration on my part with classroom teachers to incorporate the AASL standards into activities supportive of subject area learning. This course of action will address our library programs shortcomings for Target Indicators 1, 3, 6, & 13.

Step #2: Form a formal Library Media Committee as addressed in #16. You may have noted the use of the phrase ad hoc above to refer to the Library Media Committee. This is because although forming this committee is essential to helping develop policy and make major decisions regarding facilities and funds, It may take too long to truly implement. We cannot afford to wait to move from basic to exemplary in the areas listed in step one. Step #3: Although I am pleased with our proficient rating in the noted areas, I am confident we can move to exemplary. The necessary collaboration between me and our classroom teachers (an integral part of steps 1 and 2) will have the added benefit of raising our rating in Target Indicator 2, the primary focus of which is collaboration. I look forward to hearing your feedback and to the opportunity to improve our already vibrant library media program.