5 Things You Want a Principal to Know About the School Librarian

Are you getting a new school principal? Job interviewing for a school transfer? Need to garner support for your position & the school library? Here are 5 things you'll want a principal—or anyone else—to know about you and the school library. | No Sweat LibraryToward the end of a school year, a School Librarian may decide to transfer to another school or leave the district for a librarian position elsewhere. In either case, a job interview with a school principal is around the corner. Alternatively, our school may get a new principal and we want her/him to know how to support the school library.

Even if we are not making a change, School Librarians nowadays must always be ready to defend our position within the school building, and in the district and the community. Sometimes a quick “elevator pitch” is enough, but at times we have to express our needs in order to serve the needs of our students and their school library program. This question can help us narrow our focus so we are, in fact, giving the “big picture” to those who can make a difference:

What 5 things do I want a principal to know about me, the School Librarian,
and about the school library?

1) I am a Teacher.

My primary role is as a teacher of information literacy. I have a set of National Standards which provide a framework for the knowledge and skills students are expected to master by the time they move on to their next school or future endeavor.

To fully integrate the information literacy curriculum into content-area lessons, I need to collaborate with teachers. Research shows that regular collaboration between the school librarian and other teachers greatly increases student achievement, so I need the principal to actively encourage faculty to collaborate with me. I document collaborations in reports and my end-of-year appraisal, and it would be helpful if the principal recommends that teachers tally their own collaborations with me.

Download this short PDF Library Lesson Collaboration Short Form from my FREE School Librarian Resources page. Make copies and keep stacked on the circulation counter, to use for a collaboration opportunity when a teacher comes into the library.

Image of single Library Lesson Teacher Collaboration Form. | No Sweat Library

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2) I need sufficient funding to maintain a quality school library.

yellow moneybag with dollar sign - A school librarian needs adequate funding for library collection developmentTo ensure student achievement, the school library collection—print, digital, and online—must be from authoritative sources, with current publication dates, and in support of student and teacher curricular needs. To maintain this quality, I need a budget that will provide for the acquisition of new resources and the replacement of out-of-date, lost, and damaged ones.

Most states have guidelines for the library budget and for a minimum number of materials. Here is an example of one state—Texas**—which falls about the middle of all U.S. States for library guidelines:

  • Resources budget for print and non-print materials=
    $5500 or $12.00 x Average Daily Attendance
  • Operational budget=6% of Resources budget
  • An Acceptable school library has a minimum of
    11,000(secondary)/12,000 (elementary) books or 12/14 books per student,
    plus at least 250 videos, 46 audios, 12 periodicals
  • Refresh annually at least 3% of materials, licensed databases, and other electronic resources, including audiobooks and eBooks.

I also need funds from the principal for building media that cannot be purchased with library funds. Such incidental audio/video/digital items include cameras or computer products that teachers check out for student projects.

3) Make my morning/lunch/afternoon duties in the school library.

For some students, these are the only times during the day they can come into the library to check out a book. Students may be sent to the library by morning-duty teachers to take make-up tests or to review videos or classroom presentations. For students on sports teams or with difficult home situations, these library times are a “homework hub” that allows them to keep up with school work. For project-based inquiry learning, this is also the best time and place for students to collaborate on projects!

Teachers rely on me to be available at these times to help gather materials for their classrooms or collaborate on lessons. This is also when I can sponsor a library club for students who like to help shelve books and other volunteer tasks. On busy days, this may be the only planning time I have to prepare library lessons for class visits.

Make a powerful statement to students and teachers that
the School Library is an important learning center in our school
by allowing me to be in the school library during these critical times.

4) I am a department head, even if I’m the sole library unit.

round table with 8 people around it - I need my principal to include me in various decision-making meetingsI need my principal to include me in various decision-making meetings, especially those that affect library use or curriculum and technology materials. I can provide a unique perspective that no one else can:

  • I am broadly familiar with every subject-area teacher’s curriculum.
  • I may be the most proficient technology specialist in the building.
  • Along with the custodian and school secretary, I have extensive knowledge of the physical building.
  • As the library program administrator, I have contacts in district offices and departments that can ease the acquisition of supplemental materials or equipment for classroom, school or extracurricular plans.
  • Library activities touch every subject and grade level, so I often see and hear more of student and/or teacher issues than others.

A principal will want to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and information a school librarian can provide to any committee or meeting.

5) The library may be empty, but I really am busy working.

Our principals need to know that School Librarians are busy even when the library is empty. We talk with vendors, purchase, and process new materials. We meet with teachers and work with students in the classrooms. We balance budgets and write reports. And more... | No Sweat LibraryBeing a School Librarian is a demanding job, as I must manage my time among the 5 areas of expertise that help me contribute to student success. Here are just a few of the “invisible” tasks that absorb my time when I’m not checking out or shelving books or teaching a lesson to students:

  • Teacher: create my Library Lesson Plans for student visits.
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  • Instructional partner: plan lessons with teachers, prepare materials for teachers, prepare student/teacher audio/video/digital projects.
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  • Information specialist: phone or meet with book and digital vendors, generate purchase orders for new print & digital materials and equipment, unpack, process, and shelve new print and audio/video materials for the collection, inventory materials and equipment in the library and throughout the building.
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  • Program administrator: manage the library facility, including scheduling, in an equitable manner according to need, balance the budget, generate reports on circulation, overdue books, library use, collaborative lessons, and curriculum that help you and me make decisions to benefit our campus.
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  • Education leader: update the library website, create and manage library print & social media communications to parents and the community, create presentations for staff development training, keep up with my own professional learning, and with library and educational trends.

MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE!

To conclude, please remember that this isn’t about me, the School Librarian, but rather it’s to provide students with access to high-quality resources when they need them. And that can only happen when you understand that my needs are the needs of the School Library Program. When you support me in the above 5 ways, it is a dream come true!

If you like this article, you can download this 2-sided PDF document explaining the 5 important ways to best support the School Librarian and the School Library Program and give a copy to your principal. Image of the PDF document "5 Things You Want a Principal to Know About the School Librarian." | No Sweat Library

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**School Library Programs: Standards and Guidelines for Texas. Texas State Library & Archives Commission and the Texas Education Agency, updated 2017. Accessed 8/15/2023.

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What’s a Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix & How Do I Use It?

What's a Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix & How Do I Use It? - School Librarians often struggle to create a cohesive library skills curriculum when subject area library visits are so unpredictable. Here's a visual organizer that lets you take control of your lesson planning and promotes collaboration with all content area teachers! #NoSweatLibraryWhen we become a School Librarian we don’t cease being a teacher. What changes, however, is how we plan and present our lessons.

  • First, we no longer have a standard curriculum designed to be presented chronologically on a daily basis.
  • Second, we rarely have contiguous days with students, so we must spread learning across random, irregular library visits.

So, how can School Librarians teach Library Information Literacy Skills under such circumstances? We must scaffold stand-alone topical lessons that gradually build up knowledge, so students receive a comprehensive program of Information Literacy instruction.

In short, School Librarians must integrate info-lit skills into every subject and grade level, during single class periods throughout the school year. And the only way to do that is to become familiar with everyone’s subject area curriculum.

A VISUAL ORGANIZATION TOOL FOR SUBJECT CURRICULA

School Librarians must support what students are studying in the classroom, otherwise, teachers won’t allow time for a library visit. We don’t need to know course content as teachers do, but we must familiarize ourselves with content area units and their assessments so we can discern when students need an information literacy skill to do what they’re expected to do—even if it’s not written down and the teacher doesn’t realize it.

Once I decided this was the best approach, I had to devise a way to organize it: First, to identify when a library lesson was needed for students, and second, to track intermittent lessons and progressively build Info-Lit Skills. I decided to create a grid with different subject areas along one side and a chronological listing of my Library Info-Lit Lessons along the other side.

I worked my way through subjects and grade levels, and as I added actual lessons, I also entered Library Standards. The grid became quite unwieldy, but after digitization into a set of spreadsheets, with a few modifications & adjustments, I finally arrived at the finished product that I use even today:
the No Sweat School Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix.

No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix - School Librarians often struggle to create a cohesive library skills curriculum when subject area library visits are so unpredictable. Here's a visual organizer that lets you take control of your lesson planning and promotes collaboration with all content area teachers! #NoSweatLibrary

USE MY TEMPLATE TO BUILD YOUR OWN CURRICULUM MATRIX

Colleagues have asked for more specifics about my LLC Matrix, so for this blog post I’m explaining the template I created so any school librarian can fill in their own subject curricula and library lessons.

This visual organizer helps you create collaborative Library Lessons throughout the school year and across grade levels. Spreadsheet fields for grade-level subject area units & assessments, Information Literacy Skills, and National School Library Standards.
My Matrix Template is available from No Sweat Library, my TPT store, but for my email group it’s a free download from our e-List Library.
If you’re not on my mailing list, join now so you can access all the valuable FREE school librarian tools I offer there. Plus you’ll receive a personal email when I add a new blog post!
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The No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template contains 5 tabbed spreadsheets:

No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix snip of tabs

  • a year-long Library Scheduler overview page.
  • 3 tabbed pages for Grade levels, in my case 6g, 7g, and 8g. (Add additional pages by copying one of the spreadsheets and rename tabs to align with your own grade levels.)
  • an Example sheet with some of my No Sweat Library Lessons entered to guide you through filling in your own information.

For each grade level spreadsheet, the Subject Area rows are listed down the left side, along with rows for Information Literacy and National School Library Standards. The Grading Period Week columns are across the top and between each subject. There is a separate block for each of the two semesters. Notice the “Freeze” entry: this feature allows you to slide the relevant time period next to the Subjects column.
(Customize subjects & grading periods for your situation.)
Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Grade Level sheets - Grade level pages of the visual organizer Template that lets School Librarians organize subject curricula and Library Lesson. #NoSweatLibrary

Here’s the step-by-step process for filling in the LLC Matrix Template:

  1. Begin with a single subject area for your lowest grade level.
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  2. Using the subject’s curriculum guide/scope & sequence, enter content unit titles/themes into the field for the week they begin. (I italicize these to keep them distinct from my library lesson information.)
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  3. Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix snip of color blocks - Lesson color blocks of the visual organizer Template that lets School Librarians organize subject curricula and Library Lesson. #NoSweatLibraryLook through the cg/ss for classroom assignments that could benefit from a library lesson or library resources. For the week you think it’s needed, colorize the block (the same color as the subject area) and type “Library Lesson” or “Library Resources.”
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  4. In the Information Literacy row, under the corresponding week, add the skills that can be introduced and/or type of resource.
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  5. Grab another subject area cg/ss for the grade level, and fill in units & identify probable library lessons or resources. Do this for each different subject at that grade level.
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  6. Move to the next grade level and fill in subject area units and possible library lessons & resources. As you progress through each grade, keep in mind what you identified at prior grade levels, so you can plan a review and then introduce new skills.
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  7. Once you have a preliminary LLC Matrix, pull out Library Lesson Plans that you regularly teach and replace your own Lesson info as shown in the example above. Be sure to enter National School Library Standards into the appropriate fields. (I like to enter my lesson Title into the subject row and the lesson Theme or Learning Target into the Info-Lit row.)

When you’ve finished your LLC Matrix, you’ll have a thorough picture of all subject area curricula and where you can create more lessons to introduce, review, and build Library Information Literacy Skills. You may also see the need to enhance the library’s print or digital collection to meet a curricular need you weren’t aware of.

Your LLC Matrix may occasionally need changes as standards and course curricula change, but if you keep up with it, you’ll always have a broad view of library visits and the Info-Lit Skills you cover for the grade levels.

The Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is a great tool to show your principal during evaluations, so they understand how valuable you are to classroom learning!

HOW TO USE YOUR LIBRARY LESSON CURRICULUM MATRIX

Collaborate with Teachers using the Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix - Use the No Sweat School Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template to plan Library Lessons with subject area teachers, and take a printout along when approaching them to schedule a library visit. They'll be convinced that collaborating with the School Librarian will benefit their students! #NoSweatLibraryCreating the Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is the easy part. Creating specific Library Lessons is a bit more challenging. The really hard part is convincing teachers that students will benefit from a Library Lesson! Here’s how I do it:

  • At the start of each grading period I look over the upcoming library lessons & resources for that span in my Matrix. I select & print out enough of the Matrix so those teachers see how important their place is in building Info-Lit skills.
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  • I also print out each Library Lesson Plan so teachers can see how I incorporate their unit Standards and activities as a focus for the library skills lesson.
    When only library resources are needed, I use my Library Lesson Short Form for Teacher Requests (available on my FREE Librarian Resources page).
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  • During their conference period, I go to each subject area teacher and show them the LLC Matrix and their Library Lesson Plan. I make it pretty easy for them to say “Yes, indeed, let’s do this!”
    (For resources & Short Form, I suggest a “quick lesson” so students know how to best use the materials.)
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  • I also bring a selected print-out of the Library Scheduler spreadsheet and when I pull it out for scheduling their library visit they’re pretty impressed to see what a School Librarian’s job is all about!

You may be thinking, “Wait, shouldn’t we collaborate with the teacher before we create the Library Lesson Plan?” Uh, NO. In my experience, teachers who are unfamiliar with librarian collaboration can’t envision how we can help them. But, they’ll consider a library visit when we show them a concrete example of how we use their content to teach library skills that enhance classroom learning and increase student achievement.

NoSweat Library Lesson Planner Template - page 1

My No Sweat Library Lesson Planner Templates are available for download from my FREE Librarian Resources page!

Learn more about using my Library Lesson Planner Template from these blog posts:

Library Lesson Short Form for Teacher Requests - Print out this abbreviated form of the Library Lesson Planner Template and use it when teachers walk in with lesson requests! #NoSweatLibrary
Short, Simple, and Relevant School Library Lessons
How to Build a High Quality, Standards-Based School Library Lesson

GO FORTH & COLLABORATE WITH YOUR CURRICULUM MATRIX

Once you’ve completed your Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix, I know you’ll rely on it to develop your lessons and purchase resources. And when colleagues, teachers, and administrators see this tool, your professional standing with them will skyrocket! BTW, I’m open to any suggestions you may have for improvement…just put it in the Comments below.

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