Essential Questions

• How are you and your library program supporting student learning, literacy, and school climate?

• How can you share evidence to demonstrate the value of your program and practice for the school community?

Goal

• Secondary LMS will plan to create and share evidence-based advocacy products with their school community on a regular basis.  

Connect

• What is advocacy? 

• AASL School Library Standards 

• Useful Verbs for School Librarians related to advocacy

• School Library Domains and Alignments related to advocacy

• Secondary LMS Evaluation:  Domain 4 Professional Responsibility (4b & 4c)

Engage

• Why is evidence-based advocacy necessary for secondary school libraries?  

• What are some potential benefits/positive outcomes of evidence-based advocacy? 

Analyze Models

• Use this organizer to analyze one of the Advocacy Product samples below.
  

1. Loch Raven Technical Academy - Tatanisha Love

2. Catonsville MS - Alyssa Smith

3. Ridgely MS - Allison Cook 

4. Hereford HS - Suhaila Tenly

5. Sparrows Point MS - Aimee Farrell

6. Dundalk HS - Mairead Navin  

• See also this Elementary example:  Edmondson Heights ES - David Robbins

Gather Evidence & Artifacts   

• LibraryTrac Data 

• Student Log > Reporting - for data on Individual Student visits to the Library

• Statistics, graphs, details:  # of students, reasons, popular visit times

• Class Log > Reporting - for data on classes receiving LMS instruction, class book exchange visits, collaboration w/teachers

• Statistics, graphs, details: # of classes/students, grade levels/content areas, teachers

• Limit Reasons one at a time: Instruction w/LMS, Collaboration w/LMS, Book Exchange  

• Calendar events - check event Description to gather details about specific learning experiences or events.

• For class visits, event Title should be:  Course + Grade Level (e.g. ELA 6, World History 10) You may add LMS to title to show Instruction w/LMS (LMS/ELA 6, LMS/World History 10).

• Teacher should be chosen from the Teacher drop-down menu; update your Teachers list in Global Settings! 

•  Student learning or event description should be in Description (e.g. Background research for Macbeth, Digital Citizenship Slam Dunk: Copyrights & Wrongs, Lesson on evaluating sources)

• Check data accuracy and clean up data as needed, such as missing # of students, teacher names, reasons; wrong reason, etc.

• Adjust LibraryTrac settings if needed to ensure accurate data reporting in the future! Common settings errors include:

• Split periods in the Daily Schedule, resulting in single class visits reported as 2.

• "All Day" events for one teacher's classes instead of separate class events.

• Missing Reasons; only events without a Reason should be for LMS Unavailable (absent, duty)

• If you have Reasons set to "required" for teachers making own reservations, you may add a Reason called "Duty" (capital D) if you have lunch duty, etc. and "Absent" for your personal business/illness absences.

• Destiny Circulation Data - by genre, format, grade levels for 1st Quarter date range

• Destiny Discover home screen > Popular Titles (top 10)

• Reports > Library Reports > Statistics > Collection Statistics-Historical

• Reports > Library Reports > Follett Digital & eContent > Follett Digital 

• Reports > Patron Reports >Statistics > Patron Statistics-Historical 

• Consider displaying circulation statistics as a graph; use the Insert Chart feature in MS PPT/Word and save as image.

Data is valuable ... but numbers alone do not "tell the whole story" of your program and practice and its impact!

Tell your Story by including ...

• Anecdotal evidence: 

• Written summaries of class learning experiences, library events, reading initiatives, maker activities, etc.

• Teacher and student testimonials, quotes about their library, learning, or collaboration experience and its impact. 

• Photos, other images, video  

•  Check student opt-outs for photos/video. Be mindful of diversity and gender inclusivity!

•  Use copyright-friendly images/media if not your own. 

• Student artifacts - Check student opt-outs for intellectual property.

• Resource information - New books, eBooks, BCPS Databases, BCPL Student Accounts/Databases 

• Library news, upcoming events 

Plan & Create an Advocacy Product

• Use this Advocacy Planning Sheet to get started.  Get inspiration from the models we analyzed!
  

• Choose a format:  eNewsletter, Infographic, Quarterly Report?

• Identify your target audience(s):  Administrators, teachers, parents, students? Entire school community? 

• Consider "branding" - Library or learning commons? Mascot, logo, vision statement, slogan.

• Identify and gather evidence/artifacts that demonstrate impact on student learning, literacy, school climate.

• Make an Advocacy Product folder to gather snipped data/graphs, photos, artifacts.

• Use publication/presentation tools: 

• S'more  |  Canva  |  Sway  |  MS Word, PPT or Publisher (can be published as PDF) |  Video  |  Others?

• Use the Snipping Tool to capture and save LibraryTrac graphs, other screenshots

• See also:

• Infographics - Tips & tools from Jen Weaver's DLU workshop.

• The Noun Project - Find icons/simple graphics; free account.

Share your Advocacy Product

• Send an Outlook Calendar invitation for Nov 16 to an accountability partner:

• Subject: Share My Advocacy Product/Location: Email.  Add a link to the invitation and Update when finished.

• Use the best communication channel(s) to share with school target audience(s):  

• Email, Schoology, school website, Twitter (tag school Twitter handle), other social media (Instagram, Facebook), TV Studio. 

• Share with LMP and wider BCPS community:

• Tweet with #bcpslms to share with LMS community

• Email a link to the LMP team 

Reflect

• What format/tool will you use to create your 1st Quarter advocacy product? Who will your audience be?

• What story & evidence from 1st Quarter are you most excited to share? 

• What strategies will you use to continuously generate evidence of your program's impact on learning, literacy, and climate?

Extend Your Learning

• AASL Advocacy page

• AASL Standards & Advocacy Go Together Like Peanut Butter & Jelly (Webinar slides) 

Instructor PPT