Library Advisory Committees

[Ross Teller]

I've decided that I'm going to start a Library Advisory Committee at my school. I read the archives at Lm_Net and read some about them in a few library science books, but I'm still interested in any hints anyone out there has who has worked with them. I've decided that this year we are going to keep a limited focus--brainstorming new services and increasing teacher/librarian collaboration. Of course, I'm not going to shoot anyone down who wants to bring up other things. My school is year-round, so we've already been in session for two weeks. I have my committee lined up already. I asked for volunteers. I hoped to get about 3 to 5 teachers, and ended up with 11. I was really surprised I got so many volunteers. There will also be both librarians, an administrator, and a library aide.

[Ross Teller]

Well, I had my first meeting several weeks ago. I had set a limited agenda for the year, since this is the first time I'd done a library advisory committee. We decided to tackle the criteria for a new activity we are doing this year. Every quarter the library is going to choose a Library Teacher of the Quarter (LTQ). This will be the person who utilized the library most effictively, collaborating with a librarian, planning a project that contained both information literacy skills and curriculum content, and ended with an original product that was an accurate assessment of the unit's objectives. I had some great suggestions for the criteria for choosing the LTQ. I subsequently wrote them up, added a few suggestions from the library staff, and sent them out to the committee via email for revision. I had a meeting to discuss the revisions, but unfortunately, the individuals who wanted to work on this project were unable to come to the meeting. That is why I used email. In October, I'm going to schedule another meeting. We are going to tackle ideas about increasing collaboration between the teacher and the librarian.

[Ross Teller]

My library advisory committee went pretty well last year. I didn't have a lot of turnout at the meetings, after the first one anyway. But, we did get all of our objectives met. I'm currently deciding if I'm going to continue with it this year. Last year we did collection development, new activities, and increasing collaboration. I think this year I'm going to continue with increasing collaboration, particularly through the use of new technologies.

[Elizabeth Hollinger]

What about students as members? My student members gave me some fabulous ideas. They were also my best advocates when explaining library policies to other students.

[Ross Teller]

That's a great idea. I had a few who expressed an interest, but they didn't seem that interested in coming to meetings where teachers were going to be. I have an Anime Club and a Book Club at my library. We get most of our ideas from students within those groups. However, I'm going to try to get some students committed to coming to a library advisory meeting this year. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to give it another try.