School Library Social Capital Goals for 2021

As we start our 2021 in Australia, it is good practice to set you and your team some goals for 2021. 

They might be to increase senior readership or increase understanding of the research process, but it is also important to continue to build our social capital within our school community. We can get so bogged down in what we are doing that we become invisible because we are so busy.

Building social capital is also about building reputation and positioning our school library as the essential service that we are.

The majority of teachers in our school
don't see how hard the Library staff work
to keep the curriculum resources accessible by everyone.
[source]

So consider the following ideas as possible goals for your school library.

We will touch base with EVERY pre-service teacher in our school to promote the role of the school library and library science professionals.

An easy one to measure, what % of pre-service teachers did we speak to? Create a pack of pamphlets advocating the school library and the role of how library professionals might support them with their teaching . How can you help them resource their lessons. Return on investment for this goal isn't one that you will see, but perhaps the pre-service teachers will develop an appreciation for school libraries and will engage with them when they get their first contract.

We will make sure that the school library is "on the radar" by being present or being on the agenda of every curriculum meeting in the school.

The agenda item should ask for a "call to action". The completion of a survey or something to add value to that curriculum area. Regular updates to my team on what is happening in each learning area. Popping book pamphlets into pigeon holes isn't going to engage teachers to engage with your service.

When you are a one-man-band this can be difficult, but how can you use curriculum meetings to engage with teachers and identify area where the school library can help them?

The School Library team will continue to develop their social capital by working collaboratively on knowing our teachers and their teaching and learning needs.

How can you build school library organisational knowledge of what teachers are teaching and where their needs are? Do we need to use a customer relationship database to keep tabs on our conversations or sometime more simplistic like a google doc? How can we build our social capital in the various curriculum areas? How can your team address this goal?

I am sure that discussions with your team will uncover many other social capital goals that you can engage with.

Good luck for 2021.