11 ways to increase your staff

Sent to LM_Net. Reposted here with permission of the author. - Doug

... I get the impression that most school library media centers are understaffed and as a result their services shrink. Like a locomotive, the library media center facility can and should be a driving force within the school.

Here are some suggestions on how to increase staff:

1. Strive to make the high school library media center the true hub and center of the school by:
   a) move the Xerox machine into your domain
   b) provide a comfortable facility exclusively for faculty ( an interdepartmental area with a coffee machine, computers and a large table)
   c) Increase the noise level tolerance a little and make the library as welcoming as possible to all

2. Make the library media center the "center of all media" both in the area of impression (books, magazines, etc) and expression (media production - PowerPoint, video editing)

3. Establish a center of the center - that is to say, within your library media center at its center, create a stage or platform that is well lit and has convenient amplification and make it available for more special programs (music, author visits, celebrations, etc)

4. NEVER allow your library to be reduced to a computer lab. That is the doom of any real library media center. The main floor should never have fixed immovable computers - rather a central seating area.

5. Keep the stacks arranged so that there is one main central seating area

6. Provide "live" opportunities for students to keep up on the current news, preferably from an international perspective from a television source like BBC - avoid the glib and commercialized channels

7. Find ways to become an integral arm of school administration - work closely with them.

8. If we consider ourselves just librarians, we are doomed - we are library media specialists and we need to provide a FULL spectrum of library media center services to the school - that includes providing
information, keeping an updated and interesting web site, include all media and communication forms under one room, and extend your reach through broadcast

9. Keep excellent relations with the home school associations

10. Provide special opportunities for all students

11. Never shrink your services, rather always try to increase them

David Di Gregorio
ddigregorio (a) tenafly.k12.nj.us  <http://www.librarymedia.net/>
Supervisor Library Media Services
Tenafly  (NJ) High School's Lalor Library Media Center

Very practical suggestions from a practicing media specialist. And of course, I would add, put in a coffee shop for students. Thanks, David, for sharing this with the Blue Skunk Readers. - Doug

Comments

[ken]

There's a company that sells denim, perhaps you've heard of them, 'Diesel'.

This is how they 'sell' jeans: Their products are shelved in a random fashion. There's no neat column of loose fit, stone-washed jeans. Nope, the whole store is the denim equivalent of a count-the-jelly-bean-jar.

See, when customers walk in, they 'need' the associates. The customer seeks out help. And according to their data (read Paco Underhill if you get the chance), when a customer approaches the associate (instead of the other way around...go to The Gap!), they claim an 84% conversion rate.

Could it work? Just a thought.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Ken,

I am not sure how random we want our collections, but I have heard of libraries starting to replace the “by-author” shelving of fiction into genres – more like what you would find in a book store.

All the best,

Doug

[Jenny Luca]

I couldn't agree more Doug. We are doomed unless we reinvisage what it is we do and how we provide service for our students. I've written about this recently. You should read Mark Pesce's The Alexandrine Dilemma if you haven't already.

Great blog you have here. So much to contemplate in what you write. I will be following with much interest.

http://jennylu.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/the-future-of-libraries/
http://jennylu.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/the-alexandrine-dilemma-mark-pesces-message-for-librarians/

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for the link to Mark’s article. He articulates questions we all have! I dealt with some of this in an address to Cairns librarians in 2005 <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/dangers-and-opportunities-1.html> I’ve also been thinking a lot about what libraries may look like in a “post literate” society: http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/8/13/libraries-for-a-post-literate-society-i.html

All the best and thank you for the compliment!

Doug