Presentation at ALA 2018 with Courtney Lewis and Sarah Kelley-Mudie

1. The ‘What If’ Scenario
Sara Kelley-Mudie, Thayer Academy, Braintree, MA
Courtney Lewis, St. Catherine’s School, Richmond VA
Laura Pearle, Milton Academy, Milton, MA

2. Alternate
Session Titles

3. Things we wished we hadn’t inherited. . .

4. So. Many. Keys.

5. What does someone actually need in order to
do your job? How can you use these
documents to communicate what you do?

6. How do you gather the information you need?

8. http://bit.ly/WhatIfScenario

9. Beginning the Year

10. What do you need right away?
Which items can spark useful conversations?
● Read the library manual or
section of the school
handbook devoted to the
library
● Sketch out a sample day
● Who are the key people?
● Who do you call when
something isn’t working
online?
● What information should you
collect from students and
from faculty in order to get
accurate data about your
library?
● What ongoing library
projects and initiatives are
happening that you need to
know about and potentially
continue?

11. Mid-Year

12. It’s mid-year and the challenges keep coming. Which
items can spark useful conversations?
● See what to expect each
month with teacher
collaboration with the library
and use of space
● Keep track of your money,
how it's spent, and what time
of year its flowing out
● Take a close look at your
collection, looking at key data
regarding the distribution and
age of your collection, and
even using outside tools to
help

13. End of YearEnd of Year

14. Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? Which items
can spark useful conversations?
● Prepare to do inventory;
hopefully your software has a
great how-to
● Consider weeding projects to
complete BEFORE you
inventory; get your aged title
and no circulation reports as
a start
● Do a space analysis; GTime
Report if you use Google
Calendar
● Take a look at key statistics
that can help you inform
yourself and others about
what the library does; put
them together in an
infographic and/or annual
report
● Analyze your database usage
statistics before renewal
● What are the “opportunities
for growth”?

15. How to gather this information
● Set up a system at the start of the year and update it
● Set an alert in your calendar for every week
● Use spreadsheets that can be easily/quickly updated
○ Use copies of the spreadsheets in
http://bit.ly/WhatIfScenario
● Use big chart paper to capture “what you did” throughout
the year

16. Best practices for key Library Documents
● Make it accessible in multiple formats, and make sure it’s
easy for a new person to get into
● Establish a general library email and ensure that all
account information goes to that account
● Use a central drive to keep all documents, manuals, etc.
so that it’s all in one place
● Make it easy to update (no PDFs!)
● Select a platform that fits with your school’s norms
(GoogleDrive, network drive, etc.)

17. Who needs
access to this
information?

18. What would you add to this list of key
documents and resources?

19. Sara Kelley-Mudie
Thayer Academy
Director of Southworth Library
sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com
Laura Pearle
Milton Academy
Director of Cox Library
lpearle@gmail.com
Courtney Lewis
Director of Libraries and
Innovative Research
St. Catherine’s School
cllewis@st.catherines.org
Questions for us?