Reflection on Study Visits

Being able to visit three university libraries was helpful in reinforcing certain concepts and to compare the services they offer their students. I discovered that all of them are moving away from printed materials and embracing digital resourcing wherever possible.

One area I have given thought to improving is the services we offer our school community. Of course there are some services which we would never be able to provide (i.e. supplying books to nursing homes), but I believe that we can think outside the box and come up with some good ideas. One idea that I have already had is that after school we have a number of children who have to wait for their after school activities to begin. Although I don’t want the library to be seen as a babysitting service, I believe that we can offer productive activities to constructively occupy the students.

Another new initiative I have already put in place since completing my visits is to have different members of my team accompany me to classrooms when I am teaching information literacy lessons. I explained to them that it would be good for them to know what I am teaching the students so that when the children come to the library for assistance with research projects, the librarians and library assistants know the kinds of skills and strategies the children have been developing. 

Stealing an idea from the ISKL librarian, I intend to establish regular reading sessions with my staff where we sit together to read and discuss quality literature. There is always a high demand for picture books from our teachers, so it would help the librarians to recommend texts if they were more familiar with our collection.

A common theme found in all the libraries I visited is that librarians and library workers are mindful of the needs of their customers. Libraries need to be everywhere, not just within the brick walls of the facility. Libraries and librarians need to reach their clients using a variety of strategies – waiting for patrons to walk through the door is not what libraries should be about. I have learned that libraries come in all shapes and sizes. To be the best that it can be, to be an evolving, relevant facility, a library needs to listen to the needs of its community.