From Theory to Practice: A New Teacher-Librarian Tackles Library Assessment

Numerous state impact studies show that school libraries improve student achievement and standardized test scores, yet that fact is insufficient to keep financially strapped districts from closing their libraries. Teacher-librarians must be proactive and gather data at the school-site level to demonstrate how valuable they are to students and staff. Thorough library assessments--which include daily usage statistics, community and collection analyses, and student and faculty surveys--must be performed by teacher-librarians. In this article, the author shares how she tackled new library assessment when she was still a beginning teacher-librarian.