Portfolio Introduction

Continuous collection and program evaluation is an important part of the school library media specialist's job. Often times, after evaluating a portion of the collection, the librarian discovers that there are insufficient funds in her budget to address the issues uncovered. At this point, a librarian must turn to her principal or other school or community based groups for alternative funding. After a critical evaluation of the 900's section of the media center, I was flabbergasted by what I discovered. This section was not up to par with the rest of the library. Some severe weeding was in need, and new , current, and accurate materials desperately needed purchasing. Unfortunately, conducting an overhaul such as this in a timely manner would require more funds than the media center budget currently could handle. So, I presented my findings and a suggested plan for accomplishing the revitalization of the 900s in the form of a letter to the principal. Careful wording and clear explanations were key elements of the letter intended to encourage the administration to continue their ongoing support of the media center.

Of course, librarians need to advocate for more than just monetary support from the administration. The letter to the Parent Teacher Organization is reflective of this. A colleague and I drafted the letter and presented it to the principal asking for her support of our request (help with funding to purchase Renaissance Place for the upcoming school year). Because we had kept her up to date throughout the year on the success of the Accelerated Reader program, our principal was in full support making the program even more accessible to our students. Since she was already on our side, she not only supported our request, she actually presented our letter personally to the PTO. What an amazing sign of support and solidarity between administration and the library media staff! The PTO couldn't help but come on board as well.