Advocacy, Communication, School Media Specialist

It Takes a Village: Tools to Help Keep the Community Informed, Engaged, and Supportive

Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept
I saw this blog entry referenced on the ITEM listserve, and read through it all – it was written by CMLE’s own Lisa Newhouse in Monticello! This is a great (GREAT!) example of strategies all library people can use to promote your library services to your community members! Read this excerpt below, and then click on the link to go read the rest of it at her site!!

By Lisa Newhouse,  @LisaNewhouse4

“The Media Center is an integral part of the school community. Media Specialists and Librarians are aware of this, but how do we keep the community informed of all we do? How do you engage your school and the community itself in the Media Center programs? How do you in turn get the community to stand behind the Media Center and support the many programs? Well, below I will tell you what I have done to get our community involved here. I’d love to hear how you get your community involved as well.
  • Web Site: The Media Center website has all of the information about everything that happens in the Media Center. I designed my Media Center website using Google Sites and some HTML coding. I tried to design it to be simple and functional so that parents, staff, and students could easily access what they were looking for. On the home page, I had links to my contact information, newsletter sign up, the school library catalog, the public library website, and useful websites and online sources.

I also included a link to a page with our schedule embedded and the objectives to lessons currently being taught in the Media Center. Aside from regular Media Center business on the home page, I also included a page for our Monday Morning Makers and Coding Club programs. On these pages, I embedded videos that helped to explain why we have these programs and what they are. I also included written information about the programs and a schedule of events. I taught the students how to use the website and sent home information about the website in our school newsletter. You can access the Pinewood Media Center website by visiting: https://sites.google.com/a/monticello.k12.mn.us/pinewood-media-center/”

Read the rest of this blog on Lisa’s site!

By: Lisa Newhouse @LisaNewhouse4