The Librarian Influencer of the Week is New Jersey librarian, Beth Raff! She credits her mentors for helping her get involved nationally at an early point in her library career. Click here to listen now!
Here are some librarian influencer tips Beth shared:
Work on collaboration with individual teachers
Ask for help! And get involved in school committees, PTA & professional groups
Get training in your school library management system
Focus on SEL and community building as you start back to school.
Use your school wide theme to plan your displays, bulletin boards, and lesson plans. (Come up with our theme if the school doesn't have one.)
Keep building your reading community. Beth’s school used #ReadwiththeWolfPack to help build community.
They also implemented World Read Aloud Day and Read Across America. She also set up virtual author visits for each classroom. Beth ran a Battle of the Books for elementary students in her school and competed against other schools in the district.
Beth encourages everyone to get connected and be visible.
Join your state library association
Learn about the ALA Emerging Leaders program. Beth was part of this group and helped create the toolkit for Developing Inclusive Learners & Citizens.
Attend webinars, book festivals, and nErDcamps
Work with your library colleagues in other buildings
Create an annual report to showcase circulation statistics, author visits, collaborative projects, etc.
You can connect with Beth Raff at:
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Checkout the School Library Program Planner as you get ready to start planning for the 2021-2022 school year. These pre-filled calendars are filled to the brim with ideas you can use for your library program! Use this document to help you plan:
~ Social media posts
~ Library programming
~ Book Displays
~ Bulletin Boards and more!