I’m reading and working through a fantastic book during my semester break, hoping it will be of help when I actually tuck back into my classes. “Building Influence of the School Librarian: Tenets, Targets and Tactics” –sounds impressive, eh? I can’t remember where I heard of it (some paper I was reading last term?).
I’m reading it because I realise that in order to bring about any changes at the school I will have to play ’school politics’. Like all good readers or good librarians I believe in looking it up in a book first — read about it, learn about it. =)
The introductory chapter outlines why influence and power are important to the TL’s job. It also asks the reader to map out a bureaucratic dependency map that gives the TL a sense of which people are important/have affect on teacher-librarian. The map is meant to show the intensity of the dependency and the proximity and strength of that relationship. (proximity being the environmental closeness and strength havng to do with mutual respect, support, communication etc.). It’s amazing how seeing the map offers more clarity.
The strength of my relationships with staff and the principal are not as strong as I’d like. I only work two half days a week and must rely on building relationships during the little contact time I do have, staff meetings and via email contact. It’s hard to be effective and even harder to be seen to be effective when one’s time is so limited. I also find that the teachers do not check their emails regularly making this an unreliable form of communication. Perhaps time mixed with regular followup conversations will change this.
