Candidatesapplybestpracticesrelatedtoplanning,budgeting,and evaluating human,information,and physicalresources.Candidatesorganizelibraryfacilities toenhancetheuseofinformationresourcesandservicesandtoensureequitable accesstoall resourcesforallusers.Candidatesdevelop,implement,andevaluate policiesandproceduresthatsupportteachingand learninginschoollibraries. SLM 502 Policies and Procedures Wiki
Aside from being an educator, the librarian also has to be a program administrator. The librarian has to be able to plan accordingly, budget for materials and resources, evaluate the resources, and also have policies in place to ensure access to all in order to have a truly effective media program. During my Organization and Access course, I collaborated with a group to develop a wiki page create a comprehensive resource of all of our policies and procedures. We compiled these policies from various counties and conformed them to fit our libraries the best.
Putting the policies and procedures on the wiki and working with others to see how other libraries plan and evaluate their systems was a good experience. It allowed me to understand the types of policies that I may want or need in my own library some day. Using the wiki was also a good way to put all of the information in one place for others to view. The wiki page can be placed on the library’s website, and then it would be even more accessible to others.
Working on this assignment and being able to collaborate with other librarian candidates from all over the state was very helpful; it allowed me to see how other schools handle situations involving their budgets, gift policies, lost book policies, and their inventories. Since there are so many different libraries and no two policies are the same, it is good to examine multiple ones to see the good in each of them in order to create your own. Beyond teaching students to be lifelong learners and inspiring lifelong lovers of reading, the librarian also has to put in place policies that will reflect positively on the library and the students. Standard 5.3 states that librarians “apply best practices related to planning, budgeting, and evaluating human, information, and physical resources.”