Engaging the Learning Community
Course
How: Environmental Scans & Needs Assessments [7:00]
When we think about how we build this community, this is where we're going to think about the tactical or logistical aspects of our community of learners. This involves figuring out where we are, where we want to go, and how we'll know if we're making progress.
Remember: all of this information points back to our "why," the rationale. Your goals for engaging this learning community are probably part of a larger picture of goals for your library. Maybe part of your strategic planning process or an advocacy plan, which should draw from your school's mission or vision as well as your school library's mission or vision.
After thinking about your interest in building a community of learners at the conceptual level, next we can work to put a plan into action. Your initial ideas for what you want to accomplish probably come from a variety of sources. A blend of your working knowledge at the library, the students, the school and the surrounding community, plus your sense as a professional of what is needed and what you'd like to do.
It's helpful to note here that several texts on library management and teaching suggest specific methods for building goals from your school goals and from these crafting action steps. Some suggested resources that provide templates for this planning are included in the workshop materials.
For now, let's start by talking about the environmental scan and then the needs assessment. So, an environmental scan is a step that sounds pretty much like it is; a scan of what's out there used to help you make decisions. Quoting here: "environmental scanning involves acquiring, evaluating and using information from a variety of sources which can then be adapted and applied within individual or organizational contexts." This definition comes from Hayman and Smith who describe environmental scans as "a useful step in decision making pertaining to emerging educational technology and libraries," but it makes sense here for us, too.
You might think of the environmental scan as a way to gather background information or even a pre-search level of homework. So the information you are looking for relates to events and needs, both within and outside the school. So, if we're thinking of building this inclusive community of learners that ultimately extends outside the school walls, we should learn about community needs, concerns and trends as part of our planning. So, where does this come from?
Community events, we might find out through local news sources. Demographic information we can find through US census data as well as school test data. You can utilize your position as a staff member in the school as well to think about areas of concern, initiatives and other priorities for your school. This environmental scan is mostly you as librarian looking into information, kind of a research and information gathering.
The needs assessment is a different step, which may include data gathering directly from the stakeholders. So first, of course, you must identify who these people are. Some people that you might think of are the teachers, other school staff, school leaders and administrators, parents and caregivers, community organizations or businesses, and perhaps individuals from other schools in your district or county; and there may be others who you are considering, too.
So, when we step into the needs assessment, this is a process of collecting and analyzing information that can then be used in decision making. This can be formal or informal, and this information about needs assessment comes from Lamb and Johnson who describe needs assessment as a way to develop priorities for spending and time. You might notice that this is similar to the environmental scan only in this we get the info right from the source.
So, one approach is to ask stakeholders or your potential participants directly via survey. I would recommend Google Forms, it's easy to learn, it's easy to use, fairly easy to access. Other options, and you may try multiple methods at one time, might be some different online tools, such as the free version of SurveyMonkey or maybe paper surveys distributed at parent nights or maybe through home school communications.
Depending on your target audience, you might also use the school, or the library website, or social media, the ones that design a needs assessment to investigate what people consider to be their needs, so areas of interest, things that are important to them, but, thinking strategically here, we can also use this to help us as librarians understand what these stakeholders know or don't know about the school library and that informs our planning.
So, some example questions or things to look for in a needs assessment: what are areas of interest for you or maybe for your organization (depending on who you're asking)? Are there topics or skills you might be interested in sharing with our students? Are there topics or activities you're interested in learning about with our students? And you might give some examples, maybe book discussions, technology and apps, service projects. We preface something like this with some information about this learning community.
Be careful of working with too many kinds of needs assessments or surveys with the same people. So, if you're asking your teachers for information about their library needs, for instance, make sure that you work to address multiple questions maybe with one instrument. Something else you might ask in the needs assessment is what people know about the programs in the library, or maybe the school, so you might ask about the makerspace, the online library portal or website, maybe online reference databases, inquiry learning, and if you want to find out what people know about several, you might provide just an easy way for them to respond. Maybe three options like: what do you know about this program? And then provide something like "no", "I've heard of it but don't know much," or "yes, I'm very familiar."
And this concludes our conversation on environmental scans and needs assessment.
Environmental scans and needs assessments are steps for building, and through periodic updates, sustaining a learning community. These are two separate processes for gathering and studying information about the school and community, helpful to any school librarian but especially important to librarians new or newer to a building. Numerous facets of the library program stand to be informed by learning "what's out there" in terms of events, people, concerns, trends, and stakeholders' needs.
Review the article, "Environmental Scan Checklists and Suggestions," provided in the Resources. Using the guidance in this article and the two sample tables, create your own list of topics to research in an environmental scan, with potential sources of information and questions to ask.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Engaging the Learning Community: Develop an Environmental Scan." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018653?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2122861
Additional Resources
About the Author
Email: rmorris@schoollibraryconnection.com
Twitter: @rebeccajm87.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Engaging the Learning Community. How: Environmental Scans & Needs Assessments [7:00]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, June 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018653?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018653?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 2018653