With apologies to Jane Austen: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a library program in possession of a good fortune of professional staff, inviting environment, and high-quality collection must be in want of a vision for its future practice.

Simply put, a vision statement describes where we want to be, so that we can design a change that will help us get there. In school libraries, in the midst of all the pressures facing public education, we unfortunately sometimes spend more time thinking about where we don't want to be—on the chopping block!

Yet, among researchers and thought leaders who study organizational change, it does seem to be a truth universally acknowledged that in order for groups or programs to grow, a clear vision must be established. John Kotter, in his famous book Leading Change, describes the reasons for this:

In a change process, a good vision serves three important purposes. First, by clarifying the general direction for change…it simplifies hundreds or thousands of more detailed decisions. Second, it motivates people to take action in the right direction, even if the initial steps are personally painful. Third, it helps coordinate the actions of different people…in a remarkably fast and efficient way (2012).

Successful change efforts are designed around stakeholder investment in the vision. In my district, we worked to develop that investment by inviting every single librarian—eighty-seven in all—to participate in the vision writing process. There were no preconceived notions about what I (as district specialist in library media services) wanted them to write, nor any "right answers." Their desires for an ambitious future became our department destination.

I began the process in February 2016 by recording a video message to librarians describing the need for this project. I had become the supervisor during a time of immense upheaval in our central office. All but one of our department staff had retired and the budget allowed us to fill only half the positions. Many librarians were left feeling unmoored; they knew that we weren't the old department anymore, but they did not have a sense of identity for the new department. For us, then, the vision statement would begin to define who we wanted to become.

All librarians were asked to attend one of three meetings held in March and April of 2016. There, they began by reflecting on who they were as individuals, both personally and professionally, and discussing with their peers how that identity should translate to the group. I challenged them to "build the perfect librarian" by listing qualities on sticky notes, and grouping those notes into categories on chart paper. They watched Simon Sinek's TED Talk "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" and discussed their "why" statements for the values and beliefs they hold as librarians. They read a recent Library Journal article, "Top Skills for Tomorrow's Librarians," and discussed how these skills fit with their current conceptions of their work. They learned about the demise of Kodak, which had been at the top of the photography industry but had gone bankrupt after failure to innovate and adapt, and discussed what mindsets librarians should learn from that cautionary tale. Following each discussion stage, librarians were invited to add more qualities, skills, and mindsets to their "perfect librarians."

I collected all of the input and took it to my district leadership team, composed of twelve librarians representing all grade levels and school demographics. The team went through a series of protocols to synthesize the input into our final statement.

• First, we spread the "build the perfect librarian" charts around the room. Team members slowly walked around and read everything twice: the first pass was silent, and the second allowed discussion.
• Team members each generated five to seven words representing key themes that emerged. We shared out and charted their key themes, combining terms where another member may have seen the same thing.
• Each individual wrote a statement incorporating all of the themes that had emerged from the input. They then paired with a partner to create a combined statement. Then those pairs combined work with another pair, resulting in three statements each written by four people.
• These three statements were displayed and divided into phrase segments. Team members were each given ten stickers to visually vote on the phrase segments they believed were most important.
• The selected segments were assembled and projected for the whole group to see. As a team, we wordsmithed the segments together into a final product, ensuring that all input had been represented and respected.

I am exceptionally proud of the librarians' work that resulted in an ambitious vision of highly effective library services to guide our department. It is important to remember, though, that writing an effective vision statement is only a first step toward the desired future! The vision must be put into practice for meaningful change to occur. In a large group of people, that means saturating the community with repeated communication about the vision:

• The finished product was shared with librarians immediately, along with a step-by-step description of the synthesis.
• The vision statement was sent to all principals, along with an invitation to collaborate on how this vision could contribute to their building goals.
• Librarians "unpacked" the vision statement during Fall 2016 professional development, to discuss how it might impact their practice.
• Librarians "repacked" the vision during Spring and Summer 2017 professional development, comparing their new learning on various topics to the elements of the statement.
• The vision was adapted into interview questions for use in selecting new librarian candidates for the district. This also served to set ambitious expectations for new hires.

No worthwhile change effort is ever truly completed, and our department continues to work toward achieving our vision of highly effective library services. By developing our "destination postcard" to guide our professional learning and growth, we are making progress on the path toward library programs that provide indisputable value to our students, teachers, and school communities.