Reporting on a year’s worth of work makes good sense. Businesses all over the world provide annual reports on expenditure, results, achievements, statistics – a collection of facts and figures that might sum up the year. In the same way, creating an annual library report is good business sense. It helps to be accountable for spending, activity and progress. However, a library report can be more.
An annual library report tells a story. As teacher librarians, we are accustomed to a good story – whether from the pages of one of our many books or resources, or the story of why the student really can’t find that library book they borrowed a year ago. An annual report allows us, the sharer of stories, to become the author of a story – and as you can imagine, it might have all sorts of ups and downs and twists. It is in these stories that we can find the deep and powerful impact of a school library.
(Gordon, 2009) cites a comment made by Dr Ross Todd, library expert extraordinaire that caught my attention.
He said: Information is the heartbeat of meaningful learning in schools. But it is not the hallmark of the 21st century school. The hallmark of a school library in the 21st century is not its collections, its systems, its technology, its staffing, its buildings, BUT its actions and evidences that show that it makes a real difference to student learning, that it contributes in tangible and significant ways to the development of human understanding, meaning making and constructing knowledge. The school library is about empowerment, connectivity, engagement, interactivity, and its outcome is knowledge construction.
This quote is the very essence of why I have engaged in studying in the Masters of Teacher Librarianship. At the heart of the services a library provides, it is about empowerment, connectivity, engagement, interactivity, with an outcome of knowledge construction. This is the story we get to tell – how adding Chromebook chargers to our loan resources helped students engage in class learning (instead of having to catch up because of a flat device), the numbers of students engaging in Makerspaces at lunchtime where they learn how to employ creativity and collaboration with their peers, the number of books loaned that allowed that diverse student to see someone else like them, even if it was in print. These stories are told through statistics, infographs, summary statements and photographs – all weaving the story of the life of the library. An example of a library report is included with this post: 
Image source: Knowledge Quest, 2022
In terms of good business sense, an annual report provides avenues for library staff to be accountable, transparent and advocate for what the library needs. These are good and necessary reasons for reports. What appeals to my librarian heart is the story – which I am excited to keep telling. The real difference a library makes to not only student learning, but to welfare, connection and individual lives.
Gordon, C. Prof. (2009) Weaving Evidence, Reflection, and Action into the Fabric of School Librarianship in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 4:2