Activity
Does your school have a strategic plan? See if you can find it. Does your library have a strategic plan?
I located the school strategic plan on their public website and was able to download and examine as per the DET guidelines.
The library does not currently have a strategic plan, though it would be useful to align such a document with the overall school document and goals. It would provide some scaffolding on what is important to focus on.
Activity
One way of learning to think strategically is to develop a personal strategic plan. A personal strategic plan helps you to think about and articulate career, family and personal goals. Try writing your own using the template below. Most of us just muddle along and don’t plan our careers nor do we set family goals.
I quite enjoyed this activity and was able to fill out the different specific requirements for achieving this goal, however, I doubt I will revisit it often or use the affirmations. Such processes are successful in repitition and I don’t think I would be able to comit to such an idea. I am happy to muddle along for the most part, though I do have goals in mind.
Activity
Examine the following and decide which is the better mission statement.
1. We are creating for the school community, a thriving dynamic library so that it becomes one of the state’s best in collecting, creating, conserving and communicating information.
2. Our mission is to provide and promote access to a range of resources and services that equitably meet the intellectual, curricular, social and recreational information needs of our school community.
A mission statement is simple, direct and operative, where a Vision Statement is about what you want to be or become (Johnson, 2010). With that in mind, I would choose the second statement as it says, exactly, what the library will do- ‘provide and promote access…’ whereas the first focusses on the future ‘one of the state’s best’.
Reflect
Consider the following school library Mission and Vision Statements.
Do they achieve the goals of each type of statement?
Think about the purpose of a mission statement as opposed to the purpose of a vision statement, and why the examples that follow meet these goals, or fail, and in what ways they do so.
Bonnyrigg High School Library
The opening sentence of this mission statement confuses me- ‘Our goal is to confirm that learners graduate as competent, critical, ethical users and creators of ideas and information.’ Is their entire mission to say ‘yes, these kids can…’? I would have thought they would use something like ‘create/support/develop graduates that are proven competent, critical, ethical users…’ I do like that they have clearly addressed 21st century learning in their mission.
Their vision statement kind of goes into school ethos and vision for the future and is written informally. I like that their vision included the creation of a ‘learning commons’ but this paragraph could almost have gone into the mission section as it is very direct and actionable.
Sacred Heart College Yarrawonga
Short and sweet. Their mission statement is simple and clear- to create a certain larning environment, support the curriculum and promoting a love of learning. It doesn’t say how it is going to do those things but it is clear that there are strong motivating factors behind this mission. Their vision statement is also short and direct, but talks more about what will be coming, rather than what is.
S.R. O’Brien Resource Centre, Mount Carmel College
It think this is the best example of the three in terms of mission statement, particularly the first sentence- the second could have gone into the vision statement. The vision statement has elements of mission statement to it- actionable, direct. The last paragraph, particularly describing the library as it is now, could possibly have been included in the mission statement.
Action: I have emailed my boss to discuss the school Vision & Mission statements but also to arrange a time to discuss the library strategic plan and link it to the school plan. Hopefully, this will allow some scaffolding around the expectations of the job and provide me with a clearer understanding of what everyone expects from me in my role.
References
Bruce D. Johnson (2010, May 12). What’s the difference between mission and vision? [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2MyaR0gMo0&feature=youtu.be
