Thank you for participating in School Library Snapshot! Now more than ever, school librarians are critical to student success and it is equally critical that we showcase that value.
The Library Snapshot is a project that originated with the New Jersey Library Association and New Jersey State Library in 2009. It was developed for public libraries and has been used across the country. We gratefully acknowledge these two organizations for their fantastic tool that we have adapted for use by school librarians.
This personalized infographic will help you demonstrate the many ways that you support learning in your school. It can be shared with administrators, school boards, local and state lawmakers, parent organizations and others. You can print copies to distribute or share it electronically and via social media. Don’t forget to post a copy near the school library!
While we can never document every important thing that school librarians do, this Snapshot is aligned to provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) so that decision makers can see how school librarians are essential to student success—and how school librarians should be at the table when districts and states develop literacy, digital literacy and community schools plans.
We recommend completing the Snapshot over a weeklong period. This is intended to be a SIMPLE way for you to collect and share this information—but a few minutes of planning will ease your collection of information. First, select your target week for data collection. If you do not already have a system to track these statistics, you can use the one provided below or create your own. Make sure it is easy to access, because your days are busy and even you sometimes don’t realize how much you do!
Once you have the data collected, the Snapshot form will take less than 5 minutes to complete. See the step-by-step instructions on the right side of this page. Finally, please contact the Office for Library Advocacy if we can be of any assistance: email@example.com.
Instructions for Completing the Snapshot
1. Click on the School Library Snapshot Tool below.
2. Complete the Snapshot using data you have collected over a one week period. See the data collection form below.
3. Use the fields on the smart phone to enter your school name, location, and contact information.
4. Save and print a copy to share and distribute.
Tools & Resources
The School Library Snapshot Tool is available as a fillable PDF into which you can enter your data, then save and print the completed infographic.
To help organize your data collection, you can use this School Library Snapshot Tracking Tool or create your own.
See AASL's Everyone Student Succeeds Act and School Librarians page for information about this new federal legislation and about considerations for librarians.
Visit the original Library Snapshot web page for additional background, examples, and a Snapshot Day primer.
If the above format doesn't work for you, design your own! Here is a sample from Calcasieu Parish Schools in Louisiana.