Library Evaluation for SACS

I've been at the school now for almost 3 weeks and I feel we are making good progress with several advantages: financial support for library furniture and collection development, a good existing collection and much support from directors. I've been weeding like crazy. It's the typical disease of a library and school - don't throw anything out. As any good librarian knows, this is detrimental to the development and maintenance of a good library.

I met early on Friday morning with the SACS - OSI (Overall School Improvement) team. I've been working on a list of recommendations for the library based on its existing status. This will be useful in two ways: for the SACS accreditation team to see that we are reflecting on how we can improve the library over the next few years and for budgetary strategies to see where the money will be best spent. For all my recommendations, I have stated which SACS standards it pertains to.

At this point, it is very much a draft - I have been here for less than a month. The SACS OSI Coordinator will be emailed a copy, my director in charge of the library, Deb as well as the librarian, Tina, who came in Aug (before I arrived) to the school and wrote up a report based on this two day visit. Tina is well-versed with SACS Standards, being a professional librarian, as well as being the wife to the current SACS president.

After everyone has given their feedback, we should have a finalised version by mid-Oct. Andrew Sherman, our SACS contact is visiting the school at the end of November, to ensure we are on the right track for the April 2009 visit. We are aiming to review this Library Evaluation with him then, and if needed, revised it according to his evaluation.