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We have some New Kids on the Block

"five" by namealus is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

We have some new faces in our district library group,  Only 1 of the 6 elementary librarians is an experienced teacher-librarian for the upcoming year.  The other 5 of our elementary folks are in various stages of newness-to-the-library. So, out of 9 district librarians total, over half of them are newbies!

We are so excited to welcome them into the fold, y'all.

Here are some things we are doing to welcome in the newcomers.  I'd love for you to share your awesome tips with me---I'm always looking to add to my toolbox!

1. We are hosting a few meetups this summer.  Not meetings, exactly.  More get-to-know-you sessions and if they have a few easy questions that can be answered, then awesome. We had our first meetup at a local coffee shop this week, and it was so great.   It was nice to put faces with those names we've seen, and for everyone to trade phone numbers, etc.  Now, I know in larger districts this would be tough---but some sort of welcome wagon is nice & doable--and honestly, not just for the new folks.  It was great to get together with other like-minded people. We are all lone wolves in our positions on campus.  We need our people and we need to build relationships with them. In a couple of weeks we plan to get together for lunch. These are informal and those who can attend come, those who can't --no big deal. Zero pressure.

 2. We are sending out our link to the Google Drive we've created.  It has lots of great info, but for now, most importantly, it has a list of helps for new folks coming in. They have info they can access when it is convenient for them, and we have an easy way of distributing info to the entire group.
Hopefully, it also gets our new folks used to utilizing our Drive so that it becomes a habit for them.

3. We have started pondering how we can shift our monthly meetings to better meet the needs of our group. For years, we have split into Elementary and Secondary groups about 1/2 through our meetings.  With so many new elementary folks, it just doesn't seem like the most productive plan.  It is important not to get so hung up in what has always been done that you forget there are other ways of doing things that might work better as times change and as your group shifts.

4.  We are protecting the time & energy of our new folks. Some truly wonderful people have been hired for these library positions and we are grateful.  One just graduated library school, one is finishing up library school, two more are starting their library school journey and one has not yet begun hers.  So, even though they all are bringing years of teaching and mama-ing experience to the table, they are super new to the library world.  It isn't that they have nothing to offer the group---they absolutely DO.  But honestly, I remember what its like to be new and so I'm committed to honoring their time and energy for the first couple of years of their librarian life. They need that time to focus on getting their library mojo flowing without the added pressure of being expected to lead within our group.  It is our time as veterans to nurture them in their journey as they learn their library space, figure out what shifts need to happen within that space, while they advocate and work hard to make those changes happen. There will be plenty of time for them to give back to the group, and opportunities for them to lead within our group after they feel solid in their campus role. 

5. We are planning the best ways to mentor so many new faces. We will leave no librarian behind on this journey, y'all.  We don't have a definitive plan for this yet, but we will.  Part of what we are doing will be to assign every newbie a mentor librarian who can be their first go-to call when they have questions or concerns.  The other part of the puzzle will be utilizing our day of librarian-specific PD time in a way that gets them the most bang for their buck to get them started.

 I'm so excited and grateful for these new faces!  I sincerely hope we can help their transition into library world a wonderful one!

Sonja
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