A Smart Partnership: Collaborating Successfully with Your Local Schools

Establishing a partnership between your public library and public school may be one of the smartest investments of time and effort your library can make. Creating a successful partnership leverages funding and expertise in a visible way and benefits both partners by…

• Maximizing K-12 students’ academic success
• Heightening the perceived value of public and school libraries
• Establishing public and school library staff as educators, accurately conveying their expertise
• Optimizing public funding for public and school libraries
• Positioning library staff members as indispensable to the delivery of high-quality education for K-12 students, faculty and staff

During this four-week course, you will learn the basic concepts of effective partnerships and discover why partnerships between schools and libraries are especially beneficial to all parties involved.  Using guided assignments you will assess and repackage your library’s K-12 program components into a comprehensive partnership plan.

Course Description: Through weekly readings, assignments, discussions, and an online meeting, you will receive guidance and expertise for planning and implementing a strong, effective, lasting public library/school partnership in your community. You will also have the opportunity to study a sampling of examples of successful partnerships across the country, including the A+ Partners in Education, which was instrumental in earning Howard County Library System the 2013 Library of the Year award.

Course Outline:   When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: A Passion for Partnerships
  • What is a partnership?
  • Types of partnerships
  • What are the benefits of partnering for a library?
  • Five Factors of Success
  • Why some partnerships may not work
• Week 2: The Power of Public Library/School Partnerships
  • Short and long term benefits of public library/school partnerships
  • Survey of successful public library/school partnerships
  • Major components of a successful case study
• Week 3: Assessment and Vision
  • Assessing existing K-12 program components
  • Repackaging existing K-12 program components into a comprehensive partnership
  • Planning the ideal partnership
• Week 4: Implementing the Public Library/School Partnership That’s Right for You
  • Planning and objectives
  • Selling the vision
  • Establishing the partnership network
  • Measuring success

Pre-course assignment: Learners should familiarize themselves with any public library/school partnerships already in place in their own library.

Time required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2 ½ hours per week, for a total of ten course hours. Each week's module contains readings and various options for assignments, discussions, or online meetings. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

Who Should Take This Course?  Public and school library staff members at all levels of their respective organizations.

Course Start: This online learning course starts on Tuesday, March 25, 2014.

After the official end date for the course, the instructor will be available for limited consultation and support for two more weeks, and the course material will stay up for an additional two weeks after that. These extra weeks give those who have fallen behind time to work independently to complete the course.

Keywords: Children's services, K-12 services, Public schools, Young adult services