Component A: Vision
Planning for the future is essential for a highly effective teacher librarian and thriving library program. The teacher librarian identifies their core values and uses those values to collaboratively develop a vision for the library program that aligns with the needs and goals of the community.
The teacher librarian communicates the vision of the library program to the school community, including school administrators, teachers, other school staff, students, and parents.
Core Values
This is my 11th year as Teacher Librarian at Highlands Ranch High School. My goals for the library change year to year, but my core values have remained steadfast. The core values that have guided my library programming and culture are:
Students should feel safe and welcome in the library;
The library collection and environment should reflect the diversity of students and the world; and
The library should connect students with books that they want to read and that spark a lifelong love of reading and learning.
The first standard of my district Teacher Librarian evaluation is Culture and Climate: "The Teacher Librarian creates an inclusive and culturally responsive library environment that welcomes all students and supports their social and emotional needs." I have consistently scored a "4" rating on all six components of this standard, and I believe the reason why this standard has been my biggest strength is because its components align with my core values:
Teacher Librarian creates a library space that is safe and accessible.
Teacher Librarian uses a variety of strategies to construct, understand, and restore relationships in the library space that promote emotional safety and inclusivity.
Teacher Librarian establishes an environment that honors diversity.
Teacher Librarian models and establishes positive relationships with all students.
Teacher Librarian creates a well-managed and appealing student-centered library space with established routines and procedures.
Teacher Librarian demonstrates responsiveness based on an awareness of the complexity and dynamic nature of the education environment.
These core values have helped shaped my vision for the library:
The HRHS library is a safe and inclusive place where every student is welcomed and empowered to explore new ideas and connect with others. Through a dynamic collection that reflects our school's diverse community and the wider world, we will spark a lifelong love of reading and learning that empowers students to become confident, critical, and connected lifelong learners.
Vision in Action
Our school goal for 2025-2026 is:
We will foster a culture of connection to support all students’ academic, social, and personal growth. We will do this by leveraging our small school environment and diversity through our work in Homeroom/Access, data-driven PLCs, and differentiation.
My core values and vision statement naturally support my school's goal to foster a culture of connection and leverage our small school environment and diversity.
Fostering a culture of connection to support all students' academic, social, and personal growth:
Safety and Inclusion: A safe and welcoming library space is fundamental to building a culture of connection. When students feel physically and emotionally secure, they are more willing to engage with the world of ideas and with each other. This directly supports their social and personal growth.
Diversity: By curating a collection that reflects the diversity of our students and the world, we model that their stories matter. This helps students build empathy and understanding, which are essential for social connection. It also provides "mirror" books where they can see themselves, supporting their personal growth and self-esteem.
Literacy: Connecting students with books they want to read is a cornerstone of academic growth. When students find joy in reading, they are more likely to improve their literacy skills, which are crucial for success in all academic subjects.
Leveraging our small school environment and diversity through our work in Homeroom/Access, data-driven PLCs, and differentiation:
Safety and community: The library's role as a safe, welcoming place is magnified in a small school environment. It can serve as a common ground for students from different social circles to interact. I can also use this space to host events that celebrate diversity, further solidifying the library's role as a hub for the entire community.
Inclusion and diversity: By participating in data-driven PLTs (both within my school and with other Teacher Librarians in the district), I can identify what resources students are engaging with and what gaps may exist in the collection. This data can inform purchasing decisions, ensuring that the library is acquiring resources that reflect the school's diversity and support the curriculum. This also allows for greater differentiation, because I can purchase resources that cater to various reading levels and interests.
Reading and literacy: During Access, students have the option of traveling to their teachers' homerooms to get help on assignments, feedback on essays, or to make up a test or quiz. If they don't have to see a teacher, our focus on connecting students with good books can be a central component of Access time. I can also offer library programming, such as Comic Con, during Access time.
Here are some of the ways I have implemented my vision for the library:
Safety and Inclusion
Purchasing couches and creating comfortable seating areas for students to socialize or play games, study together or alone, and collaborate on projects.
Having chess and other games and magazines available for students who want to just hang out in the library.
Co-sponsoring and hosting clubs for a variety of student interests (Book Club, Battle of the Books, Chess Club, 3E [Equality, Equity, Empathy] Club, and Yarn Club). These clubs are held either during Access or after school.
Creating displays that highlight different celebrations, holidays, cultures, and interests; for example, we have running displays for "Romance" and "Read with Pride" (LGBTQIA+). We rotate other displays frequently to highlight as many different celebrations, interests, etc. as we can.
Developing purposeful programming for a variety of student interests; for example, we celebrated "Talk Like a Pirate Day" by dressing up as pirates, giving out candy to students who said a phrase in "pirate speak," making pirate nametags; hosting an annual Comic Con on National Comic Book Day and celebrating all things comics - free comic books, making buttons, drawing, creating comics, cosplay, etc.; hosting a Twilight saga 20th Anniversary Celebration, where we celebrated all things Twilight.
We work hard to make the library a safe, welcoming, and fun place where students want to hang out!
Staff survey results
Comments
It is very safe and the staff is very welcoming. They have assisted my students 1 on 1 on several occasions.
Open spaces and task specific spaces (i.e. computer lab, quiet areas, teaching area and interactive game areas) are all well maintained and usable.
The staff will theme the library around homecoming, holidays, banned books, etc... it makes it fun to see the library changing.
The highlighted genres in the library show students that they are supported and that there are library materials to support all the different student communities at HRHS.
Inviting with the decor, book displays, etc.
Different seasonal boards, book displays, places for people to read/work/play (chess) etc...and it's very clean :-)
The space is always warm and inviting. The holiday decorations, Senior pictures, displays, and signage all make the library a very safe feeling space.
Diversity
When purchasing books for the library, I intentionally look for ones that represent diverse voices, cultures, and perspectives to ensure every student feels seen and represented. Currently, there are 2,508 diverse titles in our print collection, or 33% of the collection. These include topics such as African and Asian American; Discrimination and Prejudice; Diverse Families; Gender Studies; Homelessness; Immigrants and Refugees; Latin X/Hispanic American; and LGBTQAI+, among others.
Creating displays that highlight diverse cultures and celebrations; for example, we highlight National Hispanic Heritage Month, with books by Latin X authors; Native American Heritage Month; National Holocaust Memorial Day; and Black History Month, among others.
One of the clubs I sponsor is the 3E Club (formerly No Place for Hate). We work to help make HRHS a more inclusive and welcoming place for all students by creating schoolwide initiatives to combat bias and bullying. This is our third year hosting a community Cultural Night, where students, families and staff come together on a Friday night to share food, dances, songs, and other traditions from their cultures.
(See the "Developing purposeful programming" bullet under the Safety and Inclusion section above. By creating library programming for diverse interests, we are ensuring that all students' perspectives are represented, which in turn helps them to feel welcome and included at the school.)
Staff survey results
Comments
I have had great luck with the staff working to try to stock their shelves with diverse literature as well as literature requested by staff members.
For my differentiated needs, it is such a great partnership to have both librarians put kids first and what their literacy needs are directly so I can get high interest books with varied literacy contents.
This is true for our school with Gina and our district librarian Tracie. They are both well informed about resources and the changing needs of adolescent readers.
Literacy
I do tons of book talks here in the library for all different age levels - English I-IV; Exploring English I and II; and Honors English 9 and 10, among others. I pull books from the shelves, focusing my selection on high-interest books and books written by or about diverse authors or characters. I set the books up on tables according to genre, then book talk three to four of them. I like to do "book tastings," where students get a chance to browse through the books, choose one they think they would like to read, then give them five minutes of quiet reading time for them to "taste" the book. We do three "tastings" in one session; the goal is for them to check out a book they want to read.
I teach research skills and how to use the district databases to a variety of classes, from World History and AP African American Studies to English III and Continuing Education English courses. My focus is on how to evaluate sources for credibility, reliability, and accuracy, which teaches students about information and media literacy, and how to navigate the digital world responsibly.
I champion Banned Books Week by creating a display every year that highlights books that have been challenged or banned. I invite teachers to bring their students to the library for a Banned Books Week lesson, where we explore what books are challenged/banned, why they are challenged/banned, and who is challenging/banning books.
I promote literacy every way I can: I sponsor a monhtly student book club, as well as a district Battle of the Books team; we participate in the district's One Book One District event every year; we hold reading contests, such as our Winter Reading Contest, where students can earn prizes for reading a book and writing a review in Destiny; we do a "Blind Date with a Book" at Valentine's Day, where we wrap books and write a brief blurb about what it's about on the wrapping paper; we do a Trick or Treat bag at Halloween, where we put a book and some candy in a paper bag and write what it's about on the outside (similar to Blind Date with a Book); and this year I created a Staff Reading Challenge, where seven groups of four staff members are reading books and earning points as a team. We also hold a Staff Holiday Book Talk before winter break where we serve treats and book talk books that we recommend for reading over break.
Component B: Goal Setting
A highly effective teacher librarian collaboratively develops a multi-year growth plan for the library program that reflects the needs and goals of the school community. The growth plan includes at least two goals written in SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Focused, Time-Bound) that span two to five years into the future.
The teacher librarian gathers evidence of measuring implementation of the growth plan, reflects on growth plan progress, and regularly shares this progress with the school administrator.
Multi-year Growth Plan
Since 2022, I have been engaged in a multi-year growth plan to make our collection more current and aligned with the needs and goals of the school community. When I started my position in 2015, I inherited a very dated library collection. I began the process of updating it by using Titlewave's Collection Analysis Tool, which evaluates collections using data such as number of books, average age, and items per student. Below is a snapshot of how DCSD uses this data to analyze our library collections:
In the 2021-22 school year, the average age of our collection was 2002, which fell into the "At-Risk" rating. By August 2023, the average age had risen to 2010, and then by August 2024, to 2013, which put us in the "Emerging" rating. By last April 2025, we had moved up to the "Proficient" rating, with an average age of 2014. Through weeding outdated resources, we were able to move up the ratings scale to "Proficient"; however, we are still in the "At-Risk" rating for number of books per student (2.4; "Proficient" would be six books per student). This is largely due to a small budget ($7,000/year) that does not allow us to purchase as many resources as we weeded out. According to this same State of the Library snapshot, our 2025-26 Goals and Budget Needs are:
According to this summary, to gradually increase the number of books per student to (at least) the Emerging level, I would need a budget of $30,000 per year for at least two years. This would also raise the average age to the high end of Proficient, and potentially Exemplary. Since I don't see my $7,000/year budget changing in the near future, I don't anticipate the number of books per student increasing as quickly as I would like (and that best practices recommend). To compensate for lack of necessary funds - and to build on what I can with the funds I have - I have revised my SMART goals over the past four years to be make them more realistic.
For example, my SMART goal for the 2022-23 school year was "to use Titlewave’s Collection Analysis Tool to evaluate and update the HRHS library collection, with the goal of improving its rating from “At-Risk” to at least “Emerging,” according to the "How We Analyze our Library Collections in DCSD" rubric. I will ensure that new and existing resources are aligned with HRHS’s curriculum to better support student learning and instruction." I have been able to move the average age of the collection from "At Risk" to "Proficient."
For the 2023-24 school year, I focused on the items per student: "By June 2024, I will improve the HRHS library collection to reach the “Emerging” status on the TitleMAP graph by increasing the items per student from 2.32 to 4.0 and increasing the average age from 2008 to 2013. Progress will be measured using Titlewave’s Collection Analysis Tool." I was able to reach my average age goal, but, because of limited funds, I was unable to reach my items per student goal.
For the 2024-25 school year, I shifted my focus to circulation stats. I had increased the average age, but not the number of items per student, and so I wanted to focus on circulating the books we did have. My SMART goal was: "By June 2025, I will increase the total number of fiction books circulated at HRHS by 10%, from 710 to at least 781 checkouts, by implementing dynamic shelving strategies that make the collection more engaging, appealing, and accessible to students. Circulation data from the library management system will be used to measure progress and success." At the end of the 2024-25 school year, we had 989 fiction books circulated, thus exceeding my goal. Even though I was not able to increase the number of items per student, I was able to increase the circulation of those books we do have.
One of my goals for this year is: "In alignment with the DLMC’s 2025-26 goal of creating a culture of reading across the district, my goal will be to create a culture of reading at HRHS. I will look for evidence in the following areas: student behaviors and engagement; teacher and staff engagement; schoolwide visibility of reading; and qualitative and quantitative measures. One of the measures I will use is total circulation. For the 2024-25 school year, the total circulation (for all circulation types) was 1,328. I would like to increase that this year by 10%, for a total circulation of 1,460." So far, my YTD total circulation is 1,067, so I feel confident that I will reach my goal this year.