It's The Future Ready Librarian Challenge....Join Us For The Kick Off This Week On October 14, Friends!

Are you up for a wee challenge?

Leading beyond the library is easier said than done. 

While this ‘edge of the wedge’ is a critical part of the Future Ready Librarians Framework, it can be one of the hardest to effectively implement. But as the pandemic remakes libraries and schools, our leadership beyond the library is more important than ever. And as Future Ready Librarians begins its fifth year(!!!), Shannon and I are focused on helping you find new ways to lead, teach, and support in your schools both within your library and beyond. 

Recognizing that your plates are already full, we’re going bite-sized with the Future Ready Librarians Challenge-- a series of wee professional learning activities to help you learn new tools and strategies, focus your leadership, and celebrate successes with fellow librarians. 

To kick off our first challenges, we will first feature the new FRL Self-Reflection survey and the Let’s Talk Conversation Starter tool. Both resources were created based on feedback and needs we’ve heard among librarians. And while both were conceived before the pandemic, they couldn’t be more timely!

The FRL Self-Reflection Tool is designed to give you a snapshot of your professional practice in relation to the FRL Framework to help guide your professional learning and library program goals. 

The Let’s Talk Conversation Starter is a step-by-step process to help you plan and implement successful collaborative leadership conversations with your principal or district administrators. 

Each challenge will have wee-kly activities which you can complete as they are announced or on your own timeline. New challenges and activities will be posted on 

• a new section of the Future Ready Librarians webpage,

• on the Future Ready Librarians Facebook group, and

• on Twitter via the #futurereadylibs hashtag. 

But this is not just about you! While each activity is designed to help you as a librarian, it will also encourage you to reflect, share, and celebrate with other Future Ready Librarians. Thanks to the Alliance for Excellent Education and Follett, librarians have something many other educators lack in these uncertain days -- a clear vision for what it means to be #futureready, new tools and resources to help lead, teach, and support, and a community of thousands of like-minded educators who are just an email or social media post away!

The Future Ready Librarians Challenge is about sustaining that success for our students, our colleagues, and our communities. I look forward to sharing and learning with you in the weeks and months to come!

Look for the first challenge to be announced tomorrow on Wednesday, October 14 at futureready.org/librarians and on social media!

You can hear more about it on todays episode of the Leading from the Library podcast too. I was excited to talk with my partner, Mark Ray, about the Future Ready Librarian Challenge. You will find it here.