Baby Steps . . .

Ms. BC and I often set high goals for the media program, most of which seem impossible to reach when we begin envisioning new ways for the program to meet learning and teaching needs. Instead of being overwhelmed by what seems like an enormous task, we take baby steps toward the goal. Creating a timeline and working toward a goal in smaller steps makes it much more manageable and the media program thrives because of it! The whole "baby steps" concept reminds me of one of my favorite summer movies, What About Bob?. In the movie, Bill Murray's obsessive-compulsive character has many fears that almost cripple him from interacting with society. His doctor, played by Richard Dreyfus, tells him to take "baby steps" to approach the impossible feats that cause him so much fear. Of course, the context of this movie is much different than library media program implementation, but I love the concept of taking baby steps toward a goal. If the task seems too great, often people don't think they can accomplish it, so they don't even get started. It's all a journey . . . you may reach your goal or you may not. Through the journey, your goals may change as you discover "things you didn't know you didn't know" along the way. This is so exciting!

So . . . our recent baby steps led us down a path of great changes in the DRMS media center. We have been working on reorganizing various sections of the media center to make sure resources are the most accessible to students. As of yesterday, we no longer have a formal reference section! Our reference books are interfiled in nonfiction and biography and the true "Reference Collection," those materials which are most current, are our online resources. The next baby step in this project will be to move our Everybody and Spanish-language resources to an easy-to-access location in the middle of the media center. Our plan is to also add some comfy furniture to this section to encourage students to take materials off the shelf and browse for a bit.

What are your big goals? Start the journey one step at a time. . . . .

-Ms. Z