Another aspect of Teacher Librarianship that I gave little thought to was budgeting. Again, I am forced to look at the ever increasing roles of the Teacher Librarian and wonder how do they fit it all this stuff in???!!! How will I fit all this in? After many deep breaths, I started reading...
The Debowski (2001) chapter was long but extremely informative and helped me sort out the different facets of budgeting that a TL has to deal with in my own mind. Through the article many goals arose:
* build a funding base so financial support is easily achieved
* ensure that your collection reflects the needs of the users
* be visibly accountable by publishing outcomes
* hand in a budget submission every year
* maintain a record of the costs associated with providing
electronic services
* evaluate your collection using collection mapping to
identify needs and areas that are lacking.
Lamb and Johnson (2007) identified 3 roles of the TL as a good budget manager:
1) Collaborator - collaborate with members of the school community to secure and allocate money for the budget.
2) Steward - a leader who seeks input from others; bases choices on needs of the community; can account for all spending; implement and assess results and communicate these results to the community.
3) Thinker - search for ways to gain additional funding but also make the most of what you have.
The thing I related to most though was in the Marge Cox (2008) article when she stated, "Put on your own oxygen mask first". In her article she says this as a reminder that the TL should include items in the budget that will keep you up-to-date with what is going on in your profession. I read this and saw myself, hyperventilating on my first day as a TL ..... so many roles for one person.
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