There are many ways to advertise what you do to teachers, administration, and parents. One of the best ways to show what you are doing and what is coming up on the radar is through a library newsletter. One of the first things I hear from other librarians when I say “create a newsletter!” is… “But I don’t have the time!” Creating a newsletter doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Often, the first one is a bit harder to setup because you are designing a template or a theme, but each one after that you are just filling in the information. There are different options for how often you put out a newsletter too. My examples included here are monthly; however, you could put one out quarterly (4 a year) or even Fall/Spring (2 a year). It depends on how you plan to use the newsletter and the time commitment you are willing to give to it. I created my newsletters as infographics through Piktochart. I shared the link to the newsletter directly with teachers and had printed PDF copies available for teachers who were not as comfortable with technology. I was surprised when many teachers would print and hang the newsletter in their classrooms. Students were excited to read it because I included a monthly book special and although I am a huge supporter of not having AR (accelerated reader) in schools, my school did have it so I put the leaderboard for AR reading in the newsletter, as well. You can make a newsletter in Word, Google Docs, Canva, Smore, Piktochart, and many more easy to use programs!
You can see my format pretty much stayed the same and I would just change out quotes, images, and special information. The newsletters were pretty quick to put together after the first initial setup of the first newsletter. You do not have to change it up each time. Decide on what you want to include and share with the school and keep it simple and consistent.
Library Hijinks 