Sharing Your Expertise

Think about the colleagues whom you most value. What do they have in common? Research, as well as everyday experience, indicates that they are very good at what they do. In other words, educators whom we tend to respect possess a hefty amount of professional expertise.

But I'm not talking about technical library media expertise. The simple truth is that your school colleagues don't really care about what it takes to run a quality library program. They're interested in results—not in the process or the technology necessary to produce those results. I am not referring to your expertise in working with students either. That's essential, of course, but it's only part of the picture. From an influence-building perspective, the most valuable knowledge you possess is that which helps your colleagues succeed. After all, the coworkers we value most are the ones who make our jobs easier and make us look good. So if you want to be more influential in the workplace, you need to devote time and energy to meeting others' educational needs.

The logical place to begin is with your principal. Ideally, you can enhance your reputation as a person with expertise by providing him or her with truly useful information—knowledge that's so indispensable it will prompt your principal to refer others to you when a need arises. As I've mentioned in previous columns, the best way to do that is by providing him or her with recent research findings, descriptions of model programs, and other information that addresses the emerging challenges in your school. One caveat, however: make sure you distribute information about operational problems, organizational culture, curriculum, and especially instruction that is relevant to your school's needs. For example, although the majority of educational research on America's schools is done in elementary schools, you wouldn't want to pass along most of that information to a high school principal.

How much will your influence grow by being perceived as an expert in finding answers to professional questions? That depends on three conditions:

1. How critical the information is to resolving an immediate problem or to accomplishing a long-term goal.
2. The number of people in the school that need the kind of information you can provide.
3. The extent to which you're the only person who can provide the needed information.

Right now, library media specialists are especially well-positioned to capitalize on their information and research skills. That's because schools are in great flux. School violence, a shortage of teachers, multiplying federal and state mandates, shifting demographics, expanding technology, changing curricular and instructional approaches, high-stakes testing, and shrinking budgets all generate both immediate and long-range information demands. This means that most educators are—or soon will be—facing new challenges and encountering new problems. And no other educator's access to information rivals yours when it comes to tapping into a broad range of quality resources. There is also a growing trend in education toward data-driven and research-informed decision making—exactly the type of information that librarians excel at finding.

But to maximize your value in finding answers to operational and professional problems means that you must do some anticipatory homework. That is—just as I'll wager you've already done with your students—you need to tag specialized print resources, build your professional collection, and bookmark useful Web sites that address issues in teaching, counseling, and administration before these resources are needed. It will cost you time and effort, but the investment can result in a handsome payoff down the road.