Shawn E.

Benton, Courtney Key, Stephen Roper

FRIT 7331 Leadership of the SLMP
Current Mission Statement:

Eagle Ridge Academy school media center has no mission statement currently.

New Mission Statement:

The mission of the Eagle Ridge Academy school library is to be an encouraging learning environment that
provides all individuals in the school community the access to the current technology, books, electronic
resources, and 21st century literacy skills to be effective readers, researchers, thinkers who are both
producers and users of technology.

Analysis of New Mission Statement:

The new mission statement has a purpose, expresses the need to provide a climate conducive to learning,
includes the goal of promoting student learning, and provides for a proactive connection of the school media
program to the local learning community and beyond. It’s concise, and emphasizes broad access to
information, balanced by ethical information use. It explicitly expresses the ways in which the media
program will contribute to learning. It harmonizes with values expressed in Empowering Learners (AASL,
2009).

The part of the mission statement that references “all individuals in the school community” stresses the
proactive connection of the library to the community at large, especially stakeholders in the school. Ideally,
this would involve “local businesses, educational institutions, and other organizations to blend learning with
real-world experiences” (AASL, 2009, p.15).

The mission statement addressed providing a climate conducive to learning by the phrase, “encouraging
learning environment.” Empowering Learners states, “the mission of the school library program is to ensure
that students and staff are effective users of information” (AASL, 2009, p.11). I would add that the students
and staff should also produce information, which is part of a larger educational environment in which
learning is done by doing, not only by accessing what others have done.

The suggested mission statement emphasizes providing access to information by the phrase “access to the
current technology, books, electronic resources, and 21st century literacy skills,” as referenced in
Empowering Learners where it states that “expanded access to computers should be coupled with
educational initiatives that help learners become effective users of digital technologies” (AASL, 2009,
p.17).

The last part of the mission statement is the crux of the mission statement’s purpose. The promotion of
student learning, the learning environment, the inclusion of stakeholders, and the access to technology all
lead to the mission statement’s goal for the library, which is to help create “effective readers, researchers,
thinkers, and productive producers and users of technology.” The 21st century, future forward, expression of
library patrons as “producers,” not just “users” of technology, ensures that the mission statement has
validity for a vibrant library not just today, but for years to come.