Shoutout to Shannon Acedo who reminded me of one of the (many) golden nuggets from #aislnola2017: reference to a wonderful fact from Katie Archambault & CD McLean’s presentation, that a 10% increase is “substantial and verifiable..and so can be considered a marker of success” (Acedo, 2017). Please note that Shannon, a thoroughly professional librarian, is still looking into the actual wording, but I think her reflection is more than sufficient for the purpose of this post.

This has been a timely touchstone for me. I tend to judge the success of a program by the sheer number of student participants. Picture me buoyant: “We ran out of the many pages we’d prepared for our blackout poetry event!” Picture me gnashing my teeth: “Fewer kids signed up for our reading marathon this year than last!”

If it were you saying this to me,  I’d tell you to give your head a shake. Quantity is one (often narrow) indicator of value, and there is too much meaning to be found in the other ways we reach kids to be ignored.

I’m over the moon when a program or event really lands – but I will endeavour to also celebrate the minuscule successes:

• Running a Sunday mindfulness exercise for the one student who shows up
• Valuing time with the one young man who participates in a pilot community book club
• Taking time to really listen to the few kids who make it to school bookclub every cycle, shelving my frustration about schedule conflicts that keeps others away

What’s your 10%