One of the most important jobs of a school librarian is to build relationships with teachers.  It’s easiest to communicate via email- especially if teachers are spread out over a large campus.  But nothing beats face-to-face meetings in the library.  The more time teachers spend in the library, the more they’ll understand the value of the library (and the librarian!).

Here are three easy ways you can get teachers to step foot in the library.

Give out goodie bags

What’s the best part about being a kid at a birthday party?  Goodie bags, of course!  No matter how bad the cake was or how stupid the games were, you could always look forward to the goodie bags.

Grown-up teachers are no different.  Everyone loves a goodie!  Welcome your teachers back by creating library goodie bags.  You can pass them out at the first staff meeting of the year.  Or, better yet, make an announcement at the first staff meeting letting teachers know they’ll receive a goodie bag IF they stop by the library.

I can’t take credit for this idea.  I first remember reading about on the Unquiet Librarian.  Buffy came up with a cute packaging idea and got creative with getting free goodies from vendors.

You don’t have to go all out if you have little time or budget.  Create a quick flyer with library information and resources on it and roll it up with a candy bar or some hard candy.  Easy peasy!

Host an Open House 

You might consider hosting a library open house for teachers.  You could do this before or after school starts.  Choose and date and time and invite teachers to drop by to see your latest acquisitions, check out your databases, talk with you about upcoming projects, or simply enjoy some snacks.

If you want to make it more interesting, you could offer some raffle prizes to teachers who stop in.

Speak up

Ask your principal if you can have two minutes to speak at your back-to-school staff meeting.  Keeping your comments break, let your teachers know that they’re always welcome to stop by and invite new teachers to introduce themselves to you.

Do you have any favorite ways of getting teachers to visit the library?  Please share them in the comments below.