The Tipping Point and Your School Library Program

1. The Tipping Point and Your School Library Program - How Little Things can make a Big Difference Bobbie Henley Jo-Anne LaForty

2. Tipping Point Agenda • Understanding the concept • Viewing Library Stories • Creating meaning • Personalizing ideas and actions

3. What is the Tipping Point? "The Tipping Point is that magicmomentwhere an idea, trend, or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." “where the unexpected becomes the expected.”

4. 3 Characteristics: 1. Contagiousness 2. Little causes have big effects 3. Change happens not gradually, but all at once

5. Gladwell's central argument is that there are three main factors or change agents that effect every influential trend. • Law of the Few • Stickiness Factor • Power of Context

6. The Law of the Few: • Connectors • Mavens • Salesmen

7. The Law of the Few Connectors • wide social circles. • "hubs" of the human social network.

8. The Law of the Few Mavens • knowledgeable people • know details about a product that most of us wouldn't know

9. The Law of the Few, cont’d: Salesmen • charismatic person with good negotiation skills • source of influence is soft rather than forceful

10. The Law of the Few: • Connectors • Mavens • Salesmen

11. Stickiness: Ideas or products found attractive or interesting by others will grow exponentially for some time.

12. The Power of Context: Human behaviour is strongly influenced by external variables of context.

13. "Why is it that some ideas or behaviours or products start epidemics and others don't? And what can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?"The Tipping Point

14. Essential Question:What have you done that has tipped your library program from a traditional, reactive, non-collaborative one to a dynamic, vital, proactive program?

15. What resonates with you? • I already do . . . • I think I will try . . . • Wasn’t that fascinating . . .

16. staff workshop defining research and literacy coordinated approach to library services physically changing and opening up library replace library exchange with partnering marketing – “buckets of fun” facility improvements updated collection online databases advocacy for budget and staffing stop everything and partner centre of learning, not a book exchange boys’ literacy Forest of Reading program school library web page research model expanded circulation library coupons photos of students and staff newsletter support of administration formal program assessment and marking thank you signs books in teachers’ mailboxes one teacher at a time approach vocal support from staff making library the hub of the school using technology (HyperStudio, Smartideas) advocating for students

17. “The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and it can spread very, very quickly. That makes it something of obvious and enormous interest to everyone from educators trying to reach students, to businesses trying to spread the word about their product, or for that matter to anyone who's trying to create a change with limited resources." http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html