New again and what I've learned

The end of November is coming up and I've now had 3 months being in a new school. Here are some of the things I've learned over the last three months. They would be my recommendations for helping to get incorporated.

Learning the lay of the land.
Who are the key people you need to know? The principal's secretary is a key ally here for knowing who's who and who does what.
Set up a meeting with your principal and set some goals. Keep it simple this first year and make them about learning who your users are...
Run a collection analysis and look over the library sections. Get out and about among the shelves when you have a spare 5 minutes and don't want to start something new on Friday afternoon it's a good time to wander along a set of shelves looking at titles.
Survey the staff for their needs--no you don't get great return (10% or less), but it helps for planning for collection development.


Make yourself known
Set up email lists by departments and send them quick snipets once in awhile. I use the LII update feed to help with this. If a post there seems appropriate I send it to the whole department.
I try to do a monthly newsletter for the staff. While I made my first one electronic only, I printed my second one and put it in all the boxes. I got many more comments and complements for the hard copy. Even if only a few read it, it's worth the copies to give them the paper even if it hurts the trees.
Use your school bulletin to attract students' attention to the library. They are wary of a new person and the "changes", so making attempts to include them help.
Volunteer to be on School Site Council or some other entity so that you can be seen as an asset to the school as a whole. Along the same lines, volunteer your space. Yes, it may close you down, but the more you can get people in the library for meetings and other events the more likely they will remember to use it.

There's more, but this is long enough for now and a class is headed in soon.