This piece focuses on creating a safe space for several subsets of the elementary school student population, including Muslim students, children with autism spectrum disorder, and students with social-emotional challenges. These groups do overlap and intersect, and they are united in their reliance on the library as a refuge. However, school…

In many elementary schools across the nation the library looks like a revolving door of classes. Classroom teachers come and drop off their classes for a lesson at a set time during the week. The school librarian teaches a lesson in isolation while the classroom teacher has a planning period. There is little time for collaboration. There is even…

Libraries are learning hubs that connect families to free resources, activities, and services to cultivate children's learning about topics that excite them. Despite recent technological developments which have revolutionized how we read and access information, libraries continue to evolve in order to serve their communities, especially families…

The question of why school librarians still struggle to fully enact the roles defined in "Information Power" and "Empowering Learners" may be viewed as a struggle to gain recognition from others that this is what a "real school librarian" does. Discourse Analysis offers school library research a new theoretical and analytical tool to explore how…

Despite easy access to expert resources and extensive in-school modeling, students--even the youngest--are relying heavily upon "Wikipedia," especially when they do research away from school. With "Wikipedia" holding steady as one of the top ten Web sites worldwide, it is no wonder students are flocking there. For teachers, parents, and students,…

Story structure is how humans think. If school librarians help students master the elements that define this story structure, then students can be assisted in efficiently and effectively mastering both reading comprehension and all forms of writing. Without exception and without equivocation, research studies conducted over the past quarter…

Learning can be packaged and promoted as fun. The youngest learners naturally perceive all of life as one big wonder. It is important for school libraries to be the catalyst in helping to position learning as being the "fun" part of school. Sometimes, the simplest learning activity, embellished and celebrated can become a very meaningful…

In this article, the author talks about the changing role of the elementary library media specialist. Unfortunately, library media specialists (LMSs) are too often left out of the literacy loop. Traditionally, their roles in literacy were to be the support team, the purveyors of books, the sometimes nearly invisible element in literacy, but this…

Providing time and guidance to students as they "sift and sort" background information on a potential inquiry topic is important at any level of investigation, from grade school to graduate school. As the inquiring student moves through new information, discusses ideas with teachers and peers and, most of all, has time to reflect on the initial…

No Child Left Behind and state testing mandate the study of government officials, at local, state, and federal levels, in judicial, legislative, and executive branches. At Wattles Elementary School in Troy, Michigan, test scores indicated that this was a weak area--not surprising since this always has been primarily a high school subject. In this…