AASL's new integrated standards are designed to empower leaders to transform teaching and learning. The new "National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries" reflect an evolution of AASL Standards, building on philosophical foundations and familiar elements of previous standards while featuring the…

In this article, the authors describe an undercurrent to the school librarian's public professional narrative, a silent but steady divide between what should happen and what "does" happen. Increasingly, rich collaborative planning is the exception, not the rule. Many library collaborations, when they do occur, happen in minutes over…

The New York State's School Library Media Program Evaluation (SLMPE) rubric provides a window of opportunity for a librarian to talk with his/her administrators about library program elements that may be out of the librarian's control. There are three areas of focus on the SLMPE Rubric: (1) Teaching and Learning; (2) Building and Learning…

Web-based presentation tools are sometimes referred to as "next generation presentation tools" (EDUCAUSE, 2010). At the most basic level, these tools are simply online versions of traditional presentation software, such as Microsoft's PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote, but some services offer features like web-based collaboration, online presentation…

The recent recession, school budget cuts, and predictions of school libraries' demise because of technology advances put pressure on school librarians to prove the utility, relevance, and value of school libraries to student learning. While national studies document that school libraries increase student achievement, school librarians must…

School librarians serving diverse learning communities, such as the Chicago Public Schools, have always been aware of the need to seek out multicultural books as "mirrors [that] let readers see reflections of their own lives; windows [that] let them see others' lives." But until a colleague sent this author the document "10 Quick…

Professionally, school librarians are faced with an explosion of choices--search engines, online catalogs, media types, subscription databases, and Web tools--all requiring scrutiny, evaluation, and selection. In turn, this support "stuff" forms a basis for making additional choices about how and what they teach and what they assess. Whereas once…

School library media specialists at all levels have been investing long hours in preparing and implementing lessons. They try to coordinate these lessons with teachers, and, in the best-case scenario, they collaboratively plan and deliver the instruction. The missing piece is an indication of whether or not students have actually been learning.…

The most notable events affecting the status of the blind within this biennium are: The arousing of the attention of society to the existence and needs of the handicapped; the labor shortage, which created many and new openings for their employment; and the Federal law providing, under certain conditions, for the rehabilitation of people injured…

During the last decade, research has become increasingly important to the profession of librarianship. Seven library schools now have doctoral programs, foundation grants have stimulated and supported scores of major projects, and the research method has been recognized as an accepted technique for solving library problems. The increasing volume…