This report explains the key role that school librarians and libraries should play in state- and district-wide efforts to transition to digital learning, or the effective use of technology to improve teaching and learning. The report calls for district and school leaders, policymakers, and boards of education to support, encourage, and fund the…

Prior to this year, the National Library Legislative Day never really held much importance for the author as a school library media specialist. However, this feeling changed after she attended her first National Library Legislative Day in May of 2008. The goal of this day is to allow everyday practicing professionals to speak with their national…

This "Blueprint" describes the actions everyone needs to take if they are to nourish Indiana's young adolescents so that they will be able to develop their reading skills to their full potential. This document spells out the ways that everyone can make books available, provide middle grades students with the time for reading, provide…

In response to the rapid advances in information technology, greater pressure has been placed on academic libraries and teaching faculty to incorporate information literacy skills into the curriculum. Although these skills have been taught for decades, the principles and concepts of information literacy have taken on new urgency as they are…

Historically, it's been an unavoidable truth: IT people and library people have not been inclined to come to the concept of service with the same view. For IT, it's been all about keeping the servers and systems up, the websites going, and the help desk calls and their turnaround times to a minimum. For library professionals, service has meant…

There are many chasms in the library profession: among different libraries and between public services and technology staff, users and librarians, and research and practice. Susan Gibbons bridges all of them. As director of digital library initiatives at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries, Gibbons was an early adopter of MIT's…

Describes how the Indiana library community defeated a "Speaker's bill" in the Indiana House of Representatives that threatened public library interests. Topics addressed include the introduction of the bill, lobbying, and arguments against the bill. (SLW)

Noting that reading instruction for young adolescents in Indiana's middle grades schools has been virtually eliminated, this booklet describes how important reading is in the middle grades and why it continues to deserve attention beyond the elementary years. The booklet proposes a series of actions that educators--teachers, administrators, school…

Discusses the role of school libraries in literacy and independent reading habits for adolescents. Highlights include the sad state of school libraries in Indiana, how much to spend on books for middle grades school libraries, the time frame for rebuilding school library collections, and the Reading Bill of Rights. Sample inventory procedures and…