After many years working as a public school educator and school librarian, it is evident to the author that the relationships librarians cultivate with school library stakeholders--students, teachers, staff members, administrators, families, and community members--are the most critical ingredient to creating and maintaining vibrant modern-day…

Over the past 20 years, school libraries have gone through a significant digital transformation reflecting a broader shift in education and information access. Traditional card catalogs have been replaced by online databases. Hardcover A-Z encyclopedias have given way to digital versions with numerous additional online research tools. Literature…

The Diverse BookFinder (DBF) and its Collection Analysis Tool (CAT) were co-founded by Dr. Krista Aronson at Bates College, with support from an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant. It was recognized in 2021 by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) as one of the Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning. Through…

The American Library Association (ALA) reported an "unprecedented" number of book challenges in 2022 (ALA, 2022b), resulting in nationwide media coverage and increased awareness of censorship attempts. However, these numbers represent only censorship attempts from external entities, such as parents and the general public; some librarians…

An increasingly important element of the learning journey for children around the world is the vital role school libraries play in supporting literacy, health, and wellbeing, as well as improving attainment across the curriculum. The Scottish Government established the School Library Improvement Fund (SLIF) administered by the Scottish Library and…

In this article, the author examines how libraries have evolved and argues that they have not fundamentally changed. While the library spaces that students work in have changed, the lessons being learned fundamentally have not. Students still learn to find source materials, research, write, construct projects, create reference lists, and complete…

Librarianship is constantly confronted with unexpected and quickly evolving sociotechnical challenges, yet the documents that define the core professional competencies for librarians are infrequently updated. Based upon survey responses collected from 383 working librarians located in the United States, we describe a set of gaps between current…

Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

Computational thinking is an essential 21st-century skill that all youth should develop in order to navigate and succeed in an increasingly computational world. For all youth to have hands-on opportunities to develop essential computational thinking skills, libraries and informal learning environments play a critical role. This is especially true…

Meaningful learning resources for earthquake safety and survival have become an increasingly important topic among geoscientists, especially educators and researchers. Various members of the public, especially K-12 (ages 5-18) learners, continue to depend on scientific trade books available at their local public and school libraries for…

K-12 instructional settings diversified worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Research is needed in examining school librarians' evolving roles during this era. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, K-12 remote-synchronous learning was an instructional option in a progressive U.S. public school district. This new "school"…

School libraries are supplementary places enabling students to acquire reading habits and reading culture. The purpose of this study is to determine the status of libraries in schools and to take the opinions of teachers towards school libraries. For this purpose, a case study design has been utilized in the current research and observation and…

Libraries in Nigeria have long struggled to adequately serve the information needs of visually impaired individuals, particularly those who are literate. Despite this, scholarly research addressing these issues in South-Eastern Nigeria is lacking, highlighting the urgency of investigating predictors of user satisfaction among visually impaired…

Over the past 30 years, the nation has experienced a decline in the number of public school library programs. New York City has been trying to combat this trend by implementing several innovative programs. One of them is the VITAL Libraries program. VITAL stands for Vital, Instructional, Transformative, Accessible, Learning Libraries. It is a…

Adults at school board meetings screaming at elected members about "groomer" and "pedophile" school librarians' books, programs, and displays. Politicians who repeat these claims and pledge to remove pornography from local schools. Public threats of physical harm or loss of livelihood against school librarians. The result of…