School libraries remain a hallmark of society. They are places where all students are welcome to use the abundant resources available to them to research topics for class study or explore ideas about which they are curious. At some school libraries it is also a place where students meet with military recruiters, sit for college interviews,…

School librarians have a critical role to play in supporting the use of Ed Tech within our schools. It is an ever-changing field. Additionally, it is often the school librarian who has the unique responsibility of introducing and sharing new technology with their school community. However, school librarians also have the added responsibility of…

The "National School Library Standards" stress the importance of the school library as "a third space for learning, a space between the classroom and home" (AASL 2018, 11). Over the past year and a half, there has been no guarantee that the physical school library will be accessible to provide this essential third space for…

Five initiatives launched during Cyndi Phillip's term as American Association of School Librarians (AASL) President (2006-2007) continue to have an impact on school librarians ten years later. They include the rewriting of AASL's learning standards, introduction of the SKILLS Act, the presentation of the Crystal Apple Award to Scholastic Library…

Openly licensed educational resources (OER) are an untapped opportunity for free, quality resources to expand a school library collection. As with any library asset, they must be evaluated to ensure that they are in fact free and openly licensed. The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has created an OER repository and has learned…

The school librarian at Farragut Middle School in Knoxville, Tennessee, describes how, given the recent surge of fake news, her school was inspired by the new American Association of School Librarians Standards Framework for Learners (2017) to overhaul its website evaluation lessons in the school library program. Concentrating on the Shared…

School librarians play a key, though often unrecognized, role in teaching literacy skills (Knapp 2011; Lance and Hofschire 2012; Scholastic 2016). Research over two decades has repeatedly confirmed school libraries' and librarians' significant impact on learners' literacy achievement. Studies in more than twenty states and several Canadian…

When secondary school librarians teach students digital life literacies, they help students perceive that librarians can provide support for real-life problems. The more librarians work with students, create inviting library environments, and have positive engagements with students, the more they change student perceptions of librarians in…

For school librarians, being part of a "connected" community provides support for getting specific needs met, solving personally relevant and meaningful problems, and developing professional expertise. AASL provides many avenues for members of the profession to learn with and from one another. These include AASL and subgroup electronic…

Where do school librarians go to find out the latest on how the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is being used (and will be used) in the 21st-century virtual-knowledge world? The answer is two great websites containing: (1) the most current information on both Dewey and linked data at <http://dewey.info>; (2) Dewey here-and-now…

The purpose of "Choose Privacy Week" is to encourage a national conversation to raise awareness of the growing threats to personal privacy online and in day-to-day life. The 2016 Choose Privacy Week theme is "respecting individuals' privacy," with an emphasis on minors' privacy. A plethora of issues relating to minors' privacy…

The school library can be a lonely place. These days, tight budgets and fiscal shortfalls have created a new breed of solo librarians--a group of educators who not only have to do more with less, but who, increasingly, also have to do it all alone. Some school librarians are even serving multiple schools or entire districts--juggling it all just…

With school budgets shrinking every year, tough decisions are made by those powers that be, and you very well may be the next RIF (reduction in force) waiting to happen. Sadly, those school librarians who have stopped learning, who have become stale in their role as librarian, or who feel the newer tools and ways of doing the job are not necessary…

Just as with print resources, as the number of Web-based resources continues to soar, the need to evaluate them has become a critical information skill for both children and adults. This is particularly true for schools where librarians often are called on to recommend Web resources to classroom teachers, parents, and students, and to support…

In 2006, technology directors from independent schools across the country had banded together and created "Principles of Good Practice" for technology in independent schools. These principles "define high standards and ethical behavior in key areas of independent school operations" (NAIS 2006). This author decided that it was time for the National…