Some economists have called the current U.S. economic environment the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Many educators and parents believe it is more important than ever for students to master financial literacy skills. To become successful and responsible 21st century citizens, students need to graduate globally competitive for…

Evaluation is important. As the sea of information grows ever larger, educators must be able to teach their students to evaluate what they find and decide its relevance and accuracy. In the American Association of School Librarians' publication "Standards for the 21st Century Learner," evaluation is a skill (1.1.4, 1.1.5), a disposition in action…

Online booksellers have done a terrific job of developing ways to let customers share their opinions about books with the goal of getting a person to buy more books. They have also made effective use of the bottom line, which is what a customer spends those hard-earned dollars on, to further entice people to add one more item to their cart. In…

Cuts abound despite an infusion of technology, restructured media programs, and research connecting media specialists to improved student achievement. Verbal and written support about the value of a library or media specialist has not translated into monetary support at a time of universal funding problems. All grade levels and district sizes are…

Today school library media specialists operate in an environment of daily challenges and controversies. "No Child Left Behind" established mandates that all educators are scrambling to meet. No matter how people feel about the way the legislation is being carried out, it is difficult to argue against its purpose--that all educators must…

This article describes the Librarianship Upgrades for Children and Youth Services (LUCY), a multifaceted multicultural continuing education program for librarians developed by the Library and Information Science Program at Old Dominion University. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funds LUCY through the Laura Bush 21st century…

This article discusses how a school librarian can help students improve their critical thinking and strengthen their higher order thinking skills through the inquiry process. First, it will use a Guided Inquiry approach to examine how higher order thinking skills are taught within an inquiry paradigm. Next, it will consider how formative…

"AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." New standards for library media programs! What does it mean to practicing library media specialists? Does this mean they must abandon all the strategies, activities, and lessons they have developed based upon "Information Power's Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" and create all new…

School librarians should strive to create a learning environment that prepares their students for higher level thinking. They should not only memorize and remember, but also synthesize and evaluate their learning. This can be achieved through social literacy. By utilizing a collaborative lesson that has students teaching other students, school…

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…

In this time of change in our society, children's needs, preferences, and interactions with the world are changing. These changes have sent education policymakers scrambling to two extremes. The first extreme, a focus on testing and basic skills, seeks to ensure that all children leave school with equal knowledge and preparation for the workplace.…

In "Fool's Gold: Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library," Mark Herring paints a fairly grim picture of the future of libraries. Basically, he posits that a confluence of events and attitudes have come together to bring about the demise (unless something is done, and soon) of the library as people know it. First, people mistakenly believe…

All librarians, even those working one job, can become victims of burnout. Burnout can occur throughout the course of any career, and can pose a serious threat. On a daily basis, librarians help patrons fight their way through a haze of misinformation and disinformation. A good librarian is always on the ready, shifting gears from MLA source…

Like middle school students, adults would never want to go into a new school not being able to speak the language. Most teachers aren't signing up to teach in Mexico or China unless they know how to speak with their fellow educators and their students. But English Language Learners (ELL) don't have the choices that teachers do. They have been…

Participating in an evidence-based practice workshop in 2005 was a transforming experience for the author. She realized that the traditional statistics that she had painstakingly gathered and recorded for her annual report did not provide evidence of actual learning. Evidence acquired through assessment, both formative and summative, provides the…