School media specialists must be teachers, leaders, and advocates for reading, inquiry, and learning. Partnering with classroom teachers, they must design and implement curriculum and instruction that prepare young citizens for a life that requires thinking, inquiry, problem-solving and ethical behavior. These experiences provide the foundation…

Communities of practice offer reference librarians a conceptual model through which to develop and maintain general and subject specific knowledge. Reference librarians acquire general and subject-specific knowledge in many ways, sometimes independently and sometimes collaboratively. Applying the concept of the "community of practice" to reference…

The most successful school library media specialists are those who collaborate with teachers as full partners in the instructional process. Without assertive action by the school library media specialist, however, school administrators and teachers are likely to be more aware of the media specialist's administrative role than the roles of teacher,…

The information age has given library media specialists an unprecedented opportunity to play a leading role in helping teachers, administrators, and especially students access and use information intelligently. As the school's premier information specialist; the library media specialist has a unique role to play in helping everyone in the school…

The development, publication, and distribution of the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" once again demonstrate the vision of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in pointing the way with new literacies (textual, media, digital, technology) for students. These standards include critical self-assessment strategies that will…

Dealing with unaffiliated distance learning students can be a daunting task for many public as well as academic librarians. This article will discuss strategies for providing reference to these students by gathering information on what services they are offered via their home institutions, and helping them navigate the often confusing landscape of…

How are AASL's (American Association of School Librarians) new learning standards, the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," incorporated into the school library media program? This publication from AASL takes an in-depth look at the strands of the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and the indicators within those strands. It also…

As library educators help the academic community incorporate information literacy into the curriculum and instruct students so they become information literate, the role of assessment becomes key--and problematic. What should be assessed, how should it be examined, and is there even a valid and feasible set of assessment tools? This work helps…

Teens are impatient and unsophisticated online researchers who are often limited by their poor reading skills. Because they are attracted to clean and simple Web interfaces, they often turn to Google--and now Wikipedia--to help meet their research needs. The Google Game, co-authored by this author, teaches kids that there is a well-thought-out…

Library media specialists find themselves in a challenging position today. They know that the Internet opens up information access in exciting ways, so they do not want to scare people; but they do need to inform them about practices for using the Internet that will keep young people safe. They have a responsibility to inform other educators,…

Over the past decade, educators have stressed the importance of creating exciting and intellectually stimulating environments where students are actively involved in constructing their own understandings. Whether it's designing a WebQuest to spark curiosity in science or establishing an oral history project to spur interest in local history,…

Since 2001, librarians at Oregon State University's Valley Library have been working to build a "teaching library" supported by a clearly articulated instruction program. From the start, we believed that we needed to assess the teaching library's impact, not only to determine the success or failure of our efforts but also to demonstrate…

School library media specialists have four primary responsibilities: teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. As instructional partners, school library media specialists collaborate in designing instruction and learning activities that "reflect the best in current research and practice." Researchers at the…

In library instruction, as in any instructional setting, individual learning styles should be addressed to ensure better learning and retention. Historical examination of learning styles research suggests that in order to appreciate the diversity of students' learning styles and to apply this understanding in a library or information environment,…

Recent research on the brain has identified a number of cognitive strategies for constructing knowledge and improving retention of new information. Classroom teachers have begun implementing many of these strategies in their teaching, but what about library media specialists? As leaders and learners in the Information Age, library media…