In spring 2024, the Multicounty Multitype Library Systems, supported by State Library Services, conducted a census of K-12 public and charter schools in Minnesota to learn about the status of school libraries. A total of 1,528 out of 1,777 eligible schools completed the census. The findings can help legislators, school staff, librarians, and…

As the need for digital content increases almost daily, preserving this content for university libraries, especially in the least developed and developing nations, becomes a challenge, resulting in the loss of this data. Even though most of these libraries are automated and adopt one digital preservation strategy or the other, library users need…

Students in STEM and the health sciences have unique learning needs, including preparation for exams required for entering a STEM or health sciences profession. Students in these areas thus often seek, in addition to or instead of traditional course materials and library resources, digital study tools that utilize techniques such as spaced…

This report features syntheses of select Causality: School Libraries and Student Success II (CLASS II) research findings as they relate to the Shared Foundations of Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage from the The American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) "National School Library Standards for Learners, School…

The American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) Causality: School Libraries and Student Success II (CLASS II) project was the first step in developing a long-term, three-phase school library research agenda to investigate causal relationships between school libraries staffed by professionally prepared school librarians and student learning.…

Traditionally, academic librarians have delivered "beck and call" service to educators both in and out of the classroom. However, far from being merely auxiliary to the learning cycle, academic librarians are educators in their own right. If the primary challenge before them is to change how they're perceived within their institutions,…

Since 2014, the University Libraries at the University of Oklahoma in Norman has been a member of the Software Carpentry Foundation (now part of "The Carpentries"), a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching basic computing skills to researchers. Through this partnership, we have taught over a dozen introductory programming workshops…

This piece focuses on creating a safe space for several subsets of the elementary school student population, including Muslim students, children with autism spectrum disorder, and students with social-emotional challenges. These groups do overlap and intersect, and they are united in their reliance on the library as a refuge. However, school…

In many elementary schools across the nation the library looks like a revolving door of classes. Classroom teachers come and drop off their classes for a lesson at a set time during the week. The school librarian teaches a lesson in isolation while the classroom teacher has a planning period. There is little time for collaboration. There is even…

Despite the proliferation of online homework websites and tutoring services, public libraries still have an important role to play when it comes to supporting young people's educational needs. Public libraries that take a proactive approach--by setting up organized homework centers--have the potential to become catalysts for better performance in…

Many of the descriptions of public libraries as sanctuaries provide myriad examples of ways in which they serve the underserved: language circles, English language learning and citizenship classes, and access to technology for the homeless, to name a few. In the school library, if librarians are providing sanctuary only to those who feel…

The field of school librarianship has long called for stronger evidence related to school libraries and student achievement (Stefl-Mabry and Raddick 2017; Stefl-Mabry et al. 2016; Morris and Cahill 2017). This article outlines a systematic method for school librarians to document student learning and provide tangible confirmation of their…

The literature in both education and library science since the 1980s has encouraged school librarians to support education change through service to school-wide initiatives. The difference in the literature from the last century to this one is the transition from a reactive stance to a proactive one. The former encouraged librarians to gain…

With the changes in school library spaces and school librarians' roles, there has never been a more extraordinary time to be a librarian. However, one thing will never change even in these dynamic times; librarians are still the driving force behind strong reading programs and fostering that love of reading. How do librarians create a culture of…

Libraries are learning hubs that connect families to free resources, activities, and services to cultivate children's learning about topics that excite them. Despite recent technological developments which have revolutionized how we read and access information, libraries continue to evolve in order to serve their communities, especially families…