To help school librarians develop learners' abilities to contribute to teams that can capitalize on a diversity of thinking and perspective, AASL tasked a 2024 ALA Emerging Leaders team with creating a guide for school librarians based on the Collaborate Shared Foundation in the "National School Library Standards." Working effectively in…

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…

In many locales--in many states--early conceptions of the school librarian's job have not evolved over the years even as the duties have expanded exponentially. The fact that in some districts outdated evaluation tools, such as Georgia's 1990 system, are still used to rate 21st-century school librarians is an obvious sign of the misconceptions…

Moving a library media center takes time, energy, and organization. As the sole media specialist/librarian for a new facility, this author has experienced moving material from another school. She learned a great deal and had help from people who volunteered their time and energy to make it happen. Although she does not claim to be a moving expert,…

Due to a recent American Association of School Librarians (AASL) survey that indicated confusion, misperceptions, and inconsistencies about various job titles in the school librarian profession, the organization's leadership chose to officially adopt for the profession the title school librarian. They did this after carefully reviewing the data…

There are differing ideas, even among leaders in the field of library media, about what the focus of a definitive library media program should be. The one key concept, however, that emerges is that leadership is integral to the success of the library media specialist and the library media program. Successful advocating for the library media…

Technology has changed the school yard or neighborhood bully. It no longer requires physical intimidation to be a bully. In fact, bullying can be done anonymously, on or off campus, and physical size does not enter into the scenario. Every year headlines identify children who take their own lives as a result of being victims of various forms of…

In this article, the author describes her efforts to collect perspectives about the topic of most appropriate job title for school library administrators. The author presents the results of a pilot study (with 31 respondents) and a national study (with 213 respondents) conducted to answer two research questions: (1) "What do future school…

The topic of the appropriate job title for school library administrators has been written about in earlier literature but has not addressed the issue from the perspective of future school library administrators. This article presents the results of a pilot study that was guided by the research question: What do future school library administrators…

It seems that fear of Web 2.0 is in full force. There are two concerns that resulted in a national panic concerning Internet Web 2.0 tools: pedophiles luring children via the Internet and corruption of youths through exposure to hard-core pornography or other vile material. Administrators, no doubt, are thinking in terms of saving themselves from…

It is not unusual for library media specialists to experience having their staff cut. The author has experienced this scenario twice. Each time, she and her colleagues redefined and restructured their library media centers to maximize teaching and learning. In this article, the author discusses some of the things she has learned about coping with…

There is much buzz about the new American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards, and while many library media specialists are just trying to get their minds around the innovative Skills format and accompanying Dispositions, Responsibilities and Self-Assessment Strategies, the author takes a moment to direct one's attention to the use…

It is common belief that most people can distinguish between right and wrong actions and usually make decisions to do the right thing. As educators, library media specialists are called upon to make decisions every day. Those decisions chart the course for that particular day and the future, for themselves and for those they work with. In this…

In many professional roles, long-term vision may help guide short-term decisions. This is especially true for school library professionals as library media programs are constantly evolving. This author suggests strategies to assist library media specialists to nurture their vision and provides reviews of several sources and experts in the field…

When a challenge gets difficult, it's hard to believe that people challenge instructional materials because they care. It's even harder to remember that educators want the general public, legislators, taxpayers, and parents to care about education. Library media specialists and administrators have the same lens of stress that all adults have,…