This five-year plan for the administration of Utah's Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) program contains the following sections: (1) principles; (2) assumptions; (3) the current scene of Utah libraries, including public libraries, academic libraries, school library media centers, and private and research libraries; (4) establishment of…

Enriching and supplementing storytelling programs with fingerplays, flannelboards, and other props will be a cinch thanks to this generous sampling of art and craft ideas, songs, and action rhymes. This time-saving resource includes: (1) Thematic organization to make program planning easy; (2) Recommended books for each theme; (3) Easy-to-follow…

Based on the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Library Buildings and Equipment Section's Library Building Guidelines published in 2007, this short publication summarises the key points to take into consideration when designing a new or refurbished library building. The aim of the brochure is not to replace…

This descriptive research study examined principal support of collaboration in Georgia schools designated as having exemplary library media programs from the perspective of media specialists, classroom teachers and principals. A pilot study generated a survey instrument to be used for the exemplary school media program study. The literature on…

In this article, the authors provide an overview of what can be expected at the AASL 14th National Conference and Exhibition. The Conference Committee and AASL staff have focused on designing a conference to help all school library media specialists with the implementation of the new standards, raising the level of learning in school library media…

The job of a teacher-librarian is to connect all students to reading, writing, information, and literacy in all its wonderful forms. A writing challenge is a teacher-librarian's chance to encourage students to inform and entertain the community in an introspective and artistic manner. A school-wide challenge to write is a chance most students have…

"It's a recession, baby!" was the common refrain among the Library and Information Science (LIS) graduates of the class of 2008. This was a record year for the number of graduates participating in "Library Journal"'s annual Placements & Salaries survey, and they had stories to tell, providing evidence of both hard times in the job market, and some…

Creating a tendency for their students to act in a certain manner under a given circumstance is exactly what library media specialists are about. This is something they do teach. They have two main purposes as library media specialists. One purpose is to create and support the love of literature. A second purpose is to develop ethical users of…

This article describes the process of producing "Snow Soup"--the 2009 Adobe Flash animation produced by the Computer Game Development and Animation seniors of Washington County Technical High School in Hagerstown, Maryland, for libraries in their area. In addition to the Flash product, the students produced two related Game Maker games, a printed…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the features that international student users prefer for next generation OPACs. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 16 international students of the University of Sheffield were interviewed in July 2008 to explore their preferences among potential features in next generation OPACs. A…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Web 2.0 provides an exciting set of tools for librarians to help their students become more information-literate. Design/methodology/approach: Recently, information overload and Web 2.0 have led librarians to adopt practices labelled as Library 2.0. Information literacy can be the key to…

Parent volunteers can be an important asset to a well-run school library. Parent volunteers are that extra pair of hands and extra eyes. Monotonous and even tedious tasks can be accomplished quickly by people searching for ways to spend a little time with adult conversation while providing a benefit to their children. And eventually they can…

Research and professional practice in librarianship has increasingly turned to community-focused information services (CIS), which allow people to participate in creating and sharing information about themselves and their communities. These information services have a great potential to empower and engage marginalized communities; however, in this…

With the increasing ranks of cell phone ownership is an increase in text messaging, or texting. During 2008, more than 2.5 trillion text messages were sent worldwide--that's an average of more than 400 messages for every person on the planet. Although many of the messages teenagers text each day are perhaps nothing more than "how r u?" or "c u…

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) enabled the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to develop increased visibility among leaders shaping the development of the Internet. It also provided a mechanism for ARL member institutions and others to engage in partnership strategies to develop projects that would bring digital content and…