In the September/October 2016 issue of Knowledge Quest, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) published the definition for an effective school library program (4-5). AASL President Audrey Church and AASL Executive Director Sylvia Knight Norton introduced this statement by putting the definition in the context of the recently enacted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
ESSA includes AASL’s definition. The KQ article/position statement notes: “The definition of an effective school library program provides guidance to administrators, school boards, and school librarian in implementing ESSA” (5).
The goal of effective school library programs is to prepare students for college, career, and community. The statement emphasizes the need for a state-certified school librarian serving in an adequately staffed library as essential to meeting the objectives of an effective program. Some of these objectives are equitable access to resources, including technology, a dynamic environment that links to real-world events and enables academic knowledge and deeper personalized learning.
As a long-time advocate for classroom-library collaboration, I was heartened to see the definition includes collaboration as the third fundamental component. The effective school library program “provides regular professional development and collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians” (4). AASL defines collaboration is this way: “Working with a member of the teaching team to plan, implement, and evaluate a specialized instructional plan” (5).
The instructional role of the school librarian includes working with classroom teachers to develop “information literacy and digital literacy instruction for all students” (5). Building relationships in the school learning community is the foundation on which school librarians lead an effective school library program. Collegiality and trust are necessary for classroom-library coplanning and coteaching, including coassessing student learning outcomes.
To support you in developing your effective school library program, I am inviting all school librarians to participate in my upcoming Webinar “Classroom-Library Coteaching 4 Student Success.” It will be held on Thursday, October 13th at 5:00 p.m. EDT and is sponsored by ABC-CLIO and Libraries Unlimited.
It is critical that school librarian leaders embrace and practice this definition in order to demonstrate to education decision-makers, school administrators, classroom teachers and specialists, students, families, and community the essential role of the school librarian and library program in educating future ready students.
BACC blog readers can access all of the AASL position statements, including the “Definition for Effective School Library Program” and “Instructional Role of the School Librarian” at: http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/resources/statements
Work Cited
American Association of School Librarians. “Definition for Effective School Library Program.” Knowledge Quest, vol. 45, no. 1, 2016, pp. 4-5. Online at: http://tinyurl.com/aasldefslp
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