Category Archives: AASL

Planning for Election 2018

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For many educators, summer is a time for planning for the fall. The gardening metaphor works so well for teaching. The more relaxed pace and some daydreaming time provide mental space to plot out the garden where students will think, create, share, and grow come fall. Summer is when educators look for new seeds to plant (concepts to emphasize). We research better fertilizers (resources and tools) and improved ways to till the soil (motivate and inspire learners).

We also look for real-world connections that can help students build connections between school-based learning and the world outside of the classroom, library, and lab. With the midterm elections to be held on Tuesday, November 5th, fall 2018 presents an excellent opportunity for students to delve deeply into the connection between civics and (online) information—between citizenship and digital literacy.

One website that supports student learning and educators’ teaching civics content is Stanford History Education Group. One the American Association of School Librarians’ 2018 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, the site includes a Civic Online Reasoning section. Based on research evidence (Wineburg et al. 2016), the site offers online resources that educators can use to prompt students to engage in reasoning related to history content.

The site also provides short-answer assessments that indicate a student’s level of development: emerging, beginning, and mastery. Each rubric includes sample student responses at each level, which can be initially used as examples for students and as guides for educators. (Coteaching classroom teachers and school librarians may find these “anchor responses” particularly useful when they share assessment responsibilities.)

As noted on the site, these resources are intentionally flexible so educators can “use the tasks to design classroom activities, as the basis for discussions about digital content, and as formative assessments to learn more about students’ progress as they learn to evaluate information.” The assessment prompts include historical photographs and other printed artifacts as well as social media posts from Facebook and Twitter.

I appreciate the terms used for the Civic Online Reasoning (COR) competencies:
1. Who’s behind the information? (Authority)
2. What’s the evidence? (Reliability)
3. What do other sources say? (Bias or Perspective)

The two other sections of the website are “Reading Like a Historian” and “Beyond the Bubble.” The former includes lesson plans; the latter provides assessments.  The lessons in “Reading Like a Historian” have been adopted by history departments in schools across the country. All aspects of the Stanford History Education Group site focus on documentary evidence as the way to validate information.

If the last election cycle is any indication, there will be no shortage of (online) information that will provide fodder for civic reasoning learning experiences in the fall of 2018. Check out this site and start plotting your fall garden today! Even better, start a conversation with your school librarian and classroom teacher colleagues to collaborate to design learning opportunities for students to develop digital literacy in the context of civic reasoning.

Reference
Wineburg, Sam. Sarah McGrew, Joel Breakstone, and Teresa Ortega. 2016. “Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning.” Stanford Digital Repository.  http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934

Image Credit: Word Cloud created at Wordle.net

#ALAAC18 Reflection

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I believe in reflecting after every learning experience. In fact, research shows that reflection/metacognition (thinking about one’s thinking) is the way prior knowledge is modified or changed and new ideas are added to our understandings. At a conference, it is often difficult to make time to stop after every meeting, session, keynote speaker, or event to talk with colleagues or engage in the necessary individual reflection that makes learning happen…

Twitter to the rescue! Now that the conference is over, I have the tweets I posted (plus likes and retweets) to use as reflection prompts. Since I began tweeting at conferences (nearly ten years ago), I have appreciated this social media platform as a tool for reflecting on whirlwinds of information and knowledge, especially for intense multiple-day conferences like the American Library Association Annual Conference, aka #alaac18. These are some of the highlights of my conference experience that may be of interest to readers of this blog.

The Lilead Project
My visit to New Orleans began with a day and a half of learning and strategizing with the Lilead Project. For the past year, this group of 20 changemaker school librarian supervisors, five mentors, and three project administrators has been growing a community of practice. The work of the Lilead Project with school librarian supervisors is a vital component of leadership development and moving the school librarian profession forward. The Lilead Fellows put their knowledge into action in districts across the United States. I am proud to have served as a mentor for the West Coast Lilead group. We will continue to meet and support one another in the coming year.

Left to right: Me, Jenny Takeda, Trish Henry, and Claudia Mason. Since our colleague Janet Wile was unable to remain in New Orleans, the poster she created that illustrates her Lilead action plan/learning is standing in (inadequately) for her behind us.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Hearing Mrs. Obama speak was a singular experience. Her strength, determination, poise, and most of all, her authenticity make her a leader and role model for many, including yours truly. I did not tweet or snap a photo during her interview with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. I was too star-struck so I especially appreciate those who did!

While standing in line to enter the auditorium, I was proud to see my hot-off-the-presses book, Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy, displayed in the ALA Store. I especially appreciated and learned from school librarian leadership conversations with Misti Werle, Carolyn Foote, and Pam Harland at various points during the conference. Thank you, ALA Editions for your support and thank you to those who purchased the books before they sold out at the ALA Store.

American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) President’s Program
Part 1: More AASL members should attend this event! The award winners, many of whom brought family members and colleagues from their schools to share their achievement, gave inspirational speeches that captured the depth of their professional practice. I would like to spotlight the work the 2018 National School Library Media Program of the Year (SLMPY) Award recipients Mimi Marquet and Lisa Koch from Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Virginia. They even shared their speech in tandem! Such a powerful partnership! Thank you to Follett for sponsoring the SLMPY award.

Part 2: Thank you AASL President Steven Yates for inviting Dr. Jervette Ward as the speaker for his AASL President’s Program. I agree with Dr. Ward that silence on issues related to social justice is not a neutral stance. Silence is a decision and in cases of social justice, it is a decision in favor of oppression.  I have requested that my public library order her book Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV I look forward to reading it.

AASL’s Best Websites and Best Apps
The release of the 2018 Best Websites and 2018 Best Apps is a highlight of the annual conference. I appreciate the committee members who vet, annotate, and use these resources and tools in order to share the most effective ones with our colleagues. I was pleased to see the Stanford History Education Group on the Best Websites list. Civic learning is a hot topic in education, and this curriculum makes an outstanding contribution to this effort. I am not as familiar with apps, but I was excited to see Signed Stories among those listed. School librarians are charged with using and integrating tools that support literacy for all students. Thank you, AASL committees, for pointing the way.

A Bright Spot From Home (Arizona)
How wonderful to hear Lisa Morris-Wilkey’s news regarding her work with the Casa Grande (AZ) superintendent. Together, they are restoring elementary librarians positions. Brava, @LMWArizona!

Fake News or Free Speech: Is there a right to be misinformed?
Mary Minow, Damaso Reyes, and Drs. Nicole Cooke and Joyce Valenza each had ten minutes to share a perspective on this timely topic. I wrote about this session in my  6/18/18 “News Based in Facts” post before I left for New Orleans. The panel provided a great deal of food for thought. I appreciated the legal information Mary Minow provided and learned more about the extremely high bar for successfully prosecuting libel, slander, and disinformation cases in court. Here are just few of my tweets related to the other panelists’ comments.

My take-away from the panel is that information literacy and critical thinking are needed now more than ever. I completely agree with Joyce that stepping up our leadership in this area is essential for school librarians. And with support toward that goal, thank you especially, Damaso Reyes, for sharing your work with Checkology.org.

EveryLibrary
The EveryLibrary.org event was a reminder that networking and advocacy are not only essential “work” for librarians, but they can also be fun! Thank you at EveryLibrary for a smashing evening. I especially enjoyed talking with Dorcas Hand (Texas) and Kathy Lester (Michigan) about their advocacy efforts (and the shrimp and corn were real good, too).

The Public
Our profession is indebted to Emilio Estevez for telling this story and shining a light on a little-known role of librarians and libraries in today’s society in his film The Public.

If you did not have the opportunity to see the film at #alaac18, check out the trailer (no spoilers!) and know that the film is exceptional and the ending is perfect! I do hope Emilio Estevez succeeds with his mini-series. If so, I hope he will include the role school librarians and school librarians play in addressing literacy and technology-access gaps and meeting the needs of students, especially those living in poverty.

Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Banquet
For me, sharing the authors’ and illustrators’ inspiring speeches with friends is always a highlight of ALA Annual. It was so fitting that Jacqueline Woodson is the first recipient of the renamed and reconceived ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award. Ms. Woodson’s empowered speech was the perfect way to launch this award. View a short view of Ms. Woodson’s response to earning the award. Read information about the name change on the ALA/ALSC website.

Our tablemate Audrey Cornelius snapped this photo at Table #51. Deb Levitov must have been visiting another table at the time the photo was taken. Front row: Connie Champlin, Becky Calzada, me, Pam Berger. Back row: Sheila MacDowell, Dorcas Hand, Karen Perry, and Barbara Stripling. And how fun that by an unexpected turn of events, Audrey, who was in my storytelling course at Texas Woman’s University in 2012, joined us at the table. Such a wonderful surprise!

The Extraordinarily Talented Brian Selznick
Scholastic Publishing invited Brian Selznick to draw the new covers for a Harry Potter 20th-anniversary paperback set book release. Thankfully, he said, “YES!” after creating a sketch that shows all seven book covers as a single poster. In this work, Brian explored the relationships between the characters and battle between good and evil. He used a snake to connect all seven covers. Brilliant! Preorder yours today!

ALSC Charlemae Rollins Presidents Program
Thank you to ALSC President Nina Lindsay for bringing together this esteemed panel to share their research, experience, and perspectives. This is just a quick snippet from the many thought-provoking ideas and questions they raised.

Dr. Emily Thomas started the conversation by pointing out the National Council of Teachers of English Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children’s and Young Adult Books (2015). She also talked about how stories matter and used the image of the cover of Stories Matter: The Complexity of Culture Authenticity in Children’s Literature, edited by Dana Fox and Kathy G. Short. (I have a chapter in that book that shares my journey as a cultural-outsider author of a children’s book.)

You can read about Dr. Debbie Reese’s reaction to name and description changes to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award on her website.

Margarita Engle shared her personal journey as a child who was unable to travel to Cuba to visit her grandmother and family. She had many quotable moments in her talk, including this one:

Jason Reynolds asked this question: “Is it that Black boys don’t read, or is it that Black boys don’t have books to read—mirror books that they can see themselves in?” For many young Black men his Newbery honor book Long Way Down may be just that book.

The continuing need for publishers to publish books from authors and illustrators from underrepresented groups was one take-away from this panel. This is not new, but all librarians can make a difference in how they develop library collections and serve ALL kids in their community. The need for increasing cultural competence among those who review, purchase, and share books is a critical aspect of today’s librarianship. The hashtag #alscallkids sums up a very complex and critical conversation.

Final Day in NOLA
I started the morning of my last day in New Orleans with a walk to Café du Monde, Jackson Square, and the cathedral. After checkout, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a dear long-time friend who lives in the Big Easy. Darlene and I became friends in Tucson during our daughters’ challenging adolescent years. Catching up, eating at Morrow’s (we highly recommend the BBQ shrimp!), shopping for grandchild gifts, and being silly together was the perfect way to wrap up this visit.

Only in New Orleans!

ALA Annual is truly about community for me. When I attend the Midwinter Meeting or the Annual Conference, I feel the camaraderie and excitement of learning with and from our nation-wide professional network. I especially appreciate the social justice and equity actions of our colleagues. I highly encourage you to get involved with our national association and its divisions. They are nothing without YOU!

Graphic courtesy of ALA

National Library Legislative Day and More

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A photograph on the Arizona Daily Star opinion page on May 3, 2018, struck a chord with me. If you have been following the national news, you know that Arizona’s teacher walkout and #RedForEd movement has been called a “Norma Rae moment.” Long underpaid and undervalued educators working with large class sizes and antiquated technology in crumbling buildings, Arizona educators and advocates have held Governor Ducey and his majority-Republican legislature’s feet to the fire. Activists are vowing to keep the momentum for improving education for Arizona’s students going through the November election.

The photo on the May 3rd opinion page was of a #RedForEd group in which one of the protesters was a woman holding this sign: “Even LIBRARIANS can’t keep QUIET anymore!”

To my way of thinking, NO ONE who is passionate about youth, learning, and teaching should ever keep quiet about what kind of education today’s young people need to succeed—especially not school librarians.

In that context, I am delighted that hundreds of librarians, library trustees, library patrons, and advocates are in Washington, D.C. for the American Library Association’s annual National Library Legislative Day (#NLLD18).

I have never had the opportunity to meet face to face with lawmakers during #NLLD, but I am signed up to participate virtually today, May 7th and tomorrow, May 8th.

I will be emailing, phoning, and Tweeting Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake and  Representative Martha McSally during this two-day event to remind them that Arizona’s students, educators, and families need the expertise of school librarians and the services of school libraries.

U.S. school and public libraries have a vital role to play in the health and prosperity of our country. Literacy learning and programming are critical services. From cradle to grave, libraries help patrons and communities meet their life goals. Access to technology tools is one essential service libraries provide. Since one in four households in the U.S. are without Internet connection, school and public libraries help level the playing field by providing students, families, and adults equitable access to the tools of our times and the digital resources that impact daily lives.

Other Library National Advocacy Efforts
ALA members and supporters advocate for their patrons all year long. The ALA Advocacy page provides a rich resource of support. This year, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Advocacy Committee launched AASL Connection (#AASLcxn), a quarterly advocacy and information sharing effort that includes webinars, Twitter chats, and more. The Association for Library Service to Children Everyday Advocacy page provides resources as well.

In addition to these, I highly recommend the work of EveryLibrary.org. Every Library helps school and public libraries organize and sustain advocacy efforts. Signing petitions or tweeting out information for these efforts is a way for librarians to support advocacy initiative across the country. Every Library has also started a peer-reviewed journal called The Political Librarian. As an Every Library monthly subscriber, I am proud to support the activism of my colleagues.

Advocating Closer to Home
I have made a long-time commitment to write as often as possible for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper. I believe it is important to speak up locally as well as nationally about school librarianship, particularly in a state like Arizona where so few preK-12 students and educators are receiving the support of state-endorsed school librarians.

Although my letters do not always get published, my passion for our profession and what access to literacy learning means for students keeps me submitting. These are a few of my published letters to the editor and an opinion piece published within the last year.

“One Million Arizona Students at Risk.” Arizona Daily Star (Apr. 4, 2017)

“Missing School Librarians Means Lost Literacy Learning.” Arizona Daily Star (Nov. 3, 2017).

“Early Childhood Education: A First Step that Requires Follow-Up.” Arizona Daily Star Online (Apr. 11, 2018)

“I Know Who Goldwater Can Sue.” Arizona Daily Star Online (May 2, 2018).

If school librarianship is to survive, each of us must find our way to speak up and out for our profession. Yes, it is ideal and rewarding when our administrators, classroom teacher colleagues, families, and students raise their voices in support of our work. Yet, there are many who do not have first-hand experience of what school librarians contribute to students’ learning and to other educators’ teaching. It is only by educating the larger community and speaking up for our work that we can expect to change the outdated stereotypes and under valuing of our school librarians and libraries that persist today.

Please join our librarian colleagues, library advocates, and me today and tomorrow for National Library Legislative Day. Think nationally for #NLLD18 and act locally every day. Together—we can make a difference.

Image Courtesy of the American Library Association

School-Public Library Twitter Chat

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The AASL/ALSC/YALSA “Public Library & School Library Collaboration Toolkit” was published in early February. I wrote about it on my blog that month. If you so choose, you can access the toolkit or view my summary before participating in the chat.


Tomorrow, April 24th at 8:00 p.m. Central Time, Mara Rosenberg, Natalie Romano, and I will moderate a Twitter chat hosted by #txlchat. Mara, Natalie, and I are members of the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation.

We owe a huge thank-you to #txlchat moderators for giving us this opportunity to use their Twitter channel for the chat.

We will be using these hashtags: #splctoolkit #txlchat #aasl #alsc #yalsa

These are the questions around which we will build our school-public library collaboration conversation. The questions are organized by the toolkit chapters:

Chapter 1: Getting Started
Q1. What advice would you offer to librarians beginning a new partnership w/their counterpart in a school or public library? What steps have aided in the success of your past collaborations?

Chapter 2: Why School-Public Library Partnerships Matter
Q2. How have you collaborated w/your school or public librarian colleague to prevent summer slide/summer reading loss?

Chapter 3: Successful School-Public Library Partnerships
Q3. What does your public/school library collaboration look like during the school year?

Chapter 4: Continuing the Partnerships
Q4. What tools do you use to keep up with your public or school librarian throughout the year? What works well and what could be improved?

Chapter 5: Templates and Additional Resources
Q5. Do you have templates to share that can help others further develop their school-public library #collaboration?

The toolkit process and final product are an example of how the American Library Association sister divisions can work together to create a useful resource for the benefit of all librarians who serve the literacy needs of children, young adults, and families and help co-create empowered literacy communities.

We hope you will join us for the chat and share your ideas and experiences of school-public library collaboration.

Our goal is for you to leave the chat with new ideas and inspiration for starting or strengthening a collaborative conversation with your school or public librarian counterpart who can partner with you to grow literacy in your community.

Link to #splctoolkit #txlchat 4/24 Twitter Chat Archive

Image Credit: Chat graphic created by Sharon Gullett, #txlchat Co-Founder

#SLM18 Making Community Connections

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This week, School Library Month (#SLM18) activities focus on outreach with the community.  To my way of thinking, there are two communities to which effective school librarians are accountable – the community of the school and the community outside the walls of the school. The imperative to make connections in both can be the same.

When I think of the word “community,” I immediately think of the teaching of a thoughtful, influential library leader, R. David Lankes. Currently, the Director of the School of Library and Information Science, and Associate Dean, College of Information and Communications, two of his books are my go-to sources for inspiration and guidance in all things “community.”

Like Lankes, I believe “the greatest asset any library has is a librarian” (2011, 29). But librarians isolated in a library with the “stuff” and siloed away from the needs of the community cannot reach their capacity to lead. For school librarians, Lankes argues that “it is time for a new librarianship, one centered on learning and knowledge, not on books and materials, where the community is the collection, and we spend much more time in connection development instead of collection development” (2011, 9). Connection development requires leadership.

What does it mean to lead? Leadership is about influencing others. It’s about making changes in the world – small and larger – that help other people better their lives. In order to lead, school librarians must be “embedded” in the community. They must serve on essential school-based committees and in community-based organizations. When we serve, we build relationships, the essential foundation for making change—together.

According to Lankes, knowledge is created through conversations, which involve both listening and speaking. When we listen to the dreams and goals of our school-based colleagues and people in the wider community, we learn how we can help them achieve their potential. When we help others, they will reciprocate.

Through this daily practice of service, school librarians develop advocates for their programs and for their positions, which are actually one and the same. “Librarians do their job not because they are servants or because they are building a product to be consumed by the community, but ultimately to make the community better. Community members don’t support the library because they are satisfied customers, but because the library is part of who they are” (2012, 37). When the community advocates for the library, they do so because they have experienced the benefits for themselves. It’s in their self-interest.

“The difference between a good and great comes down to this: a library that seeks to serve the community is good, and a library that seeks to inspire your community to be better every day is great. You can love a good library, but you need a great library” (Lankes 2012, 111).


“…To facilitate is not to sit back and wait to be asked… no one ever changed the world waiting to be asked. No, you (the community members) should expect the facilitation of librarians and libraries to be proactive, collaborative, and transformational (bold added). Libraries and librarians facilitate knowledge creation, working to make you and your community smarter” (2012, 42-43).

For me, Lankes’ work is a call to action. Rather than simply serving our communities in a passive way, effective school librarians spread their influence into every nook and cranny of the school. They use their knowledge, expertise, and access to information resources to be proactive in helping every student, classroom teacher, specialist, administrator, and parent achieve their goals.

They form partnerships and collaborate with others in the school and in the larger community to improve the lives of everyone. Through the lens of “community as collection,” school librarians are positioned to act with purpose and passion to transform their communities.

During SLM, school librarians showcase the learning activities that can happen because of the work of an effective school librarian and a collaborative library program. Can we do more? I think so.  Let #SLM18 be a call to action. Our communities should expect more from us and we should step up our literacy leadership and go forward within our school communities and with our larger communities to create futures that benefit all.

Works Cited
Lankes, R. David. 2011. The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.

_____. 2012. Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries for Today’s Complex World. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Image Credits
Collage created with PowerPoint.

Image Remix: Thurston, Baratunde. 2008. “I Am A Community Organizer.” Flickr.com.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/baratunde/2837373493/

#AASLslm School Library Month: Global Connections

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April is… School Library Month (SLM). “Every April school librarians are encouraged to host activities to help their school and local community celebrate the essential role that strong school library programs play in transforming learning.”

This year the American Association of School Librarian (AASL) chose this theme: “Making Connections at Your School Library.” The official hashtag is #AASLslm.

AASL’s SLM Committee curated an outstanding selection of resources organized into four buckets—one for each week of the month of April.
• Making Learner Connections
• Making Educator Connections
• Making Community Connections
• Making Global Connections

Congratulations Jillian Ehlers (Chair), Cynthia Alaniz, Michelle Cooper, Shannon DeSantis, Hattie Garrow, Cathy Pope, and Denise Tabscott for your fine work.

While all four of these subthemes are essential aspects of future-ready school librarianship, I want to share a new resource and an additional idea for the “making global connections” subtheme.

Worlds of Words: Globalizing the Common Core Reading Lists 

The Worlds of Words (WOW) has created global book lists that pair classic children’s and young adult literature with global books that reflect the cultural diversity of our students and our world. These fiction and informational books, organized by grade level, can support librarians’ global collection development as well as provide critically reviewed texts that can be integrated into the curriculum.

I will be spotlighting this resource in my “Intercultural Understanding through Global Literature” session at the Texas Library Association Conference on Wednesday, April 4th. During the session we will discuss the importance of critical book reviews for competent collection development and integrating global literature into our coteaching in order to help students broaden their perspectives, develop empathy, and prepare to learn, work, and live in a global society.

Antonio S. Pedreira Elementary School Library in Puerto Rico

Immersing students in another culture through global literature is one way to increase their intercultural understanding. This example connects with students who may be studying weather or natural disasters as well as those learning more about life in Puerto Rico. When Hurricane María hit landfall in September, 2017, all of the books and other resources were stored in the Antonio S. Pedreira Elementary School Library. They lost everything.

My colleague and fellow WOW Board member Carmen Martínez-Roldán, an associate professor of bilingual/bicultural education, is supporting the rebuilding efforts of the Antonio S. Pedreira Elementary School Library in San Juan, Puerto Rico. These students, educators, and families must rebuild their school library from the ground up. Carmen recently launched a GoFundMe.com campaign to support students, educators, and families in recreating their vital resources for learning.

One way to launch an inquiry and engage students in making global connections is to read books about Puerto Rico. (See the list of books in the comment section below.) If yours is a school library of plenty, reaching out to help rebuild a school library for the benefit of global classmates is a way to make global connections and a most worthwhile way to celebrate School Library Month 2018.

Wishing you the best for #AASLslm 2018!

Image Credit: Original Photograph by Judi Moreillon

Get Out the #AASL Vote

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The American Library Association (ALA) and its divisions, including the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), sent out the 2018 ballots today, March 12th. Members will have until April 4th to complete their ballots and the election results will be announced on April 11th.

Of all ALA divisions, AASL has traditionally had the lowest participation in these annual elections. Typically only 11% of our members vote. We can do much better.

This blog post is designed to help AASL members prepare their ballots and vote for candidates who represent their values, perspectives, and interests.

AASL Positions

The AASL website has a list of candidates who are running for positions in our division. This past week, the KQ blog posted statements from each candidate and a video. The statement responded to this question: “What is the biggest/most important change that AASL could make in the next 3 years?”

There is an election archives page on the Knowledge Quest website. These are the candidates and links to their statements and videos.

Please make time to read each candidate’s statement and view her (!) one-minute video.

AASL President-Elect Candidates – Mary Keeling and Judi Moreillon

ESLS (Educators of School Librarians) Chair-Elect Candidates – Elizabeth Burns and April Dawkins

ESLS Secretary Candidates – Meghan Harper and Kym Kramer

ISS (Independent Schools Section) Representative to the Board Candidates  – Alpha DeLap and Phoebe Warmack

ISS Secretary Candidates – Danielle Farinacci and Sarah Ludwig

Region 1 Director Candidates – Anita Cellucci and Sarah Hunicke

Region 3 Director Candidates – Kathy Lester and Susan Yutsey

Region 6 Director Candidates  – Rachel Altobelli and Becky Calzada

Region 7 Director Candidates – Sue Heraper and Maria Petropulos

Supervisors Section Chair-Elect Candidates – Sedley Abercrombie and Susan Gauthier

ALA Council

Fourteen (!) AASL members are candidates for ALA Council. Considering ALA President Jim Neal’s advocacy for school libraries AASL members are wise to ensure school librarian representation on the Council at this point in time as ALA moves forward to advocate for school librarians and libraries. Thank you to Helen Adams who created the list below. Please remember these names when you are completing your ballot.

Thank you to all of the candidates for your activism and willingness to serve.

Best wishes to all,

#Judi4AASL

 

ALA Council Candidates

Sedley Abercrombie, Lead Library Media Coordinator, Davidson County Schools, Denton, North Carolina

Shannon DeSantis, School Library Media Specialist, Peoples Academy Middle Level and High School, Morrisville, Vermont

Cassandra Barnett, Program Advisor for School Libraries, Arkansas Department of Education, Little Rock

Vicki Morris Emery, Retired School Library Administrator, Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools, Burke, Virginia

Ann Dutton Ewbank, Associate Professor, School Library Media, Montana State University, Bozeman

Carl A. Harvey, II, Assistant Professor, School Librarianship, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia

Laura Hicks, Media Specialist, Frederick (Maryland) High School

Jody K. Howard, Adjunct Professor and Library Consultant, Emporia State University SLIM Program, Denver, Colorado

Dennis J. LeLoup, School Librarian, Avon Intermediate School East, Avon, Indiana

Steve Matthews, Librarian (EMER), Foxcroft School, Middleburg, Virginia

Robbie Leah Nickel, School Librarian, Sage Elementary School, Spring Creek, Nevada

Toni Negro, Librarian, University of Maryland, Priddy Library, Rockville, Maryland (retired school and university librarian)

Leslie Preddy, School Librarian, Perry Township Schools, Indianapolis, Indiana

Melody Scagnelli-Townley, Library Media Specialist, Joyce Kilmer School, Mahwah, New Jersey

Image Credit: Courtesy of AASL

AASL Candidates’ Forum Speech

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Yesterday, Eileen Kern graciously read the following speech at the AASL Candidates’ Forum at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. I am reproducing it here and on my campaign wiki for those who, like me, were unable to attend.


Thank you for giving me the opportunity to run for AASL President-Elect. What motivates me to seek this position is our individual and collective capacity to step up our literacy leadership by engaging our passion, fulfilling our purpose, honing our expertise, and strengthening our partnerships.

Like you, I am passionate about the vital role literacy plays in the lives of individuals, communities, our nation, and our global society. Each school librarian’s passion for literacy can make a profound difference for the children, teens, and families whose lives they touch.

At the local level, each of us is THE representative of our profession. Through the daily practice of instructional partnerships, school librarians’ knowledge, skills, and expertise help transform teaching and learning. Our national association is stronger because of the work of each and every effective school librarian.

Our shared moral purpose is to help others reach their literacy goals. As a profession, we share an increasing sense of urgency regarding the need for today’s young people to be prepared for living and working in an ever-more rapidly changing world.

Students’ ability to ask meaningful questions and to find, comprehend, analyze, and use information, and create new knowledge and find solutions to the world’s pressing problems has never been put to higher a test. Our charge is to hone our expertise and co-facilitate empowered literacy opportunities for ALL students.

Partnerships are our pathway to literacy leadership. In order to engage our passion, fulfill our purpose, and hone our practice, school librarians and AASL must build connections…
• between curriculum and resources, standards and practice,
• between classrooms and libraries, schools and communities,
• and between our association and other educational organizations and initiatives.

AASL is tasked with strengthening partnerships to form coalitions with like-minded educators to transform teaching and learning. By working with partners that share our goals and concerns, we WILL shore up the literacy ecosystem so that ALL students, educators, and families have equitable opportunities to succeed.

As the African proverb states: To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.

If elected, I will conscientiously facilitate AASL’s work and serve with passion and purpose in building and strengthening our practice and our partnerships to maximize the leadership capacity of school librarians and libraries.

I will work with YOU through the AASL staff, Board, and Affiliate Assembly to ensure that school librarians have an essential and enduring place at the education table.

Thank you for participating in our association’s electoral process, and please encourage your colleagues to vote as well.

***

Thank you, Eileen, for speaking in my stead at the Forum.

Note: Our grandson, and the reason I was not in Denver yesterday, was born on February 11, 2018 at 11:54 p.m.

School-Public Library Partnerships Toolkit

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Bravo to AASL/ALSC/YALSA for last Friday’s publication of the Public Library & School Library Collaboration Toolkit.

The toolkit process and final product are an example of how AASL and our sister divisions can work together to create a useful resource for the benefit of all librarians who serve the literacy needs of children, young adults, and families and co-create empowered literacy communities. The toolkit opens with an explanation of how it was created. These are the five chapters that follow:

Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Why School-Public Library Partnerships Matter
Chapter 3: Successful School-Public Library Partnerships
Chapter 4: Continuing the Partnerships
Chapter 5: Templates and Additional Resources

The information in Chapter 1 provides strategies for identifying potential collaborators and reinforces the critical importance of building relationships as the first step in collaboration. This chapter lists ALA initiatives that provide springboards for school-public librarian collaborative work, such as ALSC’s Every Child Ready to Read® year-round initiative and annual Teen Read Week and Teen Tech Week.

Chapter 2 includes research related to the process and results of collaborative work. As background information, this chapter includes a brief explanation of evidence-based practice and the Understanding by Design planning framework. Readers will want to review some of the highlighted research support for the benefits of summer reading on children and youth. Digital literacy and early childhood literacy are two additional areas that provide research support for collaboration. To further inspire you, this chapter includes testimonials from school-public library collaborators on the positive impact of their collaborative work.

For Chapter 3, the toolkit writers spotlight exemplary school-public library collaborative programs—both at the branch and school-site levels as well as system-wide examples. From assignment alerts and book collection/kits programs to book clubs and STEM programs, librarians will want to consider how they might work with colleagues to adapt one of these for their service population or use them as inspiration for creating an original program for their community. There is a summary for each example and contact information for one or more principal collaborators should you have questions or need more details.

Chapter 4, titled “Continuing the Partnership,” offers strategies for building on and sustaining successful collaborative work. In addition to all-important communication, there is specific information to help librarians understand the resources, priorities, and challenges in reaching across the aisle to work with their school or public library counterparts. This chapter also includes information about evaluation and sharing results. This critical step can make the difference between ending the collaboration with a one-off program and developing an on-going series of programs or more highly impactful programs based on data. Evaluation provides feedback for the librarian collaborators as well as for administrators who will want to ensure programs are successful (and that they deserve more support and funding).

Chapter 5 includes templates and additional resources to support librarians in successful collaborative work. From introductory email and educator card application templates to sample collaborative planning forms, the resources in this chapter are intended to help librarians hit the ground running once they have identified promising partners.

The AASL Strategic Plan calls for a focus on building a cohesive and collaborative association as a critical issue. This toolkit is an example of AASL reaching across the aisle to colleagues in the other two ALA divisions focused on children’s and young adult services. The committee that created the toolkit is composed of representatives from all three divisions and demonstrates that AASL is growing and strengthening its community.

In the introduction to the toolkit, you will learn this work involved a three-year process: planning, drafting, and finalizing for publication. It has been my pleasure to serve for the last two years with colleagues from all three divisions who collaborated successfully to draft, revise based on feedback from the AASL/ALSC/YALSA leadership, and submit the “final” initial toolkit. The online toolkit is intended to be a starting point for future revisions as more and more successful school-public librarian collaboration examples and research become available.

Please make time to check out the toolkit and use it as a starting point for a conversation with a school or public librarian who can become your next friend and collaborative partner in supporting literacy in your community.

Images courtesy of AASL/ALSC/YALSA

Candidate for AASL President, 2019-2020

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Last Friday, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced the 2018 candidates for AASL President-Elect.

As quoted in the announcement, “I am honored to be invited to run for the position of AASL President-Elect. If elected, I will conscientiously facilitate the work of our professional association and serve with passion and purpose to ensure a leadership role for school librarians and libraries in the literacy ecosystem of today and tomorrow.”

AASL has been my professional home since I started my Master’s degree program way back in 19XX. 😉 I was well schooled in the critical importance of our national organizations ALA and AASL as essential to the effectiveness and success of my own practice of librarianship. Our associations continue to give us a national voice while they support our efforts for continual growth and development at the building and district levels as well.

I am in the process of constructing my campaign wiki. While putting together information for the Bio page, I reflected on some of the most empowered opportunities I have had to serve our national associations. After nearly three decades of involvement, I have served in many capacities and reaped many benefits. These are just a few of the highlights.

•  Serving as an elementary school librarian during the exciting years of the National Library Power Project set my course as a collaborating educator committed to building effective classroom-library instructional partnerships (1993-1997).

•  I had the amazing opportunity to serve on AASL’s @your library® Committee from 2002-2004. Through this experience, I developed an understanding of advocacy and made lifelong librarian colleagues and friends across the country.

•  In 2008-2009, I served as the chair of AASL School Librarian’s Role in Reading Task Force. We created a toolkit and drafted the Position Statement on the School Librarian’s Role in Reading that was adopted by the AASL Board and was included in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs (AASL 2009).

•  I served on the 2009-2010 Pura Belpré Book Award Committee, a year during which our committee had only 36 titles to consider. This experience solidified my commitment to diversity in library collections and in advocating for increasing diversity in children’s and young adult literature publishing.

•  Throughout my career, I’ve had many opportunities to collaborate with outstanding public library children and teen librarians. I am pleased to be a current member of AASL’s Interdivisional School-Public Library Cooperation Committee. Representatives from AASL, ALSC, and YALSA serve on the committee. We have created a soon-to-be-published toolkit that demonstrates and support collaboration among librarians who serve young people.

Clearly, serving on AASL and ALSC committees has been a rich source of professional learning for me.

2018 School Libraries Resolution
As noted in last week’s post, I made this resolution for 2018:

In 2018, I resolve to marshal a sense of urgency to support empowered school librarians and strengthen school librarianship by growing and sharing my passion, experience, knowledge, skills, and service to maximize our leadership and help our profession reach its capacity to transform teaching and learning in our schools.

I actually wrote this resolution before accepting the invitation to stand for the position of AASL President-Elect. If it’s possible to be even more committed to this resolution, I am!

AASL announced all of the candidates who are running for the Executive Board and other association positions in 2018. Please learn about all of the candidates and exercise your right to vote as a member of the only national association for school librarians.

Thank you.