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Jenny Odau

AASL Blog - 16 views

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    In July, 2011, the AASL Board approved the Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels. The AASL position statement defines standard directional spine labels and compares them to reading level labels (associated with computerized reading programs) as they are often applied in school libraries. The statement also offers suggestions for concerned librarians to be aware not only of the possible negative effects of these  labels on children as they browse, but also offers suggestions for voicing those concerns. There are proponents and opponents to how computerized reading programs are implemented in schools and their effects on school library collections and students' free access to books of their choice.  A school librarian (name withheld) shares this story of how labels affect students' choices in her school. "Recently I helped a student who came to me while his class was in the library browsing. As the librarian of a middle school library, I often see situations such as this one. The boy had been most recently reading about George Washington and Ben Franklin. His class assignment that day was to checkout two computerized reading program books within his tested reading level and thus was "allowed" only one free choice book. "But I'd rather not have to check out labeled books and there are some books I'd like today that don't have the dots or reading level labels on the backs of the books. Does that mean Ican't check them out?" he asks me. The boy went on to say that he'd rather be allowed to check out three books on his favorite non-fiction topics, regardless of reading level. As he expresses his frustration, he lowers his voice and moves toward a corner of the library where there are no other students. "I'm a pretty good reader," he said quietly, "and I really like reading about the American Revolution. But I have to stay within a certain range. I can't find many books in my reading level that are really interest
Martha Hickson

Library Operating Expenditures: A Selected Annotated Bibliography | Professional Tools - 12 views

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    Like academic libraries, school libraries rely primarily on their parent institution for financial support. The latest nation-wide expenditures figures for school library media centers in public schools comes from Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Centers in the United States: Results From the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey published in August 2013. The "Selected Findings" summary in the beginning of the Adobe Reader PDF version notes -- -- During the 2010-11 school year, public school library media centers spent an average of $9,340 for all information resources [Information resources include such items as books, periodicals, audio/visual materials, database licensing, and software. They do not include salaries, computer hardware, or audio/visual equipment.] (table 4). This includes an average of $6,010 for the purchase of books and $490 for the purchase of audio/video materials [Includes all copies of any tape, CD, DVD, or Blu-ray]. -- The number of holdings in public library media centers per 100 students was 2,188 for book titles and 81 for audio/video materials at the end of the 2010-11 school year (table 5).
Fran Bullington

School Library Monthly - ALA Presidential Task Force: Focus on School Libraries - 18 views

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    "It was the best times, it was the worst of times…." This famous observation by Charles Dickens is certainly applicable to the current status of school library programs and school librarians. On the one hand, some programs are valued and receive ongoing support from their communities. Led by competent, effective school librarians, programs such as those recognized as meeting the criteria of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National School Library Program of the Year Award, provide solid evidence of the positive impact of best practice on teaching and learning. On the other hand, the economic downturn, often combined with a lack of understanding or value for how school librarians and library programs contribute to student achievement, has led other communities to eliminate positions and to cut back, curtail, or get rid of once thriving programs.
Dennis OConnor

ALA | Interview with Keith Curry Lance - 1 views

  • A series of studies that have had a great deal of influence on the research and decision-making discussions concerning school library media programs have grown from the work of a team in Colorado—Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell (2000).
  • Recent school library impact studies have also identified, and generated some evidence about, potential "interventions" that could be studied. The questions might at first appear rather familiar: How much, and how, are achievement and learning improved when . . . librarians collaborate more fully with other educators? libraries are more flexibly scheduled? administrators choose to support stronger library programs (in a specific way)? library spending (for something specific) increases?
  • high priority should be given to reaching teachers, administrators, and public officials as well as school librarians and school library advocates.
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  • Perhaps the most strategic option, albeit a long-term one, is to infiltrate schools and colleges of education. Most school administrators and teachers never had to take a course, or even part of a course, that introduced them to what constitutes a high-quality school library program.
  • Three factors are working against successful advocacy for school libraries: (1) the age demographic of librarians, (2) the lack of institutionalization of librarianship in K–12 schools, and (3) the lack of support from educators due to their lack of education or training about libraries and good experiences with libraries and librarians.
  • These vacant positions are highly vulnerable to being downgraded or eliminated in these times of tight budgets, not merely because there is less money to go around, but because superintendents, principals, teachers, and other education decision-makers do not understand the role a school librarian can and should play.
  • If we want the school library to be regarded as a central player in fostering academic success, we must do whatever we can to ensure that school library research is not marginalized by other interests.    
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    A great overview of Lance's research into the effectiveness of libraries.  He answers the question: Do school libraries or librarians make a difference?  His answer (A HUGE YES!) is back by 14 years of remarkable research.  The point is proved.  But this information remains unknown to many principals and superintendents.  Anyone interested in 21st century teaching and learning will find this interview fascinating.
abouttowntuition

How Can A Primary School Tutor Assist Your Child? - About Town Tuition | online tuition... - 0 views

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    Primary School is the foundation of a child's educational life. How is he/she going to perform and what kind of attitude he/she exposes towards receiving education depends completely upon the care and assistance one receives in their primary school level. So, it is the responsibility of every conscious parent to provide their kid with the best care and support during the most formative period of their life. To support them successfully and completely, enrolling them in a primary school is not the only thing you have to do. They need extensive care and only an efficient primary school tutor can create the environment which will enable them to learn, making it an extremely enjoyable act.
Celia Emmelhainz

Can We Talk About the MLS? | Editorial - 0 views

  • Public libraries in rural areas really don’t have a large enough donor base to make extensive fundraising worthwhile. The other problem public libraries have with outside fundriasing is that if you start taking in a lot of major gifts and donations, then your steady stream of revenue, the local government, may just wind up cutting your funding.
    • Celia Emmelhainz
       
      True with school libraries as well; can't fundraise because can't lose current funding, but then feel sense of lack of control over revenue streams? = ick.
  • “Students who pick their major based solely on postgraduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will in all likelihood struggle in both school and career.”
  • would agree that public librarians questionably need a library specific degree, or a degree at a graduate level anyway, as evidenced by the wealth of paraprofessionals who often do at least as good a job in that setting, though for management I think you would want someone trained in public management with library experience. In an academic setting, there is a credibility issue that begs credentialling in the areas of research and education, and credentialling to a higher standard than is now present in library schools, hence the inadequacy of the degree university libraries particularly, or at least that degree alone. The degree needs to be reinvented and would best partner to at least confer joint degrees in librarianship and business, education, and other disciplines
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  • The piece I was missing was how to develop workable ideas that were well researched and aligned with the basic tenants of Librarianship.
  • philosophy and values of librarianship. It also grounded me in supervisory skills, in library management, and collection development.
  • Paraprofessionals here have been the ones leading the discussion on topics such as fair use, copyright, RDA, cataloging standards, FERPA, etc. There are several levels of paraprofessionals from pages/shelvers, circulation desk workers, catalogers (copy & original), acquisitions, IT Systems, ILL , etc. MLS Librarians are mostly reference & instruction positions, collection development and/or managers. Education is absolutely needed for some positions, but experience should be recognized as well. Our newly hired MLS people would be lost try to perform original cataloging, acquisitions/budget or ILL just as the paraprofessionals may lack the knowledge in instructional pedagogy, management/leadership, etc.
  • Much of my practical learning during grad school came from my classmates that had worked in libraries for years and were just then getting the degree. They had a MUCH better context for what was going on than I did at 23 and straight out of my undergrad
  • Require the masters in a specialized field rather than the MLIS. That could definitely work in academia. And you can require directors and managers to have the MLIS, but not necessarily the librarians at the reference desk or running a department like circulation.
  • But why do acquisitions, CD, or e-resources librarians need the degree? Those are practical jobs, that you do need practical experience for.
  • Any self-starter with a library job could easily supplement training and hands-on experience with reading books from leaders in the field on the subject, starting a blog, getting involved in conversations in the library community.
  • But for colleges, this becomes a game of perpetual growth – to secure funding and improve programs, we need more students, more alumni to donate! Job markets shrink, shift and dry up all the time, but rarely does a degree program shrink proportionately
  • Why I couldn’t pick up a book here, attend a webinar there, and get the same place eventually through grit and dedication like the librarians just a generation before me.
  • I am a Library Director in a hamlet (pop 3,000) in NH. The likelihood of my ever advancing to a larger library is categorically denied by that degree requirement. It doesn’t matter what experience I bring. Paying for another degree (I have a B.A. and an M. Div.) is out of the question for me, and, certainly, out of the question for the trustees of the library I serve
  • Laura is correct – being in a rural library is actually very challenging. There are far fewer resources for our patrons – so good luck directing them to the resources they need.
  • The public school teachers (including the school librarians) in my area have a starting salary that is about $10,000 higher than the starting salary of the public library system. Yet only the school and (some) public librarians are required to have a Masters before applying for their jobs
  • They are responsible for recruiting too many librarians, and the schools need to take responsibility for over saturation. If not, how are they any different than for-profit colleges or career colleges.
  • This is a women’s profession. Women are not valued. Hence any professional education we may have is useless in the eyes of…. us. Ah, feminism we’ve come so far. I realized when I went to library school that it was merely a sham union card for a lowly paid job.
  • Library school does need to emphasize more about management – not just one class. This is what will make us more useful. The best library directors are those who kept their libraries afloat during the economic downturn. This is because they have the fundamental ethics of a librarian coupled with mad management skills.
  • This isn’t just in the public sector. Academic librarians have crazy politics to wade through as do school librarians.
  • What if we migrated from our current degree to a B.A. in Education (with a focus on libraries); an M.A. in Education (with a focus on a particular library type or area); and a Ph.D. in Education (with a narrow focus on a particular library type or area)? This would also serve to define who we are (educators) and what we do (education: through self-directed, research assistance & instruction, instructive & enlightening experiences
  • Honestly, I privately refer to this as my fake master’s degree.
  • There is no unified body to convince that the MLS is somehow superfluous to needs; you have to convince these individuals, 99% of whom have an MLS and probably can see the value in it.
  • When I first became a librarian, I found that my past experience working in a bookstore was far more valuable to me than my MLS program.
  • For many, it clearly does not provide necessary or useful theory and practice opportunities.
  • I think some programs, like the one I attended, relied a lot on theory, and that meant that my dream, of creating better technology, was not quite realized as I needed the practical skills at building technology
  • A classmate of mine jumped ship and attended a business school in New York, and now works at Goldman Sachs…I stayed on board hoping to do meaningful work; that hasn’t quite happened yet, really because of the emphasis on theory..I think my classmate saw the writing on the wall and made a smart calculated move; I do not like to start something and leave it unfinished,
Judy O'Connell

Survive and Thrive! An Advocacy Toolkit for School Librarians - 43 views

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    It's time for school librarians to step out and enlighten their communities about all the ways their libraries impact students' education.
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    "It's time for school librarians to step out and enlighten their communities about all the ways their libraries impact students' education."
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    "On this site, you will find message templates (sample e-mails, letters, newsletter blurbs, brochures, and even videos) containing these taglines and targeting specific stakeholder audiences in order to promote school librarians as 21st century skills experts. We hope that these sample templates will be used by school librarians and school library advocates to inform their communities about the vital and irreplaceable role that school librarians play in teaching and learning. Maybe you'll get inspired to create something for us that we can use, too. In the meantime, we hope you find this site helpful."
Allison Burrell

Swap4Schools: Donate Books, CDs, DVDs, Media to Classrooms and Schools at swap.com - 0 views

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    Haves and Wants. That's what swapping is all about. Schools don't just have "wants," they have needs. During these difficult economic times, school budgets have been cut, libraries are out of date, and teachers usually have to resort to buying their own classroom books and other resources. Swap.com has over one million members that have listed over 2.5 million items they have to swap. Our community is based on sharing; swapping stuff people have for stuff people want. Swap4Schools is an initiative designed to match swappers' Haves with schools' Wants. It's that simple. If you are a school employee, create a free account, build your want list and donations of books, movies, etc will come to directly to your school. If you are a swapper, there is no better feeling than knowing your unused item will help educate kids across the country.
Donna Baumbach

School Library Commission | National Literacy Trust - 7 views

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    Schools libraries are too often a "wasted resource" which should be brought into the mainstream of teaching, says a report. (BBC News) Full BBC article at http://twe.tc/oL "...while school libraries have a unique role in raising pupils' literacy levels, promoting reading for pleasure and improving their access to knowledge, in many schools the library is a wasted resource because it is poorly embedded in the infrastructure of the school and absent from school development plans. "
Allison Burrell

Welcome to WebCHECK! - 22 views

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    WebCHECK Professional, designed for educators and Web designers to use for (1) assessing the quality of Web sites used for assignments and learning activities and (2) determining how to improve the quality of locally-designed personal, classroom, library and/or school Websites. · WebCHECK Senior, designed for high school students (grades 9-12) · WebCHECK Middle, designed for middle school students (grade 5-8) · WebCHECK Junior, designed for elementary school students (grades 2-4) · WebCHECK for Facilitors, designed for K-12 educators, administrators and higher education faculty to use when assigning a single Web site to be evaluated by groups or classes of students or by educators in an in-service or professional development workshop. What makes WebCHECK unique: · based on a foundation of instructional design and motivation theory. · available online, fully automated, and free. · both fun and easy-to-use. · a powerful instructional and learning tool. · generates a full evaluation report to share results with teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc. · uses graphs for visual representation of scores and text for details and interpretations. · On the WebCHECK Web site, you will find all of the instruments, as well as more than 30 lesson plans, designed by school librarians nationwide, that incorporate WebCHECK at various levels and subject areas.
Deven Black

A dozen ways to teach ethical and safe technology use - Home - Doug Johnson's... - 8 views

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    Responsible teachers recognize that schools must give students the understandings and skills they need to stay safe not just in school, but outside of school where most Internet use by young people occurs. Over-filtered school networks set up a false sense of security; the real world of the Internet is quite different from the Internet at school.
jenibo

Transition Resources for Parents, Teachers, and Administrators | Edutopia - 11 views

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    The end of the school year can be a nervous time for students, especially those that will be making the jump into elementary school, middle school, high school or college next fall. These transitioning students are left with a variety of questions -- from curiosities about academic rigor to managing a social life and coursework, to worries about using a combination lock. (It took me more than a couple tries.) Fortunately, there are plenty of resources on the Web that offer useful information for all stakeholders -- parents, students, educators and administrators -- that will help ensure successful transition. Here are a few for each major stepping stone in the K-12 pipeline.
Dennis OConnor

Don't Shush Me! In Some Libraries, It's OK to be Loud | MindShift - 22 views

  • Buffy Hamilton, who calls herself “The Unquiet Librarian,” holds the phone receiver away from her ear at Creekview High School library in Canton, Ga., revealing a cacophony of noise in the background.
  • Creekview High School’s media center looks and sounds nothing like the silent libraries of the past. The new emphasis on collaborative learning and the use of digital tools to produce dynamic research projects lead to a louder, more hands-on environment that can prove beneficial to students later on in college. Hamilton says graduates have returned to thank her because their digital skills are more advanced than those of their classmate
  • The shift to a noisier and more interactive library model is relatively new in U.S. public school systems. Some examples are evident at universities and private schools in Georgia, New York and California, all of which have taken a lead in transforming their libraries. In Massachusetts, the Cushing Academy, a private boarding school for high-school students, gave away its collection of over 20,000 books two years ago and transformed its library into a digital center with e-books and searchable databases.
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  • Hamilton seems to be redefining what it means to be a librarian. She’s active on Twitter, maintains a blog about being a “modern school librarian” and frequently travels around the country and world to speak about her model. Creekview’s was the only school-based library that won a 2011 American Library Association award for having a cutting-edge technology service, Media 21, that could be replicated by other school libraries around the country.
Katie Day

Softlink Australian Schools Survey 2011 - 4 views

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    "Findings: Softlink's Australian School Library Survey In March 2011, Softlink conducted a follow-up survey to the 2010 Australian School Library Survey, which looked into Australian school library budgets, qualified staffing levels and NAPLAN literacy results. This follow-up survey has allowed Softlink to compare and report the findings from both surveys."
Katy Vance

American Cooperative School of Tunis - 0 views

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    Last month, The American Cooperative School of Tunis (http://www.acst.net/) lost their entire elementary library in an attack on their school. If you would like to donate to help them build their collection, please visit this page: http://www.titlewish.com/103198. If you would like to learn more about what happened, see this article: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/09/sudan-protesters-attack-german-and-british-embassies/56859/
Susan Harari

Full-Time School Librarians Improve Test Scores - 0 views

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    Colorado's RSL Research Group recently discovered that having a fully-staffed school library dramatically improved test scores in Pennsylvania schools
Penny Roberts

CISSL Study Helps Define Role of Successful NJ School Libraries | School Library Journal - 0 views

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    US study of what makes school libraries work. Examines the relationships between, teacher, teacher/librarians and the school leadership. The role of libraires in promoting technology and information literacy also discussed.
jenibo

A School With No Teachers, Where Students Teach Themselves | MindShift - 11 views

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    " new computer school in Paris has been overwhelmed by some 60,000 applicants. The school, called 42, was founded by a telecom magnate who says the French education system is failing young people. His aim is to reduce France's shortage in computer programmers while giving those who've fallen by the wayside a new chance."
Marita Thomson

ALA | Case Study: Factors leading to retention of school librarians - 26 views

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    The number of U.S. school librarians has greatly diminished despite advocacy efforts on the local and national level. This case study investigated the factors that led governing board members in a mid-size urban high school district to retain certified school librarian positions despite a major economic crisis.
Martha Hickson

Libraries and Librarians: Essential to Thriving Schools - Road Trips in Education - Edu... - 12 views

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    Unfortunately, too many people consider libraries as mere rooms full of books and computers, and librarians as mere functionaries in charge of the rooms and their contents. When district leaders look for savings in a budget, too often they see the most important teacher in a school as the most expendable. California schools have seen a marked decrease in the number of teacher librarians in recent years. New York City has about 50% more schools than it did in 2002, but more than half of the district's libraries have closed in the past decade. In California, New York, and anywhere else cutting libraries, it's a classic example of a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach to budgeting: there's no shortage of evidence that libraries and librarians - both, together - have a strongly positive impact on student learning.
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