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These standards are interdisciplinary, and it is school librarians who can help teachers make connections among courses. It seems to me that the role of school librarians, more than ever, is one of leader, designer, and educator. They will need to insert themselves on curriculum committees, department meetings, grade level, and team meetings with the focus being how the library can connect all of the disciplines.

SIGMS provides a community for school library media specialists to gather and learn about technologies that improve the operation and programs of the school library media center, increase access to information, and create a more effective and efficient teaching and learning environment.

The Media Specialists Special Interest Group (SIGMS) released an important advocacy statement, The Role of School Librarians in Promoting the Use of Educational Technologies to provide information on the role school librarians play in promoting the use of educational technologies in their schools and the need for libraries to have available technologies.  Please share this statement with administrators and other library stakeholders.

Inform legislators about the importance of school libraries in helping students achieve academically, Show them school library facilities and the learning that takes place in them, Illustrate the new roles that school librarians play in teaching, integration of technology, and providing professional development for teachers,

Kindles at The Unquiet Library  Learn what books are loaded on our Kindles, Kindle news from our library, and more!

n recent years, there has been explosive growth in students creating, manipulating, and sharing content online (National School Boards Association, 2007). Recognizing the educational value of encouraging such behaviors, many school leaders have shifted their energies from limiting the use of these technologies to limiting their abuse. As with any other behavior, when schools teach and set expectations for appropriate technology use, students rise to meet the expectations. Such conditions allow educators to focus on, in the words of social technology guru Howard Rheingold (n.d.), educating “children about the necessity for critical thinking and [encouraging] them to exercise their own knowledge of how to make moral choices." One process for creating the necessary conditions is reported in From Fear to Facebook, the first-person account of one California principal who endured a series of false starts to finally arrive at a place where students in his school were maximizing their use of laptops and participatory technologies without the constant distractions of misuse (Levinson, 2010). Other similar processes and programs are emerging, and they all share a common theme: an education that fails to account for the use of social media tools prepares students well for the past, but not for their future.

With a coming wave of new digital reading products designed to improve aptitude and provide unlimited access to online libraries, school districts have various options to help bring 21st-century learning in the classroom.

Some teachers and librarians say that digital reading products can personalize learning for struggling students and help interest young readers in nonfiction books, which are a major component in the Common Core State Standards Initiative designed to strengthen current state standards. As school districts across the country struggle under the weight of budget cuts, however, school administrators will need to be creative in finding funding sources.

“Librarians will always be an essential part of a school, but we’ll have to become more technologically savvy,” he says. “It’s all part of the evolution. [Technology] is another tool we can utilize to get more kids reading.”

Idaho SDE: BACK-TO-SCHOOL TEACHER TOOLKIT

This program helps LEAs improve reading achievement by providing students with increased access to up-to-date school library materials; well-equipped, technologically advanced school library media centers; and professionally certified school library media specialists.

Are School Librarians Expendable?

I-SAIL 2011 The purpose of the Illinois Standards Aligned Instruction for Libraries (I-SAIL) document is to empower, educate, and encourage school library information specialists to plan strategically with other teachers to incorporate information literacy skills in lessons and thereby provide college and career readiness for students.

The purpose of the Illinois Standards Aligned Instruction for Libraries (I-SAIL) document is to empower, educate, and encourage school library information specialists to plan strategically with other teachers to incorporate information literacy skills in lessons and thereby provide college and career readiness for students.

High school students should be exposed to college-level courses early on, and they should learn in technology-rich classrooms that redesign the learning process to emphasize problem-solving, critical thinking, and other higher-order skills

May 1 – 7, 2011 will be the second annual Choose Privacy Week sponsored by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.  Choose Privacy Week is an invitation to be aware of and talk about privacy rights and choices in libraries and in life.  For school libraries in particular, Choose Privacy Week is an opportunity for librarians to promote discussion about this issue beyond standard internet safety lessons.