Assessment and evaluation are sometimes difficult things to discuss, and we often think of them as once-and-done end results. However, assessing where you are in the learning process should be an ongoing activity, and formative assessments can provide valuable information about what the next (or first) steps should be to approach a learning…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards are an invitation to explore the endless possibilities of "why." The standards provide permission to take risks, to step beyond the comfort of four walls to truly stretch and grow. The AASL Standards provide a common language for school library stakeholders that bring into…

School librarians must teach media literacy and be on the forefront of defining what media literacy is and why it is important for students and communities. The competencies involved in information and media literacy are interwoven throughout the frameworks in the American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) "National School Library…

What are ways to draw attention to the need for an annual library budget? How can school library leaders advocate for equitable library budgets across a school district? These are questions the library services team of three district librarians researched before taking the first steps toward making transformational change in the Beaverton School…

This inspiring tool demonstrates how project-based learning (PBL) projects can be used in a variety of settings and provides coaching for educators who aspire to create their own projects. Madigan's book delivers flexible, interdisciplinary, learner-driven projects that support the "National School Library Standards." Readers will find…

Storytelling is a craft that takes "talking" to the level of "telling." The cleverest of teachers know these tricks. In this article the author presents the art of storytelling and why it is so important, especially in the educational environment of national standards and standardized testing.

AASL's new integrated standards are designed to empower leaders to transform teaching and learning. The new "National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries" reflect an evolution of AASL Standards, building on philosophical foundations and familiar elements of previous standards while featuring the…

When school librarians are hired, most of them will find positions as the only librarian in the school. Their training, their ideals, and what was once a clear vision of the profession can become murky when removed from their classrooms, their professors, and their peers. New school librarians can look for help in the district policies and…

The LMS and library media program standards were written to reflect the 21st century learner. The most current documents, "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action", have embraced the 21st century learner jargon, despite how vaguely the terms are defined. The library standards, although written…

The standards for a school library media program have once again been revisited. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has released a new set of standards, and although the content is not totally new, the standards are streamlined. In this article, the author voices her approbation of the new standards and offers advice for…

School Library Journal's 2007 Leadership Summit, "Where's the Evidence? Understanding the Impact of School Libraries," focused on the topic of evidence-based practice. Evidence-based school librarianship is a systematic approach that engages research-derived evidence, school librarian-observed evidence, and user-reported evidence in the processes…

How are AASL's (American Association of School Librarians) new learning standards, the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," incorporated into the school library media program? This publication from AASL takes an in-depth look at the strands of the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and the indicators within those strands. It also…

Historical thinking skills, according to the U.S. National Standards for History, differ significantly from historical understandings. Historical understandings refer to content-specific knowledge. Historical thinking encompasses the "doing of history," including chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and…

This article presents an interview with Cassandra Barnett, a school library media specialist at Fayetteville (Arkansas) High School. She is also a member of the AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force, which has been working on developing AASL's new National Learning Standards. Fayetteville schools experienced multiple challenges during…

This book is written for practicing elementary library media specialists and their teaching partners. It is intended to be a guide in the endeavor to satisfy the 1998 Information Power mandate. In addition to a roundup of opinions, research, and philosophy from the library literature--and from working media professionals--about collaboration,…