For school librarians, technology is an essential component of their work. To meet the growing need in this area, Odin Jurkowski first wrote Technology and the School Library in 2006. To address the technological advancements, Jurkowski provides an overview of the types of technologies used in school libraries, from traditional low-tech options to…

The American Association for School Librarians suggests an important mission for school librarians is to ensure personal growth through ongoing exposure to conferences, journal articles, webinars, presentations, and membership in professional organizations. As professional educators, School Librarians should exemplify the vision for being…

Rhode Island is committed to ensuring that all educators receive fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluations that provide information that can help all support professionals improve and refine their practice. Currently, local education agencies (LEAs) in Rhode Island may submit a district-designed model for approval that complies with the…

Rhode Island is committed to ensuring that all educators receive fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluations that provide information that can help all support professionals improve and refine their practice. This document describes the process and basic requirements for the Rhode Island Model Support Professional Evaluation and Support…

The development, publication, and distribution of the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" once again demonstrate the vision of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in pointing the way with new literacies (textual, media, digital, technology) for students. These standards include critical self-assessment strategies that will…

One of the goals of the school library media specialist is to "Promote the library media program as an attractive, welcoming, and essential venue" (AASL 89). The media center should convey an atmosphere where students feel welcome. Creating media center memories can help library media specialists to achieve this goal. This article describes…

Besides the School Library Media Program of the Year (SLMPY), American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has other awards to honor library media professionals and programs. From the Frances Henne Award for new library media specialists to the Collaborative School Library Media Award for collaborative projects, the awards recognize programs…

In the information-rich, rapidly changing 21st-century, educators are faced with unprecedented challenges. While new technologies have brought the people of the planet closer together, they have also brought them into contact with an overwhelming array of information sources. The Library of Congress is positioned to help educators respond to these…

Students learn best from well-designed instruction. To what extent can a school district design a curriculum that supports inquiry learning? How can a district implement consistent inquiry practices in forty schools? In this article, the author discusses Newport News Public School District's journey to inquiry which began in 2004 with a…

The World Wide Web has come a long way in a very short time. A little more than a decade ago, with the invention of Mosaic, the first browser to display images inline with text instead of displaying images in a separate window, and Netscape, the first graphical user interface (browser), people began to experience a rapid expansion of information.…

Today's principals must have knowledge of content area standards and be involved in curriculum planning and pacing. They assign strong master teachers as mentors to new teachers. They are involved in what's happening in their classrooms and practice ongoing assessment of the classroom teaching, focusing on improving student learning. Today's…

The release of AASL's "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and "Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs" has provided school library media specialists with the opportunity to "develop new visions for learning" (AASL 2009), and to rethink what their roles are, and what skills and characteristics are required of them to…

In this new, expanded edition step-by-step guidelines are provided for customizing a staff development program that is both proactive and goal-oriented. Drawing on the advice of 37 top experts with a variety of skill sets, this book presents information on how to assess a library's needs and set training goals, budget appropriately, develop a set…

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…

This comprehensive handbook offers detailed instructions for accessing the current performance of--and setting objectives for--school library media programs. Useful for both practicing school library media teachers and those in training, this manual shows how to identify problems and potentials, set goals and objectives, structure evaluation…