This piece focuses on creating a safe space for several subsets of the elementary school student population, including Muslim students, children with autism spectrum disorder, and students with social-emotional challenges. These groups do overlap and intersect, and they are united in their reliance on the library as a refuge. However, school…

While beneficial to student engagement and learning outcomes, student-created research questions require a shift in thinking for the teaching team, which is made up of the school librarian, classroom teacher(s), and other specialists designing the inquiry learning experience. For librarians leading inquiry learning, this shift can seem difficult…

Many of the descriptions of public libraries as sanctuaries provide myriad examples of ways in which they serve the underserved: language circles, English language learning and citizenship classes, and access to technology for the homeless, to name a few. In the school library, if librarians are providing sanctuary only to those who feel…

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.

In this article, school librarians from Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia [the AASL 2011 National School Library Programs of the Year (NSLPY) Award recipient] share some of their experiences caring for students in their libraries.

Librarianship places an ethical demand on practitioners to put patrons or library users' interests before self-interest, and indeed, this is the hallmark of any service profession. But what obligation do school librarians have to their peer librarians and educators? The Code of Ethics of the American Library Association offers this principle, "We…

In this article, the author discusses the transformative power of care. In the interest of achieving some modicum of clarity, the author begins with a definition of the word "care." For each of the different school constituencies, there exist categories of actions through which educators demonstrate care. Broadly, these categories include:…

Building a culture of reading in a school requires the participation of the entire school community--students, teachers, administrators, staff, parents, and patrons. To be successful, the whole community must be on board with books--not just the helpful librarian in the school library. Implementing library programs to encourage students to read…

Where library budgets are concerned, there is every evidence now, after three years, that research libraries have arrived at "the new normal." That is, they do not expect a return to systematic and regular additions to Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) budgets in order to support ever-increasing prices that are out of proportion to…

Climate change, which is evident in the Arctic more than anywhere else, is an issue that affects all generations. Choices made by today's adults, according to a broad and deep body of research, are likely to influence the nature of nature for today's young people and their successors for a very long time to come. The author contends that…

Technology has changed the school yard or neighborhood bully. It no longer requires physical intimidation to be a bully. In fact, bullying can be done anonymously, on or off campus, and physical size does not enter into the scenario. Every year headlines identify children who take their own lives as a result of being victims of various forms of…

Roser discusses how both teachers and librarians, whom she calls the preservers of children's reading, should cling tightly to three essential practices to ensure that our children read more, read better, and read more widely. She argues we should: a) keep the classroom library viable; b) preserve, protect, and defend time for self-selected…

Effective school libraries are no longer quiet, staid places--and the inclusion of preschoolers adds even more joy and active learning to the mix. As more and more elementary schools include preschool children in their school communities, school librarians can respond with programs that emphasize essential early literacy experiences for the very…

Among issues that library managers need to consider is work suitability involving older or impaired workers or employees with disabilities. This can involve factors needing consideration when hiring or retaining these workers. Disabilities or impairments can range from visual or auditory, to physical or mental, to learning or age-related. They can…

Gone are the days of tiptoeing to the dumpsters with boxes of weeded books in tow. Lots of libraries are now taking advantage of the many low-cost services and solutions that promise to help extend the lives of collection discards. Some of these options can be very profitable. Some create goodwill within the local community. Some may seem more…