Over the past 30 years, the nation has experienced a decline in the number of public school library programs. New York City has been trying to combat this trend by implementing several innovative programs. One of them is the VITAL Libraries program. VITAL stands for Vital, Instructional, Transformative, Accessible, Learning Libraries. It is a…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic institutions led to rapid shifts from person-to-person services to fully online services in the spring of 2020. These shifts presented unique challenges for graduate practicums and internships--experiences that bolster students' job-preparedness before graduation. An internship at the Louisiana State…

This article describes the approach to teaching and supporting learners that led, in part, to high school math teacher Sarah Zehnder and the author, Amanda Hurley, a high school librarian, being named the recipients of the 2021 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Collaborative School Library Award. The article details the process of…

The idea of "reading the room" borrowed from the business world applies to how school library professionals can identify and responsively meet the needs of users. By stepping up to do work even when it is not requested, and yet in alignment with our mission, we can help sustain our library programs.

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offered a significant opportunity for school librarians; it also created opportunities to partner with school librarians on their efforts to be included in their states' educational plans. This three-part article explores the development and rollout of the American Association of School…

This article asks three questions: (1) Why do the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries matter to school administrators; (2) How is an administrator's knowledge of the role of the school librarian as articulated in these standards; and (3) Is it known what matters to school administrators and how…

One of the ways school librarians can become a leader in the school community is to design, organize, and present professional development opportunities for fellow educators. Running professional development is a chance for school librarians to become leaders in the school, as well as an opportunity to collaborate with fellow educators, advance…

The author has always loved libraries. She has has always loved books and the experience of learning. Her idea of the best kind of library has changed over the years. Encouraging reading is just a part of what the 21st-century school library does. As a fledgling school librarian just starting to learn how to fly, the author wanted to create a nest…

This article describes how Nancy Jo Lambert, a school librarian, implemented a flexible library schedule at elementary schools in which she worked collaboratively with classroom teachers. After observing students removing bookmarks from the middle of their books in order to turn the books in by the due date or because their fixed library schedule…

There is an established history of academic libraries collaborating with their institutions' athletics departments to provide learning and research support to student-athletes in order to achieve positive educational outcomes. It is rarer to find documented the effect that athletics has had on the professional life of an academic librarian. The…

Rubric assessment of information literacy is an important tool for librarians seeking to show evidence of student learning. The authors, who collaborated on the Rubric Assessment of Informational Literacy Skills (RAILS) research project, draw from their shared experience to present practical recommendations for implementing rubric assessment in a…

How does an association prioritize the needs of its members as it introduces new professional standards? What strategies ensure a smooth transition from one set of standards to another? How can a school librarian use new standards to spark and maintain continuous professional growth? One way to ease the transition and prioritize the needs of…

By supporting student profiles, blogs, content curation, and HTML and scripting projects, Springshare's LibGuides CMS provides a flexible platform for student-led content creation in the distance learning environment. This paper describes how two librarians at Georgia Southern University opened up LibGuides CMS to host collaboratively developed…

Literacy does not happen in a single lesson or course. There are no shortcuts to gaining mastery over a skill set, whether it is reading literacy, information literacy and research skills, online literacy and digital citizenship, or visual literacy. School librarians dream about a perfect integrated curriculum: there is ample time for…

Are librarians preoccupied with the future? There are countless books, articles, blog posts, webinars, and conference presentations filled with speculation about what libraries will become. This is understandable with the emergence of new roles for libraries and librarians as we determine our identity across the digital landscape. This essay…