Parents and politicians feel it is their duty to assert control over the information within school libraries. According to Joshua Spilka, a high school junior, book banning has affected no one more than students and school librarians. Students find that the people who are supposed to advocate for them, parents and guardians, are often working…

From checklists, to processes, to models, information literacy (IL) instructors have sought to better teach students how to evaluate the information they encounter, increasingly through critical information literacy (CIL) pedagogies. CIL engages high-impact pedagogical practices as students direct their learning through dialogue and…

YA author Pérez offers encouragement and insight into book challenges today, which are about much more than just a book. Offering tips for how to prepare for challenges and amplify student voices, the reader will also find ideas to help marginalized learners still find their way to targeted books.

Advocacy is an ongoing imperative for school librarians. This article examines the role of inquiry in empowering students to learn critical skills in literacy and inquiry and develop their own agency. It also outlines advocacy strategies to share the impact of inquiry-based learning.

People with disabilities have been among the most marginalised groups both within society and within post-secondary/higher education. Over the last two decades, an increasing number of inclusive educational programmes have come into existence both nationally and internationally for this group of learners. The Trinity Centre for People with…

Nothing is more fulfilling than a school library full of students hungry to learn--especially when they have all the tools and resources they need and, more importantly, a school librarian ready to help them gain the knowledge and understanding they need to apply technology to become fully digitally literate citizens. Therefore, it was very…

As students are asked to complete multimodal assignments in their higher education courses, librarians can guide students to the use of open educational resources (OER), as many librarians are already teaching students about copyright and how to respect intellectual property rights. Two instructional librarians designed a one-shot lesson for…

Culture involves behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and invisible norms and expectations. The question for school librarians is: How is a culture of intellectual freedom built, and what is the role of the librarian? School librarians are expected to be instructional leaders from "the middle." They are not in positions of authority over other…

This case study presents a cocurricular initiative at the Margery Somers Foster Center at Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, NJ. The initiative resulted in an interview workshop for the course Knowledge and Power, a "mission course" of the Douglass Residential College. This discussion-based workshop uses visual and multimedia…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) released new guidelines for school library programs in the summer of 2009. Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs (AASL 2009a), hereafter referred to as EL, spells out the five roles that school librarians must practice to empower library users. The purpose of this…

Today's library is still at the heart of all university activities, helping students and faculty become better learners, teachers, and researchers. In recent years there has emerged the formalizing of one or more of these activities into an Academic Commons. These centers of information have been labeled variously but they all share a commonality:…

Turning students into lifelong learners is not easily accomplished. How do school librarians ensure that students have a zeal for learning? How do they encourage, cajole, or entice students to want to learn? The answer lies in empowering students with the skills they need to enjoy researching as well as reading for information and pleasure. This…

Describes a course aimed at developing library self-reliance in students that was offered through a predominantly Black outreach program at Evergreen State College. Highlights include the classroom environment and course content, which were constructed collaboratively by students and librarians, and guidelines for similar courses. (CLB)

While the library is at the center of many campuses physically, it is often an overlooked and underused resource in improving the learning and success of first-year college students. Librarians, classroom faculty, administrators, and higher education researchers come together to explore the potential of the library in shaping the student…