Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides in School Librarianship – serie

School library media centers are at a critical juncture. Over the next decade, schools will undergo fundamental technological, economic, societal, instructional, and administrative changes. Craver discusses the major forces for change confronting school libraries, analyzes their implications as a guide for future decision making, and recommends that school library media specialists assume a leadership role in meeting these challenges. The work provides current data and statistics on future trends in technology, employment, education, society, instruction, and school administration that can help the school library media specialist to formulate forceful arguments for the acquisition of new technologies, instructional reform, and full implementation of resource-based learning. School library media specialists who need to plan and make decisions about the future of their school libraries will find this book an invaluable resource.To visualize the future, Craver creates contrasting scenarios of utopian and dystopian school library media centers in the 21st century. Chapter 1, Technological Trends, discusses the digitalization of all media and the implications of the technological revolution on the school library media center. Chapter 2, Economic Trends, considers the impact of demographic changes and declining budgets and how to deal with them. Chapter 3, Employment Trends, outlines future trends in the workforce and suggests ways in which the school library can respond. Chapter 4, Educational Trends, charts the decline in literacy and the growing school reform movement. Chapter 5, Social and Behavioral Trends, discusses the change from a nation with minorities to a nation of minorities and the transformation of the American family. Chapter 6, Instructional Trends, shows how the instructional role of the school library media specialist will change with the presence of advanced technologies. Chapter 7, Organizational and Managerial Trends, describes the role the school library media specialist will have to assume as the technological, economic, educational, and cultural changes affect the daily business of the media center. Chapter 8, Challenges, focuses on a series of challenges in technology, performance-based programs, collection development, instruction, and organization and manayement of the library media center.

School library media specialists know that a close collaboration between the school principal and themselves is critical in the development of an exemplary school library media program, but they are often unsure of how to establish and build on that collaboration. Using Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, the authors present a vision for a student-centered library program, showing methods librarians can use to learn to work together with their principals and teachers to build curriculum, incorporate state and national standards and guidelines, and implement technology. Interviews and vignettes from eracticing school library media specialists and school principals give witness to the effectiveness of the program, highlighting examples of key points.Beginning with a discussion on the principal's training and experience with the school library, the authors describe what goals he or she has in common with the school library media specialist, and how the two can develop a rapport to reach these shared goals. Wilson and Lyders explain how the media specialist can and should become a part of curriculum planning and evaluation with the principal. The involvement of the school principal in assessing and evaluating the school library is essential. Thus, working together on library public relations and outreach to the school community and Internet and technology plans increases this involvement. Wilson and Lyders also address the importance of gaining the principal's endorsement for such issues as intellectual freedom and copyright. The school library can have a powerful and positive impact on learning through the strong leadership and close realtionship of the principal and library media specialist.

Information Literacy and the School Library Media Center concentrates its focus on how information literacy is implemented throughout all curriculum areas through the collaborative efforts of classroom teachers and school library media specialists. Chapters include: Collaboration; Flexible Schedule; Process Learning; and Assessment among other important topics. The book is an overview to teaching information literacy skills beginning with a history of the development of the usage of the term. The author discusses all the commonly known information processing models and how information literacy skills are important in assisting students to meet state and national curriculum standards in all areas of the curriculum. Included are samples of state and local standards and examples of correlations to selected curricular standards as well as an explanation of how to integrate standards in information literacy and another curricular area for maximum instructional success.

Assignments that engage students in inquiry topics of their own choosing contribute to motivation and thus to learning. Very often the topics chosen (particularly by high school students) are considered controversial by school administration, parents, community organizations, and others. This practical book discusses the processes, actions, and policies needed to support and encourage high school students in that type of inquiry. Building trusting relationships over time with administration and the school community will be stressed as a way to build a community of true inquiry in your school and library. Classroom teachers and high school librarians will value the advice and scaffolding techniques presented that will enable their school and high school library to become a safe place for student inquiry into issues of their own choosing— controversial or not. The author draws on her 30-plus years as a high school librarian, deeply concerned with the intellectual freedom of the researchers in her library media center and with offering help and reassurance to those trying to implement school library programs that allow all voices to be heard. Grades 9-12.

The first book published about independent school libraries since 1985, this work offers both the independent school library community and the broader school library community a wealth of insights into excellence in library practice.Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on Excellence offers readers insights into best practices in library services for school communities, using examples drawn from independent schools of various sizes, descriptions, and locations across the United States. Two overview essays introduce a statistical analysis of independent schools. Each of the remaining essays provides perspective on a different aspect of library practice, including staffing, advocacy, assessment, technology, collaboration, programs beyond the curriculum, intellectual freedom and privacy, budgeting, accreditation, disaster planning, and more. Because independent school librarians work across divisions and without a mandate to adhere to state or national standards, they have the freedom to explore and refine best practice in a school library setting. Fortunately, the ideas and methods they have developed, many of which are on display here, can be applied in any school library.