One of the only books to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the role of school librarians in student success, this guide offers everything you'll need to develop, align, and evaluate curriculum with your library collection in mind. This reference provides school library professors with strategies and tips for creating future school leaders out of current LIS students. Drawing upon her extensive experience as a school librarian, author Jody K. Howard heralds the library professional's role as information specialist, instructional partner, and curriculum advocate. Her insider's perspective is rich with tested strategies to help students seamlessly integrate the responsibilities of their multiple roles into daily activities. The work explains the process of curriculum mapping and collection development with an eye on teaching these tools to those new to the profession. The content provides methods for developing guided inquiry lessons in collaboration with teachers, illustrates ways to develop leadership skills while aligning the collection with the curriculum, and offers strategies for working alongside curriculum committees and classroom teachers to build a cohesive educational program. The final chapter explores the roles and responsibilities of school librarians at the district, state, and national level.

This sixth edition of Library Unlimited's classic school library management text describes new approaches to management and addresses the realities that school librarians face in today's quickly evolving information-based world. In recent years, nearly all school libraries and school librarians have been targeted for having their funding or staffing cut as a result of reductions in school budgets. How does a newly graduated LIS professional prepare for a career in this volatile environment? How do established librarians and administrators prove their value and necessity to decision makers? This freshly updated edition of The School Library Manager is an invaluable textbook that leads readers through the many essential management tasks and skills required to administer the successful school library program and beyond. It promotes the leadership role of the school librarian in the school and addresses the need for school librarians to provide students with equal access to information. The information presented will not only enable librarians to keep their jobs but also supply specific guidance and inspiration that gives readers the ability to make their positions and libraries undeniably relevant and valuable—and to ensure a path of upward mobility in their LIS careers.

Completely revised with even more contributions added by practicing school librarians, this book further examines the responsibility to lead in many areas and identifies the real-world, day-to-day application of established theory and best practices. In today's educational landscape, school librarians need to lead the way in many areas, including advocacy, literacy, technology, curriculum, vision, collaborative instruction, and intellectual freedom. All of these areas are vital to building and sustaining a school library program that enhances and encourages student achievement, as well as to providing enhanced services to students and faculty. This revised edition of The Many Faces of School Library Leadership offers invaluable insights from recognized leaders in the field of school librarianship that detail leadership roles embraced by accomplished practitioners and consider the research regarding best practices. An essential read for practicing school librarians as well as for pre-service school librarians, it offers today's school librarians actionable advice for strengthening their roles, underlining their value, and protecting their future—all while boosting student learning and achievement. The expert guidance and perspectives in this book will bolster those who are facing enormous challenges to meet them and allow school library staff to protect their jobs and to save school library programs from extinction.

Introduce your teachers, librarians, and administrators to the roles and responsibilities of educators in advocating a whole school library learning commons using this step-by-step guide for creating shared learning space in your school. It is no surprise that technology has shifted the way we educate—bearing on how, what, and where we learn. This guide lays the framework for helping turn your school library into a whole school library learning commons (WSLLC)—a space where traditional academics merge with the latest technologies to engage learners in a way never before realized. Author Judith Anne Sykes contends that since the WSLLC philosophy allows staff and students to co-create knowledge in a shared space, it is more effective than the traditional approach. Sykes addresses the differences between a school library and a WSLLC, provides reasons to champion its creation in your institution, and discusses how to use mentoring as a means to sustain its survival. The book explores the roles and responsibilities of educators in developing WSLLC goals and presents strategies for using typical assessment tools—including standardized tests, report cards, and anecdotal assessments—to help support its philosophy.

This collection of enlightening and stimulating articles, written by some of the most important figures in school librarianship, demonstrates how teacher-librarians, classroom teachers, and administrators can work together to create a 21st century school library media program. With topics that emphasize student success, leadership, partnerships, curriculum design, collaborative planning and teaching, literacy, 21st century skills, emerging technologies, and so much more, this compendium brings together the best of the best discussions. The practicing teacher-librarian, as well as the student seeking to expand his or her knowledge of the field, will find this compilation especially beneficial in providing an overview of the most critical issues related to the role the teacher-librarian plays in their school. The articles, previously published in the peer-reviewed Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals with several included from the magazine VOYA: Voice of Youth Advocates, reveal how school libraries and teacher-librarians are moving forward to meet the challenges of this new century.

This guide for the evaluation of school libraries both in practice and in research covers analysis, techniques, and research practices for conducting evaluations of curriculum, collections, facilities, and library personnel performance. This new edition of an important tool for school librarians and administrators describes how and why to conduct evaluations of school libraries and explains the evaluation of curriculum, collections, facilities, student programs and services, and library personnel. The results can be used for strategic planning, curriculum development, and conducting action research. New topics to this edition include explorations of community, faculty, students, and school library research, discussing how to bring all stakeholders to the table when evaluating the school library program, personnel and services, and the collection and facilities. Other new topics include information on high-stakes testing, multiculturalism, special needs students, advocacy, school librarians' self-evaluation, dispositions for learning, and evidence-based practice. This title will be of value to new school librarians in assessing how their program compares to others, as well as to school library professors, who will find this book useful in management and administration courses.

This helpful resource provides all-new tested, standard-based lessons accompanied by reproducible handouts and easy-to-follow directions. A new book by Joyce Keeling, an elementary librarian and teacher with more than two decades' experience, Standards-Based Lesson Plans for the Busy Elementary School Librarian presents many integrated lesson plans for students in each of the elementary grades, kindergarten through 5th grade. All lessons have been tested and refined in a school setting, and they are specifically written to match the AASL Information Literacy Standards, the McREL Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks, and the Common Core State Standards. In addition to the reproducible lesson plan worksheets, the book offers in-depth discussion of how best to collaborate to teach information literacy within the scope of common elementary school curricula.

Compact yet remarkably comprehensive, this book covers all the major aspects of school library services, from administration to instruction focused from the elementary school librarian perspective—now updated and expanded to include the latest developments in makerspaces, the Common Core, social networking, and eBooks. How do you accomplish a technology transformation at a time when budgets are extremely limited? What is the proper location for web-based social networking in the school library? What are the best practices for working together with students, parents, and educators? The 21st-Century Elementary School Library Program: Managing for Results is an invaluable resource for answers to these and many more questions, as it brings together in one volume the advice and insights you need to bring your library into the new century. This invaluable guide provides tips and techniques, forms and templates, and advice on everything from staffing and budgeting to collaborating with teachers and other libraries, to Web 2.0 and other new computer tools for building collections and devising special programs. Whether you are just getting started or are a library veteran seeking effective program renewal, this book belongs on your shelf.

This book focuses on inquiry-based teaching, one of the five vital aspects of the instructional work of school librarians identified in the second edition of the IFLA School Library Guidelines (2015). Effective implementation of inquiry-based teaching and learning requires a consistent instructional approach, based on a model of inquiry that is built upon foundations of research and best practice. The book explains the importance and significance of inquiry as a process of learning; outlines the research underpinning this process of learning; describes ways in which models of inquiry have been developed; provides recommendations for implementing the use of such models; and demonstrates how the other core instructional activities of school librarians, such as literacy and reading promotion, media and information literacy instruction, technology integration and professional development of teachers, can be integrated into inquiry. Inquiry-based learning is part of “learning to be a learner,” a lifelong pursuit involving finding and using information. Inquiry develops the skills and understandings that learners need in new information environments, whether that be as students in post-secondary institutions, as producers and creators in workplaces, or as citizens in communities. Through inquiry-based teaching, school librarians help students to build the essential skills and understandings needed for dealing with complex learning challenges, including analysis, critical thinking, and problem solving. In this book, special attention is given to the development of students’ metacognitive abilities, which are essential to their becoming life-long and life-wide learners.

Strong school librarians positively impact student learning, and principal support is key. This concise handbook provides an overview of the roles of the 21st-century school librarian—teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, instructional leader, and program administrator. A valuable and informative resource, it gives principals the information they need to know in order to utilize the library program and librarian to the fullest potential to contribute to the instructional program of the school.