When the author began his career as a school librarian, he took time to live with the collection and the school library the way it was inherited, with systems that were already in place. And during that first year, he observed. That period of observation and living with things as they were allowed him to start innovating and problem-solving from…

For a librarian with an innovator's mindset, inquiry can be a collaborative strategy for continual growth. When a librarian innovates with their community, radical, human-centered change is possible. According to the author, school librarians see the needs in the communities across grades, content areas, and demographics. The best advocacy is…

Breakout boxes are similar to the escape rooms that have popped up all over the country in the past few years. In an escape room, you and your friends are locked in a room and given a scenario and a time limit. You must work together to solve a number of puzzles to get out of the room before time runs out. Breakout boxes center around boxes, each…

Instructional collaborations between classroom teachers and school librarians often involve the "research project." These annual assignments (typically) are opportunities to put the inquiry process into practice and provide a rich context for learning. The National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School…

Tripp Reade is the school librarian at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. This article describes how he redesigned his school's library orientation program after learning about escape rooms and a variant known as puzzle rooms. Puzzle rooms present players with a set of challenges to solve; they require "teamwork,…

Makerspaces, collaborative workspaces stocked with materials and tools for creating, building, designing, and learning, are becoming more and more common in schools and, in particular, in school libraries. Makerspaces in the school library allow for connections between making and literacy. Indeed, such connections are authentic and natural as…

Besides being a social experience, tabletop games can serve as intrinsic educational tools that tap into students' needs and interests, inspiring them to find motivation in applying new knowledge to their academic work. Why? Because, as with school, every game has a very specific set of rules by which participants must abide. Experiences with…

The Colorado Study (Lance, Wellborn, and Hamilton-Pennell 1993) and its many replications in other states have demonstrated that when educators and learners had access to a qualified school librarian in the context of a thoughtfully built, adequately resourced, technology rich, and widely accessible school library, learners tended to flourish on…