One never gets a second chance to make a first impression. During these tough economic times it's important to promote the school library media center's program and collection as integral parts of the learning process. The changing landscape of librarianship demands a wide selection of approaches to promote library resources. Ideas, strategies,…

Girls today have never known a time of athletic inequality. That is why it is so important to build a strong collection for this particular patron base so the voices of the past can encourage the goals of present and future athletes. The young girls of today have grown up with a wide range of athletic opportunities and most do not know of the…

In this article, the authors present the outcomes of a project they implemented to increase library use by their adolescent males, a population at their school that avoided the library like the plague. They conducted a survey to know what their male students wished they would find in their media center. Their students suggested manga as a genre,…

Today's principals must have knowledge of content area standards and be involved in curriculum planning and pacing. They assign strong master teachers as mentors to new teachers. They are involved in what's happening in their classrooms and practice ongoing assessment of the classroom teaching, focusing on improving student learning. Today's…

Some of the author's most valuable experiences as a library media specialist (LMS) were not in a school library. Rather, they were on the streets of Chicago, in community gardens, and on the rooftops of buildings in Humboldt Park, where she was hired by the University of Illinois Community Informatics Initiative as a graduate assistant and LMS in…

Twenty doctoral students from the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas met in the summer of 2005 to complete a seminar and online course on "Online Information Services." The class offered the perfect research settings with 10 practicing school librarians and 10 practitioners from other areas of the library…

The announcement of the mandate for Constitution and Citizenship Day shortly before September, 2005, probably led to groans of dismay. Not another "must-do" for teachers and schools already stressed by federal and state requirements for standardized tests, increasingly rigid curricula, and scrutiny from the public and officials. But the…

In this article, the author describes how the tragedy of a fire at Shikellamy High School in Sunbury, Pennsylvania helped her, together with Ellen Boyer, Shikellamy High School Drama/Communication Arts teacher, light a fire under their students. They were able to launch the new Information Literacy curriculum with an 11 period introduction to the…

Although more commonly associated with elementary school rather than high school students, "Read Across America" celebrations can cater to any age group and generate enthusiasm for reading long after the festivities have ended. In this article, the authors, library media specialists at Washington Township High School in Sewell, New Jersey, share …

Not only are the hills alive with the sound of music, but the school library media center at Delsea Regional High School in Franklinville, New Jersey, is alive with the sound of reading. The media center has become a hub of reading, because the school library media specialist has made the promotion of reading and reading-incentive activities an…

This article is a discussion of authors and controversial novels that should be on the top of library media specialists' reading list if they work with high-school-age teens. "Controversial" is not a dirty word, it is an enticement! The goal of library media specialists is to get teens who may be burned out with reading due to incentive programs…

In this article, the author discusses and provides some examples on how students and teachers should use library media centers. He also discusses the common problems with facilities design as it changes along with other aspects of society. He states that flexibility in design ensures that the physical facility will meet future program needs.…

An honor system library can be created inside the library media center (LMC). Where students can access free books and magazines that require no formal checkouts. The honor library system at Washington High School, Fremont, California, has become self-sustaining. As many students, parents and teachers donate quality material. No student is ever…

The idea of reading a classic out loud during lunch each day of National Library Week was to make high school students participate in the library campaign. A library media specialist at Cleburne (Texas) High School discusses the planning, promotion and implementation of the programme.