In this article, the author examines how libraries have evolved and argues that they have not fundamentally changed. While the library spaces that students work in have changed, the lessons being learned fundamentally have not. Students still learn to find source materials, research, write, construct projects, create reference lists, and complete…

In this article, the author examines how school librarianship has changed, but also remained the same over time. School librarians consistently hold to core values of collaboration, learning, equity and inclusion, access and literacy amidst changes in the landscape--technology, materials, school expectations, and student needs.

After many years working as a public school educator and school librarian, it is evident to the author that the relationships librarians cultivate with school library stakeholders--students, teachers, staff members, administrators, families, and community members--are the most critical ingredient to creating and maintaining vibrant modern-day…

Instructional leadership from the school library happens when school librarians make known their areas of expertise, proactively pursue opportunities to teach, and continue to learn new technologies and strategies for student success. Knowledge of grade level curriculum is essential for offering meaningful collaboration to K-12 instructors and…

The pandemic prompted Courtney Lewis and her fellow school librarians to dig deep and acknowledge that their information literacy instruction followed a just-in-time philosophy. Essentially, limited just-in-time information literacy instruction is like teaching a kid how to play soccer for seven days out of each year and expecting them to be a…

According to the author, we are all creators and consumers of media. Technology has made it easy to copy, paste, and transfer anything educators might want to use in their classrooms. As educators, school librarians have an obligation to honor the law and be the role models that learners and other staff members need them to be. So many times the…

The actions of a single librarian can bring about district support aimed at increasing students' equitable access to a strong school library. This article shares a success story from a sole school librarian who showed evidence of the school library's value and was able to double her contracted presence as the school's librarian.

In the author's decade-long journey as a school library media specialist, they have witnessed an evolution in the role of education. In today's increasingly interconnected world, going beyond traditional literacy and nurturing informed, empathetic global citizens is becoming a fundamental aspect of our teaching and learning. The United Nations'…

The Bitmoji classroom craze swept education during online teaching and learning in 2020-21. Was that just a fad for pandemic times, or do they retain value in post-pandemic K-12 education? In a recent survey of 72 educators that included 45 school librarians, 71%, mostly at the elementary level, reported that they still use them. The purposes…

When talking about collection development, few school librarians think about databases. Databases provide learners with a one-stop shop for cross-curricular, up-to-date, vetted information in a structured and easy-to-manipulate format for class projects. To be successful learners, students need to know how to use a database to find the information…

This time has been particularly tough on school librarians, who have worked to develop connections with students and teachers and leverage physical collections. With new variants of the virus emerging, the coming months and years may be more of a game of whack-a-mole as the country tries to conquer some versions of the virus and others pop up.…

One of the main responsibilities of school librarians is to teach students to evaluate the credibility of information. There is little evidence to suggest that students are being explicitly taught how to evaluate news obtained through social media. As avenues for giving and getting information evolve, so must ways of teaching students so that they…

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,…

We seem to instinctively crave information that confirms our biases. Rather than learning knowable things, we shrink inside ourselves and hunker down with the familiar, comfortable information that feeds our narrative of what we think we know, of how we think the world works. Students do not naturally know how to open up their perspective to other…

Using concepts such as Design Thinking to create inquiry-based, hands-on learning opportunities centered on student ideation and creation, Lewisville Independent School District (LISD) in North Texas reimagined the role of library instruction through implementation of a Mobile Transformation Lab. The purpose of this lab is to serve the more than…