The purpose of this study was to examine books that support transitional readers to determine the representation of people of color. The findings were analyzed using critical race theory (CRT), a theoretical framework that places race at the center of educational research and discourse. The results indicate that despite the increasing ethnic and…

This article features two library media specialists who discovered a way to motivate high school students to read. When most people go to the movies, the "coming attractions" or movie trailers are as anticipated as the popcorn! This Americana movie tradition hooks people again and again on what they will come back to see next. So, it's no surprise…

The Position Statement on the School Library Media Specialist's Role in Reading, adopted by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Board in February 2009, is a guide to help practitioners build library programs that support every learner's development in reading. As part of the Learning4Life (L4L) plan to implement the Standards for…

The new AASL standards clearly spell out ethical responsibilities, which school librarians strive to instill and model as they work with staff and students. In this article, the author presents the AASL standards together with some tips and lesson ideas which she and her library partner have put into practice within their library media program.

In recent years, a number of statewide research studies have been conducted to determine the impact of school library media centers and their school library media specialists (SLMSs) on student achievement. Research studies in eighteen states have clearly established the relationship between well-staffed, well-funded school libraries on student…

This study investigated how school and public librarians can become better disseminators of health information and improve health information literacy in small and rural communities in a selected research area. We used the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas as our study area, composed of the economically depressed Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and…

The GlobaLIS Project intends to attain the globalization of Japanese library and information science (LIS) professional education by defining the requirements for internationally transparent and harmonized educational programs for LIS professionals. We asked three research questions in a stepwise manner: (1) What are the basic requirements for…

The picture book is a simple yet profound tool for teaching peace. Picture books are nearly pieces of art--with rich text accompanied by illustrations, paintings, and photographs that speak to the spirit of the child. They are an ideal peace resource, in part because they are readily accessible for all age levels. Books can be borrowed through…

Native American and other cultural stories provide students with a broader perspective on the world. In addition, cultural stories connect science content and knowledge about the world to cultural interpretations and people's life ways. By implementing the ideas suggested in this article, you can select books that both enrich your science library…

Developmentalists state that children are born with the intrinsic motivation to learn, but studies show that this intrinsic desire to learn begins to wane during the early school years, around third grade, and continues a steady decline through eighth grade. Intrinsic motivation is at the core of information literacy, the foundation for a desire…

In this article, the author shares how she became an advocate for school libraries. Moving into a career as a school library media specialist after five-and-a-half years as a teacher, she eventually became a delegate to the first White House Conference on Library and Information Services. At these conferences, she learned where and how decisions…

A healthy volunteer program can be a great asset to any school library. Volunteers do much of the routine work that then frees the librarian to work with students individually or in groups, providing instruction and reading guidance. In addition to the physical work volunteers provide, they become strong advocates for a school library program…

According to one of the authors, teacher/librarian collaborative instruction is still the most effective means to teach information literacy skills in order to improve student achievement. Numerous studies have confirmed the importance of library media center and library media specialists (LMSs) in improving student achievement. In this article,…

This article features Eliza Dresang, an award-winning author, and her achievements. Dresang was responsible for making a radical shift in how teachers and parents understand modern children literature when she wrote her groundbreaking book, "Radical Change." She found the motivation to write this book after realizing how teachers and parents were…

This article reports on a reading intervention project undertaken in a high poverty primary school in Gauteng where reading levels in both the home language, Northern Sotho, and in English were very low. Some of the factors associated with school effectiveness (SE) are first examined and thereafter the nature of the reading intervention programme…