School librarians should strive to create a learning environment that prepares their students for higher level thinking. They should not only memorize and remember, but also synthesize and evaluate their learning. This can be achieved through social literacy. By utilizing a collaborative lesson that has students teaching other students, school…

School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

Graduating preservice teachers were surveyed regarding their knowledge of information literacy concepts, the pedagogy of information literacy, and the role of the teacher librarian and school library programs. The preservice teachers felt poorly prepared to teach information literacy to pupils, had a limited array of information skills, and held a…

Students are taught how to read at a very young age, but how well do the students understand what they are reading? Students are taught how to read the words on the paper, but do they comprehend what the words mean when used together? What can educators do to help students think critically and really understand what is being taught? Teachers and…

In today's struggle for recognition of the importance of school libraries, it is especially important to make it known that school libraries are essential components of education. In Henrico County (Virginia) Public School libraries, the American Association of School Librarian's National Library Program of the Year, school librarians have taken a…

Barcode scanning has become more than just fun. Now libraries and businesses are leveraging barcode technology as an innovative tool to market their products and ideas. Developed and popularized in Japan, these Quick Response (QR) or two-dimensional barcodes allow marketers to provide interactive content in an otherwise static environment. In this…

School librarians in the Mesquite Independent School District (ISD) have been operating solo on their campuses since the 1970s. Campus clerical assistance in the school libraries was a luxury that they couldn't afford. Since the district's vision was of a teaching librarian, a Library Processing Department was established in 1972. As years passed,…

Schools and teachers act to a limited degree in "loco parentis", thus assuming the role of parents, especially in the health and safety of minors in attendance at public school, but also in setting educational standards. Public schools have been delegated this role and implement policies, programs, and procedures that sometimes, unintentionally,…

By applying just-in-time philosophy to today's school libraries, librarians can fulfill the role of program administrator by continuing to provide the resources students and faculty deserve, exactly at their individual points of need. Just-in-time librarianship is a mindset that could prove unsettling for some school librarians. The main facets of…

This article describes interviews with 40 elementary school librarians conducted by pre-service and in-service teachers. The purpose of the interviews was for education students to understand the responsibilities of the librarian, how the librarian might support them as teachers, and the future of the position in today's schools. Results suggest…

Humans synthesize whenever they see links between ideas they have gleaned from other sources. Human brains operate by seeing patterns and trying to make linkages. As students learn about a topic through creating a text-based presentation, they might have varying conceptual understandings of how they can combine their ideas with the information…

Things are changing. For starters, ebooks, apps, and the web are now a part of students' daily lives. So how do school librarians determine the best way to turn their library space into a learning center that is right for today's rapidly changing digital world? In this article, the author suggests five design considerations that school librarians…

The Common Core Standards (CCS) movement represents a double-edged sword for school librarians. On the one hand, it gives prominence to inquiry skills and interdisciplinary collaboration, reinforcing the profession's efforts to infuse inquiry into the curriculum through collaborative planning and co-instruction between classroom teachers and…

School librarians took notice when in 2009 Cushing Academy, a private secondary school in Massachusetts, transformed its library from a traditional facility to a digital media center. The library gave away most of its 20,000 books and bought 200 iRiver Story and Kindle e-readers. The school also sold to all of its 445 students a laptop to which…

This publication follows the tradition of publishing selected papers from the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) annual conferences. This 26th annual conference was held in Colonia, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia, November 21-26, 2016 and celebrated the Association's Twenty-Fifth anniversary. This…