Describes a survey of academic business librarians that determined their level of business education, and a survey of business information course instructors in library schools that determined areas of business considered important in their courses. Suggests partnerships between schools of business and schools of library and information science to…

One of the most promising of all diversity initiatives in library and information studies (LIS) is Knowledge River (KR) at the School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Created and directed by Patricia A. Tarin, the program has already recruited some 42 students into the profession, 20 of…

One of the goals of the school library media specialist is to "Promote the library media program as an attractive, welcoming, and essential venue" (AASL 89). The media center should convey an atmosphere where students feel welcome. Creating media center memories can help library media specialists to achieve this goal. This article describes…

Over the past decade or so, gardens have been blossoming in schools all across the United States. These gardens are as varied as their schools and are as unique as each child who tends to them. Some are bountiful vegetable gardens, and others are arid natural habitat gardens. Some are acres of land with entire classes devoted to their teachings…

In this article, American author, children's librarian, and storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz is profiled. Schlitz is the winner of this year's Newbery Medal for her tall tale about the Mongols called "Gulnara the Tartar Warrior." Like her award-winning book, "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!" (Candlewick, 2007), the tale takes place in the Middle Ages.…

Citing literature that supports the benefits of flexible scheduling on student achievement, the author exhorts readers to campaign for flexible scheduling in their library media centers. She suggests tips drawn from the work of Graziano (2002), McGregor (2006) and Stripling (1997) for making a smooth transition from fixed to flexible scheduling:…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" is filled with objectives that are mostly unobjectionable--and that would have been just as applicable in the twentieth century. Who, after all, would oppose the idea of "organizing knowledge so it's useful"? Who's going to deny the value of effective…

When the author attended a "weekend" conference on the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", she was filled with uncertainty about the AASL standards and how to implement inquiry in her fixed-schedule environment. Her uncertainty grew as the presenters introduced themselves. However, her uncertainty began to subside as one of the presenters…

Closing a school library is not like switching out a broken computer with a working computer unit. Nor is it like moving a classroom of desks from one building to another. The collection is a wealth of information that is built and maintained to support the curriculum and student interests. It is a collection of categorized knowledge that must be…

Making changes in the school setting is not easy. However, it is possible if one looks beyond the library, to see how change can benefit the entire school. Just switching wording from the comfortable language of library lingo to a broader school perspective, made change possible in the author's school. In this article, the author shares her…

The author's first "real job" when she was fresh out of library school was working as a leave replacement for an elementary school media specialist. One of her first tasks as the interim media specialist was to help organize the fourth grade science fair. Using her recently acquired library school skills, she decided to call the local public…

No doubt most school librarians have heard of the American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) new "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." The four standards with their accompanying skills, dispositions, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies form a defining new vision for the direction of school library programs. AASL named the…

The conceptualizing of and structuring of a learning commons shifts both the thinking of what a library media center is as well as its learning imperative in the school. Rather than being defined in terms of collections and instructional activities that focus primarily on an information-centric paradigm--the finding, accessing, and evaluating of…

The traditional American school schedule of about 180 days and about six-and-a-half hours per day seems fixed in stone. It has not changed since World War II. The author and his colleague Warren Goldstein have written a book, "Time to Learn: How a New School Schedule Is Making Smarter Kids, Happier Parents, and Safer Neighborhoods", in…

Due to the absence of a Georgia Educator Certificate in instructional technology, and the lack of state-wide staffing guidelines or requirements for instructional technology specialists, there is a lack of consistency in the qualifications and staffing of P-12 instructional technology specialists in Georgia public schools. The result is a lack of…