Discusses current problems in professional education for school library media specialists, including the closing of programs, declining enrollments, and a lack of intellectual focus. A model is proposed which defines three purposes of school library media programs and provides a template against which specific professional programs can be…

Describes a survey that was undertaken to discover the current availability of school library media preparation programs in schools with American Library Association (ALA) accreditation, percentages of students and faculty involved, and the nature of courses required and recommended in the field. A copy of the questionnaire is appended.…

Describes a publicly funded, five-day training program presented by the University of Michigan's School of Information Studies, which was designed to train school library media specialists to use and apply virtual library technology. The importance of the virtual library concept, the training rationale, and a day-by-day overview of activities are…

Many educators now agree that graphic novels inform as well as entertain, and to dismiss the educational potential of the graphic novel is to throw away a golden opportunity to reach out to young readers. This dynamic book takes a look at the term "graphic novel," how the format has become entwined in our culture, and the ways in which graphic…

School libraries can hardly keep graphic novels on their shelves. Enthusiasm for the genre has led many librarians to question how such novels might be infused into normal curricula. However, many librarians who have proposed such an integration have learned that their colleagues do not share their enthusiasm. From the teachers' perspective, it…

To be efficient and effective learners in the information age, individuals must be able to engage successfully with a wide variety of information types and formats. Becoming lifelong learners in a world in which information flows freely and defies the boundaries of traditional disciplines and subject areas, children and youth in particular must…

Stepping into a school library today reveals the dramatic changes in educational games since the author's elementary school days. Many current school libraries now boast computer- and video-based games, as well as geocaching, big games, or large-scale scavenger hunts that pit teams against each other in timed races to find clues about a…

This study investigated how school librarians perceive their status within the school by looking at factors suggested by the literature as either impacting on, or impacted by, status: their relationships with their colleagues and supervisors, their role within the school, job satisfaction, and views on their careers and their training. Most…

Until recently, ebooks for young children haven't been part of the hyped vernacular of "game-changing" technology. Instead, ebook conversations have focused on textbooks for older students or text-heavy, adult-oriented titles downloaded to ereaders like the Kindle, Nook, and Sony e-Reader. The arrival of portable, full-color, touchscreen devices…

As the authors progressed through their research agenda last year, they contributed an article to "School Library Monthly" entitled "Forecasting Professional Dispositions of School Librarians" (January 2011, 54-56) wherein they described a Delphi study they conducted in the fall of 2009 that identified professional dispositions based on responses…

The 2021 edition of the Annual Condition of Education Report (COE) marks the 32nd edition of the report. For over 30 years, the Department has published the COE in order to provide education stakeholders critical data about the status of Iowa's education system. The 2021 COE covers a wide variety of content including information about Iowa's…

From earliest beginnings in the 1990s, cataloging in school libraries is the product of three tasks--listing important details about an item (such as author, size, number of pages), selecting words and phrases that describe the item (such as subject headings, summary notes), and choosing numbers and codes that place the item on the shelf (such as…

Connecting to share ideas, resources, and programs offers school and public libraries an exciting means of achieving their own goals as well as those of the community at large. In this timely guide, young adult library consultant Tasha Squires delves into the many possible avenues for partnership, from summer reading programs to book talks to…

In 2007, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) initiated an annual survey of school library media programs. The development of this longitudinal survey project was mandated by the AASL Board as part of the association's strategic plan with the goal to provide research and statistics to be used at the national, state and local levels…

In this article, the author describes her efforts to collect perspectives about the topic of most appropriate job title for school library administrators. The author presents the results of a pilot study (with 31 respondents) and a national study (with 213 respondents) conducted to answer two research questions: (1) "What do future school…