Marlborough School, which was founded in 1889 in Los Angeles, is an independent college preparatory day school for young women. When the author arrived in Marlborough School in 2005, she found that the school was an exciting place to learn but the library was not. However, head of school Barbara Wagner described her vision of the school's future…

Professionally, school librarians are faced with an explosion of choices--search engines, online catalogs, media types, subscription databases, and Web tools--all requiring scrutiny, evaluation, and selection. In turn, this support "stuff" forms a basis for making additional choices about how and what they teach and what they assess. Whereas once…

"When you start your new job as a school librarian, one of the first steps you must take is to ask to see the district's book selection policy. If there isn't one, write one. Right away. It protects you, the teachers, and the district." That advice was part of the author's school library administration course at the School of Library and…

This article presents an interview with Cassandra Barnett, a school library media specialist at Fayetteville (Arkansas) High School. She is also a member of the AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force, which has been working on developing AASL's new National Learning Standards. Fayetteville schools experienced multiple challenges during…

With rapid developments in information technology (IT) and the increasingly sophisticated abilities of IT users, schools have the inevitable task of integrating IT in their school curriculum. Owing to the prevalent use of educational technology in schools, it is often questioned whether information literacy (IL) is necessary in the school…

This report presents facts and figures on British Columbia's education for 2012. It is divided into the following seven sections: (1) Schools, which covers: (a) Number of public schools; (b) Number of independent (private) schools; (c) School closures; (d) Rural schools and students; (e) School-district amalgamation; and (f) School safety: Seismic…

Effective library instruction and library services in rural or small schools often depend upon the personalities of and working relationships between library personnel and the school principal. Confrontations between rural- and small-school principals and library specialists generally fall into two categories of precipitating situation: censorship…

As new technologies expand the availability of information and services, previously isolated rural and small school libraries must begin to use formal evaluations to find out how best to serve their clientele. Although some forms of self-evaluation are ongoing, a library should ask for formal evaluations by its users, administration, and staff at…

This paper discusses the current state of language instruction and accompanying materials and describes elements of the Classroom Library Project in South Africa. The Project was initiated by the Department of Education to increase the supply of suitable material in African languages for elementary schools. Highlights include: shortcomings in…

Information literacy guidelines provide all students with a process for learning that is transferable among content areas and from the academic environment to real life. The responsibility for helping students achieve information literacy resides with library media staff, teachers, administrators, and the community. The following five information…

This report is intended for use as a selection aid covering newly published materials from selected publishers. Reviews are prepared by school library media specialists in Oklahoma. Each entry provides the recommended grade and interest levels, as well as a rating. Also included for each book is a brief story synopsis. Reviews for fiction books…

Designed to serve as a guide for instructors and students who would like to introduce a multicultural perspective into their area of study, this bibliography lists books and periodicals that are part of the library collection at Sacramento City College (SCC) in California. Materials are listed that focus on the contributions, experiences, and…

Challenges against library materials that were reported to the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse by Oregon libraries during its second full year of operation totalled 34 books, 13 of which were owned by public libraries and 21 by school libraries. The first challenge against an art exhibit in a public library was also reported. In 25 of…

In the wake of the 1976 violence in Soweto, South Africa, the READ project was set up by a group of private citizens who were concerned that the government's commitment to an urgent and extensive improvement of black education would not extend to school libraries. Good libraries were seen as particularly important in black schools, because high…

This report reviews the seven times that the courts have considered the question of whether school boards can remove books from school libraries. Because the first and the three most recent cases upheld the rights of boards, while the other three cases were won by plaintiffs who had filed their cases against the boards, the differences in the…