The recent spike in book challenges has put school libraries at the center of heated political debates. I investigate the relationship between local politics and school library collections using data on books with controversial content from a sample of 6,631 public school libraries. Libraries in conservative areas have fewer titles with LGBTQ,…

In a first of its kind report, library leaders from eleven urban school districts across the U.S. relate the challenges faced and the strategies implemented to add school librarians. Conducted as part of a federal grant, Debra Kachel, Core Team member of the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians (PARSL), interviewed school library…

In 1966 the photographer Martine Franck was commissioned by "Life International" to document the experiences of children in a new library in Paris. The visual essay she produced illuminated the materiality, the design and the children's use of the space. In Birmingham, a recent unconnected research project, 'Libraries in Women's Lives',…

The "National School Library Standards" stress the importance of the school library as "a third space for learning, a space between the classroom and home" (AASL 2018, 11). Over the past year and a half, there has been no guarantee that the physical school library will be accessible to provide this essential third space for…

Students are continually exposed to news and information from multiple media resources. The competencies that students need to make good decisions with the information they are exposed to need to be taught, modeled, and practiced continually. In this article, the author explores how school librarians can make sure students graduate with the skills…

Libraries often lack the in-house information technology (IT) expertise required to (1) implement mobile applications and related technologies (MAT); (2) attain maximum return on investment including patron satisfaction for using MAT; and (3) reduce reliance on expensive IT consultants. Based on secondary analysis of the experiences and advice…

The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to investigate the impact of collaborative teaching involving a school librarian and a social studies teacher on sixth-grade students' unit projects, classroom engagement, and digital literacy skills. This study's innovation was twofold: academic content was infused with digital literacy…

In this article, the author finds connection between courage and a place that, at first glance, might seem to many to be among the unlikeliest of places in which to find courage: the library. The author maintains that the library--public or, as applies more directly here, school-- is precisely and even profoundly the place. How so? In the books on…

How does the legacy of school librarianship inform the future of school librarians as teachers? Librarians have engaged in a long and productive struggle to transform teaching and learning. This article discusses the complicated history and internal contradictions of the profession including: (1) librarian certification; (2) school library goals…

Academia is an ever-evolving institution. Where once it was viewed as a body primarily charged with educating students, many instances universities now consider research to be their primary raison d'être. This research surveyed library and information science (LIS) faculty members employed at institutions accredited by the American Libraries…

This article details how reading and literacy fit into the "2019 ALA/AASL/CAEP School Librarian Preparation Standards." It outlines the differences between the 2010 and 2019 standards and discusses how other standards influenced the development of the school librarian preparation standards.

This article details an action research project designed to determine the diversity of one high school library's top 100 titles. It outlines the results of the analysis and details how school librarians can review the diversity of their collections.

Your library is your classroom, and you are responsible for it no matter what's happening there. Ineffective classroom management can hamper or completely negate your efforts at creating a strong library program, and that's true whether you're a new school librarian just starting out or one with many years under your belt. This powerful resource…

It has only recently become possible to assess librarian staffing at school level, due to the long interval between the two most recent datasets from NCES's periodic sample survey of schools. In 2023, the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) released long-awaited 2020-21 school-level data--the first from that survey since 2015-16. These…

Building relationships is a crucial part of being a school librarian. But the first relationship the authors states school librarians will want to build is within themselves as a professional. According to the author, knowing yourself and your core values can help when times get tough or if your first tries at a relationship are rebuffed.…