In their dual roles of teacher and librarian, school librarians have been presented with two new sets of standards that challenge them to redefine how they approach education. AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner take a broad approach to address many of the fundamental skills that make students effective and self-efficient learners.…

Top Chef is one of America's top food television shows. In one episode, lead judge Tom Colicchio, chef and restaurant owner, chides a contestant for hurriedly slicing a piece of meat as soon as it had emerged from the oven. The meat was fully cooked, but the competitor had not "let it rest," or let it steep in its own juices outside the oven for…

Two and a half years ago, elementary school librarians in the Birmingham Public School district (Troy, Michigan) had to change to a fixed schedule for half the day with kindergarten through second grade students. This change was due to cutbacks and the need for common planning time among classroom teachers. School librarians found themselves…

For over 30 years, the Department has published the Annual Condition of Education (COE) report in order to provide education stakeholders quality information about the status of Iowa's education system. The 2020 COE covers a wide variety of content from information about Iowa's students, schools, educators, administrators, performance and school…

In this paper the author relates how the thing he enjoys most about his job as a school librarian is nurturing lifelong readers, in particular readers of children's literature. In talking about nurturing lifelong readers and, referring to students, staff and school librarians, the author discusses: (1) The Southwell Library Programme; (2) The Lit…

Creating an interactive and engaging school library environment for your school community is an important prerequisite to establishing a creditable identity with teaching staff, which in turn, leads to opportunities to develop collaborative curriculum programs. The library and its personnel must be perceived as a hub for learning and part of the…

This article discusses how a school librarian can help students improve their critical thinking and strengthen their higher order thinking skills through the inquiry process. First, it will use a Guided Inquiry approach to examine how higher order thinking skills are taught within an inquiry paradigm. Next, it will consider how formative…

"AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." New standards for library media programs! What does it mean to practicing library media specialists? Does this mean they must abandon all the strategies, activities, and lessons they have developed based upon "Information Power's Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" and create all new…

When the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) first released the new Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, controversy arose because many school librarians thought that they were vague and de-emphasized information skill instruction. Many school librarians had trouble visualizing how the program would be applied in their school and…

Many of the children in the early grades who marveled at the plethora of beautiful resources just did not seem that interested by the time they reached upper elementary school. While some children sustained their spark of curiosity, others did not. The force that keeps children (or people of any age) excited about anything is called…

The gap between the reading and writing skills of high school graduates and the demands of freshman college coursework and employers was one of the greatest concerns when the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers were developing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA). A…

This study surveyed current education majors (n=70) in two Kansas universities to gain a perspective on their understanding of Information Literacy (IL) concepts and skills, and to learn whether they anticipated teaching such concepts to their future K-12 students. School media specialists in the state were also surveyed (n=85) and asked to share…

Implementing new and advanced technology for instruction and access to the curriculum for the increasingly diverse student populations in schools can be a daunting task for even the most tech-savvy school personnel. This task can be even more challenging when devices, tools, and systems associated with assistive, or adaptive, technology are part…

With the introduction of more standardized multimedia file formats, the text has more potential than ever to provide a really robust experience, with the best products moving from discrete narrative literature to something altogether new and well beyond the page. A work is no longer confined to a single definitive version, as the reader can follow…