Describes a public library service that offers booktalks to middle school students in their classrooms and includes two sample booktalks. Discusses building good relationships with teachers and library media specialists; circulation statistics; ordering enough copies of books for the school and the public library; scheduling booktalks; teen…

Presents an overview of time study research in school library media centers that attempts to categorize the tasks performed by school library media specialists and the time devoted to them. Suggests implications for preservice and continuing education, salaries, and the need for future time studies. (Author/LRW)

Explains how school library media specialists can write grants to help fund library projects. Highlights include having specific needs and specific programs in mind; catchy names; brief summaries; statement of need and specific objectives; methodology; planned evaluation; budget information; timeliness; and a list of Web sites for grant sources.…

Chapters in this section of "Educational Media and Technology Yearbook" examine important trends prominent in the landscape of the school library media profession in 2001. Themes include mandated educational reform; diversity in school library resources; communication through image-text juxtaposition in Web pages; and professional development and…

Focuses on resources useful for the evaluation of school library media specialists, including four Web sites from various states and one from the American Association of School Librarians, and a chapter in a print publication. Include areas of competencies, intervention plans, evaluation criteria, sample job descriptions, and evaluation…

Discussion of legal aspects of using intellectual property appropriately by school library media specialists focuses on copyright and fair use, based on "Information Power II". Highlights include keeping faculty and staff well-informed about the laws; and helpful resources, including background reading, books, and online resources. (LRW)

Discusses the importance of research to the school-library media specialist. Topics include levels of knowledge that help with informed decision-making; ways to overcome the gap between research and practice, including writing for scholarly journals; the need for publishing research from practitioners; and development of a research agenda for the…

Presents a list of 11 skills that every library school graduate should possess: basic librarian skills; basic proficiency in traditional online services and CD-ROM products; basic Internet skills; grasp of when to use which source; ease with various tasks; teaching skills; people skills; an entrepreneurial mindset; leadership skills; desire for…

Discussion of the introduction of block scheduling in high schools highlights two case studies that illustrate how a schedule change impacts the library media program. Shows how the library media specialists modified teaching and scheduling practices to take advantage of the extended instructional time. (Author/LRW)

A survey of 39 personnel preparation programs in visual impairment examined such issues as the availability of programs, type of faculty, salaries, and program delivery models. Findings indicated that a variety of nontraditional models are available for delivering preservice education and that there has been a decline in the percentages of…

No Child Left Behind and state testing mandate the study of government officials, at local, state, and federal levels, in judicial, legislative, and executive branches. At Wattles Elementary School in Troy, Michigan, test scores indicated that this was a weak area--not surprising since this always has been primarily a high school subject. In this…

Building partnerships to improve students' performance (Fitzgibbons 2004, Small 2002) is not a new concept to the education profession. Borrowing tenets from the business world and universities, schools have come to realize that interdisciplinary collaborations enhance the cohesiveness and achievement of the particular school and district as a…

Library Media Specialist and outside consultants provided several reading workshops for faculty and the reading program at Farmington High School, the school being fortunate among a limited number of schools that provide a true reading time for its students. The faculty has begun to assign books and their expectation for students to read is…

School-based programs offer an efficient means of promoting the health of a large number of children. The Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program was designed to decrease risk factors for chronic disease in elementary school children and includes separate coordinated interventions for child nutrition services, physical education (PE),…

We describe an urban school initiative aimed at teachers' professional development with the goal of increasing their mathematics content knowledge and helping them improve their practice. In the lowest performing schools, mathematics specialists were employed to teach only mathematics in upper-elementary grades (ages 9-12). One aspect of this…