Librarianship places an ethical demand on practitioners to put patrons or library users' interests before self-interest, and indeed, this is the hallmark of any service profession. But what obligation do school librarians have to their peer librarians and educators? The Code of Ethics of the American Library Association offers this principle, "We…

Understanding how to better engage young students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is essential. The constraints of U.S. K-12 schools (e.g. insufficient institutional supports, lack of technology access, testing pressures, etc.) often make it difficult to create truly engaging STEM curricula with which students can deeply…

As more and more schools implement professional learning communities (PLCs), school librarians often ask: What is the role of school librarians in PLCs? What should they be doing to contribute? What are their colleagues in other schools doing? In this article the authors explore these questions by first describing eight potential roles for school…

In this article, the author describes the "History as Story" project that has become important to the Annunciation Orthodox School (AOS) and the teachers in many ways. Patience, persistence, and quiet support of individual teachers' projects demonstrated the breadth of possibility if they would collaborate with the school librarian. Teachers do…

In this article, the author discusses the role of school librarians as teachers in our learning ecosystems. In the author's partnership as an embedded librarian with English teacher Susan Lester at Creekview High School, they have sought in their Media 21 learning initiative to engage student participation, creating and sustaining conversations…

Research supports the use of games in public, academic, and school libraries as a way to engage patrons and students, and to help develop important skills. Games provide stories and information, presented in a new format. They encourage critical thinking and problem solving and accomplish objectives of curriculum frameworks and meet AASL Standards…

Creating a game for third-grade students that school librarians and teachers can use in their school libraries and classrooms is a unique challenge, especially if that game is based on teaching anatomy. But that's exactly what an instructional team from Auburn University in Alabama decided to do. The team--which consisted of a school librarian who…

At the beginning of last year the assistant Middle Division director at the Berkeley Preparatory School challenged his faculty to collaborate with at least one teacher from another department in the division for a portion of one unit. Because the challenge was given at the beginning of the school year, it was received with trepidation, but, after…

Over breakfast at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, this author was asked, "What is authority? What does one know about the ways in which he/she determines credibility? Whom do you trust?" In this article, the author focuses on these questions in terms of administrators who have control over libraries. She provides a…

This article provides an overview of and rationale for the use of authority in school libraries--from both an historical and current/future perspective. First, the importance of consistent, meaningful authority term context and form is discussed. Then, the exciting, yet challenging, role of authority in today's information world is…

Social networks are fundamental to all people. Their social network describes how they are connected to others: close relationships, peripheral relationships, and those relationships that help connect them to other people, events, or things. As information specialists, school librarians develop a multidimensional social network that enables them…

It is no secret that learning has a social context. As library media specialists work with students nearly every day, they take for granted their pedagogical roots in social learning theory based on the premise that students need modeling and observation to learn from one another. Information gathering becomes a key activity, and social…

While many robust library programs engage students in problem-finding, inquiry-rich curricula, other programs might benefit from addition of a few key strategies. Discussion strategies might be used during read-alouds or as enhancements to an instructional strategy like jigsaw. Writing strategies might be integrated into research projects or might…

Collaboration between librarians and classroom teachers results in increased student achievement and turns the librarian into a valued partner in lesson design. Lesson Study is a core professional development model used in Japanese schools. It is credited with the shift from "teaching as telling" to "teaching for…

When the author attended a "weekend" conference on the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", she was filled with uncertainty about the AASL standards and how to implement inquiry in her fixed-schedule environment. Her uncertainty grew as the presenters introduced themselves. However, her uncertainty began to subside as one of the presenters…