AASL: National Trends in School Libraries

1. AASL:National Trends in School Libraries Cyndi Phillip cphillip_56@yahoo.com www.cyndiphillip.com AASL Past-President School Library Media Specialist, Grand Haven Area Public Schools

2. AASL The American Association of School Librarians Your National Professional Organization and You=Partnership for Power

3. AASL – Connecting Nationally • AASL Overview • National Trends • Strategic Planning • AASL Initiatives • Affiliate Assembly

4. AASL is a professional membership organization that serves close to 10,000 members

5. What’s in it for YOU? • Professional responsibility • Information for my job • Energized by conferences • Latest research shared • Leadership development • Classes for credit • Connections!!!! • Professional Development • Collegiality with like minds • Communication • National/state voice for advocacy

6. www.ala.org/aasl AASL Mission The mission of the American Association of School Librarians is to advocate excellence, facilitate change and develop leaders in the school library media field

7. Set your home page to the AASL homepage!

8. AASL Vision • A proactive organization • An advocate for SLMP & SLMS indispensable role • An open, friendly, welcoming organization • An inclusive professional home • An essential resource • A flexible, responsive organization

9. AASL Goals AASL works to ensure that all members of the School Library Media field collaborate to: • provide leadership in the total educational program • participate as active partners in the teaching/learning process • connect learners with ideas and information, and • prepare students for life-long learning, informed decision-making, a love of reading, and the use of information technology

10. Building a Knowledge-Based Association • Foresight about the future of the profession • think outside to inside, think future back to present • Sensitivity to member views • identify perceived values, wants, and needs • Insight into resources of the Association • consider both financial and staff time and energy • Considerations of ethical issues • Identify the ethical implications of our choices

11. Member Benefits • Registration discounts • Subscription to Knowledge Quest and AASL Hotlinks • Discount on AASL publications • Awards, grants and scholarships • E-mail news and discussion lists • Access to AASL “members only” web site

12. ALA Membership Benefits • Conference discounts up to 50% • Subscription to American Libraries • 10% discount off ALA Editions & Graphics • Credit card, car rental, travel programs and health insurance. • Networking opportunities

13. Professional Development: AASL Fall Forum

14. AASL 2008 Fall Forum Assessment, Part II: Constructing and Interpreting Viable Tools for Effective Student Learning in the Library Media Center October 17-19, 2008  Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort, Oak Brook, Illinois (Chicago area)

15. Top 10 Reasons to go to national library conferences… • The conferences are always in the BEST cities like Philadelphia when it’s 20 below or Orlando in June • SWAG! You never knew you needed that many pens • Cancelled flights in every airport in the country • You get to see the inside of a conference center for 3 days but not the city! • Same chicken, different city • Guaranteed blisters twice a year • Admiration from administrators and teachers

16. Conference, Con’t And… Number One… • Conference Centers where it is OK for women to take over the men’s room. • Meetings, programs and exhibits start at 7am, go all day and then it’s time to dance! Going back to work on a Conference High, ready to tackle new challenges!

17. Mark your Calendars November 4-8, 2009AASL 14th National Conference & ExhibitionCharlotte, NC

19. All parts of the Organization are important • Board • Committees • Affiliate Assembly • Staff • ALA AASL

20. AASL Board of Directors AASL Regional Directors/Director-Elects AASL Affiliate Assembly State-level School Library Associations School Library Media Specialist

21. Your Current AASL Board

22. AASL – Connecting Nationally • AASL Overview • National Trends • Strategic Planning • AASL Initiatives • Affiliate Assembly

23. National Trends Informal Survey of the Affiliate Assembly and AASL Board

24. From Colorado • Teacher librarians and technology specialists are collaborating to plan for ET-IL integration. • Teacher librarians are recognized as important leaders in solving the puzzle of how to show students are “technology literate” by the end of 8th grade. • The conversation has moved to recognize the important 21st century critical thinking skills that teacher librarians regularly integrate into instruction through collaboration with classroom teachers and technology specialists.

25. From Oregon • Plagiarism • Online subscription databases • Social networking • Statewide licensure • Patron friendly places • NCLB • Increased collaboration • Adequate staffing • Adequate funding

26. From Florida • Creating media centers all over the state that address the needs of the 21st Century student. Dr. Nancy Teger of the Florida DOE has created a rubric for evaluating the media program. http://www.fldoe.org/bii/library%5Fmedia/ • Creating an on-line handbook that mirrors the ExC3EL Rubric to assist all media specialists to strive to make their programs the best they can be. • Florida Department of Education has invited media specialists to be a part of committees charged with planning the implementation and evaluation of information literacy skills that are now part of the language arts standards.

27. National Trends – Web 2.0 • Shifting from: • Single computers to interoperability and multiple device connections • Static web pages to dynamically-generated online resources • Closed systems to open systems and software • Onetime publishing to ongoing content creation and participation by end users

28. Shifting (continued) • Single authors to collaborative writing and consensus building • Data storage such as photo sharing to social networking and commenting • “stickiness” (people come to your website) to syndication (RSS you send info to the people) • Taxonomies (standard-based organization) to folksonomies (user-based organization)

29. From Michigan • Teacher collaboration works • Administrator collaboration works (hopefully) • The Media Specialist is often the tech person for the school • The Media Specialist does not always want to be the tech person for the school but tries to make the best of it if it is a given • It is sometimes  difficult to get classroom teachers to balance their requests that students use print and electronic resources

30. Michigan (continued) • It is sometimes difficult to get students to use proper electronic resources (as opposed to Google-ing everything) • Uninformed administrators still feel that everything can be found on the Web and that media centers are not essential • Well-informed, insightful administrators know that media centers staffed by a professional are essential to student achievement

31. Michigan (conclusion) • Media specialists must be aware of Web 2.0 tools and social networking whether or not they are the tech person. The students are aware and the teachers and administrators are not. • Educators, in general, are bad at marketing themselves and their resources. They often have the attitude that they do not have the administrator's ear and never get staff meeting time to talk about resources.

32. National Trends • Elementary school librarians providing planning time for classroom teachers - thereby limiting collaboration, inquiry and research projects, and teacher-librarian impact on student achievement.

33. From Virginia • Resurgence of the importance of reading at all levels. • Use of social networking for teaching and using information literacy skills. • Demand for upgrades to dated print collections.

34. Virginia (continued) • New technologies such as Smart boards/white boards for library instruction, vodcasts, and podcasts. • More instances of federated searching that will combine the catalog search with database resources and Internet searches. • Larger physical space for libraries.

35. Virginia (concluded) • Need for students to form answers to questions by synthesizing information in creative non-linear ways. • Libraries will become centers for diversity, intellectual freedom, and global understanding through programs and resources. • Libraries will find new ways to share and deliver information across magisterial lines. • Better staffing.

36. From New Jersey • Development of professional learning communities • Online courses • Ubiquitous computing (one-to-one laptops) • Open Source software (including Integrated Library Systems) • Google for librarians/educators

37. New Jersey (continued) • Growing questions as to whether testing is really working.  (is it really testing all standards?  Should it?) • Loss of SLMS positions • Better preparation of  students so they will be ready for college work • Libraries on Web 2.0

38. Best Practices Informal Survey of the Affiliate Assembly and AASL Board

39. Shared Resources • State level databases provided to schools, academic, and public. • Funded by LSTA grants • www.mel.org in Michigan • OSLIS www.oslis.org in Oregon • NOVELny http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/novel/

40. Battle of the Books • Organized Statewide • Oregon • New Mexico • Alaska • North Carolina • Wisconsin • California

41. NSLMPY • 2005 Winner William Floyd School Districtin Mastic Beach, N.Y. • 2006 Winner Kapolei High School in Kapolei, Hawaii • New ALA Publication:Leadership for Excellence: Insights of National School Library Media Program of the Year Award Winners

42. Palm Beach County Florida • created multi-day workshops called academies for instructional staff • developed a cadre of trainers or guides called the MOD (Multimedia On Demand) Squad • Team TLC is a unique staff development opportunity for library media specialists.

43. Web 2.0 / School Libraries 2.0 • Blogs • AASL Blog http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/ • Washington Middle School, Seattle http://wmslibrary.org/ • Grandview Elementary School , New York http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/

44. Web 2.0 / School Libraries 2.0 • Podcasts • Isinglass Teen Read Award BooktalksHopkinton High School & Hopkinton Middle School Library,New Hampshire • http://www.hopkintonschools.org/hhs/library/podcast.html

45. Web 2.0 / School Libraries 2.0 • Vodcasts • Digitales http://www.digitales.us/ • StoryKeepers’ Gallery http://www.digitales.us/gallery/gallery_living_memories.php

46. Web 2.0 / School Libraries 2.0 • Wikis • Grandview Elementary School, New York http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/ThirdGradeWikis.aspx • Wright 3 – Student Project http://thewright3.wikispaces.com/ • Joyce Valenza’s “Teacherlibrarianwiki” http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/

47. Web 2.0 / School Libraries 2.0 • Virtual Libraries and 24/7 Service • Springfield Township High School Library, PA http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/ • Birch Lane Elementary School, CA http://birchlane.davis.ca.us/library/Default.htm • Grand Haven Area Public Schools http://www.ghaps.org/librarymedia/index.htm

48. AASL – Connecting Nationally • AASL Overview • National Trends • Strategic Planning • AASL Initiatives • Affiliate Assembly

49. Strategic PlanPolicies • Integration with the Association’s Programs, Services, Products • Drives the Budget Process • Assessment of implementation of plan • Annual updating

50. Strategic Planning - Background • Planning began in January, 2004 • Involved AASL Board of Directors and Staff • AASL members and non-members were surveyed and interviewed