Micro mentoring connects people in order to focus short-term on specific areas of professional development.
This is the time to re-make librarianship in the long term. Here's how some leaders are doing it.
Submissions for School Librarian of the Year are now being accepted. Let us know what you, or an outstanding colleague, are doing.
Ensuring that all students have access to reading material during remote learning; adjusting expectations for student research; fielding questions about Little Free Libraries.
Administrators need to make swift decisions based on immediate community needs, not what will look good to funders, mayors, and boards.
Educators greet returning students and ease their anxieties while addressing the COVID slide.
In a new series of articles and virtual sessions, the authors will guide a conversation about the future of public libraries, culminating in a practical plan to reenvision youth services.
Employees with disabilities and chronic illnesses have long fought for basic accommodations now granted to millions of workers from home. Here's what else is needed.
These free and affordable learning options allow library professionals to follow their interests and dig deeper into new approaches.
An accurate count in this year's controversial census is critical to securing library funding and keeping school and health programs going. Use these resources to create teachable moments with students and host a census count at your library.
Best wishes to SLJ's reviews managing editor in her next chapter.
Several panels at the 2019 Association of American Librarians National Conference focused on the urgent need for better information literacy and advocating on behalf of school libraries.
At the 2019 American Association of School Librarians National Conference, Ellen Oh, Adolph Brown, and Jarrett Krosoczka spoke with emotion and humor while calling on librarians to lift up all children.
The 2019 American Association of School Librarians conference is November 14-16. Have you downloaded the app and earmarked your top sessions yet? Here are the #AASL19 learning events our readers are most eager to attend.
It’s that time. Nominations of stellar school librarians may be submitted, starting today, for SLJ's School Librarian of the Year 2020.
Ready to take the next step? K–12 librarians serving high-need communities are eligible for a partial-tuition scholarship toward attending a fall leadership course in Future Ready librarianship.
How valuable is a master’s degree in library science? Opinions from the field have fluctuated, along with the fortunes of the profession.
A frequently challenged book club pick; insisting on the Pledge of Allegiance
Ali Schilpp brings big ideas to a small school in Accident, MD.
Cassy Lee ignites diversity awareness at the Chinese American International School in San Francisco.
Michelle Carton builds a global education at the Tudor Elementary School in Anchorage, Alaska.
Colte's greatest joy is empowering students and seeing them take what they've learned to help someone else.
The Georgia library media specialist seeks to support not just his students but the community.
Teacher librarian brings technology, activity, and excitement to the media center.
In these changing times, librarians must take action to build community, foster equity, and develop a rich and resilient social fabric.
A school district superintendent describes school libraries as "a model of the type of learning space towards which education is evolving."
Susan Grigsby has embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, leaving the U.S. for a school librarian position in Singapore. Here she shares some prized new finds as she begins to explore a whole new world of children's literature.
When did you last think deeply about why you are a teacher librarian? I challenge you to articulate that. You will be empowered.
As the new director of library services for New York schools, Melissa Jacobs plans to attract more educators to the library profession, expand maker spaces, and create more opportunities for librarians in public and nonpublic schools to learn from one another.
The five individuals cited in this year’s competition for our School Librarian of the Year award illustrate today’s state-of-the-art approach to the work, and point the way forward for anyone who wants to make a positive impact on kids’ lives and learning.
Three recent titles on providing literary instruction to all students, making the best use of children's literature, and taking a leadership role in schools.
A strategic district media specialist “re-professionalized” school librarian positions in Georgia schools.
A Texas school district's strategic design plan includes a digital citizenship program to accompany a 1:1 rollout.
Change in your school administration may derail your library program—but only if you let it.
The Lilead Fellows program is a long-term professional development opportunity for a select group of school district library supervisors.
Strategic positive exposure for school libraries in her district helped this Lilead Fellow gain recognition for teacher librarians.
Perhaps you feel unworthy or unready to be a leader. But you can do it. You must: people are counting on you.
When Lilead Fellow and former district library services supervisor Leslie Yoder faced staff cuts and low morale, she kept fighting. Here's how.
The Lilead Project, established in 2012 to support and build community among U. S. school library supervisors, has received an IMLS grant to continue its Lilead Fellows program and to create the Lilead Leaders initiative for advocacy and activism.
Laura Gardner brings out the best in students at Dartmouth (MA) Middle School with outstanding volunteer, tech, and reading programs.
When you have the ear of an administrator, use your time well. Here’s how.
The way to success for this district librarian has been to start small, build a network of library advocates, dream big, and never stop working for transformative change.
In this first article in our series on library leadership, Lilead Fellow Priscille Dando suggests how librarians can connect with principals on instructional challenges.
This powerful cohort of school district library heads is poised to bring innovation, bold leadership, and a new communal strength to the field.
This group of library administrators is starting a revolution in the school library world—and hopes to motivate you to join in.
Members of the Lilead Project—25 library district supervisors from across the country—gathered for a face-to-face meeting in Ohio. Topics discussed? Outcomes-based planning, effective marketing and leadership, and evaluating student success, to name a few.
This past week I was honored to host a very special Colloquium at Rutgers School of Information and Communication. Tough Times–Troubled Choices gathered together: Scott Bonner, Library Director of the Ferguson, Missouri Public Library and Carla Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as Rutgers’ own Nancy […]
Karl Dean remembers his childhood public library as a place where “you could go to dream.” Recreating that experience resulted in Limitless Libraries, which brought public library resources into Nashville schools to enable every student to pursue their dreams.
Outside of our own little world, the letters TL do not obviously identify us. In her opening remarks at the Library Managers’ Congress of the big eduTECH Conference this past week, chair Karen Bonanno not only pointed to this confusion. She shed light on it. While my notes are a little sketchy, here are Karen’s […]
It’s Edublogs Award time. While we have an opportunity to vote for our faves on List.ly, I see this, more importantly, as an opportunity to make discoveries relating to important voices in the larger field. As you look at the nominees, be sure to look at and beyond the Librarian list. These nominees represent leadership. [...]
“When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves.” Lau Tzu We decided to switch up the panel Both Sides Now: Librarians Discuss Leadership at the SLJ Summit this week by seeking inspiration from the animal kingdom. Doug Johnson, KC Boyd, and Michelle Colte joined me in selecting animal behaviors [...]
I love Jennifer LaGarde’s idea of beginning the year with questions, rather than resolutions. Jennifer recently asked 11 Questions (About Libraries) That Need Answers. And Doug Johnson added a few of his own in a Blue Skunk Blog post. (See below.) The lovely part about this whole social media thing is that we can attack [...]
It’s not every day a teacher librarian is invited to the White House. Last week, our own Carolyn Foote spent a day there as a Champion of Change. In her reflection, Carolyn contends that leadership begins with sharing your voice, with being connected: Any one of us can lead–any teacher– any librarian–any administrator and any [...]
BYOD, or bring your own device, programs offer media specialists an opportunity to connect with students, teachers, and school administrators—and to take a leadership role in their schools and districts.
Thursday, March 28, 2013, 6:00 - 7:00 PM ET This tour of the top keys to leadership in our changing education environment will inspire leadership at every level. This webcast kicks off the series with strategies and tactics from Shannon McClintock Miller and school library leaders on how to take steps to initiate new projects, create meaningful collaborations with classroom teachers, talk to administrators, drive tech adoption in your classroom, school, community, and more.
Archive now available!
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