Advocacy

Libraries, authors, and world-famous chefs, including Chez Panisse's Alice Waters, are stepping in to ensure that children and teens are food literate, from providing food itself to incorporating lessons on nutrition, food sourcing, and gardening into curriculum and literature.

District administrators want new collaborations between school districts, businesses, and higher education. Librarians can help by gaining a better understanding of local and global educational priorities and facilitating external relationships.

The wonderful librarians the California School Library Association just released the film, Does Your School Have a Teacher Librarian? Featuring the voices of administrators, classroom teachers, academics, and, most powerfully, learners, the 10-minute film describes libraries as active, collaborative, creative safe spaces and librarians’ connections to the individual interests and passions of kids and their value [...]

Understood.org is a new "parent toolbox" on the Web that pools the expertise of 15 well-known learning and child nonprofits so that parents can find articles, advice, expertise, and empathy for their child's learning and attention struggles.

The International Book Bank has partnered with the We Care Foundation to ship a “container of hope” with 86,000 books headed for Monrovia, Liberia to be included in the distribution of 10,000 homeschool kits to kids.

Peter Kornicker, a library media specialist at Don Pedro Albizu Campos Middle School in New York City, nabbed the Apple ConnectED grant for his school. This award translates into every student receiving an Apple iPad and every teacher, an iPad and Macbook, in 2015.

“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 [...]

We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) kicked off an indiegogo campaign to raise $100K on October 23, and it's taken off like gangbusters. Also, check out John Green's #SupportWNDB video, which debuted October 28.

Back in 2010 I posted about Shonda Brisco’s library crisis map, A Nation without School Librarians. Back in April, SLJ‘s Rebecca Miller shared her optimism about crisis reversal. In her editorial, Now Hiring: Recent Wins on School Library Positions Spark Optimism, Rebecca notes a trend toward reestablishing school library positions in such places as St. [...]