School Libraries

Nearly all librarians, school and public, consider EDI/DEI in collection development, according to SLJ's recent survey. Leadership however, drew criticism for paying lip service to these efforts or, in some cases, bending to patron pressure, without real support for diversity, equity, or inclusion. 

Lavishly illustrated, with appealing design, browsable nonfiction has revolutionized children’s books by giving young fact lovers a fresh, engaging way to access information. And more titles are on the horizon.

High shipping costs, skyrocketing paper fees, and labor issues wreak havoc on book publishing schedules. 

How can schools and their library programs buffer the effects of poverty and economic hardship? Here are original, crowdsourced ideas from across the nation.

A curated booklist with titles that offer an intimate view of poverty and other titles that may provide escapist relief from stress.

From the Walter Dean Myers and Sydney Taylor Awards to the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature, 11 honors you should know about. Use them to expand your collection and recommend worthy titles to teachers, parents, and young readers. 

The strains of the pandemic have shown how critical SEL is to school communities, particularly those serving at-risk children.

While school policies around masks, social distancing, and vaccination policies differ, librarians can share common goals to promote social-emotional learning.

Pat Scales answers questions about kids who want challenged books; a parent who objects to fairy tales due to religious beliefs; and a principal sympathetic to students who protest assigned novels.