Everyday Advocacy You’re in an elevator with the Board president. Or the Mayor. Or the Chairperson of the city’s Youth Commission. You have one minute before the elevator opens and you go your separate ways. What do you say? You’ve got your elevator speech prepared, and now’s the perfect time to use it! What is an "elevator speech"? An elevator speech is a clear, brief message or “commercial” about you. It communicates who you are, why you are valuable, and how you can benefit your stakeholders. It’s typically about 30 seconds to 1 minute, the time it takes people to ride from the top to the bottom of a building in an elevator. Elevator speeches are handy to have rehearsed to advocate for school library programs in all kinds of situations: those planned and those unexpected. Let’s start with “why”.
Library Privacy Guidelines for Students in K-12 Schools Introduction Libraries face a number of challenges in protecting the privacy of users, especially students in elementary, middle, and high schools. School libraries offer print, media, and online content to meet students’ educational and research needs as well as to nurture their intellectual curiosity and development. *Advocacy - NYC School Librarian Advocating for Your Library and Its Program The structure for this LibGuide was inspired by Barbara Stripling's September/October 2014 American Libraries Magazine article: Reimagining Advocacy for School Libraries: Creating a strategy for getting out your message. In order to get the most out of this LibGuide, we suggest accessing and reading the article. In Reimagining Advocacy for School Libraries, Barbara Stripling identifies five pillars of library services around which all strong school library programs are built: Reading Guidance Instruction Access to Resources and Technology Library Environment (Physical and Virtual) Collaborative Partnerships (support for teaching and learning throughout the school)
Advocacy, Legislation & Issues An elevator speech a message intended to spur decision makers to action. An elevator speech must be short, specific, and memorable. It is important to have your elevator speech rehearsed and ready because you never know when you'll have an opportunity to use it!
Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2017 The 2017 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. Gone but Not Forgotten * AASL One-Pagers for Stakeholders One-Pagers for Stakeholders Your School Library in the Learning Community Understanding the National School Library Standards What School Library Standards Mean to Educators Amplify the power of your teaching, support your curriculum, and help your learners to Think, Create, Share and Grow!
*Pitching the Library: the Elevator Speech Presented by Michelle Luhtala, Library Department Chair, New Canaan High School, CT; and Susan Ballard, Program Developer and Instructor USNH Sponsored by Mackin Educational Resources If you attended the live session, you’ll be emailed a CE certificate within 24 hours of the edWebinar. If you view the recording and would like a CE certificate, join the Emerging Tech community and go to the edWebinar Archives folder to take the CE quiz. When administrators are faced with challenging budget cuts, they frequently cut from library programs—often because they don’t understand how strong library programs serve the learning community. In this edWebinar, Michelle Luhtala, Library Department Chair at New Canaan High School, CT, who just returned from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National Conference, interviews Susan Ballard, Program Developer and Instructor at USNH.
Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Best Websites for Teaching & Learning honors websites, tools, and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning. Sites recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. The Landmark Websites are honored due to their exemplary histories of authoritative, dynamic content and curricular relevance. They are free, web-based sites that are user-friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover and provide a foundation to support 21st-century teaching and learning.
*Advocate This, Not That! Illustration by James Yang “A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library,” wrote the historian and novelist Shelby Foote. Consider a corollary to this quote—a school is just a group of buildings gathered around a library—and whether it aptly describes how important your school library is to the overall function of your institution. Too often, school libraries are seen as peripheral, not central, to teaching and learning. We can speak to parents, teachers, and principals about the value of our programs and services, but the decisions about how to best allocate funds are often made at the district level. When money gets tight, those programs with the greatest impact on the highest priorities are valued the most.
Supporting School Librarians through COVID and Beyond Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta speaks at January’s Rally to Save School Librarians in Philadelphia. As the start of school approaches (or is already here in some states), the Covid-19 crisis rages on, leaving many educators around the country very concerned about health and safety issues regarding if or when they and their students will return to the classroom or library. The reentry plans for many school districts are still in flux due to frequently shifting circumstances and guidelines. The disruptions and numerous uncertainties surrounding the pandemic have made an already challenging era for school librarians and other educators that much tougher. Your Voice, Your Standards! For the first time in decades AASL is using a multi-layered survey, data, and research approach to revise and remodel the learning standards and program guidelines of your profession. To ensure the standards meet the needs of the entire community, this research centers on community consultation—you are the foundation of our work! Visit the FAQ section for more information on the research process, key findings, and next steps. Overview | Project Plan Milestones | Frequently Asked Questions Overview The evaluation, revision, and remodeling of AASL’s learning standards and program guidelines is a critically important project to both the association and the profession.
Advocating for the Library You Want to Become Three years ago I enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Library Advocacy Unshushed MOOC. The online course description was a simple premise or perhaps a call to arms of “How can we strengthen libraries and librarians in the advancement of knowledge, creativity, and literacy in the 21st century? Though libraries have been loved for over 3,600 years, their relevance in the digital age is being questioned, and their economic and social impacts are poorly understood. What is really essential about libraries and librarians, today and tomorrow?”
Our Library and Makerspace To-Go Marketing Materials & Promotional Plan Every year, as we go back to school, I create a fun new library marketing plan around our resources in the library and online. I use it in the library, throughout the school, online, at the public library and to send home with our students and families. It is the best way to kick off the year and get everyone connected from the very start. This year as we return to learn, I wanted to create a marketing plan that would work in meaningful, fun and exciting ways if we were in person or virtual. It is called The Van Meter Library and Makerspace To-Go!