*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.
Don't worry, a school library with fewer books and more technology is good for today's students
A recent article about a new approach to a school library sparked vigorous discussion on social media. Many worried the school had completely abolished traditional library services. The article describes how a Melbourne school changed its library to a technology-focused centre staffed by “change adopters” who host discussions with students and encourage creative thinking. The school’s principal was forced to defend the library’s restructure. She wrote that its traditional purpose hadn’t been lost.
The District Library Newsletter: An Advocacy Tool
As you plan your advocacy efforts for 2019, don’t forget about your district-level administrators. The decisions they make can have a huge impact on your library and on your district’s library program. Even if they’ve always been supportive of libraries, don’t assume they know what goes on in your space. After all, they aren’t in your building, much less in your library, every day. Make sure you have a plan to let them know what you do and why it matters to students (and teachers).
February Social Media Content for Libraries
Is leveling up your library's social media game one of your New Year's resolutions? One of the best ways to engage followers to is to provide a consistent stream of fun/useful content. Understanding that libraries don't always have the time to generate all of the content they'd like, we're here to help! Below you will find daily posts, all under Twitter’s 280-character limit, that you can copy/paste at your leisure, each linking to a Topic Page, which, for Credo Online Reference Services subscribers can be a gateway to all kinds of e-resources.This content is free for the taking, no character-eating attribution to us necessary! PS: The images below are all in the public domain. 1 FebruaryLets all raise a magnifying glass to cheers the Oxford Dictionary, which debuted this day in 1884!
*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.
Why We Still need Bookshops and Librairies in the Internet Age
Dare the question: do we really need bookstores (or even libraries) today? In theory, no. If you’re in search of a book a simple click on the Internet can satisfy it: within 24 hours it is delivered in your mailbox. Better, you can have it immediately in its digital version. Better yet, lying in your couch you can ask your personal assistant — Alexa, Watson, Siri whatever… — to take care of the purchase.
*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)
We Increased Summer Reading Participation by a Whopping 97 Percent! Here Are the Four Easy Changes that Worked. – Super Library Marketing: All kinds of marketing ideas for all kinds of libraries.
A summer reading program is the cornerstone event of the year for most public libraries. But in my conversations with other library marketers, there is a central worry: slipping participation numbers. Our summer programs compete so many other things: camps and vacations, transportation issues and poverty-related issues. We struggled with summer reading participation at my library.
* 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!
