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A Nation Without School Librarians

This map marks the cities, towns, communities, and states that have made the decision to either eliminate certified school library positions (indicated in blue) or require one school librarian to work with two (2) or more school library programs throughout the week (indicated in red).
This project was started by Shonda Brisco, Assistant Professor and Curriculum Materials Librarian at Oklahoma State University. "Let's compare the student achievement scores without a school librarian in a year or so to discover what thousands of library supporters already knew." LEARN how to add a MARKER and view cuts across the nation.

Sue Ballard is well-known by MSLA members for her spirited presentations at our conferences; she is Director of Libraries and Technology in Londonderry NH. It has been a busy fall for her as a writer, having been published in two professional journals.

Sue Ballard and Kristin Fontichiaro authored "When Pretty Good Isn’t Good Enough: Research Skills and Dispositions for College Success and Lifelong Learning” has been published in the December edition of Principal Leadership magazine. [link is not available for non-members].

"Creation of a Research Community in a K-12 School System Using Action Research and Evidence Based Practice" by Susan Ballard, Gail March and Jean Sand was published in the eJournal, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 

Subversive children’s books  What do these nine books have in common: Goodnight Moon; Where the Wild Things Are; The Red Balloon; Little Engine that Could; The Story of Ferdinand; The Lorax; Yertle the Turtle; Madeline; Curious George; Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type. These children’s classics were all promoted by legendary editor, Ursula Nordstrom whose vision was to publish “good books for bad children,” teaching them to think for themselves. Read the complete story.

National Ed-Tech Plan Released
The U.S. Department Office of Educational Technology has released the National Educational Technology plan, purported to transform American education through technology. The plan presents a model with goals in five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Read more about the plan.

Knowledge Quest Now Available Online
The November/December 2010 Knowledge Quest issue, “Stem for Our Students” features articles on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. Members of AASL can access all issues registering on the AASL site .

Booking to the future  The Library Research Service, part of the Colorado State Library, recently conducted a survey of library professionals to get a prediction on the future of the paper book. It’s probably no surprise that respondents thought the trend would be toward electronic formats. Almost two-thirds of the respondents predicted that paper books would never disappear.”...Read more on the ALA website.

AASL opens registration for its 2011 conference
Register for the AASL National Conference, “Turning the Page,” October 27–30, 2011, in Minneapolis. Advance registration offers early bird AASL members a $100 discount.

StoryTubes 2011
Students in grades K–12 are challenged to enter the videos contest, StoryTubes 2011. In a tw0 minute video, students can promote a book or a book series featuring the same character. Entries can be submitted between January 19 and February 28, 2011. More Information

AASL Student Video Contest
The American Association of School Librarians, SchoolTube, and Cisco are challenging students to create videos detailing how their school library and technology empower them to be Learners4Life. Entries will be uploaded to SchoolTube.com. The window for entering is  January 4 to March 18, 2011. One student winner will be chosen from 3 divisions: elementary, middle, and high school. Individual student winners receive a Flip™ video camera and their school library receives a prize as well. For more information, contest rules and guidelines, check out the Learning4Life in My School Library contest.

Philadelphia Teacher Union Advocate for School Libraries Making the case that school libraries promote student achievement and that prisons have better library facilities than schools, the president of the Philly Teacher Union presented a proposal that school libraries be mandated instead of optional decisions left up to principals. "There are many ways to spend limited education dollars, but a library is one of the best investments." Read more