One characteristic of teachers and librarians is our fondness for structure. There aren’t many of us who like chaos in our jobs or classrooms. When I think about structure and procedures and how I run the school library, I am… Read More ›
Collection Development
How Being an Epic Nerd Has Made Me a Better School Librarian
I must start by saying that I am a huge nerd. I’ve watched/read every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I dressed up as Princess Leia on Hoth for Halloween; I’ve attended multiple Comic Cons; and I even possess a… Read More ›
Community Building and Learning through Curation
Curate is one of my favorite Shared Foundations. According to the AASL Standards school librarians should have a key commitment to “make meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance.” Oftentimes, when we think… Read More ›
Books We Love
We can’t argue that school libraries have changed and changed for the better. When you walk into a school library, chances are that you may see one or more of the following: Legos, 3D printers, Break Out Boxes, or iPads…. Read More ›
Best Practices in Curation
The Key Commitment of school librarians within the AASL Shared Foundation of Curate is defined in the AASL Standards as “making meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance” (AASL, 2018, p. 94). I… Read More ›
To Weed or Not to Weed?
I’m sure that every librarian at some point has questioned whether to weed a particular book, but what about an entire section? Just a couple of weeks ago I became the librarian at a school that was opened in 1979;… Read More ›
Choosing Books That Challenge: Shaking Up Students’ Beliefs
This past weekend I read an outstanding essay in The New York Times “Book Review” section by Brian Morton, the director of the writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. In it, he describes an encounter with a college student who had been… Read More ›
How are school libraries like an ice cream shop?
Think about the last time you walked into an ice cream shop. You may have seen customers browse through the dozens of flavors, looking for what will satisfy them that day. Maybe some opted for two scoops of opposing flavors,… Read More ›
Encouraging the so-called “non-readers”: Fine-tuning book displays
Reaching out to Non-readers As a high school librarian it is important yet challenging to encourage students to read books. This is particularly true for our students who consider themselves non-readers. They are intimated by hardcover books with hundreds of… Read More ›
If You Order It, They Will Read It!
Among all the jobs that school librarians have, collection development often falls to the wayside. Lesson planning, teaching, decorating the library, book fair, reading promotion–all of these often get my attention way before I am ready to order books. Here… Read More ›