School Library Month April 2025
It’s School Library Month and this year we mark the 40th year of celebrating school libraries and school librarians. As we commemorate this special anniversary of AASL’s School Library Month, there’s much to reflect and be proud of.
The History of School Library Month and the Present
Lucille Thomas, the first chair of the School Library Media Month Committee, worked tirelessly with Edna Bayliss, Elsie Brainard, Winona Jones, Elizabeth Kenneson, Elinor McCloskey, and Virginia Moore to ensure this observance was notable. On April 1, 1985, AASL officials, and local and national dignitaries launched the month with a ceremony on the west steps of the U.S. Capitol where Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) delivered the keynote address. Moynihan told the school librarians in the audience, “I want to thank you for what you do. I hope you know how important your work is. You change lives for the better. You touch people while they can still be touched.”.
Fast forward to April 1, 2025. School librarians have experienced some very challenging times, especially over the last 4 years. As I shared in my Navigating Challenges blog post in late January, “resilience is not just about enduring; it’s about blossoming in the face of adversity. It’s about holding onto our mission and our core values, and continuing to provide pathways to knowledge, access, and opportunity for all learners, regardless of the challenges we face.” How do we make this happen?
Lean On Colleagues- Our Deep Well
As a child, whenever I visited my grandmother’s home, I was fascinated by the well-water she used in her backyard. The water that poured out felt endless and very cold. I often wondered how deep this well was as we never ran out of water. Our professional association is much like this rich, deep well in my grandmother’s backyard. I’m sure you are asking, “in what way?”
AASL is made up of a strong professional community and is much like my grandmother’s deep well—its depth represents the wealth of shared knowledge, experiences, and support that we can draw from. Just as a well provides water to sustain individuals, our thriving professional association offers a continuous flow of resources, insights, supports and connections to nourish your growth. The deeper the well, the more you can rely on it during times of drought or challenge, knowing that there’s an abundance of wisdom and encouragement waiting to be tapped. In turn, contributing to this well by sharing your own knowledge and service only makes it richer, creating a sustainable cycle of mutual benefit for all.
Remember to Know Thy Impact
In his book Visible Learning, New Zealand researcher and educator, John Hattie stated, “My role, as teacher, is to evaluate the effect I have on my students. It is to ‘know thy impact’, it is to understand this impact and it is to act on this knowing and understanding.”[1]
He goes on to discuss accomplished teachers (that includes us too!) understand the importance of a learners’ engagement with content, offering opportunities for problem-solving, imparting new knowledge and monitoring how learners work with this new knowledge, sharing feedback so that learners succeed in goal attainment, and always “seeing learning through the eyes of students.”
Each and everyday, I see, hear or read of these actions happening in school libraries across the country. School librarians assist learners to be effective users of information and ideas, a much needed lifelong skill.
They provide resources, instruction, and support to learners to enhance their work and information access. School librarians provide a safe and welcoming learning environment and support learner success. And school librarians also partner with administrators and teachers, stepping up to be an indispensable leader in the greater school community – to have an impact on learners.
Our educators of school librarians are working equally as hard to ensure that future school librarians are well-prepared to develop and manage library and information services in a PreK-12 school library setting. Along with school librarian preparations, these educators also work tirelessly to conduct, promote and publish high-quality original research on instructional theory, teaching methods, and critical issues relevant to school libraries and school librarians. It’s their research that expands our understanding, uncovers new and innovative ideas, and provides evidence and data that can inform us as professionals. They are seeing learning through our eyes.
In Service to Others – The Ripple Effects
School librarians work in a profession in service to others and the impact of a single school librarian’s actions on a broader network can be immeasurable over time. Just as a stone thrown into a pond creates expanding ripples, illustrating how an initial action or change can have a wider impact, school librarians initiate actions everyday that have a ripple effect on student learning, teacher practices, and the overall school culture.
During School Library Month and the remainder of the school year, make time to look out and make a mental note of students working together; it’s a reminder of them applying the learning gleaned from your instruction. Celebrate when you finish that important planning time with another teacher or consider how many learners that collaboration will impact on your campus. Celebrate when you find a new idea in the KQ Journal or stumble upon some much needed research from SLR. Recognize the passion within for school librarianship and the learners you serve.
Don’t ever forget that in your corner of your school community, YOU are making an impact everyday. Tell the school library story every chance you have so that others understand and take note of your impact too.
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