It is time for the AASL membership to elect the volunteers who will lead our organization. Candidates will introduce themselves in a series of blogs, and were asked to prepare answers to the question:  They have also written answers to the following question: “Which part of the AASL strategic plan speaks to you most and why?” Please read through their answers below and be sure to vote when the ballot arrives in your inbox.

Statements and/or videos were a voluntary option offered to all candidates.  Voting for the 2025 ALA elections will open on Monday, March 10, 2025 and close on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.

The candidates for the Independent Schools Section, Chair-elect are:

Jamie Gregory

Chair-elect:

Jamie Gregory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am most energized about the AASL strategic focus area of purposeful engagement in order to build capacity for school librarians to influence policy making. While it is vital for school librarians to educate themselves about best practices, research, and current and future trends, ultimately that knowledge and practice will not serve the profession if we do not have knowledge about policy making. This area of librarianship is particularly challenging because states and counties do not govern, fund, or direct school libraries in exactly the same ways. School librarians must be knowledgeable about their own local area and state laws in order to enshrine legal protections for school librarians, guarantee students’ intellectual freedom rights, and secure the position of a school librarian in a properly funded school library in each school. Policy making is the bigger picture of the school librarian profession that we cannot afford to push to the side. Learning how school libraries are funded, relevant laws and regulations, and identifying allies outside of the profession all relate to policy making. It takes time and effort to focus on this area, which is why it is vital for AASL to include it as a strategic focus area. As a national organization, AASL is uniquely positioned to provide school librarians with much-needed opportunities to connect their work with policy making during a time of unprecedented censorship and direct attacks on the very profession itself. Helping empower school librarians to embrace and to impact policy making will only make us stronger and help guarantee a vibrant future for school librarianship and the students we serve.