The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win

Examines the function and role of school libraries and computer labs. Considers how these resources are used differently than intended because they have been organization-based rather than client-based.

Introduce your teachers, librarians, and administrators to the roles and responsibilities of educators in advocating a whole school library learning commons using this step-by-step guide for creating shared learning space in your school. It is no surprise that technology has shifted the way we educate—bearing on how, what, and where we learn. This guide lays the framework for helping turn your school library into a whole school library learning commons (WSLLC)—a space where traditional academics merge with the latest technologies to engage learners in a way never before realized. Author Judith Anne Sykes contends that since the WSLLC philosophy allows staff and students to co-create knowledge in a shared space, it is more effective than the traditional approach. Sykes addresses the differences between a school library and a WSLLC, provides reasons to champion its creation in your institution, and discusses how to use mentoring as a means to sustain its survival. The book explores the roles and responsibilities of educators in developing WSLLC goals and presents strategies for using typical assessment tools—including standardized tests, report cards, and anecdotal assessments—to help support its philosophy.

This book celebrates the new IFLA School Library Guidelines and shows how the Guidelines can be used in improving school library services. Each chapter describes innovative initiatives for developing, implementing and promoting school library guidelines. The book provides inspiration and guidance for the creation of national school library standards and for the development and use of standards and guidelines to change school library practice, to define the teaching role of school librarians, to guide the initial preparation of school librarians, and to advocate for school library services. Contributors to the book come from around the world: Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Their work illustrates the shared commitment of school librarians around the world to "teaching and learning for all", as envisioned in the IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto.

How should teacher librarians or instructional leaders engage in action research to improve their school library and benefit students' learning? This book provides the answers. Teacher librarians need to get directly involved with the research process in the learning commons in order to create actions and strategies that will enhance student learning—and benefit their own professional development as well as demonstrate accountability through their action research efforts. This book provides practical tips and work spaces for educators at the local, state, and national levels, clearly modeling and explaining the process and the tools for conducting action research in a school library setting that will identify the program's strengths and weaknesses. The author coalesces current expert opinions on the topic of action research in the school library environment and highlighting what other teacher librarians in the field have identified as the pros and cons of using the process. Readers are directed to focus on mitigating the "cons" through the use of specific working pages and templates and by initially exploring "five favorite" links, thereby encouraging those who are new to action research to try what might otherwise seem a daunting process. School principals K–12 who read this book will be better equipped to support their teacher librarians and teachers in this important professional process.

This sixth edition of Library Unlimited's classic school library management text describes new approaches to management and addresses the realities that school librarians face in today's quickly evolving information-based world. In recent years, nearly all school libraries and school librarians have been targeted for having their funding or staffing cut as a result of reductions in school budgets. How does a newly graduated LIS professional prepare for a career in this volatile environment? How do established librarians and administrators prove their value and necessity to decision makers? This freshly updated edition of The School Library Manager is an invaluable textbook that leads readers through the many essential management tasks and skills required to administer the successful school library program and beyond. It promotes the leadership role of the school librarian in the school and addresses the need for school librarians to provide students with equal access to information. The information presented will not only enable librarians to keep their jobs but also supply specific guidance and inspiration that gives readers the ability to make their positions and libraries undeniably relevant and valuable—and to ensure a path of upward mobility in their LIS careers.

Assessment has provided educational institutions with information about student learning outcomes and the quality of education for many decades. But has it informed practice and been fully incorporated into the learning cycle? Conrad and Openo argue that the potential inherent in many of the new learning environments being explored by educators and students has not been fully realized. In this investigation of a variety of assessment methods and learning approaches, the authors aim to discover the tools that engage learners and authentically evaluate education. They insist that moving to new learning environments, specifically those online and at a distance, afford opportunities for educators to adopt only the best practices of traditional face-to-face assessment while exploring evaluation tools made available by a digital learning environment in the hopes of arriving at methods that capture the widest set of learner skills and attributes.

Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries describes specific ways that public librarians and other professionals can promote lifelong learning by planning and implementing Information Literacy Instruction (ILI). This book includes chapters on planning for instruction, using teaching methods, teaching with and about technology, and combining elements of ILI with more traditional public library programs, services, and activities. It is the sequel to Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Principles, Programs, and People.