The resources listed below will help me to keep current with library issues and trends, give me a network of librarians to lean on for help or support, and get ideas and lesson resources to ensure I run a successful, collaborative school library.
Virginia Association of School Librarians
The VAASL provides support, connections to other organizations, and even opportunities for professional development for librarians in Virginia. The VAASL allows me to connect with other members via the Community Discussion Forum or Member Circles, where small focus groups can be created. It offers an annual conference where a librarian can learn about library lessons or programs, hear about the newest books, and so much more. The VAASL will continue to be useful in my future career as a librarian.
Virginia Association of School Librarians. (2022). [Logo]. https://www.vaasl.org/
American Association of School Librarians
The AASL is a must for a school librarian. It is focused on the school librarian community and provides a lot of support for school librarians. There is also e-Learning offered to support school librarians with content that can be used when teaching or recommendations from other school librarians. The AASL will also help me to remain current through the E-Newsletters and the conferences held each year.
American Association of School Librarians. (2022). [Logo]. https://www.ala.org/aasl/
Association for Library Service to Children
The ALSC supports and enhances library services to children through continuing education for librarians and connections that will help support the librarians needs. The ALSC offers a toolkit filled with PDF’s and PowerPoints that will help a librarian engage children in meaningful ways while in the library. I will be kept apprised of any new information occurring with the ALSC through the ALSC Update, which emails me updates directly, and through their Blog.
Association for Library Service to Children. (2018). [Logo]. https://www.ala.org/alsc/aboutalsc/new-alsc-logo
ALSC Journal: Children & Libraries
Children & Libraries is a journal of the Association for Library Service to Children. It showcases current scholarly research and practices used in library service for children. It also shares activities that are tried and true and has suggestions for librarians to try in the library. The significant news shared from the ALSC will keep me up to date with any library issues and continually offer new resources.
Children & Libraries: The Journal of ALSC. (2022). Journal Cover [Picture]. Association for Library Service to Children. https://journals.ala.org/index.php/cal/index
MediaSmarts
MediaSmarts offers lessons and practice that would be useful when teaching students to be digital and media literate. It is important for students to able to safely and effectively use the internet. One aspect I think would be very useful from MediaSmarts is the resources on how to positively tackle issues that are often seen by students when using the internet. There is also a MediaSmarts Blog with many important topics that deal with being digital and media literate.
MediaSmarts. (2022). [Logo]. https://mediasmarts.ca/
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is an online service to help librarians catalog their books easily. A user can add to their catalog by entering titles, authors, or ISBN numbers. LibraryThing searches the Library of Congress, Amazon, and almost 5,000 world libraries, and returns with precise book data. Based on the collective intelligence of other libraries, LibraryThing connects people with the same books. LibraryThing is also a social network, where users can share aggregate tags, ratings, reviews, and Common Knowledge, which improves cataloging data. LibraryThing will be useful when I need to catalog or when I need book suggestions.
LibraryThing (2022). Book covers [Image]. LibraryThing. https://www.librarything.com/tour/
The Trapped Librarian
The Trapped Librarian is an elementary school librarian, former teacher, named Laura. She offers a multitude of resources and lessons for a librarian to use to receive higher engagement from students. Her Blog is organized with lessons each month, sprinkled with informative tidbits, like an Early Chapter Books List, and more. Laura also offers links to cutesy resources you can purchase if you want. She is on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, where she offers short, but helpful video clips for a librarian. Her Blog will be very useful when just starting out as a librarian and will give me fresh ideas for library lessons.
Headshot [Photograph]. (n.d.) The Trapped Librarian. http://trappedlibrarian.org/
Kiss the Book
Kiss the Book is a Blog, started by Cindy Mitchell, that reviews all types of books to help K-12 school librarians. The Blog was originally only Cindy reviewing lots of books, but now there are a variety of reviewers to help with the load. I love the Label List that breaks the reviewed books down into different categories, such as ‘social justice’ or ‘wordless.’ Kiss the Book offers lots of other helpful resources, like Podcasts and even a Kiss the Book Jr., which focuses on books for younger students. These reviews are very helpful to me when deciding on new books to add to the library.
Kiss the Book (2022). [Logo]. https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/
Banned Books Week
The Banned Books Week site gives me access to the latest news and many resources on book censorship, which is a big interest for me. A big issue in school libraries today is when patrons demand certain books be removed from the library, which causes problems with censorship. This site will give me information on books that may be unfairly labeled and allow me to draw better conclusions when deciding if a book if right for the school library or not.
Banned books week (2022). [Logo]. Banned Books Week. https://bannedbooksweek.org/promotional-tools/
Smithsonian Learning Lab
The Smithsonian Learning Lab is an interactive platform filled with an abundance of authentic digital resources where people, including teachers and students, can discover, create, share, and learn. The Smithsonian is made of 20 museums and the Smithsonian Learning Lab makes the artifacts from those museums easily within reach for all, even the artifacts not on display within the physical museum. Anyone can build a collection with images, audio, video, and/or text or use one of the many collections already created.
Smithsonian learning lab (2024). [Logo]. https://learninglab.si.edu/
We Need Diverse Books
The mission of We Need Diverse Books is to put more books with diverse characters in the hands of readers. They want to ensure every reader can see their self reflected within the books they read. We Need Diverse Books offers many resources to help librarians, educators, and families access a variety of books with diverse characters, or written by diverse authors, or illustrated by diverse artists. This resource is valuable when seeking books relatable to my students.
We Need Diverse Books (2024). [Logo]. https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/
Sylvia Liu
Sylvia Liu is the author of middle grade and picture books, as well as an artist. . Her school visits promote literacy and encourage students to be authors, no matter the age. Liu shares the three most important aspects of being a good writer: 1) write what you know, 2) make readers feel what the character feels by putting emotion into your stories, and 3) ask, what if? because ideas are everywhere. She also helps students of all ages understand that writing a book and getting it published is not a quick process, which can be eye-opening for them.
Sylvia Liu (2023). [Logo]. https://www.enjoyingplanetearth.com/