I’m going to be spending part of my weekend working through the copy editors notes on my new book.  It is slated to come out in the fall from Libraries Unlimited/ABC-Clio.  Here is the cover which I just got.  It makes me realize the process is really nearing the end.

Joyce Valenza, Barbara Stripling, and Carl Harvey

I had the joy recently of spending a few days in Binghamton, NY for the NYLA School Library Section conference.  This was my last official visit to a state conference as AASL President (I still will visit 2 or 3 states next year as Past-President).

I shared a session on School Librarians as Leadership which has been fun to share in states all over the country.  I like to think of the possibilities and share some of the great work AASL is doing to help school librarians be prepared for that leadership role.

The keynote speaker was my friend Joyce Valenza from Philadelphia.  As many times as I've had the chance to listen to Joyce share her thoughts and ideas, I always come away learning something.  Her passion for the field and the profession and the power of school librarians in today's school is always infectious.

In addition, the big news while I was there was that it was announced that Barbara Stripling won the ALA election and will be our 2013-2014 ALA President.  It was so exciting to be in her current home state of New York and get to celebrate her win with the entire conference!

I also attended some wonderful session on the Common Core, Curation, iPad Apps, and had the pleasure of listen to three wonderful authors - David Wiesner, Margi Preus, and Emily Arnold McCully.

As with most of the places I've visited this year, I enjoyed the chance to catch-up with dear friends and make new friends as well.  I continue to believe the most important part of any conference are the networking and opportunities to connect with fellow colleagues.  New York was a wonderful host and I enjoyed getting to spend my last visit as an AASL President with them.

Events/Projects:

• The major item from the last few months was the White House Petition for School Libraries.  With the support of ALA President Molly Raphael, the ALA Division Presidents, and many of our vendors and external partners, the petition was promoted at every major event.  The petition surpassed the goal of 25,000 signatures nearly a week before the Feb. 4 deadline, which ensures it will receive the attention and response of White House policy experts.  The official reply was sent Friday, April 15^th.  You can read some of my comments about the reply on the blog.
• I met with OCLC during the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia to talk about school and public library opportunities for collaboration.
• National Legislative Day was held in Washington D.C.   AASL met with the National Education Association, staffers to the House Education and Workforce committee on both sides of the aisle, and the Office of Civil Rights  at the US Department of Education.  All were good conversations.  We need to continue to be aware of what is happening in Washington and help  them make that connection of what an effective school library program can do for student learning.

ALA President Molly Raphael, Senator Jack Reed, and AASL President Carl Harvey

• The highlight of NLLD for me was when I presented Senator Jack Reed with the 2012 AASL Crystal Apple.  He has long been a strong advocate for school libraries in Congress.  Last year his efforts got almost $14 million in dedicated funding for school libraries.

The Board met during ALA Midwinter and the following action was taken:

• The Board voted to propose a restructure of the AASL governance.  Under the proposal, the position of Director-Elect would be eliminated.  The Nominations Committee would be replaced with the Leadership Development Committee.  All of these changes are pending membership approval of revised bylaws and will be phased in over time.  (You can read some commonly asked questions about the Leadership Development Committee in ALA Connect at: http://connect.ala.org/node/172666)
• Established several task forces:
• Senior Projects / Capstone Projects Task Force – to create resources for librarians who work with senior projects.
• Best Apps for Teaching and Learning Task Force – to begin setting up a recognition process and structure.
• Quantitative Measures Task Force – to investigate quantitative measures and recommend a direction for AASL.
• Internet Access Task Force – to write a white paper about Internet and school libraries.
• Approved a position statement on The Role of the School Library Program.
• Formed working groups to:
• Submit a proposal for Emerging Leaders projects.
• Investigate a position statement on Collection Balance.

Board Votes (after Midwinter):

• Vice-Chairs – The Board voted to accept a recommendation of the Bylaws committee that AASL committees have a vice-chair.  The mmittee will choose the vice-chair from the members of the committee.  The AASL President will retain the right to appoint committee chairs each year.
• Pre-Service Task Force – The Board voted to extend this task force for another year.
• Project Red – Voted to support this program (with our name).
• Making Progress: Rethinking State and School District Policies Concerning Mobile Technologies and Social Media document – Voted to help disseminate the report.

Press Interviews:

• E-Textbooks – American Public Media
• LiT Tech Podcast
• SLJ Interview – AASL Video Contest
• Interview for Kids Concern show for Radio Disney in New York about National School Library Month
• WAMU Radio – Washington D.C
• EduTalk Radio
• District Administrator – Empowering Students with Digital Reading

On Friday, April 13^th, at 7:15pm, the wait was over.  The response was delivered to my inbox.  I read it quickly and then begin emailing colleagues and friends to see if they, too, got the reply.  Obviously they did as I quickly began to see posts of it coming up on Facebook, Twitter, and a few emails, too.  The complete text of the reply is available for anyone to read on the We the People Petition site.

What did you think?

At this point, I’ve gotten a variety of different assessments on the reply —from those who were glad to finally hear the White House say school libraries are important and have value to those who think they completely talked around the question.  Reality in my estimation is there a little truth in both assessments.

I saw some strong wording about the value of school libraries and the critical role they play.    For example:

“School libraries do much more than house books and store data: a school library can broaden the horizon of learning for students and link them with communities and experiences far beyond their own classroom and community.”

I saw the direct language that says the White House is supportive of school libraries.

 “The Obama Administration remains committed to supporting school libraries…”

I saw where they saw the important role that school libraries play in our schools.

 “The Administration believes that if we want to give every child a fair shot in life, we must open doors of opportunity while they’re young and teach them the skills they’ll need to succeed. This means that one of our greatest responsibilities as citizens, as educators, and as parents is to ensure that every child in America cannot only read, but possess the skills to comprehend, analyze, and think critically about the text. School libraries are critical to making sure that this happens.”

Where I saw a little bit of a dodging is of the funding opportunity.   Most of the opportunities that were listed as potential funding sources for school libraries, to the best of my knowledge, are not working out that way.  Many of these state-wide literacy plans  completely ignore or leave school libraries and librarians out of the conversations and funding opportunities.  There are pockets where the school library program is fundamental to a state’s literacy plan , but there is no consistency.

So, where do we go from here…

First, I would urge school librarians to use this statement to work with their State Departments of Education.  Clearly school librarians need to be a part of those State Literacy Teams and this statement from the White House supports that.  At the very least, any funding opportunities coming from those plans need to include school library programs.

Second, as ESEA goes through reauthorization, it will be important to use this statement to help garner support and funding for school libraries.    This is  be a powerful piece to use with our Federal legislators.  Share it with your Senators and Representatives during National Library Legislative Day or when you visit their offices at home.

Lastly, I think there is opportunity to use this at the local level.  The White House gave some strong support for school libraries and the role they play.  I don’t know if that will resonate with local school boards and administrators, but it just might worth a try.

Was it worth it?

Looking back, there was a lot of time and energy spent by a lot of people to get this petition to 25,000+ signatures.  What did we gain?  Really only time will tell, but I think there are a few immediate take-aways.

• We were successful!  We got school libraries on the White House radar.  There statement clearly shows a support for school libraries and the critical role they play in schools.
• We saw what happens when we all work together.  In my career, I’ve never seen such an amazing job of coordinating libraries of all type to work on a single issue.  This is a clear example we can succeed when librarians advocate for each other (regardless what type of library they are).  We need each other and have to be willing to work together!  This was a great example of doing just that.
• We continue to work on being a more vocal and visible presence.  With the AASL Congressional Briefing, the White House Petition, and now in a few weeks with National Legislative Day, we continue to raise the important issue of school libraries to our nation’s leaders.  We still have a long way to go, but I think we are moving in the right direction.

I want to thank each and every person who signed the petition and put time and effort to encourage others to sign as well.  We may not have gotten everything we wanted in the reply, but I think we made some great progress.  Each step forward is a step in the right direction.  The petition, I think, gave us just that – another step.

I think with everything you do, there is always something to be learned from the experience.  For me, the lesson I learned was anything is possible when everyone is working together.  From ALA President Molly Raphael’s School Library Task Force to the ALA Think Tank on Facebook who bought ads on Facebook to the vendor community who sent out messages to all their customers to the librarians and their supporters who convinced their families to all sign the petition to the ALA divisions who helped pull in the entire library community to the other national organizations and associations that partner with AASL who spread the word through their websites and memberships as well, it truly was a team effort.   This group certainly took full advantage of the powers of social media.  It was amazing to watch the power of everyone working together and the results paying off when we crossed the magic 25,000 line.

We now wait for the White House response.  There is no timeline given by the White House other than they will respond as quickly as is possible.  The response will be posted on the White House – We the People – website and everyone who signed the petition will receive the response via email.  There is no guarantee that the response will include any action from the White House.   However, the petition will help raise awareness of the issues facing school libraries today.

But, the petition is not a silver bullet.  As we work towards getting school libraries included in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it will be important that we keep up the effort.  We need to be talking to Senators and Representatives, encouraging them to support the Skills Act.  On January 17, U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ, 7th), along with Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ, 12th) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA, 6th) introduced the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLS) Act. The SKILLS Act, numbered H.R. 3776 in the House, is a companion bill of S. 1328 that was introduced in the Senate by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) back on July 6, 2011.

The Congressional Briefing in October, followed by the petition, have been great steps in advocating for school libraries at the Federal level.  But they are just steps in the journey.  We’ve not reach our destination, so we have to keep moving forward as we paint a picture for our legislators about what today’s school libraries can do for students and the importance for each and every student to have access to a quality school library program!

Here is the short URL to the petition.

http://wh.gov/Wgd

You just need to go to the link above, create an account (if you don’t have one) and sign the petition.  Takes less than a few minutes to get it all done!

So, we have until Feb. 4th, which is only a month.  We’re off to a good start, but we need to spread the word EVERYWHERE!  We need to get our family, our friends, the parents at our schools, and anyone else that supports school libraries to sign this petition.   We need to connect with our public librarian and academic librarian colleagues and encourage them to support us just as we would support them with these efforts.

I hope you will go and sign it right now and then go and encourage at least 10 of your friends to go and sign it, too.  Please share it on listservs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  We need to get the word out through as many different sources as we can to watch those numbers climb!  Make sure to share the short URL above as that is much easier than the long one!

Thank you in advance for all your work to help get this petition going!  We want to make sure the White House hears loud and clearly how important we think school library programs are to educating today’s students for their future!

Starting August 15th we’ll start a weekly discussion on the AASL Conference Ning.  Click on groups and join The Shallows-Book Discussion group.    We’re going to take a chapter each week which should take us almost up to the AASL Conference!   I’ll post some discussion starters in a forum, but feel free to respond and ask your own questions, too!   I’m really looking forward to the conversation!  Then, we can continue the conversation on site in Minneapolis on Friday, October 28^th!

In The Shallows, Carr asks the question: “As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?” Carr then describes throughout the book how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind” — from the alphabet, to maps, to the printing press, the clock and the computer. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store and share information can reroute our neural pathways.  A preview of “The Shallows” is available via the AASL conference website.

Here’s the link to the official press release about our book discussion here.

Last week I had the pleasure to head down to Louisiana and spend a few days at the Louisiana Library Association.  The Louisiana Association of School Librarians is the state affiliate to American Association of School Librarians (AASL).  LASL is a division of the Louisiana Library Association.

One of my favorite parts of being President-Elect of AASL is that I get a chance to represent the association at some of the state conferences.  Many years ago the AASL Board votes to start a rotation so that the AASL President (President-Elects and Past-Presidents) would visit the various state conferences on a consistent basis.  Earlier this year I visited Nevada and the other state on my list this year was Louisiana!  The goal of the program was to help build and reinforce the connection between our affiliates with AASL.

The reason I enjoy it so much is the people.  Over the 2 1/2 days I was there, I got a chance to meet some amazing librarians doing some amazing things.  LASL is luckily to have quite a dedicated group at the helm of their organization.  They ran a wonderful conference.  I had the honor to present a couple of sessions – Engaging the Profession and 21st Century Skills are Elementary.  It was great to share some of the things AASL is working on.  Even more exciting is that we’ll be back in LA for ALA this summer in New Orleans.

Besides the time I was sharing in front of the group, I got time to sit back in the audience and enjoy of the session they offered.  There were some wonderful session such as Skyping with an Author and What to Read Next after  Percy Jackson with some great tech connections.   You can see some of the resources on the LASL wiki!  I also had the chance to attend their awards reception and the author luncheon with Wendelin Van Draanen who is an amazing presenter.

Carl Harvey and author Wendelin Van Draanen

But, as I said before the people are what makes these conference so wonderful.  The little chats and conversations in the hallways, before and after sessions, or at the meal functions were certainly the highlight for me.  I came back for ideas I can use in my own library as well as feedback for AASL, too.  I’d also like to thank LASL for the newest addition to my tie collection.  Its wonderful!  Thank you to all the great librarians in Louisiana for a great visit!  Looking forward to being back there in June!!!

Past AIME Presidents, Leslie Preddy, Carl Harvey, Kim Carr, and Rick Jones

After missing the 2009 ILF conference because I was sick, I was glad for the chance to catch-up with my Indiana friends this year.  The 2010 Indiana Library Federation conference was full of good times and great opportunities for learning.  The Association for Indiana Media Educators (AIME) had some big changes with this year’s conference.  Formed in 1978, AIME was a combination of the Indiana School Librarians Association and the Indiana Association for Educational Communications and Technology.  At the ILF conference this week, AIME went through another change and renamed the organization to the Association of Indiana School Library Educators (AISLE).

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from the current AASL President, Dr. Nancy Everhart, who made a swing by Indianapolis on her way to continue visiting schools all across the country as part of her Vision Tour.  Nick Bruel came to accept his Young Hoosier Book Award for Bad Kitty.  He provided a hilarious speech sharing about where the characters came from in his books. The main event at the conference, however, was the performance

Past, Present, and Future AIME Presidents, Jill Youngblood, Vicki Builta, and Lael DuBois

from A.R.T. — Authors Readers Theatre.  The troupe included Avi, Richard Peck, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Sarah Weeks.  Performing as a group, they did Readers Theatre performances selected from the books they’ve written.  It was absolutely amazing!  For me, I got a chance to meet Sarah Weeks who will be coming back to Indiana in March for our annual author visit.  Our kids are going to love her!  But, as always my favorite part of any conference are the conversations – at lunch, in

A.R.T.-Richard Peck, Pam Munoz Ryan, Avi, and Sarah Weeks

the hallway, during a break, or in the vendor hall.  The time to share, to commiserate, to celebrate, and to learn from one another is so invaluable for school librarians.  Our world can be so isolating as we’re the only one that has our job in the school.  We need that opportunity to find others like us.  It helps us grow and develop as professionals to be even better for our students and staff.  Next year the ILF conference will be going back to Ft. Wayne.  Looking forward to it already!

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The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) announces its public review period for the Library Media Standards.  Practicing library media specialists fill a majority of seats on standards committees with other members representing districts, states and higher education.

The Library Media Standards will be available for public review January 25 – February 17, 2010. The standards can be accessed at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/librarymedia

Please visit the NBPTS website <www.nbpts.org> for information on standards development. For assistance or additional information about the public review process, please contact NBPTS at nominations@nbpts.org.

Please take time to review these important standards for the profession.