American Libraries digital supplement focuses on school libraries

American Libraries (magazine of the American Library Association) has produced a digital supplement, “School Libraries Transform Learning.”

The subject simply can’t be timelier, given my course this semester in school library/media center operations, added to my working part-time in an elementary school library.

Beyond personal relevance is the dramatic drop in number among licensed school librarians. In Oregon, the figure is 82 percent, from 818 full-time equivalents in 1980 to 144 in 2013.

Issues addressed in this 32-page supplement include ways that school librarians impact student development and how parents, teachers, administrators and school librarians can get involved in the fight to keep school librarian positions in their local schools.