AASL Standards – Evolved and Familiar

By Dorcas Hand, Editor of TASLTalks

NOTE: The title was borrowed from the AASL promotional video.

Certified school librarians across the US are familiar with the AASL Standards and Guidelines that were introduced in 2007. Now, in 2017, we have new standards being unveiled at the Phoenix AASL division conference in November – and the excitement is building. Every district (and many librarians!) will want to own a copy for ready access to the latest thinking about what strong school librarians and their libraries should offer all students. In fact, librarians, libraries and students are the three frameworks that organize the new work – an integrated whole that describes the same goals through three different lenses.

First, there is a short video offering an overview: AASL Standards – Evolved and Familiar – 3 minutes you will appreciate. 

The Standards web portal offers further detail.

Besides the three frameworks that appear graphically on the cover, the new Standards continue to count our basics.

4.  The four domains in which the standards are framed will be familiar from the 2007 Guidelines: Think, Create, Share, Grow.

5.  Librarians continue to have five roles also as in the 2007 work: Leader, Instructional Partner; Information Specialist, Teacher and Program Administrator.

6.  And there are six Foundations to organize and integrate the standards further: Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage – all active verbs to motivate strong practice.

You note by now that the 2017 Standards no longer refer to Guidelines at all. Too many readers took the 2007 Guidelines to be optional – but these Standards are real and solid, not just pie in the sky goals.

The portal offers an article from the September/October 2017 Knowledge Quest issue entitled “On the Horizon: New standards to Dawn at AASL 2017.” Author Marcia Mardis, Chair of the AASL Standards and Guidelines Editorial board, offers a review of the process that has led to this new publication, as well as a compilation of six underlying assumptions – yes, another six:

•      The school Library is a unique and essential part of the learning community.
•      Qualified school librarians lead effective school libraries.
•      Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life.
•      Reading is the core of personal and academic mastery.
•      Intellectual freedom is every learner’s right.
•      Information technologies must be appropriately integrated and equitably available.

AASL leadership hosted a TwitterChat on Sept. 18 that has been archived on Storify – lots of great info there. 

And AASL is hosting a webinar about the Standards on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 6pm Central – sign up now and mark your calendar! If you can’t make it to Phoenix, this is your
chance catch up and discover this new tool.

Taken together – 3,4,5,6 – we have ONE powerful new resource for strong school librarians and their libraries as they teach students. These new Standards will be unveiled for us all to use in Phoenix on November 9. Preorder your copy now! 

Images are excerpted from AASL’s National School Library Standards and used with permission.  Any reproduction, reposting or reuse of images requires direct permission from AASL.