Now We Need to Promote Libraries More Than Ever

by Brooke King, Librarian at Atascocita Middle School, Humble ISD, TASL Legislative & Advocacy

The "Let's Promote Libraries!" social media campaign is more important than ever this year as we show how librarians support learning no matter what the school environment looks like.

This social media campaign encourages school librarians to show off what happens in their school libraries to stakeholders. The campaign began with the TxASL Legislative & Advocacy Committee with the hopes of encouraging school librarians to promote themselves, their programs, and their instruction. TxASL is continuing the campaign this school year as we chart into librarianship like we have never seen before.

Each month’s topic is still framed as a question organized around the revised Texas Library Standards. It begins with, “Did you know that school libraries…,” followed by one of the standards. I’m certain the standards may look a little different this year in how they are approached, but that will just show how innovative librarians are.

We will still tweet on the 1st of each month, and I will try my best to remember to tweet reminders! You can post on any social media outlet or even send an email to a stakeholder. We want to focus on local stakeholders first, and then at the state and national levels. This year is also important because we are approaching a legislative year in our state in 2021. We always want to be as proactive as possible.

Please use #TxASLTalks so it is easy for all of us school librarians to find and help share our messages. Then use #Txlege to share our message of the important role school libraries have with students and learning with our state legislators.

It’s easy to participate!

Step 1: Look at the current month’s question.

Step 2: Snap a photo and write your message showing how your library shows that standard.

Step 3: Post your message and photo on any/all platforms of social media.

Step 4: Be sure to use the hashtags #TxASLTalks and #Txlege along with other key hashtags.

Step 5: Repost/retweet/share


There are two infographics to guide you. One explains the full campaign. The other shows only the monthly topics.

Thank you for participating in this campaign and advocating for the work librarians do that contributes to the success of students and schools!

Lunch & Learn Webinars

by Brandi Rosales-Dawson, Library Systems Administrator in Richardson ISD, and Stacy Cameron, Coordinator of Library Services in Frisco ISD

The Texas Association of School Librarians (TASL) Lunch & Learn webinars are back for another year with timely topics including scheduling, collaboration, communication, programming, and more. The webinars began last year after the TASL executive board saw a need for additional professional learning specifically for Texas school librarians, since not all school librarians are able to attend the annual TxLA conference. Through the support of former TLA Executive Director Dana Braccia, TASL Lunch & Learn webinars were created in a weekend and launched in December of 2018. 

We knew we wanted the series designed around Texas educators presenting the content for several reasons. First, we have amazing school librarians across this state doing great things on their campus, and we want to highlight and lift up their hard work so others can learn and implement those ideas. Second, presenters need to be accessible to those attending or watching the recording. While there is value in seeing national speakers present, we want an attendee to feel they could contact a presenter for additional tips and tricks as they move through their own implementation. Lastly, as we know school librarianship can make us feel like islands, and this is one way to help school librarians connect with each other across the state. 

During the initial year, presenters were selected by word of mouth and their online reputation for innovative implementations on their campus. The Lunch & Learn webinars were such a hit last year with the average registration for each webinar being about 80 and live attendees around 25. This year we opened it up to any Texas librarian/educator who wants to share library programming implementations or instructional practices they are doing on their campus and/or with their community. At this time we are still looking for presenters to fill weekly webinar offerings through the end of the year. If you have a great programming or lesson you would like to present, please fill out the following form so we can get you on the schedule. 

Webinars are free to all TASL members, but registration is required. Each webinar lasts only 30 minutes, but if you’re unable to attend live, you can access the recording once it has concluded. 

To register for a September webinar, click here. 

September 4 - Flexible Scheduling in the Elementary Library

September 11 - Library Ambassador Customer Service Program

September 18 - Upgrade Your Secondary School Library

September 25 - Level Up Your Staff Newsletter

For future webinars, keep an eye on your inbox for emails from TASL or you can find registration links on the Texas Library Association website! 

We're Still Promoting Libraries, But We Need Your Help!

by Brooke King, Middle School Librarian in Humble ISD, TxASLTalks Editorial Board Chair

The "Let's Promote Libraries!" social media campaign is back for the third year and better than ever! The campaign began with the TxASL Legislative & Advocacy Committee with the hopes of encouraging school librarians to promote themselves, their programs, and their instruction. TxASL is continuing the campaign this school year with a few minor changes.


It is still organized around the revised Texas Library Standards, and each month’s topic is framed as a question. Each question begins with, “Did you know that school libraries…,” followed by one of the standards.


The date has been changed to the 1st of each month in hopes that it will be easier to remember to participate. On the first day of each month, September through May,  we’re asking school librarians to send a social media message about what we do. You can post on any social media outlet or even send an email to a stakeholder. We want to focus on local stakeholders first, and then at the state and national levels.

The hashtags have also been simplified. Please use #TxASLTalks so it is easy for all of us school librarians to find and help share our messages. Then use #Txlege to share our message of the important role school libraries have with students and learning with our state legislators.


It’s easy to participate!


Step 1: Look at the current month’s question.


Step 2: Snap a photo and write your message showing how your library shows that standard.


Step 3: Post your message and photo on any/all platforms of social media.


Step 4: Be sure to use the hashtag #TxASLTalks and #Txlege along with other key hashtags.


Step 5: Repost/retweet/share


There are two infographics to guide you. One explains the full campaign. The other shows only the monthly topics.


So gear up and get ready to showcase those great programs, instruction, and collaboration that contributes to the success of students and your school!

AASL National Conference Session Voting!

by Nancy Jo Lambert, TASL Chair

Are you thinking about attending the AASL national conference in Louisville, KY, November 14-16, 2019? Want to have a say in what sessions will be offered? Now is your chance! Crowdsourcing is now open for concurrent sessions for the AASL National Conference!

What does that mean? School library practitioners, that’s you TASL School Librarians, may select up to 10 program descriptions for each of the programming strands – Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage.

The window is now open for voting through April 5, 2019 for concurrent session proposals for all 6 Strands:

  

	Inquire		Curate
	Include		Collaborate
	Explore		Engage

According to AASL, the goals of crowdsourcing are to:

Help the national conference committee program co-chairs make final decisions on programming during the AASL National Conference

Encourage participation in and boost excitement for the upcoming AASL National Conference.

AASL encourages all school library practitioners to participate in this new opportunity, however, please do not ask for friends or family members that are not school library practitioners to participate.

Everyone Belongs @ Your School Library - School Library Month

by Brooke King, Librarian at Atascocita Middle School in Humble ISD, TxASL Talks Editorial Board Chair

Get ready! April is school library month. It’s the time of year to celebrate your library and share your programs with your school community and beyond. The American Association of School Librarians encourages school librarians to host activities to help their school and local community celebrate the essential role that strong school library programs play in transforming learning. Learn more about the history of School Library Month.


The 2019 theme is Everyone Belongs @ Your School Library. The 2019 spokesperson, author Dav Pilkey, knows this to be true from his experiences growing up. “Reading without judgment was a turning point in my life and that is what made me a lifelong reader. Over the years I’ve had the privilege to have met many committed librarians whose passion and dedication to literacy is life changing,” he states on the AASL’s website.

How can you show your community how central the library is to school learning? Here are some ideas.

Have students or staff display their favorite books they recommend. I like using these chalkboard hearts for students to write the reason they recommend the book.

Book Tastings are always a fun way to promote reading in the library. I have had book tastings by topics in specific genres or by multiple genres.

One of my favorite interactive displays is a selfie station where students write reasons they love their school library and then snap a selfie using the library’s iPad.

Makerspaces or book clubs are other programs you can highlight during School Library Month.

Find other ideas on the AASL’s School Library Month website. 

What do you do to celebrate School Library Month? Let us know in the comments!

TLA Conference 2019: Connecting to Innovate, Inspire, and Impact

by Nancy Jo Lambert, TASL Chair, Librarian at Reedy High School, Frisco ISD

The Texas Association of School Librarians has some outstanding programming in place for the 2019 Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Austin!

We hope that you will make plans to purchase a ticket and join us for Tech Camp this year! The time to register for Tech Camp is NOW! Check out this pre-conference experience for the forward-looking, technologically curious librarian: http://bit.ly/txla19tc and be sure to follow us on Facebook for updates http://bit.ly/techglamp2019

One of the new featured programs this year is the TASL Maker Playground! The Maker Playground, sponsored by MackinMaker, will feature 8 nationally recognized presenters who are expert makers! The Maker Playground will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-4. You can see the full playground schedule, presenter information, and videos here http://bit.ly/taslmaker

TASL is offering some amazing programs Monday-Thursday of conference. Mark your schedule now for the programs and presenters you most want to see! You can see program information by day here: http://bit.ly/tasl19programs and you can see the Flipgrid videos for all the TASL programs here https://flipgrid.com/tasl2019.

TASL is also hosting 2 Hands On Labs on Monday. You must purchase a ticket for these by March 31st. These nationally known presenters will guide you through the 3D design process using TickerCad and show you how to inspire creativity through digital storytelling using Book Creator and CoSpacesEDU.

And finally, our 39th Annual Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon, sponsored by Bound To Stay Bound, will be Wednesday at 12:00 and will feature the award winning book Sergeant Reckless by Patricia McCormick, Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno! You are cordially invited to purchase your ticket and come celebrate with us!

I am beyond excited about this year’s TASL Programming and I can’t wait to see you at #TXLA19! This year’s conference promises to be rich with learning and will provide many opportunities to innovate, inspire, and impact your school library!


Nancy Jo Lambert
Texas Association of School Librarians Chair 2018-2019
You can find me on Twitter @NancyJoLambert

Let's Promote Libraries (Again)!

by Brooke King, Middle School Librarian in Humble ISD, TxASLTalks Editorial Board Chair

Last school year, the TxASL Legislative & Advocacy Committee began a social media campaign, Let’s Promote Libraries!, with the hopes of encouraging school librarians to promote themselves, their programs, and their instruction. The campaign is back for the 2018-2019 year, and it has been tweaked and improved to help showcase all the fabulous happenings in school libraries.

It is organized around the revised Texas Library Standards, and each month’s topic is framed as a question. Each question begins with, “Did you know that school libraries…,” followed by one of the standards.

On the 17th of each month, we’re asking school librarians to send a social media message about what we do. You can post on any social media outlet or even send an email to a stakeholder. We want to focus on local stakeholders first, and then at the state and national levels.

It’s easy to participate!

Step 1: Look at the current month’s question.

Step 2: Snap a photo and write your message showing how your library shows that standard.

Step 3: Post your message and photo on any/all platforms of social media.

Step 4: Be sure to use the hashtag #txaslleg along with other key hashtags.

Step 5: Repost/retweet/share

There are two infographics to guide you. One explains the full campaign. The other only shows the monthly topics.

So gear up and get ready to showcase those great programs, instruction, and collaboration that contributes to the success of students and your school!

New State Library Standards Update

We are moving ever closer to having our new Texas State Library Standards ready to roll!  At the time of this posting, our proposed document is with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and we eagerly await their comments and approval.

Much progress has been made since our first State Standards Revision Steering Committee meeting in November 2015. Creating vision and mission statements were the first challenges for the committee. We knew these needed to be strong statements, making the case for the necessity of certified professional librarians in schools to impact student achievement.

VISION: Texas school libraries are essential interactive collaborative learning environments, ever evolving to provide equitable physical and virtual access to ideas, information, and learning tools for the entire school community.

MISSION: Certified librarians and trained staff nurture a culture of literacy and inquiry throughout the school community. An integral part of instructional teams, librarians collaborate with teachers on curriculum design and delivery.  They maintain a professionally developed collection of print and digital materials and assist learners in locating resources that match their academic and personal interests. Librarians model and teach information literacy and digital citizenship, empowering learners to make ethical, informed choices in an increasingly complex and evolving global environment.

Once the vision and mission statements were in place, they were our guideposts in creating the core values, upon which the standards’ strands and dimensions have been built.

Core Values:

• School libraries are essential, safe, and inviting centers for teaching and learning.
• School libraries support reading for learning and pleasure which are essential skills for college and career readiness and for life.
• School libraries provide access to information for inquiry including the pursuit, creation, and sharing of knowledge, and support for both student and professional learning.
• School libraries promote information literacy requiring targeted instruction to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, ethically use, and clearly communicate information in various formats.
• School libraries are vital technology centers, providing access to devices and online resources, supporting personalized learning, and teaching digital literacy including privacy, safety, etiquette, creative credit, cyberbullying, and creating a positive digital footprint.
• School libraries are effective when staffed by full-time, certified school librarians at every school, supported by trained paraprofessionals.

Subcommittees were appointed and worked tirelessly to create and flesh out each of the six strands and an appendix with additional data collection measures.  Upon completion, these documents were sent to outside experts in the field for comments and revision suggestions.  

It is important to note that the new state library standards create standards of practice librarians use to teach our content, much like the TEKS are used by classroom teachers to teach their content.

The co-chairs (Donna Kearley and I), along with Liz Philippi from TSLAC, pored over the documents taking into consideration the suggested revisions for both wording and format. This document was presented at TLA in April 2017 and then was posted for public comments for a period of 4 weeks.

Once again the team worked to update the document with the suggestions before presenting it at TASLA (Texas Association of School Library Administrators) in June. Comments were recorded and taken into consideration as the team once again worked to continue to shape the document.

Finally, this latest ideation was presented at TLA’s Annual Assembly.  Comments and suggestions were once again taken into consideration as the group prepared the document for final editing and formatting before being sent to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Once we have the green light from TEA, the document will be sent to the State Board of Education (SBOE) for approval.  We are hopeful that the document will move from “proposed standards” to “approved standards” before the start of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The proposed standards can be found on the TSLAC website by following this link.

posted by Sonja Schulz