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My Goals for Investing Strategically in Digital Resources

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My Goals for Investing Strategically in Digital Resources

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Remain informed of community values involving curriculum, and its information needs and interests

Stay abreast of digital resources that are relevant and credible for developing digital skills necessary for a 21st century learner

Secure and allocate funding for digital resources that support student and faculty inquiry

Expand on academic database offerings

GALE

EBSCOhost

ProQuest Dialogue

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A collection of resources curated by Shannon Mclintock Miller through Follett Learning. This collection offers information for teacher librarians to invest strategically in digital resources.

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Collections by Follett is a new, collaborative way for educators to collect and share resources from anywhere, at any time, and with anyone.

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School Libraries Are Evolving and Expanding with Ebooks

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School Libraries Are Evolving and Expanding with Ebooks

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This School Library Journal article discusses how some school districts and schools have incorporated digital learning through expanded Ebook access.

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K-12 Librarians Are Embracing Digital to Promote 21st Century Learning

Every district and school is unique. Each faces unique challenges, strives to serve their students' unique needs, and have access to unique sets of resources.

But, what they all have in common is a shared mission to connect students with as many reading opportunities as possible. That's why school libraries of all shapes and sizes are continuing to embrace digital content as a vital-and growing-component of their service.

"A key to engaging more students in more reading is providing choice in format," OverDrive Education Director Herb Miller, Ed. M., said. "Districts and schools are finding great success offering students the titles they want to read as eBooks and audiobooks."
Let's take a look at how three school libraries are evolving and expanding with digital:
Mesquite Independent School District (TX)

When the Mesquite Independent School District's Library Services department set about updating its vision statement in 2009, the team determined it was time to expand the libraries' digital footprint.

"We were saying 'We want to offer more ways to get kids to read'," Library Technology Facilitator Debbie Swartz said.

A large district serving 40,000 preK-12 students across 46 campuses in suburban Dallas, Mesquite did offer extensive nonfiction digital resources to support research and other curriculum-based needs at the time. However, students still had to visit the physical libraries for access to popular fiction.

By doing more to promote pleasure reading, Mesquite looked to create lifetime readers, not "school readers" who read only for academic purposes and largely ignore books after graduation.

"We believe that the 21st century library is about learning. Since reading is a fundamental skill for learning, we want to provide reading materials in every format that is available for our students," Director of Library Services Mary Woodard noted.

Usage of Mesquite's OverDrive Education digital library has grown steadily, reaching more than 83,000 checkouts during the 2016-2017 school year. The service has been particular valuable for:

ELL- Mesquite serves a large Hispanic population, with almost every elementary campus bilingual. To meet the reading and learning needs of these students, Swartz maintains a strong Spanish-language digital offering, which she can curate into a special collection for convenient discovery. The district also takes advantage of the multilingual interface available for their OverDrive-powered website, which allows the digital library to be navigated in Spanish.

Additional resources such as Read-Alongs are available to aid Mesquite's ELL students. Read-Alongs are ebooks for developing learners that feature professionally-recorded narration that plays while students read highlighted text.

"It really helps to be able to hear it," Swartz said of Mesquite's growing collection of hundreds of Read-Alongs.

Supporting the youngest readers- Mesquite is currently undertaking an initiative that aims to have all students reading at grade level by third grade. Swartz has supported this effort by bolstering the district's preK-2 digital collection, which has been featured prominently in a curated collection on the website.
"We really want to get reading in the hands of the little ones, in every format and every way we can," she said.
Heim Middle School (NY)

Students at Heim Middle School (HMS) begin each day with a 20-minute independent reading session using ebooks on their 1:1 devices, a classroom program spearheaded by Library Media Specialist David Sala.

Sala said eBooks quickly became the preferred reading method for their convenience-students are never without their iPad or Chromebook-and the privacy they afford students who, for example, may be reading a title below grade level or that deals with a sensitive, personal issue.

"There isn't a lot of time where students are out of the classroom looking for a book, and they don't have to worry about being embarrassed about what they're reading," he said.

HMS is part of the Williamsville Central School District, which serves more than 10,000 K-12 students across 13 schools and has consistently been ranked as one of the top districts in western New York. Sala and other district leaders began considering ereading options several years ago as ebooks and audiobooks grew in popularity.

"We knew that we wanted to continue to offer library services to our school community that they would find useful and relevant," he said.

Sala noted that making the shift to digital with OverDrive Education has also proven beneficial for the school library itself. He said librarians have become the go-to resource for questions about accessing ebooks and audiobooks and are the primary drivers behind what has become an extremely successful initiative.
"It's really helped us be more relevant in the school community," he said. "They're thinking technology and the library together, which was exactly what we wanted to see happen."
Lenoir County Public Schools (NC)

Located in the coastal plains of North Carolina, the Lenoir County Public Schools (LCPS) serve more than 9,000 K-13 (early college) students across 17 schools. A high-poverty district with 70 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, LCPS has a proud history of partnering with families and the community to achieve its mission-educating all students to be successful in an ever-changing world.

To that end, LCPS in 2012 partnered with OverDrive Education on launching a digital reading platform.

"Our primary goal has always been to offer our students and staff diverse and quality reading materials across all grade levels, available both at home and at school at any time," Media and Technology Coordinator Charles White said.

While the district was BYOD at the time of its digital library adoption, it's since undertaken a 1:1 iPad program for all students K-13. OverDrive's universal device compatibility has allowed for uninterrupted access to the digital collection, with usage increasing at an even higher rate.

"I'm super excited about it," White said about the reading and learning opportunities presented by the 1:1.

The 1:1 also opened the door to the introduction of digital class sets across all grade levels. As the name suggests, digital class sets are ebook versions of the titles that serve as a cornerstone of the ELA curriculum, and they're growing in popularity for the advantages they present over traditional print texts.

"Our teachers just love them," White said.

Fourth-grade teacher Nikki Sasser went digital for her classes' study of Louis Sachar's There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, which included projecting passages for group read-alouds.
"I believe my students are more engaged due to having it in digital form," she said. "They seem to pay attention more and enjoy the digital experience of a book. It's different and fun."
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School Libraries Are Evolving and Expanding with Ebooks

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K-12 Librarians Are Embracing Digital to Promote 21st Century Learning Every district and school is unique. Each faces unique challenges, strives to serve their students' unique needs, and have access to unique sets of resources. But, what they all have in common is a shared mission to connect students with as many reading opportunities as possible.

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This Horizon 2020 document exhibits the digital strategy of Seven Oaks School. It can be used as an example for digital strategy in action to incorporate in other schools.

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School Library Budgets Rise 20%, Yet Challenges Remain | Spending Survey 2016

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School Library Budgets Rise 20%, Yet Challenges Remain | Spending Survey 2016

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Lauren Barack's article discusses the challenges libraries face even with higher budgets. It includes information about the rise in nonfiction and OERs, and includes a graphic that depicts how schools are allocating their funding.

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School librarians are known for their ability to stretch the limits of their budgets to meet the needs of students. Some, like Holly Ristau, a media specialist for Mahnomen (MN) Public Schools who spends $600 of her own money each year to purchase books, say they must tap their own resources to deliver basic services. Hopefully, such personal largesse will be required less often, as, according to School Library Journal's latest spending survey, the budget picture is looking up.

On average, school library annual budgets climbed nearly 20 percent for the 2015-16 school year, to $8,315. That's up from $6,970 in 2013-14. The median, too, reflected almost a 20 percent bump: $5,380 for the 2015-16 school year, up from $4,500 two years prior.

Don Casey's principal allocated $1,500 for him to buy 52 nonfiction books about the states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico in March 2015. But there was one condition: Casey, the librarian at Arrowhead Elementary School in Billings, MT, had to spend the money in one day. He made the purchase by the last bell.

Casey didn't expect another bump this school year. But Billings Public Schools raised elementary school library budgets by $3 a student-from $5 for each child to $8-the first increase in 15 years. For Casey that translated into $625 more for his school library.

"It's helpful having that extra $3 a student," says Casey, Arrowhead's librarian for the past five years, and in his 17th year with the district.

Yet funding levels remain far below 2010-11, when school library budgets averaged $10,348 and the median, $7,000. Furthermore, the nearly 800 school librarians who responded to SLJ 's survey in January 2016 say they believe their budgets will fall an average of 1.8 percent in 2016-17. Six percent of respondents report that they have no funding at all-with twice as many librarians in urban schools stating they work without money.

"The district allots no money to the library," says Sue Laubersheimer, a school librarian at Lanphier High School in Springfield, IL. "The primary funding comes from the school budget, and this may be in peril due to district and state budget issues."

Nonfiction trends

The majority, 98 percent, of school librarians report having complete control over how they spend their money. Much of that is being allocated to nonfiction-likely a reaction to the requirements of the Common Core standards. Elementary schools in particular saw an uptick, with 42 percent of school librarians in K-5 schools reporting they are buying more nonfiction than in previous years. Some high schools are also finding they have more money for nonfiction.

"I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the library budget would be significantly increased for the '15-'16 school year," says Lisa Hubler, a librarian at Charles F. Brush High School in Lyndhurst, OH. "My principal is supportive of the library and aware of the need for an increase in spending for nonfiction sources in response to the Common Core."

Digital nonfiction use also appears to be growing. Educators are dedicating funds to purchase online reference sources, choosing digitized options over print. About one third, or 32 percent, of reference materials in all schools are now digital, compared to six percent just five years ago, according to SLJ 's survey. As some respondents noted, accessing these online databases is easier, not to mention the fact that students and teachers are simply more comfortable using digital sources now.

"Databases seem to be more user friendly," says Deborah Jordan, the library media specialist at Walpole (MA) High School. "Teachers and students use them more readily, probably because they like searching the Internet, and search[ing] a variety of formats, where the ebooks only search one source at a time."

Still, Jordan cautions that students need "both print and electronic."

Judith O'Brien concurs. "There is a perception that libraries need less funding due to the availability of ebooks and the Internet," says the librarian at Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown, RI. "Yet research shows that teens still prefer books in hard copy rather than ebooks for recreational reading."

Still, ebook spending is hardly disappearing. School librarians spent, on average, $1,014 in 2014-15 on ebooks-with 21 percent saying they plan to spend even more this year. The majority, 63 percent, say they have no plans to allocate more money to digital books, and 16 percent of school librarians say they'll spend less on ebooks.

Educators may be taking advantage of free or lower-cost options instead, namely OER (Open Educational Resources). Thirty percent of school librarians currently use OER-which can range from lesson plans to ebooks from sites such as Khan Academy, a resource mentioned by several in the survey.

While one-quarter of school librarians aren't aware of these options (most often those at elementary schools), high school librarians are adopting OER in large numbers, with 42 percent using them with their students.

Making do with maker labs

Maker activities are a top trend among school librarians. But spending in this area skews toward traditional materials like LEGO and craft supplies rather than robotics kits, according to the survey. Across the board, the majority of K-12 schools weighted their budgets toward these items rather than tech such as circuit boards, Raspberry Pi, or the like. That divide was most acute at elementary schools, where just 28 percent of librarians purchased digital kits.

Maker spaces are a luxury that many school librarians say they can't afford. When there is extra money, they have to be judicious on how they allocate their budget, reported some respondents. Others fund maker labs only with the help of grant money.

Victoria Sammartano would love to offer a maker space to her elementary students at Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District, a pre-K-6 district in New York, but, she says, she lacks the money. Susan Pennington, a library media specialist at Southeast High School in Springfield, IL, also wishes she could run maker space projects, but says she can't justify allocating funds for those activities. Kate Neff, the media specialist at Pedro Menendez High School in St. Augustine, FL, needs to spend the money she has on books and other educational materials, rather than items to kit out a maker space, she says.

Abby Cornelius at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, KS, stocked her maker space with two 3-D printers plus $5,000 on other materials-but only because of awards the library media specialist has been able to earn her school library. Regular funding is not something she can count on-for anything.

"Our budget has been cut the last two years without our knowledge," she says. "We go to spend money only to find that the line items 'have not been renewed.'"

Struggling to address special needs

There's a particular lack of funding when it comes to materials for students with special needs. Nearly all schools-97 percent-report that at least a portion of their student population can be characterized as struggling readers or having some learning disability.

But wherever a school is located-and whether it's public or private-a budget to support every student with special needs is rare.

"My entire population is students with learning disabilities," says Michelle Levy, the librarian at Eton Academy in Birmingham, MI. "There is never enough funding for everything that we want. I must always figure out what is needed right now. For instance, this year I have three high school students who are at a very low reading level (elementary levels). I have only a few books for them (high school books at very low levels) but I should purchase more."

Four out of five schools, 81 percent, serve English Language Learners (ELL). Yet most school librarians don't have the funds they need to support these students.

Fewer than half of the schools surveyed say they have adequate funding to provide ELL students-and those who are struggling to read or have learning disabilities-with the materials educators believe are required.

"Due to our population, we must have Spanish and bilingual books," says Michelina Oliva, the library media specialist at the pre-K-5 Liberty Park Elementary School in Greenacres, FL, which has about 1,000 students. "There is never enough to cover the cost for what we need."

Yet, school librarians persist. Springfield Southeast High School's library media specialist Pennington recalls several years prior when she had $2,000 remaining in her budget-and the district took it away to pay bills. Every year she advocates for her budget, which is a mixture of funding from her school's principal and grant money.

But Pennington worries about her students, especially as public library branches have closed in her community. Also, some of her students reside in unincorporated villages and so are required to pay $85 for a library card, which many cannot afford, she says. So Pennington tries to come in during the summer for a few hours every week to give students access to books and computers, and gives away donated books or others she can find at the end of each semester.

School librarians continue to advocate for their budgets-and the value of their positions and their services. In the end, they know that what they're truly advocating for is their students. "Reading is so crucial to learning and development," says Pennington. "I want all students to have books in their hands!"

For a printable version click chart to enlarge and print.

School Library Journal contributing editor Lauren Barack writes about the connection between media and education, business, and technology. A recipient of the Loeb Award for online journalism, she can be found at www.laurenbarack.com.

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School Library Budgets Rise 20%, Yet Challenges Remain | Spending Survey 2016

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School librarians are known for their ability to stretch the limits of their budgets to meet the needs of students. Some, like Holly Ristau, a media specialist for Mahnomen (MN) Public Schools who spends $600 of her own money each year to purchase books, say they must tap their own resources to deliver basic services.

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This article published through Follett offers links that provide help for educators seeking grants and funding for their schools.

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Find the right grant for your school, library, or district.

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This report created by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and Overdrive provides data on the types of digital content being used in schools. It also discusses data for schools that have a device strategy, depicts budget factors, and funding sources.

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Managing Digital Resources in Libraries is a book written by Linda S. Katz and edited by Audrey Fenner. This book offers information to help librarians combat licensing issues with digital databases.