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If you've read my books, my blog or my Facebook posts or seen me speak at a conference you know my most passionate belief: Leadership is not an option for librarians. It's part of the job description. The National Standards School Library Standards (2018) lists Leader as one of our roles. However, our job description as defined and understood by our districts rarely if ever makes mention of this.

It's easier to be a leader when your title and description grant you that right. Instead librarians need to create that "mantle" on their own. And we need to make it an ongoing priority. When you are identified as a leader, you are viewed as indispensable. In a world where librarians and libraries are threatened, being seen as indispensable is a worthwhile goal.

What does this mean? It means that when you institute new programs, collaborate with teachers and students on curriculum and tech issues, you look for ways to make certain that the administration and teachers are aware of your role in the process. This way when they think of the building leaders they think of you. Reaching that stage is not simple, but it's important to work towards it.

Dan Rockwell, "The Leadership Freak", suggests a possible means of achieving this goal in an internet post on How to Act Like a CEO When You're Not. This is how I interpret his seven recommendations:

1. Own your realm: This is about mindset. Of course, you have taken charge of your library and have established your guidelines and decorated to represent your values as a school librarian, but you need to take it a step further. Own the library and the decisions you make as a physical manifestation of how you view the values and worth of the library and you. It is more than a sense of pride. It's how you present yourself as a leader through the look, feel, and activities of the library.

2. Set your goals: While you want your program aligned with the school's goals, it is vital that the goals are significant to you and the library program. Your goal, tied to your Mission, Vision, and Core Values should put your role and the value of the library front and center. Leaders must be visible - even more so when the title doesn't indicate it.

3. Don't threaten higher ups: Never blindside your administrators. When you update them, be brief but keep them informed of what you are doing and why. If they have a problem with what you are doing, it's best to discover the matter right away. That also gives you the opportunity to discuss it and make adaptations as needed. It also encourages them to reach out to you when and if their priorities change because you are seen as someone they can trust.

4. Serve six constituencies: Believe it or not librarians do have this many - or at least five. They are: (1) Administrators (You always need to keep them in mind.) (2) Students (Your primary purpose) (3) Teachers (Gateway to students) (4) Parents (So they know what their children are accomplishing because of the library) (5) Yourself (Never forget to "serve" yourself), and (6) And possibly, the outside community- such as the public library-so that more people are aware of the values of libraries and school libraries in particular.

5. Think big, act small: Your end game needs to be large. Hold as big a Vision as you can for your program. Then map out the small baby steps that will start you on your journey. And then think what's next after that. And after that.

6. Spend time with medium-performers: This doesn't easily translate into our work world. Instead, consider who are your natural allies. Who are the people who like working with you? How can you build on this relationship to develop more allies and get people seeing how vital the library is to their success?

7. Lead yourself: The oft-repeated reminder to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. Your "constituencies" can't afford to lose you. Make sure you are on your own to-do list.

Next time when you are in workshop and you are asked "Who are you?" I hope you will confidently say, "I am a Leader and a Librarian."

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If you've read my books, my blog or my Facebook posts or seen me speak at a conference you know my most passionate belief: Leadership is not an option for librarians. It's part of the job description. The National Standards School Library Standards (2018) lists Leader as one of our roles.

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What are the characteristics of a good leader? We’ve found that great leaders possess these 10 core leadership traits.

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LibGuides: Antioch University Seattle School Library Endorsement Program: School Board Presentation

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EDU 602 LIBM Program and Collection Management is a required course in the school library endorsement program of Antioch University Seattle

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The ALA Ecosystem Initiative is a multi-year effort to strengthen the library ecosystem through identification of shared priorities for action and unified messaging. Today, the effort is guided by the State Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Committee on Library Advocacy (COLA). The group’s charge includ…

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Inviting Legislators into School Libraries

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Inviting Legislators into School Libraries

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Inviting Legislators Into School Libraries

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Legislators need that visual image of kids actively learning in school libraries as they vote on education bills that will ultimately impact our funding. In states that do not mandate school library programs, it is vital that legislators understand the role of the library and librarian.

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The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is the only national professional membership organization focused on school librarians and the school library community. AASL serves school librarians in the United States, Canada, and around the world.

For more than 75 years, AASL understands the current realities and evolving dynamics of your professional environment and is positioned to help members achieve universal recognition of school librarians as educational leaders.

Features of AASL Membership

In addition to supporting your national association, a membership in AASL/ALA also provides you:

A subscription to Knowledge Quest, AASL’s official journal published bimonthly September through June.

Access to ALL | AASL Learning Library. This repository of AASL professional development contains webcasts, podcasts, and resources from various AASL professional development events, as well as  the latest issue Knowledge Quest in an interactive PDF format.

Access to AASL Member Forum, AASL's member only discussion group, and AASL Digest, AASL's monthly email newsletter.

AASL National Conference discounted registration rates and ALA member rates on ALA and other ALA division conferences.

Continuing education and professional development discounts.

10% off AASL and ALA publications.

A nationally recognized voice that advocates for the highest quality school library professional and school library through National School Library Standards, and standards for professional preparation.

Lobbying efforts by the ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office to ensure school librarians are included in educational initiatives, funding, and legislation.

Direct access to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom including counseling on issues such as book challenges, access, and privacy.

Toolkits and position statements to use in your personal advocacy efforts.

National advocacy efforts on behalf of school librarians by ALA, the largest voice for libraries.

A national organization proactive to issues, anticipatory of trends, and defining the future agenda for the profession through its strategic plan.

Rates

Personal Memberships

| AASL | ALA | Total
I want to join AASL & ALA for the first time. | $62 | $75 | $137
I want to renew/reinstate my AASL & ALA membership for the second year. | $62 | $114 | $176
I want to renew/reinstate my AASL & ALA membership for the third year. * | $62 | $150 | $212
I am retired and want to join AASL & ALA. | $40 | $54 | $91
I am a student enrolled in a library science program (5-year limit) and want to join AASL & ALA. | $40 | $40 | $80
I am a library support staff person employed in library and information services or related activities. | $40 | $54 | $94
I am employed full- or part-time in library service-related activities at a salary of less than $30,000 per annum, or I am unemployed, and want to join AASL & ALA. | $40 | $54 | $94
I am already an ALA personal member and want to join AASL. | $62 | - | $62

* ALA offers a discounted price for new members during their first and second year of membership. The third year of ALA membership is the standard pricing for membership from year three on.

Sections

AASL & ALA personal members can also join one of AASL's Sections for no additional fee.

Educators of School Librarians Section (ESLS)

Independent Schools Section (ISS)

Supervisors Section (SPVS)

Other Dues and Member Types

In addition to the membership types described above, ALA also offers additional membership categories such as Continuing Members, Life Members, and Organizational and Corporate memberships.

Three Ways to Join

1. Mail acceptance form (fillable PDF) /acceptance form (Word DOC) to:
American Library Association
Membership Dues
6499 Network Place
Chicago, IL 60673-1649

2. Fax acceptance form (fillable PDF) /acceptance form (Word DOC) to: (312) 944-2641

3. Join AASL online Please note: You will be redirected to the American Library Association's (ALA) site to join AASL. In order to join AASL, you must be a member of ALA.

Purchase orders must be mailed or faxed.

Join AASL and connect nationally with school library leaders today!

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The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is the only national professional membership organization focused on school librarians and the school library community. AASL serves school librarians in the United States, Canada, and around the world. For more than 75 years, AASL understands the…

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Best Digital Tools For Formative Assessment

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Best Digital Tools For Formative Assessment

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Updated: Oct 10, 2018

On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in another fab edition of the TL Virtual Cafe webinar series. This month's PD offering was an "Edutech Smackdown" featuring the Queen of All Things Library: Joyce Valenza. I love these smackdown sessions because they are the ultimate crowdsourced PD. Everybody grabs a slide (or two or ten) and when their time comes, takes the mic to share something they love. They are fun, fast paced and the cream always seems to rise to the top. Delish!

That said, for my few minutes with the mic, I decided to focus my attention on formative assessment. As much I love tech toys, (and I do. I really, really do), I grow weary of gadgets for the sake of gadgets. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that technology is not going to improve student learning, boost achievement or save education - only good instruction will do those things. That's not to say that effective technology use can't enhance that instruction Of course, it can. But technology is but one vehicle by which we can deliver our content and pedagogy. What's more, even the best tech tool is only as good as the instruction it supports.

Which brings me back to formative assessment.

When incorporated into a lesson, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with a snapshot of the teaching and learning while it is still happening. This is valuable for so many reasons. First, the activity itself can provide the students with extra practice. Secondly, when done effectively, formative assessment offers a quick and more reliable check for understanding than the old "raise your hand if you have a question" technique. Third, and probably most importantly, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with instant data that can be used to adjust instruction "on the fly" in order to better meet student needs. And, finally, formative assessment can help guide future lessons. All all good stuff.

Obviously, this is not rocket science. Great teachers have been using formative assessment since the first prehistoric student blamed a hungry T-Rex for his missing homework. That said, today's teachers and students have a plethora of digital teaching and learning tools at their fingertips that makes incorporating formative assessment in the learning process both really easy and super fun!

So... here are some of my picks - along with a few others that were suggested by members of my PLN. Big thanks to Steven Anderson, Nancy Mangum, Neill Kimrey and Angela Monk for sharing your expertise with me. You guys rock!

Admit/Exit Tickets are a beloved formative assessment strategy. Indeed, I cannot even begin to count the number of post-it notes I've used over the years to gauge my students' progress, interest or prior knowledge. Of the digital tools available for this type of formative assessment, is my favorite. I use it all of the time. It's easy, reliable, is available as both a web tool & an APP and your boards can be easily saved and/embedded. It's a win-win. I also like the APPs iBrainstorm and Perfect Caption as well as the webtools and Wallwisher - although, increasingly, there seems to always be a glitch in the Wallwisher matrix.

Graphic organizers are another great formative assessment tool. Asking kids to organize/prioritize a set of data is an effective way of gauging their understanding of those concepts. The standout in this category, for me, is . With both a web based and APP version that allow kids to collaborate, adjust the map as their thoughts evolve and save their popplets for later use, I am a fan. and SimpleMind are also useful tools with similar functionality. However, if you're looking for premade organizers like venn diagrams, four corners, etc., the APP Tools for Students is a great option which features hundreds of existing organizers that kids can edit and share.

Taking a quick survey or poll is an AWESOME way to find out, quickly, what your students know, before moving forward in the lesson. What makes today's digital versions of these mini assessments so effective is the ability to view/share the results in real time. My favorite tool for this purpose is . Like the description says, Socrative, literally, turns any internet ready device into a set of clickers - teachers can give both students and teacher paced quizzes, the results are instantly graphed and shared AND there's a feature which allows students to vote on the responses that are captured. Amazing. Of course, if you're lacking netbooks/laptops or Smart devices in your school, Poll Everywhere offers a similar service using text messaging and Google Forms can be a great web based alternative - although teasing the data out of a Google Form requires a bit more work.

I can still remember the first time I was able to put an individual whiteboard into each of my student's hands. I simply could not believe how powerful having them write the answer to a question on their own board and hold that answer up for me to see could be. I thought, this is going to revolution my teaching - and in some ways it did. One thing is for sure, it didn't take long before all those boards were stained and smudged and cracked from hard (but important!) use. That said, today there are a plethora of individual whiteboard APPs out there that offer the same instant glimpse into what your students know that their hard plastic counterparts did PLUS so much more. My favorite of these offerings is Educreations - an APP that let's students draw, write, create, narrate, record and share what they know. They can record (and play back!) the steps in solving a math problem, label the parts of a plant or identify places on a map by annotating a preloaded photo and the final products can be embedded on any webpage. and Whiteboard Pro offer similar products, but Jot! is a really simple APP that more resembles the individual whiteboards of yore. is not fancy, but it's reliable.

My favorite tech tool right now is an APP called Reflection. Essentially, Reflection allows you to "reflect" multiple mobile devices on a desktop computer - which can then be projected and shared via a data projector/apple TV, etc. So... no matter what your students are working on - maybe they are playing Cyber Bully Zombies as part of a digital citizenship unit or perhaps they're creating digital timelines or writing their own ebooks. Either way, you can see it all, in real time. A-MAZ-ING. The down side? It's pricey. Right now, I am rocking the free trial and will gladly fork out the $14.99 once that runs out, but that's a stiff price tag for schools sporting carts and carts of devices. That said, I recently learned that offers a similar service, (and is free!) but I've yet to see it in action, so I am keeping Reflection at the top of my list.

For more information on Formative Assessment in the library, I'd suggest a reading of this School Library Monthly article from 2011 by Kristin Fontichiaro. This resource provides some stories from the trenches - that is to say examples from librarians currently using using formative assessment as an instructional strategy. My favorite part of the article though is when Kristen says: "To be blunt, if school librarians are to call themselves teachers, then they too must ensure that students are learning, not just "doing."'

For me, formative assessment acts as a reality check. Regardless of how many virtual light bulbs I *think* I see going off above my students' heads, until I truly and accurately check for understanding, I am just fooling myself. So, whether delivered through a pack of post it notes or a cart full of tablets, formative assessment remains a crucial part of the instructional process - and one that belongs as much in the library and lab as it does in the traditional classroom.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in another fab edition of the TL Virtual Cafe webinar series. This month's PD offering was an "Edutech Smackdown" featuring the Queen of All Things Library: Joyce Valenza. I love these smackdown sessions because they are the ultimate crowdsourced PD. Everybody grabs a slide (or two or ten) and when their time comes, takes the mic to share something they love. They are fun, fast paced and the cream always seems to rise to the top. Delish!

That said, for my few minutes with the mic, I decided to focus my attention on formative assessment. As much I love tech toys, (and I do. I really, really do), I grow weary of gadgets for the sake of gadgets. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that technology is not going to improve student learning, boost achievement or save education - only good instruction will do those things. That's not to say that effective technology use can't enhance that instruction Of course, it can. But technology is but one vehicle by which we can deliver our content and pedagogy. What's more, even the best tech tool is only as good as the instruction it supports.

Which brings me back to formative assessment.

When incorporated into a lesson, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with a snapshot of the teaching and learning while it is still happening. This is valuable for so many reasons. First, the activity itself can provide the students with extra practice. Secondly, when done effectively, formative assessment offers a quick and more reliable check for understanding than the old "raise your hand if you have a question" technique. Third, and probably most importantly, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with instant data that can be used to adjust instruction "on the fly" in order to better meet student needs. And, finally, formative assessment can help guide future lessons. All all good stuff.

Obviously, this is not rocket science. Great teachers have been using formative assessment since the first prehistoric student blamed a hungry T-Rex for his missing homework. That said, today's teachers and students have a plethora of digital teaching and learning tools at their fingertips that makes incorporating formative assessment in the learning process both really easy and super fun!

So... here are some of my picks - along with a few others that were suggested by members of my PLN. Big thanks to Steven Anderson, Nancy Mangum, Neill Kimrey and Angela Monk for sharing your expertise with me. You guys rock!

Admit/Exit Tickets are a beloved formative assessment strategy. Indeed, I cannot even begin to count the number of post-it notes I've used over the years to gauge my students' progress, interest or prior knowledge. Of the digital tools available for this type of formative assessment, is my favorite. I use it all of the time. It's easy, reliable, is available as both a web tool & an APP and your boards can be easily saved and/embedded. It's a win-win. I also like the APPs iBrainstorm and Perfect Caption as well as the webtools and Wallwisher - although, increasingly, there seems to always be a glitch in the Wallwisher matrix.

Graphic organizers are another great formative assessment tool. Asking kids to organize/prioritize a set of data is an effective way of gauging their understanding of those concepts. The standout in this category, for me, is . With both a web based and APP version that allow kids to collaborate, adjust the map as their thoughts evolve and save their popplets for later use, I am a fan. and SimpleMind are also useful tools with similar functionality. However, if you're looking for premade organizers like venn diagrams, four corners, etc., the APP Tools for Students is a great option which features hundreds of existing organizers that kids can edit and share.

Taking a quick survey or poll is an AWESOME way to find out, quickly, what your students know, before moving forward in the lesson. What makes today's digital versions of these mini assessments so effective is the ability to view/share the results in real time. My favorite tool for this purpose is . Like the description says, Socrative, literally, turns any internet ready device into a set of clickers - teachers can give both students and teacher paced quizzes, the results are instantly graphed and shared AND there's a feature which allows students to vote on the responses that are captured. Amazing. Of course, if you're lacking netbooks/laptops or Smart devices in your school, Poll Everywhere offers a similar service using text messaging and Google Forms can be a great web based alternative - although teasing the data out of a Google Form requires a bit more work.

I can still remember the first time I was able to put an individual whiteboard into each of my student's hands. I simply could not believe how powerful having them write the answer to a question on their own board and hold that answer up for me to see could be. I thought, this is going to revolution my teaching - and in some ways it did. One thing is for sure, it didn't take long before all those boards were stained and smudged and cracked from hard (but important!) use. That said, today there are a plethora of individual whiteboard APPs out there that offer the same instant glimpse into what your students know that their hard plastic counterparts did PLUS so much more. My favorite of these offerings is Educreations - an APP that let's students draw, write, create, narrate, record and share what they know. They can record (and play back!) the steps in solving a math problem, label the parts of a plant or identify places on a map by annotating a preloaded photo and the final products can be embedded on any webpage. and Whiteboard Pro offer similar products, but Jot! is a really simple APP that more resembles the individual whiteboards of yore. is not fancy, but it's reliable.

My favorite tech tool right now is an APP called Reflection. Essentially, Reflection allows you to "reflect" multiple mobile devices on a desktop computer - which can then be projected and shared via a data projector/apple TV, etc. So... no matter what your students are working on - maybe they are playing Cyber Bully Zombies as part of a digital citizenship unit or perhaps they're creating digital timelines or writing their own ebooks. Either way, you can see it all, in real time. A-MAZ-ING. The down side? It's pricey. Right now, I am rocking the free trial and will gladly fork out the $14.99 once that runs out, but that's a stiff price tag for schools sporting carts and carts of devices. That said, I recently learned that offers a similar service, (and is free!) but I've yet to see it in action, so I am keeping Reflection at the top of my list.

For more information on Formative Assessment in the library, I'd suggest a reading of this School Library Monthly article from 2011 by Kristin Fontichiaro. This resource provides some stories from the trenches - that is to say examples from librarians currently using using formative assessment as an instructional strategy. My favorite part of the article though is when Kristen says: "To be blunt, if school librarians are to call themselves teachers, then they too must ensure that students are learning, not just "doing."'

For me, formative assessment acts as a reality check. Regardless of how many virtual light bulbs I *think* I see going off above my students' heads, until I truly and accurately check for understanding, I am just fooling myself. So, whether delivered through a pack of post it notes or a cart full of tablets, formative assessment remains a crucial part of the instructional process - and one that belongs as much in the library and lab as it does in the traditional classroom.

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Library Girl's Picks: The Best Digital Tools for Formative Assessment

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On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in another fab edition of the TL Virtual Cafe webinar series. This month's PD offering was an "Edutech Smackdown" featuring the Queen of All Things Library: Joyce Valenza. I love these smackdown sessions because they are the ultimate crowdsourced PD.

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Last school year, I got to participate in a great project that involved digital fabrication. The school librarian decided to use SeeSaw for sharing the project with the teachers, students, and parents. Each week, she would have the students make an entry in SeeSaw to document their progress. Student entries included written notes and videos.

I conducted a focus group at the end of the project with the students. At the end of the focus group, I asked, "Is there anything else that you want to tell me about the project?" I was surprised about the topic that they chose. The students told me how they thought they should be assessed after completing lessons. They introduced the topic because they wanted to complete their assessments in an efficient manner. You might be thrilled to learn that students do not always think of using technology for completing classwork. Two of the methods they suggested did not use technology. They also understood that it was not appropriate for them to just say, "I liked the lesson." They wanted to give input about what they learned and how to help them learn.

I must give major kudos to the librarian for implementing an assessment after each lesson. Assessments are something that we often forget to do. Many of us have transitioned from the classroom, and at the beginning of our school librarianship careers, we may be under the impression that assessment is not important anymore because of the mix of formal and informal learning opportunities in the school library.

There are several reasons why we need to implement assessments. First, we need to check our students' understanding of lessons. This information can be shared with classroom teachers and administration. Next, we need to document what we have been doing all year. At this point and time, circulation statistics alone are not going to help us. When someone asks you why your job is important, you want your rebuttal to be backed by concrete data. Wouldn't it feel wonderful to say that after a unit about "ABC," you can document that students are 75% more proficient on the skill? Finally, assessments are a way for us to check our own teaching methods. If we spend time teaching a lesson and most students do not understand the content, the lesson can be tweaked to improve it. Reflective practice is a way for us to grow as educators.

One way to reflect on our practices to assess student learning is to use exit tickets. Danley, McCoy, and Weed (2016, p. 48) define exit tickets as "prompts given to students at the end of a lesson or class period" that are easy to assess. Marzano (2012) notes that there are four types of exit tickets. These types include:
Prompts for Formative Assessment

On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your understanding of the topic today? (Use a Likert or Smiley Face Scale.) Why do you feel this way?

What did you learn today? What would you like to know more about from the lesson?

Select the correct answers from the survey.

List 3 things that you learned today about the topic.

Prompts for Student Self-Assessment

What can you do to improve your understanding of the lesson today?

What was your level of effort today?

What can you do to invest in your learning experience?

Prompts Based on Instructional Strategies

How would you change group work in the future?

What way would you like this lesson to be taught?

Was there something about the lesson that was confusing?

Prompts to Encourage Communication with the Instructor

What can I do to make the lesson better for you?

What can I do to help you understand the lesson better?

There are numerous tools that can be used to create exit tickets. In addition to mentioning SeeSaw, here are some additional methods that you might consider using. Some of them are basic approaches that do not require technology. (Please mix these methods up and save the trees.) Remember, you want the assessments to be quick and easy to grade.
15 Exit Ticket Methods

1. A verbal response that you record and listen to later*

2. FlipGrid video*

3. Sticky notes on a whiteboard*

4. Notecards placed in a designated area*

5. Padlet discussion

6. AnswerGarden

7. NearPod

8. Spiral notebook entry

9. Picture in a shared Google document

10. Google Forms quiz

11. Socrative quiz

12. KWL Chart

13. Twitter post

14. PollEverywhere poll

15. Plickers card Activity

* Recommended by the students in my study

In conclusion, exit tickets can provide you with student assessment data. However, you still need to provide your students with some type of feedback. One way to accomplish this is by reviewing the exit ticket results at the beginning of the next class. If you would like to know more about assessment in the school library, I highly recommend reading AASL's National School Library Standards (2018). Chapter 12 is dedicated to "measuring learner growth." The chapter defines the difference between summative and formative assessments, provides examples of rating schemes, and shares an assessment scenario. Appendix H, "Evidence of Accomplishment," is also a good resource for assessments. See the "assessment" and "student product" lists. Please note that edWeb.net is hosting a webinar called "PBL and Assessment: How Do You Measure Learning in PBL?" on October 17. It is listed in the professional development chart below.
References
American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.

Danley, A., Ann McCoy, P., and Rahila Weed, P. 2016. "Exit tickets open the door to university learning." InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching 11: 48-58.

Marzano, R. J. 2012. "Art and science of teaching: The many uses of exit slips." Educational Leadership 70(2): 80-81.

Organization Date & Time Professional Development Title

Categories: Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration

Tags: Assessment, exit tickets, formative assessment, school librarians

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Using Exit Tickets for Assessment | Knowledge Quest

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Last school year, I got to participate in a great project that involved digital fabrication. The school librarian decided to use SeeSaw for sharing the project with the teachers, students, and parents. Each week, she would have the students make... Read More ›

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Spring has sprung! As we get ready to support our teachers and students with end-of-the year (or semester) review, encourage your teachers to use formative assessments. Powered by easy-to-use digital platforms, formative assessments enable your teachers and students to maximize instructional technology for quick progress checks, reviews, or exit tickets. Furthermore, hosting an informal drop-in PD session in the library is a great way to showcase our collaborative role in our schools and build relationships with our teachers. My drop-in PD sessions are planned during the teachers' planning periods throughout the day.

Once again, I teamed up with my favorite instructional technology facilitator (ITF), Katherine Leatherman, to provide another drop-in PD session on formative assessment tools this week. Katherine's insight and expertise is so valuable. As we planned this session together, we prepared to support our teachers, but I also benefited professionally. Digging deeper into the instructional tools helped me strengthen my own professional tool kit.

Here is how we structured the session:

1. Katherine and I selected formative assessment tools that are easy to use and engaging and offer data for teachers to track student progress.

2. A slide presentation guides attendees through a self-paced session based on their comfort level with instructional technology.

3. For each assessment tool we selected, we provided video tutorials, student views, and links to the actual instructional technology platforms.

4. Throughout the session, Katherine and I are always available to assist, elaborate, and offer insight if teachers need extra support.

5. Teachers receive CEUs focused on our NC Digital Learning Competencies for Teachers after using one of the technology tools with students and submitting a brief reflection with a digital artifact component via a Google form.

6. We always provide simple refreshments. If you feed them, they will come!

Our formative assessment session focused on the following tools, designed to appeal to different technology comfort levels:

Google Classroom Question Feature

Google Forms

Plickers (with a door prize of a set of Plickers cards)

Quizizz

GimKit

Here at our high school, as teachers prepare students for AP exams, state tests, and teacher-made finals, formative assessment tools offer helpful feedback. Why not support your teachers with some instructional technology tools that meet their needs while you foster a collaborative relationship with them?

Drop-In PD is Spreading in Our District

As we plan library programming that meets teachers' needs, the natural result is a stronger relationship with them. For a year and a half, Katherine and I have offered a variety of drop-in sessions. We are seeing the results of this model of PD spreading to other district high schools as our teachers are sharing with their colleagues about what we are doing here. I am having conversations with district librarians about it as well. The more we show our teachers how valuable school librarians are to them, the better!

What a Typical Session Looks Like:

1. Select the topic in advance. Katherine and I planned out the entire school year, but always remain flexible if we decide to change the topic based on staff need.

2. Develop the materials for the session, typically an interactive slide presentation that guides attendees. Resources are embedded into the slides.

3. Teachers join us face to face for 30-45 minutes during their planning periods once a month.

4. Participants complete "homework," which is basically using the technology tool with students.

5. CEUs are earned for participation.

Katherine and I love to share, so if you are interested in how we have managed our sessions or would like to know more about the content, please reach out. As we all enter the "home stretch" of the 2018-19 school year, I wish you the best. Find me on Twitter or email me if you would like to collaborate! Katherine's email is kaleatherman@gaston.k12.nc.us and her Twitter handle is @kaleathe615.

AASL National School Library Standards: Librarian Framework

Collaborate: Work effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common goals.

Create: School librarians demonstrate the importance of personal, social, and intellectual networks by:

1. Modeling the use of a variety of communication tools and resources.

2. Cultivating networks that all ow learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.

Laura Long is the school library media specialist at Highland School of Technology in Gastonia, NC, a 2017 National Blue Ribbon School. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and her Masters of Library Science from East Carolina University. She is a Gaston County Schools' Delta Fellow, Pinnacle Technology Leader and member of the Pioneering Educators Team, as well as a National Board certified language arts teacher. Additionally, she is the President of the North Carolina School Library Media Association. She loves collaborating and helping her students connect with others around the world, so feel free to contact her via email or social media.

Categories: Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Professional Development, Technology

Tags: #AASLstandards, collaboration, data, formative assessments, instructional technology, relationships, review, supporting teachers

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Purposeful Instructional Technology and Formative Assessments in the Library -

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Spring has sprung! As we get ready to support our teachers and students with end-of-the year (or semester) review, encourage your teachers to use formative assessments. Powered by easy-to-use digital platforms, formative assessments enable your teachers and students to maximize instructional technology for quick progress checks, reviews, or exit tickets.

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I saw a great question on a Facebook school library group. This person was wanting a template for an infographic similar to this one from the Framingham Public Library. I decided to refresh my memory on a few design tools so I recreated it in Canva, Genially, Adobe Express, Google Slides, PowerPoint, and Adobe Illustrator.

I listed some pros and cons for each tool and shared a template link so you can use it as you'd like. You can find those templates here, plus a fun prompt from ChatGPT on what items should be a school library infographic. Ashley Cooksey also shared a great post from Jennifer LaGarde on this crucial advocacy topic, "It's Annual Report Season! Here Are Some Tips To Help You Effectively Tell Your Story."

Next, I was thinking... "It would be awesome if there was a way to have a version of this that just automatically updates." Looker Studio from Google is an option for this kind of data visualization. So I recreated the infographic in Looker Studio. Below is an example of an embed of that Looker Studio report. It pulls the numbers from a Google Sheet, which is updated through a simple Google Form. This form could be updated daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever. Looker Studio does all the work of keeping the totals going!

Looker Studio Embedded:

I created directions for the Looker Studio process here. Another option is to design your infographic in Canva or another program (without your stats), download that image, upload it to Looker Studio, and insert scorecards into the blanks! If you prefer video tutorials, I made one of those too.

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I saw a great question on a Facebook school library group. This person was wanting a template for an infographic similar to this one from the Framingham Public Library. I decided to refresh my memory on a few design tools so I recreated it in Canva, Genially, Adobe Express, Google Slides, PowerPoint, and Adobe Illustrator.

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I'm moving to a new school in a new district, and before I get there I want to plan for communication efforts. Developing a communication plans are not my problem! However, sticking to one gives me serious problems.

One of the things I'd like to do in the new school is a monthly newsletter. And doing a better job than in the past is a top priority. I've started so many newsletters as a teacher and librarian, but I've just never followed through. Early and thorough planning will hopefully be key to help me gain and then sustain momentum.

Who is it for?

Teachers, parents, students, and even community all come to mind as stakeholders. But multiple newsletters seems a bit daunting, especially considering my history of letting them lapse. I don't want to set myself up for failure. Is there a way I can make one newsletter work for multiple groups? To begin with, I think I'll focus on the students and just send it to all the groups. After all, sharing any information will be better than sharing nothing. After I've built the newsletter habit, then I can rethink reframing information for a secondary audience.

Which format?

Digital makes the most sense for publishing, but choosing the right digital platform depends somewhat on distribution. Again, this really needs to be something I'm comfortable with. If I have to stop and learn the components of a new platform, then that will be hindrance to any momentum gained.

Will we need physical copies for distribution?

Is there a need for the newsletter to be printed and copied? Google Slides or Google Docs might fit the bill if that's the case. These have several features in their favor, with the top one being that I'm comfortable using both! Other pluses:

1. They are both free.

2. Templates can not only be easily developed but also easily changed when new or different items are required.

3. Content boxes can be moved around for better placement.

4. Newsletter templates are available through Google if creating one isn't really an option.

Using Slides has a slight advantage over Docs. Content boxes stay exactly where they are put unlike Docs where the content might be pushed to the next page.

Google isn't the only free option out there for newsletters. Here are a few others I've used:

Distributing wholly online?

Distributing digitally provides options in addition to the ones listed above. New Google Sites makes a great newsletter. Use the home page for the entire newsletter for an easy infographic look. Insert a table of contents so your readers can go directly to their favorite section. Or group all your newsletters for the school year into one website. The home page can function as a table of contents for all editions and include information you want in every issue. Then monthly newsletters can be added as pages. Think of the possibilities for recurring columns! Searching for book reviews across newsletters would be so much easier if all the newsletters were in the same site.

Other digital newsletter options to consider:

If you like the look of an infographic, then use templates for those found on Canva or Visme and insert that infographic into a website or e-mail.

What content should be included?

Here's the part that I think will be most helpful: deciding in advance what sections to regularly include in the newsletter. Then put those sections in the template. This still allows you to take out content, but if sections are already in place, then you'll waste no time thinking about those ever-looming questions about what content to include. If a monthly newsletter is going to be the norm, then we need to know what kinds of articles and artifacts to collect before they are needed.

Ideas for regular items:

Book recommendations, reviews, or talks

Look what ____ is reading

Ideas for home

Monthly/seasonal/holiday themes

Library skills info

Student assistant corner

Surveys

What to do in the library besides borrowing books

What's happening in _____ grade

Station exploration

Upcoming events

Student publications/productions

The list could easily grow quite lengthy! Personally, I want to keep my template to a couple of pages. Again, I want to get in the newsletter habit, and the inclusion of fewer quality items will prove to be a much easier task than lots of items that lack substance.

Advance planning

One more newsletter tip. I read several articles about the importance of creating a social media calendar if you want to post with fidelity. The same is true for a newsletter. If I want good content on a regular basis, I have to plan for it ahead of time. So, look at your lessons and planner before each week starts and use that info to help you plan to get the content you want for your newsletter.

What have you done?

I want to see your newsletters! Please share links and images in the comments.

Bitsy Griffin is the school librarian for Chatham Grove ES in Chapel Hill NC. She has 25+ years experience in elementary, middle, and high schools as a math teacher and librarian. She is active in AASL and the North Carolina School Library Media Association. Find her blog at http://www.bitsygriffin.com .

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: community communication, digital newsletters, newsletters, student newsletter, technology

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Newsletters for Communicating with Stakeholders -

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I'm moving to a new school in a new district, and before I get there I want to plan for communication efforts. Developing a communication plans are not my problem! However, sticking to one gives me serious problems. One of the things I'd like to do in the new school is a monthly newsletter.

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ALA - Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit

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ALA - Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit

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All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. ALA’s core values and commitment to intellectual freedom and privacy guide the association’s work addressing personal privacy in the local, state, and federal legislative…

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ALA Library Privacy Guidelines K12 Students

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ALA Library Privacy Guidelines K12 Students

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Library Privacy Guidelines for Students in K-12 Schools

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Introduction Libraries face a number of challenges in protecting the privacy of users, especially students in elementary, middle, and high schools. School libraries offer print, media, and online content to meet students’ educational and research needs as well as to nurture their intellectual curios…

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"You are a change agent. You're a curriculum person. You're an instruction person. You're a professional development person. Sell your value. Show your value. That's where you make a difference."

- Dr. Bill Chapman, Superintendent, Jarrell Independent School District, TX

Educators have the potential to make lasting changes in the lives of every student and throughout their community. As Dr. Chapman stated, school librarians are working harder than ever to prove their value and update perceptions of the school library and its role in education. From leading the digital transformation to innovative resources in the classroom, the school library has gone through significant transformations in recent years to be recognized as an integral player in education and student success. They provide digital content that promotes collaborative teaching, better learning outcomes, and comfort with technology. But changing perceptions can be a challenge and does not happen overnight.

To support school library advocacy and education as well as staff development for educators, we partnered with School Library Journal to ask more than 350 educators and librarians how they have made collaborative efforts to advocate for school libraries and students. Their valuable insight from experiences in the classroom, library, teaching, and the community expanded into eight best practices that are outlined in our infographic, white paper, and webinar.
Where Should Librarians Begin?
Leading educators agree that in order for librarians to successfully advocate for the library, they must first advocate for students. Every decision and action should center around what is best for each student, and to make that known to the administration.Educators, administrators, and librarians agree that advocacy and explaining what you do never ends. Like teaching, advocacy is a continuous exercise and skill that grows with time. One of the end goals for school advocacy is to increase funding to support the school library program, technology development, content, staff development for educators, digital resources, and initiatives.
How Can Librarians Advocate for Themselves and Their Students?
Leading librarians across the country are building relationships, changing perceptions, and sharing their stories. Discover just a few efforts you can start implementing today:

Embrace chaos -"Most kids want to hold a fiction book, but they're going to do their research on a laptop. So I've tried to purchase that way-to purchase better digital databases for them to do their research on and then teach teachers about those resources." Allison Long, Mooresville Middle School

Zero in on outcomes - "What made the difference was being able to say, "I'm going to help you with your problem, and here's what it looks like in the real world and why I'm doing this. I'm not doing this because I want new technology. I'm doing this because our kids need it." Priscille Dando, Fairfax County Public Schools

Connect to school leadership - "I was able to go in and co-teach, and we got the children in our learning management system that the county is pressuring us to use." Linda Martin, Sugar Hill Academy of Talent and Career

The change-and the conversation-begins with each of us.

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Library Advocacy: Be a Change Agent for your School or District

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Dr. Bill Chapman, Superintendent, Jarrell Independent School District, TX Educators have the potential to make lasting changes in the lives of every student and throughout their community. As Dr. Chapman stated, school librarians are working harder than ever to prove their value and update perceptions of the school library and its role in education.

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Illustrations By Miguel Porlan

At Alabama's Mountain Brook High School (MBHS), lists of overdue books used to be sent to students' classroom teachers, who spoke to the kids directly about them-and knew what they were reading. Now, MBHS librarian Annalisa Keuler emails overdue notices directly to individual students. It's one step she takes to make sure that information about her students-in this case, their choice of reading-is confidential.

Respecting patron privacy is a fundamental aspect of librarianship, including service to children and youth. "If you go back to the ethics of our profession, you want to keep as much of that information private as you can," says Keuler. Only the student who checked the materials out should see that information, she adds. Some teachers still ask Keuler for the list, but she does not provide it.

"Students should have two expectations of privacy," says Helen Adams, author of Protecting Intellectual Freedom and Privacy in Your School Library (ABC-CLIO, 2013). "They should be able to come in and use the library's resources and have no one looking over their shoulder. Whatever information they seek on that topic should remain private."

Those principles face new challenges in the digital age. A recent survey from the Future of Privacy Forum found that while parents support school tech and data, they also want privacy assurances from schools. Electronic student data, including library records and much more, is often stored in the cloud and handled by third parties, and can exist forever. For instance, when a student checks out a book, a file marked online can potentially be read by a parent and emailed to others. When an elementary school child reads on an app, the title, reading level, and other details are often digitally stored. High school e-records of student homework, classes, and grades-often also including behavioral issues and health data-may be attached to a students' name, age, and student ID number. In addition, students may not know, for example, that when they download a library ebook onto a Kindle device, the Kindle-and Amazon-saves their borrowing history.

By educating themselves about how student data storage works, librarians can take precautions to lock down these records-and take more basic steps to help students, such as showing them how to guard their browsing history and control their digital footprints.

Student privacy laws

Student confidentiality concerns predate the digital era. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which underscores the protection of student records, was signed into law in 1974, under President Ford. That law states that educational institutions must ensure that privacy measures are in place to safeguard details about their students. Today, legislators and others are trying to further protect student data. One legislation effort, the Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act of 2015, has been stalled in Congress since May 2015, but would prevent targeted advertising from reaching students online based on their online behavior. Meanwhile, organizations including EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) Students Privacy Project, a nonprofit venture, seek to inform students, parents, educators and the public about changes to FERPA along with challenges and shifts in law that affect student data and privacy.

That's Confidential

Informing educators and students about how to protect nondigital personal information is also critical. In 2015-16, parents at West Allegheny Middle School in Pittsburgh, PA, reportedly considered a lawsuit after their children, who participated in an anti-bullying program, were asked to move into different groups based on how they answered certain questions-including whether they had been affected by drugs or alcohol, and whether they, or someone close to them, had been in prison. Where students moved could effectively reveal private details that, as one person told CBS Pittsburgh, "gave the bullies ammunition."

Such personal information made public by the school or its staff can quickly spread throughout a school and beyond. In Canada, a school was reportedly found guilty of violating a transgender student's privacy by calling her by her male birth name during attendance and sharing information about her private life that could have made her subject to bullying or abuse.

The American Civil Liberties Union page on Student Speech and Privacy outlines information about students' rights at school.

In addition, on the state level, in November, California recently passed the Early Learning Personal Information Privacy Act, expanding protections of an earlier act and updating some points from FERPA. Simultaneously, California Attorney General and U.S. Senator-elect Kamala D. Harris also posted recommendations for how ed tech companies can keep student data private.

On the ground, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN; cosn.org), whose members include technology leaders in K-12 school districts around the country, awards a Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) Seal to school districts that take recommended steps to make sure their students' data is guarded and kept private to the extent of the law. The organization's larger mission is to bring effective learning technology and tools to students in schools.

Kathleen Styles, chief privacy officer for the U.S. Department of Education, says that schools often need help figuring out how to protect and handle electronic records correctly, and how to make sure that whomever the information is trusted with takes the same level of care to keep data secure.

"Schools and districts need to take the lead in setting appropriate policies and in investigating educational technology products," Styles said via email. "As data stewards, [they] are responsible for selecting third-party vendors that provide safe, appropriate, and effective education technology."

Despite parental concerns that third parties may be selling their children's data, Styles says that she hasn't seen this happen. "I have heard concerns about this, but thus far I have not run across a district that actually does it," she said.

Schools often view third-party systems as essential for data management and maintaining student records, from grades to attendance. Because of this, "we've had a lot of questions from schools around cloud service providers," says Linnette Attai, project director for CoSN's TLE Program, which administers the TLE Seal and a broader privacy initiative established last year.

But in using these outside companies, schools must understand how the firms are maintaining records, according to FERPA. The law protects, among other things, the rights of parents to access their children's educational records until the student is 18, when the right transfers to the child. Parents can request records be corrected, and demand a hearing if they are not amended.

FERPA also allows schools to release details about a student's records-without a parent or child's permission-to certain groups, including schools where a student is transferring, state and local authorities, officials if there is a health and safety emergency, among others, and financial aid groups and organizations.

How secure is that app?

Doug Johnson, director of technology for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District in Minnesota and a former school librarian, notes that protecting student data doesn't begin or end at library records. He is more concerned about apps that educators may adopt for school use without checking how they collect, store, and disseminate student details.

In his district and across the country, tech-loving teachers and media specialists often introduce digital tools to classrooms without supervisors' knowledge. In Johnson's school system, technology directors like himself have two options. They can limit all apps and require them to undergo a formal vetting process-or help teachers to understand how apps work, along with the potential ramifications when app producers collect, share, or even sell a child's personal information.

"We tend to educate teachers and let them be experimental," he says. "But I come from a library background, and I believe in intellectual freedom and giving them the right to choose."

Adams has a quick way of explaining to her online students if an app is likely safe or not. The online instructor at Antioch University-Seattle, who teaches about legal and ethical issues in school libraries, asks if the app is free.

If so, "It's being paid for in some way," she says. "Data [collection] is likely the answer."

That's a key reason why two Colorado parents, Leonie Haimson and Rachael Stickland, cofounders of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, believe that teachers should never sign up for a classroom app without approval from their school and district.

Haimson and Stickland took up arms against the student data aggregator inBloom, reportedly putting political and parental pressure on the nonprofit, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. InBloom would have enabled schools to upload student names, test scores, grades, health and attendance records, family information, and other identifiable details, and sell that information to third parties. InBloom shut its doors in 2014.

"Your child is basically seen as a tremendous profit potential for companies whether you sign up [for an app] in school or out of school," Haimson says.

Resources to help educators understand privacy issues include CoSN checklists for K-12 school districts, with suggestions for how to proactively protect student details. "There is so much fear and so many questions that parents have around student data privacy," says Attai, who is also president of the New York-based privacy consultancy Playwell LLC. "We wanted to find a way for school systems to measure their work and assess how they're doing."

The CoSN checklist includes professional development for teachers to ensure that students use technology in a way that safeguards their information. Districts that follow CoSN's guidelines can then apply for the TLE Seal, which honored its first seven winners this year, including Butler County (AL) Schools , Cambridge (MA) Public Schools, and Denver (CO) Public Schools. The seven districts added specific policies and took action to make sure they are protecting student data.

Digital footprints

Students can take simple steps to safeguard their digital footprints, experts emphasize. Even young children can learn how to wipe the history of their browsers after a search at the school library or on a school computer. Simply logging out of a Chromebook prevents access to their online details.

In addition, beyond browsing privately-with Google's Incognito mode or by using the Private Browsing function on an iPhone or iPad, for instance-students can also use add-on tools that can block tracking technology. Some of these include uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger from the Electronic Freedom Foundation, and Ghostery. BrowserSpy allows students to see what their browser discloses about them.

Young people frequently don't distinguish between expressing their thoughts online and out loud, Attai notes. They may not grasp the idea that data can live online forever. Educators can help them understand what is at stake.

The conversation should be framed in ways that will resonate with students at the moment, Attai says. "As opposed to asking them if this could impact them getting a job in 10 years, you could ask, 'Is this something you would want your football coach to see?'" she says. "It's a challenging conversation."

In the bigger picture, the best way to protect students is to educate teachers and stakeholders at the district and state level. Johnson notes that providing teachers with guidelines, through professional development, leads to the best outcome.

The goal, experts say, is to find a way to safeguard information-not shut down access. If educators and students can't adopt new tech, it puts teachers at a disadvantage and also hobbles students who must learn how to navigate the online world safely.

"We can't forget that having this data and technology allows us to support students in the most amazing ways," says Attai. "We want to just make sure we're really responsible, but not let fear stifle innovation and the benefits of a technology-enabled classroom."

Lauren Barack writes about the connection between media and education, business, and technology.

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The Problem with Student Privacy, and How To Protect It

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Illustrations By Miguel Porlan At Alabama's Mountain Brook High School (MBHS), lists of overdue books used to be sent to students' classroom teachers, who spoke to the kids directly about them-and knew what they were reading. Now, MBHS librarian Annalisa Keuler emails overdue notices directly to individual students.

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Home - National School Library Standards

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The new National School Library Standards reflect an evolution of AASL learning standards and program guidelines, now referred to as "Standards" and framed within a single text.

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NYS Education Department School Library Program Rubric

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NYS Education Department School Library Program Rubric

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Research shows that one of the chief characteristics of a high performing school is a quality library program. Based upon this research, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) supports efforts by districts, schools, and communities throughout the State in building and supporting strong school library programs.

To assist in these efforts, NYSED has partnered with New York State school librarians, administrators, BOCES representatives, and members of library professional organizations, to update School Library Program (SLP) Rubric. This rubric is intended to be a helpful self-assessment instrument to support the school library program. The updated rubric identifies six foundational values and 27 essential elements for quality school library programs. The School Library Program rubric is not required for use in schools, but is provided as a resource for schools, districts, or School Library Systems to use in developing, improving, and running strong school library programs.

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Research shows that one of the chief characteristics of a high performing school is a quality library program. Based upon this research, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) supports efforts by districts, schools, and communities throughout the State in building and supporting strong school library programs. To assist in these efforts, NYSED has partnered with New York State school librarians, administrators, BOCES representatives, and members of library professional organizations, to update School Library Program (SLP) Rubric.

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Empire State Information Fluency Continuum

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Empire State Information Fluency Continuum

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The DOE is committed to creating and supporting learning environments that reflect the diversity of New York City. To ensure that our website serves the needs of everyone, it follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA. That means the sites work for people with disabilities, including those who are blind and partially sighted. We are committed to creating accessible digital experiences for all website visitors. If you require assistance with any documents on our site, please please call 917-521-3654, email mdodes2@schools.nyc.gov, or mail to: Michael Dodes, 4360 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10033 for assistance.

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New York City School Library System: NYC School Library System Homepage: Empire State Information Fluency Continuum

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The DOE is committed to creating and supporting learning environments that reflect the diversity of New York City. To ensure that our website serves the needs of everyone, it follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA. That means the sites work for people with disabilities, including those who are blind and partially sighted.

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What’s Your Leadership Communication Style?

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Understanding how you, and your employees, communicate is vital to your success as a leader—especially in the fitness industry.

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Translation of Practice for School Librarians

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Translation of Practice for School Librarians

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Ensuring equitable access to library materials is the responsibility of the entire school community. School librarians, teachers, and school administrators must be aware of potential obstacles that could limit or restrict students during checkout. In this way, informed policies and procedures can be developed to support literacy through equitable access and student choice.

BARRIERS TO CHECKOUT

Barriers to student checkout can come from several sources, including classroom teachers, school librarians, and administration. For many, "the tension between stewardship and principles of access challenges the development of policy" (Johnson & Donham, 2012, p. 8). Knowing possible barriers is essential before effective practices and procedures can be developed.

Limiting the Number of Books Checked Out

One barrier for student checkout is limiting the number of books students can check out during each visit to the school library. One very logical explanation for limited checkout happens when libraries are short staffed. The more books students check out, the more books library staff must process and reshelve. If there is a lack of support staff or volunteers, it falls to school librarians to not only plan for and provide library instruction but also to find time to attend to returned materials. A study conducted by Library Services for Omaha Public Schools (OPS) in 2015 (as cited in Lickteig & O'Garro, 2016) found that "library use is lower without a paraprofessional. Less than half of our elementary libraries have a paraprofessional assigned, and those that do have higher checkout rates than those that don't. Of those school librarians without paraprofessional sup port, 60% reported limited checkout as a result" (n.p.).

Another reason for limited checkout relates to perceptions of personal responsibility. Teachers may feel obligated to return the materials students check out, while school librarians may feel financially accountable for unreturned or damaged materials (Moreillon, 2012). Some feel that limiting the number of books a student may check out helps teach responsibility (Beckham, 2011). This practice happens most frequently in the primary grades. According to Loertscher (2013), 71% of school librarians were checking out one book per week to kindergarten students. No matter what grade, it means if students visit the library once per week for checkout and are only allowed one book per visit, that adds up to 4 books per month or about 36 books per school year. Is that enough to encourage literacy and a love of reading?

One school librarian, Keisa Williams (2013), admitted she had a restrictive checkout procedure for her kindergarten students: "Initially, I was fearful about loaning books to kindergarten students. I made excuses, rules, and restrictions that protected the books from the school's smallest patrons" (p. 15). Williams admits that eventually she came to the realization that her fear of losing books was limiting the benefits her students had from expanded access to materials. "Deep down, I always knew that only allowing four books per student, per month, was not enough to make an impact" (p. 16). At times that fear can be justified. Students will lose...

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Ensuring Equitable Access to Books in the School Library

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Ensuring equitable access to library materials is the responsibility of the entire school community. School librarians, teachers, and school administrators must be aware of potential obstacles that could limit or restrict students during checkout. In this way, informed policies and procedures can be developed to support literacy through equitable access and student choice.

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American Association of School Librarians

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Administrators on Engaging through School Libraries

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SLSA: Information Fluency Continuum: Learner Portraits

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SLSA: Information Fluency Continuum: Learner Portraits

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KQ: Becoming Part of the School Leadership Team

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KQ: Becoming Part of the School Leadership Team

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Often, when we talk about building collaborative cultures for school librarians, we talk about the importance of being seen as a teacher peer. But this week, let's talk about being seen as a collaborative member of a campus leadership team. I argue that as valuable as our teaching roles are to our campuses, what sets us apart is that we are more than teachers, and those additional roles we play are critical to the evolution of our profession.

New librarians are often caught off guard by the level of responsibility and decision-making that is expected of us. We are used to our classroom responsibilities like daily lesson planning and assessing student learning. But we immediately have budgetary decisions, management of sizable campus assets in the resources our libraries' house, programing and scheduling concerns, and a need to see the big picture in ways we aren't used to needing to do.

Other librarians may have been at their campuses for a while and have fallen into a rut of low expectations or outdated practices, and find it difficult to break out of these, and implement new approaches more aligned with empowering students to learn in a digital setting.

What can you do to develop your administrator voice and be seen as a peer of administrators? How can you build your confidence when you've been beaten down and need to pull yourself up?

First, be informed and confident about what current practice looks like-develop a personal learning network and follow innovative librarians; read blogs, articles, and research about student behaviors; and participate in professional learning about how others are transforming their practice. You also must have a vision in mind and be able to draw from current research to support it. If you want to be seen as a valued member of the leadership team, you must be able to speak knowledgeably about how school libraries are more crucial than ever. If you can't articulate this, then be prepared to have those who aren't experts in libraries dictate your program. Knowledge is power, or at least, confidence-building.

Second, strike a balance between being responsive and being proactive. We are librarians, which means for the most part, we're service-oriented people who enjoy being what people need us to be. That is a good thing, for many reasons, but if we're only that, we can't ever advance our cause toward bigger and better things. That said, if you're only ever doing your own thing, and not looking for ways to support and participate in bigger campus initiatives, you're not making the difference you could be, besides not being seen as a team player. I know many of us dread department meetings, faculty meetings, whole campus professional development-things that in many ways, aren't about us. Take those opportunities to listen and look for opportunities-those are the places where you see how your puzzle piece fits into the campus' design and isn't a stand-alone (and easily eliminated) side puzzle.

Third, value yourself. It's the time of year when registration is open for our annual state library conference. I cannot tell you how sad it makes me to hear librarians say, "I know the principal won't let me go. I'm not even going to ask." Let's face it, there are those years when that does seem to be the landscape of the school. But if you don't ask and make a case for why you need to attend professional development, you're devaluing yourself as a professional. All professions must participate in continuing education. In Texas, in fact, our certification depends on it. If you don't ask for time, financial support, and approval from your principal to attend these events, you are saying that you're not worth it. Make your case, attend, and then show your principal why sending a librarian to a conference or professional learning event is a great return on his or her investment by implementing what you learned and teaching it to others.

Fourth, be a problem solver. Administrators are constantly bombarded with problems. When you interact with your administrator, don't ever come to him or her with a problem to solve when it comes to your library. You are the administrator of your library program. You need to evaluate the problem, determine possible solutions, choose the one that best protects the interest of the students, and then present it to your administrator, if he or she even needs to weigh in. Your principal needs to know that you can make those decisions for yourself, or he or she will make them for you. The principal most likely doesn't tell the football coach how to run plays, because the coach doesn't ask. If you don't make good, informed decisions about your library, you are declaring yourself open to micromanaging. A principal will not value you as a member of campus leadership if you can't manage your own day-to-day library program.

Finally, as one of my bosses says, "fake it 'til you make it." It takes some time to grow into your role as a member of a leadership team and to develop the trust of the administration. Don't try to be the expert on everything, but when your campus begins a new initiative-even those that are not directly related to libraries-share some recent research pieces with your principal. Admit when you don't know the answer to something, but offer to find out. Don't make a hasty decision when you're put on the spot either. You can always say, "I need to gather the data to make an informed recommendation. Can I get back to you by tomorrow afternoon?"

As you work to build relationships with members of the campus leadership team, realize that you bring a unique perspective to the table. You have more hats than most of the people on your campus-teacher, administrator, media specialist. Own those roles, and the knowledge that goes with them. Be confident and a good problem solver, and soon you'll find yourself a valued member of a transformational campus leadership team.

Categories: Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration

Tags: administrators, collaborative culture, leadership team, Let's Get Together Thursday

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Let's Get Together Thursday - Becoming Part of the Campus Leadership Team -

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Often, when we talk about building collaborative cultures for school librarians, we talk about the importance of being seen as a teacher peer. But this week, let's talk about being seen as a collaborative member of a campus leadership team.

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Three Core Values in School Librarianship contributors Pam Harland, Anita Cellucci, and Judi Moreillon, completed a research investigation earlier this year about how school administrators understand and prioritize the roles and responsibilities of school librarians. We studied several AASL created videos featuring outstanding school administrator leaders from around the country.

Judi shared our research questions, purpose, and overview of our findings in last week's blog post. In this post, we want to highlight the most significant finding from this study: Exemplary school administrators value the ability and willingness of school librarians who take action. Specifically, school librarians who take action when responding to challenges and opportunities to increase their effectiveness are appreciated by their administrators and considered leaders.

"Don't wait for leaders. Become them." Rob Walsh

When you are faced with a challenge or opportunity, how do you respond?
For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, how did you respond? Did you create screencasts for teachers, students, and parents to use to access important digital information at your school? Did you work with collaborative partners to develop digital tools and lessons for all students? Did you reach out to colleagues and offer access to ebooks and digital information sources to embed within their classes?

One of the administrators in the Town Hall video said: "Our librarians haven't been waiting for people to tell them what to do. They've been saying okay here's the problem we need to solve and then here's how we're going to make it happen" (AASL 2020). The school administrators in our study highlighted many of these ideas as integral to the role of school librarian leaders.

Another example is when your school hires a new principal, how do you respond? Do you approach them over the summer to discuss shared goals and values? Do you share the National School Library Standards (AASL 2018) as a method for developing an understanding of your roles and responsibilities? Do you offer to help with understanding cross-curricular connections based on your collaborative efforts?

(Harland and Cellucci 2021, 121)

Collaborating with Principals and Superintendents
During the Town Hall video (AASL 2020), several school administrators featured anecdotes of how their school librarians were among the first members of the faculty to introduce themselves and offer to help meet their goals. As school librarians, we know the importance of working with principals to clearly describe how the library can play an important role in responding to current challenges. Through thoughtful and intentional trust-building and leadership, school librarians must take action.

We understand that taking action in these situations is not always easy- in fact, it's frequently quite challenging. However, "when a school librarian understands the challenges confronting the community, has intentionally built relationships, and is willing to listen authentically, there is an opportunity to co-create a more positive culture within a school" (Harland and Cellucci 2021, 112). Taking action requires both vulnerability and confidence.

For more detailed research questions, methodology, and findings we have two forthcoming articles that go deeper into the study:

Harland, Pam, and Anita Cellucci. 2022. "Do You Know Your Administrators' Priorities for the School Library?" Knowledge Quest, January/February.

Harland, Pam, Judi Moreillon, and Anita Cellucci, 2022. "Take Action: A Content Analysis of Administrators' Understandings of and Advocacy for the Roles and Responsibilities of School Librarians." School Library Research.

Reflection Question
"What difference have you made/hope to make in your school culture as a school librarian leader?" (Harland and Cellucci 2021, 121).

Works Cited
American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

American Association of School Librarians. 2020. "AASL Town Hall: A Conversation with the AASL School Leader Collaborative." AASL Learning Library (video), 1:02:32. Posted by AASL, Nov 18, 2020. Available at https://aasl.digitellinc.com/aasl/sessions/4159/view. Accessed November 10, 2021.

Harland, Pam, and Anita Cellucci. 2021. "Leadership." In Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage, ed. Judi Moreillon, 107-122. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Photo Credit: Walsh, Rob. 2018. Do Not Wait. [Photograph]. Unsplash. Available at https://unsplash.com/photos/4lfrwRyHRYk. Accessed November 10, 2021.

Pam Harland, EdD, served as a librarian for 25 years. She is now a member of the faculty at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where she directs the School Librarian and Digital Learning Specialist educator preparation programs. Most recently she earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership in 2019 in which she researched the leadership behaviors of school librarians. Connect with her on Twitter @pamlibrarian.

Anita Cellucci, MEd LMS, is a high school librarian, K-12 library leader, in Westborough, Massachusetts. She advises teens in a library advisory board and coaches a poetry spoken word team. As a teaching lecturer for Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, she teaches children's and young adult literature with a focus on social justice and diversity. Connect with her on Twitter @anitacellucci.

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Three Core Values in School Librarianship contributors Pam Harland, Anita Cellucci, and Judi Moreillon, completed a research investigation earlier this year about how school administrators understand and prioritize the roles and responsibilities of school librarians. We studied several AASL created videos featuring outstanding school administrator leaders from around the country.

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SLLN: School Librarian Learning Network - Events

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Want automatic notifications when new events are added to the SLLN Events calendar? Click for directions!

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Courtney Pentland, AASL President 2023-2024

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Knowledge Quest provides news from the American Association of School Librarians and thought-provoking blog posts, with opportunities for community discussion.

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The future of work is full of opportunities. But people won't be able to take advantage of those opportunities if they don't take risks.

It's a philosophy Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream, has followed her entire life. Shellye looked for opportunities early in life and took risks to get them. As an African American woman with an eye on not only working in but leading the tech industry, Shellye often had to chart her own course, but she grew by taking risks and creating success on her own terms.

Shellye started her career with a job in sales at IBM after learning that many CEOs had previously worked in sales. During her 15-year career with IBM, she became the first African American woman in the company to be sent on an international assignment. Her later role as CEO of MetricStream put her in elite company as one of just a handful of female CEOs of technology companies.

I had the chance to interview Shellye for my book,The Future Leader. She shared that the one thing future leaders must know how to do is take risks.

Shellye told me this: "Those who learn and are able to take the best risks will drive the best performance. With all these things changing around you, unless you're a risk-taker, you're just not going to be able to capitalize on the opportunities that exist out there."

Throughout her career, Shellye has taken risks to grow herself and her companies. She believes future leaders must also be willing to take risks to succeed. That doesn't mean being reckless - it means being transparent and honest.

Risk-Takers Are Agile

How things have always been done simply won't work in the future. Future organizations will move away from traditional hierarchal structure and more towards networks. Shellye says the future is less about leading from a base of power and more about leading from a base of influence. That means being agile to accept new ideas and ways of working.

Future leaders need to be agile in their thoughts and more collaborative in how they operate.

"Leaders need to become more comfortable with being flexible trying new things and trying to build and embrace more collaboration deeper within the organization," Shellye said.

True collaboration and risk-taking comes from collaborating and including people of all tenure and experience to really get things going. A leader can't only be agile based on their own ideas and point of view - they have to consider other perspectives and feel comfortable changing their mind, really listening to other people's ideas, and then implementing them to evolve the company.
Leadership is changing. What are the skills and mindsets you need to master in order to lead in the new world of work? According to over 140 of the world's top CEOs there are 4 mindsets and 5 skills that leaders need to master. Learn what they are and hear directly from these leaders by downloading the PDF below
Risk-Takers Are People-Centric

Risk-taking leaders don't just take risks to improve their own standing - they do it with their people in mind. Future leaders have to realize that the only way towards lasting success is to focus on people, both employees and customers. The best leaders are the ones who take risks that will provide a better experience for their people.

Shellye believes that future leaders must be empathetic. Employees want to know that leaders actually care about what they themselves care about. Instead of simply saying the right things, leaders need to back up their words with actions.

Future leaders must also be customer-centric. Shellye says that many leaders and organizations claim to be customer-centric and put the customer at the center of everything they do, but that's not really the case.

Shellye told me this: "In the future, things are going to be so transparent and it will be so easy for customers to switch, that the person who is actually able to meet the customers' real needs the best, wins. And it's not just what they need now, but what they need going forward."

To lead their organizations to success, future leaders must be truly focused on customers and take risks to position the company to best anticipate their needs. They can't simply do things that have always been done. They will have to really connect with their customers, understand them, and then know the best path and risks to take.

Customer-focused leaders develop a culture of customer centricity within their organizations. They don't just put words on a wall - they are clear in their expectations of how they and their employees should behave to really make the customer the star of everything. Throughout her career, Shellye has addressed leadership topics in staff meetings by sharing how she expects certain issues to be addressed or handled. She believes it's important for people to hear and the how, not just the what. By aligning around the how, a true culture can be built.

Risk-Takers Are Self-Aware

Risk-takers don't just jump into every unknown pool and hope they swim. They understand their own strengths and weaknesses so they can take calculated risks that play to their strengths. Leaders of the future must be self-aware and lead with understanding.

Self-awareness comes in many forms, but for future leaders it will be manifest in transparency. Employees are going to want to know what leaders actually care about and that they are comfortable walking the talk.

"I think employees are going to hold leaders much more accountable than they have in the past, for their full set of actions. We're starting to see it now, and I think that's just going to continue. It's not just a blip," Shellye said.

As a leader, Shellye aims to be accessible and approachable so that people aren't afraid to tell her the bad news and the good news. As CEO of MetricStream, she walked around the office frequently to get a sense of how things were truly going. In order to move the company forward, leaders have to face the facts and be honest about the true state of things so they can make improvements.

The future is changing, and leaders must be willing to take risks to meet those changes. Successful, risk-taking leaders are agile, focus on their people, and are self-aware to take the best risks for long-term success.

Build a network of diverse people and listen to their unique ideas and perspectives.

Practice being agile by changing your plans and approaches to problems and products.

Build connections with employees and customers as individuals.

Establish a customer-centric how and what for employees' actions.

Share your goals with employees and be accountable with your progress.

How To Become a Risk-Taker

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The future of work is full of opportunities. But people won't be able to take advantage of those opportunities if they don't take risks. It's a philosophy Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream, has followed her entire life. Shellye looked for opportunities early in life and took risks to get them.

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Welcome to ALA eLearning, the leading global content provider of courses, webinars, and customized eLearning content for library and information workers in all types of libraries and related organizations. Designed to meet your evolving learning needs, ALA eLearning brings together content from every office and division of ALA in one place.

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Some might say that positivity is something you're born with and that you are either a positive leader or not. Actually, positivity is a skill that requires work each and every day. It may look easy to others, as if you are simply a positive person (and you were born that way), but that's because you have worked on your ability to stay positive no matter what - despite the health or personal crises you are facing, your overwhelming workload, the obstacles that arise, and the difficult personalities and challenging people you are dealing with. This is further complicated by the fact that leaders have to always "be on" if they are in the public. It takes focus and perseverance on being positive each day as it comes. You may have the same fears and struggles as others but you don't allow them to dominate your behaviors and attitudes. After all, who wants to follow a negative person or leader? There's actually research demonstrating the effects of positive leaders on the workplace.

I have coached a number of leaders who have great self-awareness (not afraid to seek feedback from others), are optimistic, and are viewed as having strong personal integrity. These attributes are described in theories of positive leadership such as: Authentic Leadership Development, Transformational Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Servant Leadership, and Spiritual Leadership. According to Bruce Avolio and his colleagues all of these theories emphasize the role that leaders play in ensuring the development of their employees as well as being leaders who intentionally enhance positive emotions. In addition, positive leadership has been shown to be related to better organizational outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction job performance, going above and beyond at work, psychological well-being, organizational commitment, creativity) than negative leadership styles (which have been shown to be related to turnover intentions, stress, anxiety, absenteeism, job burnout, retaliatory behaviors). In short, leaders set the tone for their team and/or organization. Similar to the book Zapp by William Byham and Jeff Cox, positive leadership encourages, empowers, and energizes people (zapps them) whereas negative leadership drains, discourages, depletes, and demoralizes employees (sapps the energy out of them).

If you want to demonstrate positive leadership when interacting with your employees, here are some tips based on the research. It doesn't simply mean smiling and looking cheerful and ignoring difficult situations. There's much more to it than that. You have to be an authentic positive leader, which means you need to:

o Empower your employees (provide autonomy and flexibility yet at the same time make sure they have the needed training to be successful)

o Show that you genuinely care for your employees (by getting to know them and actively listening to them)

o Show compassion when your employees are struggling and seek to understand why they have good and/or bad days or performance

o Support your employees (advocate for them; speak up for them, serve as their champion)

o Serve as a role model and demonstrate positive social exchanges (getting employees to keep conversations about others positive to avoid gossip and spreading negative information). Not letting others' negativity bring you down

o Share inspiration at work and hope for the future

o Bring energy to the workplace. Leaders' behaviors are highly visible to others so if you aren't bringing energy then why should those around you? Enthusiasm is contagious and it is a great motivator

o Remind your employees about the purpose of their work (sometimes in the midst of tough times, people forget why they are at work and what the reason is)

o Treat all employees with respect and integrity

o Find and share humor

o Be a positive change agent - focus on strengths rather than weaknesses (it doesn't mean that you ignore or gloss over weaknesses, but rather, than you point out the talents people bring to work and how to better utilize those). This comes from having an affirmation bias (oriented towards seeing strengths instead of weaknesses) and by looking for the silver lining in situations

o Create a culture where individuals celebrate wins and make note of progress and accomplishments; they cheer each other on

o Have a focus on coming up with solutions to problems, not just mentioning the problems; Optimism allows you to tackle challenges head on to move forward

o Accept that there will be conflict and address it in a timely manner

As a leader, to be positive and engage in the behaviors listed above, you need to have some of the following characteristics to enable you to keep moving forward despite difficult times and setbacks:

o Integrity and a sense of ethics - do what you say you will do; being honorable

o Positive self-esteem and self-efficacy (the belief you can do something; control over your own attitude and behaviors)

o Resilience (especially when dealing with failures and difficult situations you are able to pick yourself up from setbacks and not view them as overwhelming)

o Gratitude - appreciating the good things in your life

o Self-care (you have to take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually)

Positive leadership has been shown to have a beneficial impact on the satisfaction, engagement, and performance of individuals, teams, and organizations. It's not easy for anyone to display a constant positive perspective, especially during challenging times. It requires dedication, persistence, and continual focus for a leader to be optimistic, upbeat, and encouraging around their employees. Yet it is something that we can all work on developing to build better workplaces for everyone.

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Positive Leadership: It Makes A Difference

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Some might say that positivity is something you're born with and that you are either a positive leader or not. Actually, positivity is a skill that requires work each and every day.

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I was very inspired by this year's winner of the Google for Doodle contest, which was announced June 14, 2021. The doodle from sixteen-year-old Milo Golding from Lexington, Kentucky, is titled " Finding Hope." He described the elements of the doodle on the Today Show. He said, "The lowercase 'l' is the side view of a bookshelf and the child on the top of the books is using education and new experiences in order to find hope and he is looking toward the balloon, which is the symbol of hope." His message of hope touched my heart. The statement "I am strong because I have hope" felt very relevant for this past year. As a school librarian, I connected with Milo's idea that one way to find hope is through books, education, and experiences.

The idea that books and education can be used to bolster hope is not new. In 2018-2019, Jaqueline Woodson was named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and her platform was "Reading = Hope x Change." She explains, "For young people who are very stressed about the future, who have this sense of disempowerment, who don't know what's coming next, my big quest is for them to remain hopeful. When you come to literature, it does allow you an escape from the world if that's what you need, but it also changes you. You're different than when you started that book" (n.d.) This idea that reading not only strengthens hope but pushes our thinking and influences us in ways that change us, I believe, connects with Milo's ideas about finding hope through education and experience.

As school librarians, we work to find that "just right" book for our students; to challenge their thinking with inquiry learning; to engage them in new experiences. After this unprecedented year, I take comfort in the idea that my work may help my students find hope.

As I look toward the next school year, I am hopeful for so many things including:

I am hopeful that we can all have our school library physical spaces fully open to provide that safe and engaging learning space for students;

I am hopeful that we will use lessons learned this year about racism and unconscious biases to make the world a better place for all, especially our students;

I am hopeful that we, as a school library community, will continue to share ideas, practices, and lessons to continue to improve our services to our school communities; and

I am hopeful that we will once again be able to meet in person, to laugh and hug. (I am so looking forward to AASL 2021 in Salt Lake City!)

We all need hope after this past year. Thus, I plan to bolster my hope this summer by taking some time to read, challenge my own thinking, and have some new experiences.

How do you or how will you find and share hope?
Works Cited:
"Reading = Hope x Change." n.d. Every Child a Reader. https://everychildareader.net/readinghopechange/about-rhc/.

"Meet the 16-Year-Old Winner of Google's Doodle for Google Competition." 2021. The Today Show (June 14. https://www.today.com/video/meet-the-16-year-old-winner-of-google-s-doodle-for-google-competition-114769477638.

Categories: Blog Topics, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: books, hope, students

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I was very inspired by this year's winner of the Google for Doodle contest, which was announced June 14, 2021. The doodle from sixteen-year-old Milo Golding from Lexington, Kentucky, is titled "Finding Hope." He described the elements of the doodle on the Today Show.

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Imagine spending an entire year saying "yes," agreeing to not just trivial things, but also to the things that frighten you. Award-winning creator, producer, and writer Shonda Rhimes did precisely that, a decision she credits with changing her life.

In her best-selling book, , Rhimes explained that it all started when her sister said just six words to her at Thanksgiving: "You never say yes to anything."

As a self-described introvert, those words gave Rhimes pause and led to a personal challenge. "For one year, I would say yes to all the things that scared me," Rhimes shared in a moving TED Talk on the topic. "Anything that made me nervous, took me out of my comfort zone, I forced myself to say yes to. And a crazy thing happened: the very act of doing the thing that scared me undid the fear, made it not scary. My fear of public speaking, my social anxiety, poof, gone. It's amazing, the power of one word."

But there was one particular yes that affected Rhimes' life in the most profound and unexpected way, and it started with a question from her toddler: "Wanna play?"

At the time, she was headed out the door, late to an appointment, but this was her "Year of Yes," so she honored the request. In the 15 minutes of play with her daughter, Rhimes rediscovered what she calls "the hum"-a deep flow state of creativity and fulfillment she had previously only felt while working. Though the hum had been fading for her, yet this play break-and subsequent ones she said yes to-brought it back. Rhimes attributes this shift to saying yes to what she loved.

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson is also a fan of saying yes. So and so much so, that he's earned an apropos nickname among his Virgin employees: "Dr. Yes." Branson says he prefers to say yes instead of no because "opportunity favours the bold - this is a lesson that I learned early on, and have used to guide the Virgin story."

While you might not be ready to dedicate an entire year to saying yes or to adopting a new nickname, saying yes is one of the best decisions you can make for your career. Here are five reasons why:

1. Saying yes opens you up to new challenges and opportunities.

If you wait until you feel ready to pursue an opportunity, chances are it'll pass you by. Saying yes means that you're open to moving past your comfort zone and embracing a new challenge. By saying yes, you naturally adopt a growth mindset, leading with your curiosity. As Branson says: "If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure you can do it, say yes-then learn how to do it later!"

2. Saying yes invites collaboration.

There's a reason improvisation is rooted in the phrase, "Yes, and..." Unlike no, which shuts down conversations and progress, saying yes opens up positive possibilities and invites others to build together, fostering collaboration, partnership, and further discussion.

3. Saying yes empowers and affirms others.

As a leader, choosing to say yes acts as an affirmation to others and their ideas: I hear what you just said. You're paying attention, and they matter. And giving the green light signals trust, which empowers others.

4. Saying yes creates an environment where it's safe to try, fail, learn, and innovate.

When you freely say yes, you create an environment that's risk-tolerant. You encourage innovation by trying new things and using the successes and failures as learning opportunities.

5. Saying yes makes life more fun.

Consider how saying yes can bring you new sources of joy. According to Branson, "Life is a lot more fun when you say yes! It's amazing how that one little word can lead you on an incredible adventure."

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

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Five Reasons Why Saying 'Yes' Is The Best Decision For Your Career

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Imagine spending an entire year saying "yes," agreeing to not just trivial things, but also to the things that frighten you. Award-winning creator, producer, and writer Shonda Rhimes did precisely that, a decision she credits with changing her life.

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Boss Librarian & Friends Club House 7PM EST

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Boss Librarian & Friends Club House 7PM EST

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​Boss Librarian and Friends Chat Sunday's at 7:00pm est Click Here: Connect to the Clubhouse (check my social media channels for the next meeting)