An Advocate Worth Celebrating

The son of migrant workers, Gonzalez comes from a family that stresses literacy and education as "the great equalizer," an object lesson Gonzalez carries with him to this day. With a school bursting at the seams with 400 more seventh- and eighth-graders than its capacity of 700—many of them living below the poverty line—Gonzalez reasons that a "healthy, dynamic library" is a great investment, since it can boost academic success far more than any "stand-alone curricular program." Most importantly, Gonzalez sees Owen and her library as the elixir to sagging student literacy rates and reading scores.

We chose Gonzalez from a shortlist of 14 finalists, many of whom fostered enterprising and productive relationships with their library media specialists. Runner-up Vernon Waltz, the Switzerland County High School principal in Vevay, IN, referred to the library media center as the "hub of the school for increasing academic achievement," explaining how he and his library media specialist had integrated information literacy standards into their school's improvement plan. Finalist Gary Kirchhoff, the principal of Iowa's Newton Senior High School, explained that, "secondary school administrators and [library media specialists] are the only ones in the school who share the vision of the instructional process as a whole. Together we must collaboratively support innovation in classroom instruction."

Although the winner and the remaining 13 finalists impressed us with their accomplishments and ambitious plans for their respective school libraries, the most encouraging aspect of this year's inaugural award was the number of nominations: more than 300 from across the country. The high number of entries notwithstanding, let's not forget the more than 90,000 library media centers nationwide, many in schools that enjoy far less administrative support. Thus the long-term mission of SLJ's latest award is to create an awareness among a larger number of educators about the seminal role the school library must play in helping students learn.

Presenting the Administrator of the Year Award to the deserving winner and two runners-up at last month's American Association of School Librarians conference in Kansas City, MO, was exciting and gratifying for all involved. However, we will only break new ground and change the pervading culture among administrators when librarians share the dais at their most noteworthy conferences. I hope to see you there.

Evan St. Lifer, Editor, estlifer@reedbusiness.com