AASL to Rewrite School Library Guidelines
Technology, changing curriculum will shape new benchmarks for media specialists
By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2006
Responding to the impact of technology on the profession as well as to widespread curriculum changes, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has decided to rewrite its influential guidelines for school library programs, benchmarks that are employed nationwide by K–12 librarians.
At a meeting of AASL’s executive board at the American Library Association’s conference in New Orleans on June 26, all 19 members agreed to rewrite the guidelines from the ground up, explains Julie Walker, AASL’s executive director. There was “a healthy, thorough discussion” about the need to revamp the standards, says Sara Kelly Johns, AASL’s president-elect, who says she is not speaking as an official AASL spokesperson.
Last revamped in 1988 and refined 10 years later, the standards (compiled in Information Power) define school librarians’ roles as teachers, administrators, and information-literacy champs. The standards are also designed to be shared with teachers, principals, and other educators in an effort to strengthen the role of media specialists within school districts.
Evolving over the years, the guidelines have morphed from being primarily quantitative standards—“counting the number of books and chairs,” as Walker puts it—to descriptions of what an appropriate school librarian program should look like.
Why a total rewrite right now? “I think you only need to look at the last time these guidelines were published to see that practice has certainly changed,” explains Walker, adding that the new guidelines “are not so much to look into the here and now but to guide the profession into the future.” AASL hopes to have completed the new guidelines by no later than ALA’s 2008 midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
Rampant technological change—and its effect on the way librarians do their work—is sure to have an impact on the shape of the new guidelines, says Johns, who adds that the librarian’s role as a teacher needs strengthening, too. “I really think that [the existing standards] are more relevant than ever, but we need to include technology,” she says. “Our role has changed since 1998. So much more of our role is as a coach for good searching, for providing high-quality electronic information, and for providing 24/7 virtual library service. It’s time to have our standards reflect that. The teaching role needs to be more strengthened and our role in tech needs to be strengthened.”
Cyndi Phillip, AASL’s current president, adds that the impetus for taking a fresh look at the standards also comes from the association’s ongoing strategic planning process. “In that strategic plan, there were two objectives: looking at our learning standards and at our guidelines,” she explains.
AASL officials caution that it’s too early to predict the exact nature of the changes that will be reflected in the revised benchmarks. “We’re just getting a visionary group together and hoping for a new look at the profession,” explains Phillip, a media specialist at Grand Haven Area Public Schools in Michigan.
A summit to consider the direction of the new guidelines is scheduled to convene in December 2006 in Chicago, and members from each of AASL’s state affiliates will be invited to participate. But prior to that, AASL will conduct focus groups and solicit members’ views at its fall forum, “Assessing Student Learning in the School Library Media Center,” to be held October 13 and 14 in Warwick, RI.
