Summit Deluxe

What is evidence-based practice, and how can media specialists use it to show that school libraries boost student achievement? Those were the main questions behind School Library Journal’s 2007 Leadership Summit at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, in Phoenix, from November 30 to December 1, 2007.

The national summit drew more than 200 school librarians—from those at the building level to those with district- and state-level responsibilities—as well as library and information science researchers and faculty. And they all wanted to learn more about evidence-based practice—the process of carefully documenting how school librarians make a difference in learning.

Attendees were welcomed by Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), a sponsor of the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act, a piece of legislation that’s pushing for a certified media specialist in every K–12 school. School libraries, Grijalva said, have “suffered from a benign neglect in federal policy.”

Keynote speaker Linda Pearlstein, author of Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade (Holt, 2007), offered a cautionary note about the pros and cons of standards-based testing, and urged librarians not to abandon their traditional role of developing a love of reading in students.

A highlight of the summit for many was the panel discussion “Evidence across the Professions,” in which an architect, a nurse, and a medical and academic librarian discussed how they each used evidence-based research in their own practices.

For most of the summit, attendees participated in case studies, including Delaware’s statewide efforts to develop evidence-based practices in its schools and Londonderry, New Hampshire’s successful action-research program.

Saturday’s breakfast speaker, Peter Pearson, president of the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, talked about how to take the information about a library’s impact and communicate it to stakeholders and funders. Rutgers University’s Ross Todd led the final session in which participants brainstormed to create a manifesto, or white paper, on evidence-based practice in school libraries.

The event was sponsored by Scholastic and Capstone Publishers; Follett Library Resources; Follett Software Company; Gareth Stevens Publishing; Gale, part of Cengage Learning; Rosen Publishing, and World Almanac Education.

School Library Journal will provide videos from the 2007 Summit on its Web site throughout March. Visit www.slj.com for more information.