Resources & Training for School Library Staff
The Washington State Library is looking for school library staff to join as members of the inaugural School Library In-Service Training Day Committee.
Members of the 2023 School Library In-Service Training Day Committee will instrumentally contribute to planning and implementing the Washington State Library’s virtual 2023 School Library In-Service Training Day on October 13th, 2023. Committee members will be actively involved in the following tasks: Identifying training needs of school library staff in Washington, researching and contacting presenters, conceptualizing and arranging training day logistics, coordinating publicity, and moderating and implementing the training day itself. To see information about last year's training day, visit this link.
Committee members will be expected to meet monthly between April-October 2023, complete assigned tasks, assist at the virtual training day on October 13th, 2023, and participate in a debrief session after the event. A total of 24 Clock Hours are possible if all work is completed.
The Washington State Library is seeking 3-5 school library professionals, and will select applicants in order to create a committee made up of a variety of work experiences, geographic locations, grade-levels/demographics served, and other factors.
The Washington State Library is hoping the committee will be made up of a variety of certified Teacher-Librarians, para-professionals, people currently seeking a School Library Media endorsement, elementary and secondary staff, library staff in rural, urban, and suburban environments, and more.
What is a Welcoming Library?
The Welcoming Library is a pop-up conversation on immigration created by I'm Your Neighbor Books, a nonprofit with the goal of building a stronger America where first-through-third generation Americans truly belong.
The Welcoming Library is a pop-up community conversation on immigration. That conversation is driven by a collection of acclaimed picture books featuring New Arrival and New American families. Readers of all ages “meet” these families on the page and explore the commonalities of all families with embedded discussion questions and companion programming / education materials. The collection — with its pop-up display unit — packs into a crate and travels between schools, libraries, and community centers in a given region, building an environment of Welcoming and Belonging.
100 % of the Welcoming Library readers surveyed indicated a positive response to immigration with 66.7% saying, “Reading this book reinforced my feeling that immigrants should be welcomed in my community” and with 41.7% saying, “I feel inspired by this book and project to find a way to be actively welcoming in my community.”
What is in the Welcoming Library?
-
29 Acclaimed Picture Books featuring the experiences of modern-day non-European immigrants, refugees, and 1st- through 3rd-generation families.
-
Discussion Questions affixed to the back end papers to allow any reader to have an in-depth, informed conversation about commonalities, differences, welcoming, and belonging, regardless of the reader’s experience and comfort with such conversations.
-
Pop-up Display Unit with Banner which adapts to any space to both highlight the books and draw attention to the mission. The handmade wooden display disassembles for packing and shipping between locations.
-
Crates to move and ship books, the display, and all support materials between your locations.
-
Rubber Mallet to assist with bookshelf assembly.
How Might You Use Your Welcoming Library?
- Set up the Welcoming Library in a communal area with chairs for students or families to sit down and explore and read together.
- Set up the Welcoming Library in a programming room for people to engage with before, after, or during programs like storytime or book clubs.
-
Set up the Welcoming Library in a classroom room for students to engage with during free reading time.
-
Bring the Welcoming Library as a pop-up library to outreach events such as education nights, cultural festivals, after-school events, etc.
-
Use the Welcoming Library books in classroom units, library storytimes, or any other way you can image!
Outcomes and Goals:
* Start conversations on modern immigration
* Refute false narratives about communities of color
* Create emotional connections to a vast diversity of voices
* Share the joy and strength of immigrant and new generation families
* Build the cultural competency of all readers
* Lay the groundwork for cross-cultural communication
Kits will stay at a library for up to six weeks then they must be sent to the next location. You are welcome to borrow it for between 1-6 weeks!
If you are hoping to send this kit between locations in your district using internal mail and need it for more than six weeks, please email [email protected] and we will see if we can accommodate your booking.
The Washington State Library is proud to have presented our first ever School Library In-Service Training Day virtually on Friday, October 14th, 2022 from 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m.!
With a keynote by Jennifer LaGarde, sessions presented by Meghan Ashburn, Cicely Lewis, Shannon McClintock Miller, and Julia E. Torres, and panels featuring your amazing Washington school library colleagues such as Elizabeth Roberts, TuesD Chambers, and Gavin Downing, there will truly be something for everyone! This professional development opportunity is free, Clock Hours eligible, virtual, and recorded. The live event will take place on Zoom on the statewide teacher in-service day, and the recordings will be available afterwards for anyone who is unable to attend live.
Register here to receive Clock Hours for viewing the recordings. The live event has passed, but you can watch the recordings and receive Clock Hours as long as you register at the link. The master schedule and further instructions can be found on the Washington State Library’s Clock Hours Niche Academy page. All questions can be directed to [email protected].
Supported by funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this professional development opportunity do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Designed for new school library workers, school library workers who haven’t been formally trained, aspiring school library workers, or anyone who would like a refresher in the core knowledge needed to run a successful library program in a school, this self-guided course will take you through four modules: Collection Management, Information Literacy & Digital Citizenship, School Library Programming, and School Library Partnerships. You are welcome to take the entire course, or just pick and choose the modules that will be most helpful for you! Completing all of the modules will give you a total of 16 Clock Hours.
In order to receive Clock Hours for this self-guided online course, you must first register at this link. Before beginning the course, make sure you read the module called “READ FIRST: Course Registration and Clock Hours Info” to make sure you understand the course objectives, NBPTS Library Media standards, and how to receive your Clock Hours. You will also need to create a Niche Academy account, if you have not already done so, and request access to the learning pathway.
We are also in the planning stages of organizing cohorts of folks to go through the material in this course as group, so if that sounds like a more valuable way for you to go through the material, stay tuned for more information! It will be organized in a way that everyone completes the curriculum on their own, and then we’ll get together with a facilitator and discuss the material and talk about how to put it into practice. The cohort will be implemented sometime in the 2022/2023 school year.
Staff who participate in this training will build skills in facilitating learning specifically in areas related to Teen Development, Facilitation, Educational Equity, Connected Learning, and Computational Thinking. Through this training, adults who work with teens in libraries will gain skills in articulating the value of the work that they do with and for teens, be more intentional with planning, and be able to better understand the needs of teens in their local communities.
Transforming Teen Services was originally developed for public library staff who work with teens as a part of an IMLS grant-funded project, but because of its relevance to anyone who works with teens in libraries, we wanted to make it available to you all and Clock Hours eligible! You are welcome to complete all or part of the course, but if you complete the entire thing you will receive a total of 15 Clock Hours.
You can find more information about how to sign up for the course and receive Clock Hours credit on the Washington State Library Clock Hours Niche Academy page here: https://my.nicheacademy.com/wslclockhoursacademy/pathway/41883/course/41884
You will need a free Niche Academy account, and you will also need to make sure you register for this course at this link in order to receive Clock Hours.
Virtual Learning Resources
WA Digital TeachKit is a resource guide developed by teacher librarians to support their fellow educators around WA with guides to various tools used to engage learners in virtual spaces.
Collection Management Policies
Creating and maintaining a robust collection development plan and collection management policy are key components of any school library program. Whether you are revamping an old policy, or creating a new one from scratch, here are some resources to get started.
Selection
A big part of building a school library collection is ensuring that the collection meets the needs of library users. This includes teachers as well as students who are using the collection to fulfill curricular needs and will be looking for current and engaging non-fiction as well as online resources. Another role of the school library is to develop a community of readers. Making sure that the library is making resources available that equitably and respectfully represent the experiences of all children and presenting current information.
Weeding
Evaluating Library Collections
Webinars & Self-Paced Courses
Check out the Washington State Library Training page for more information on upcoming workshops, webinars and the full collection of online training resources including WebJunction and Niche Academy.
School Library Media Certification Programs in Washington State
Antioch University Seattle: Antioch University Seattle’s Library Media Endorsement program is a Washington state-approved, standards-based endorsement that can be added to an existing Washington state or reciprocal state teaching certificate. The program consists of seven graduate courses offered quarterly (10 weeks per course) and can be completed within one academic year and summer or at your own pace. Courses can be taken completely online or with some face-to-face, hybrid options. Coursework blends research and theory with best practices in education and school librarianship while embedding the principles of social justice and leadership throughout the program.
Central Washington University: All the courses needed to complete the requirements to qualify for adding a Library Media endorsement to your teaching certificate are offered completely online. Individuals completing this 26 credit program will have met the minimum initial level of preparation necessary to direct a learning resources (library media) center in a K-12 school.
Eastern Washington University: Through 100 percent online coursework taught by experienced faculty, you will develop enhanced expertise in librarian leadership and administration. Explore key functions of the library media specialist, including technology-embedded instruction, information and resource literacy, as well as media collection management. The rigorous curriculum consists of six library media specialization courses and an internship with a mentor librarian. You will also create a portfolio displaying work integral to being a skilled library media educator.
Seattle Pacific University: As the Washington Library Association’s framework states, school librarians work to improve information and technology literacy campus-wide, promote a culture of avid readers, and provide information and resource management services to students and staff. SPU’s Library Media Endorsement Program is designed to guide and support school librarians as they help their campus thrive. Our program is offered in partnership with Highline College.
University of Washington: This is not a standalone program, but can be completed during the MLIS degree as part of the degree plan.
We encourage your feedback. If you have comments or suggestions, please use our
feedback form.
Funded in part by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).