1. The application of standards to delivering
excellence to the profession
Barbara Schultz-Jones, PhD
Toby Faber
Jan Reed
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

2.  Background
 Method
 Results
 Discussion
 Implications
 Questions
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia 2

3.  School library certification program online
 Students from Texas, other states, other
countries
 Program focuses on practitioner skills and
orientation to standards (AASL, state, etc.)
 Examining the perceptions of graduating
professionals
 Perceptions of professional priorities as they
consider the application of professional
standards to the role of school librarian
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

4.  Electronic copies of 2 written assessments
 39 graduating school librarians
 Summer and fall semesters of 2009
 1st assessment
 Research paper discussing the top 3 trends or issues,
from their perspective, facing school librarians today
as they apply school library standards
 2nd assessment
 Track the postings of LM_Net listserv and identify
the top 3 issues of concern posted by contributing
school librarians.
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

5.  Student identification removed from the papers
 Assignments were coded according to the
semester and the assignment
 LM01-LM23
 TRSUM01 – TRSUM16
 TRFAL01 - TRFAL14
 3 coders examined each, individually
 Unit of analysis: issue
 Coding an iterative process among the coders
 Nvivo content analysis software
 Final list of 16 issues
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

6. 1. Advocacy
2. Classification (organizing by genre)
3. Collaboration (with teachers & administrators)
4. Copyright
5. Diversity of multicultural literature collection
6. International Baccalaureate (IB) program
7. Inquiry based learning
8. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
9. Information literacy
10. Funding or budget
11. Library management
12. Reading recommendations
13. Role of the school librarian
14. Scheduling (fixed or flexible)
15. Space usage in the library
16. Technology, including web 2.0
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
(alphabetically)

7. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Copyright
4. Information literacy
5. Role of the school librarian
6. Advocacy
7. Collaboration
8. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
9. Classification of resources
10. Reading recommendations
11. Multicultural literature collection
12. Scheduling
13. Space usage
14. Inquiry based learning
15. Library management
16. International Baccalaureate (IB) program
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
(Ranked, all sources)

8. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Information literacy
4. Collaboration
5. Advocacy
6. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
7. Role of the school librarian
8. Multicultural literature collection
9. Copyright
10. Library management
11. Reading recommendations
12. Scheduling
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
(Ranked, summer 2009)

9. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Advocacy
4. Role of the school librarian
5. Scheduling
6. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
7. Information literacy
8. Inquiry based learning
9. Multicultural literature
10. Space
11. Copyright
12. International Baccalaureate program
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
(Ranked, fall 2009)

10. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Copyright
3. Classification of resources
4. Information literacy
5. Reading recommendations
6. Role of the school librarian
7. Collaboration
8. Funding
9. Space
10. Multicultural literature
11. Library management
12. Scheduling
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
(Ranked, listserv)

11. Advocacy Classifying fiction
Collaboration Copyright Diverse
collection IB program Inquiry Intellectual freedom
Information literacy
FundingLibrary management Reading Role
Scheduling Space Technology
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

12. Dominant themes:
 Meeting the challenges of a rapidly
changing information landscape
 Sense of urgency
 Leadership role inherent in the shifting dynamics of the
school environment
 Student learning
 Implications for learning using inquiry process
 Meeting the needs of students and teachers
 Where are the standards??!!
 Issues were discussed in relation to standards (AASL)
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

13.  Technology dominates
 Web 2.0
 Expanding instructional skills
 Need to stay up-to-date
 Familiarity and comfort level
 Which ones to purchase
 Availability to students
 Assisting teachers with tools
 Recognition that a technology rich environment
is conducive to learning
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

14. “What library services will suffer because money
is spent on technology?”
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

15. Funding:
 “there are two factors that influence how school
library programs are run – budgets and standards”
 “when librarians are filling a fundraising role it takes
away time to devote to students”
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

16. Information Literacy:
 Recurring issue: Acquiring and using the skills
to access and evaluate resources
 Missing: the ways to do so
 Issue identified for students
 Not a skill issue for librarians
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

17. Inquiry based learning:
 “Todd Effect”
 Ross Todd fall 2009
 Stirring call to action
 Impact: significant
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

18.  “the advent of new technologies
has made the job of librarians
more relevant and essential
than ever”
 Multiplicity of responsibilities
 Creativity challenge
 LIS education challenge
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

19.  Listserv
 Encourage conversations
 Practitioner focus
 Research infrequent
 Lacking as a vehicle for
research interaction
 Ongoing professional
development
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

20. Future Focus
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

21. IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia
??Questions??

22. Barbara A. Schultz-Jones, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Director, School Library Program
Department of Library and Information Sciences
College of Information, University of North Texas
1155 Union Circle 311068, Denton, Texas 76203-5017
Office: 940-369-8081
Fax: 940-565-3101
Barbara.Schultz-Jones@unt.edu