This important book is a call to action for the library community to address the literacy and life outcome gaps impacting African American youth. It provides strategies that enable school and public librarians to transform their services, programs, and collections to be more responsive to the literacy strengths, experiences, and needs of African American youth. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), only 18 percent of African American fourth graders and 17 percent of African American eighth graders performed at or above proficiency in reading in 2013. This book draws on research from various academic fields to explore the issues surrounding African American literacy and to aid in developing culturally responsive school and library programs with the goal of helping to close the achievement gap and improve the quality of life for African American youth. The book merges the work of its three authors along with the findings of other researchers and practitioners, highlighting exemplary programs, such as the award-winning Pearl Bailey Library Program, the Maker Jawn initiative at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate writing institute in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, among others. Readers will understand how these culturally responsive programs put theory and research-based best practices into local action and see how to adapt them to meet the needs of their communities.

This book explores how libraries can create more equitable and just services and programs for African American youth to help improve their literacy and life outcomes. It introduces key research concepts, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), culturally relevant pedagogy, racial identity development, and equity literacy; and offers illustrations of how school and public librarians use these concepts to effect real change in the lives of African American youth.

Emphasizing an inclusive approach to programming that incorporates research-based theories and frameworks, this text will be a valuable orientation tool for LIS students as well as a holistic guide for current children and youth services professionals.

Be a part of the radical transformation to honor and respect Beautiful Brilliant Black Girls! This book is a collective call to action for educational justice and fairness for all Black Girls – Beautiful, Brilliant. This book engages willing and knowledgeable educators to disrupt and transform their learning spaces by presenting: Detailed chapters rooted in scholarship, lived experiences, and practice Activities, recommendations, shorter personal narratives, and poetry honoring Black Girls Resources centering Black female protagonists Companion videos illustrating first-hand experiences of Black Girls and women Tools in authentically connecting with Black Girls so they can do more than survive – they can thrive.

The amount and range of information available to today’s students—and indeed to all learners—is unprecedented. If the characteristics of “the information age” demand new conceptions of commerce, national security, and publishing—among other things—it is logical to assume that they carry implications for education as well. Little has been written, however, about how the specific affordances of these technologies—and the kinds of information they allow students to access and create—relate to the central purpose of education: learning. What does “learning” mean in an information-rich environment? What are its characteristics? What kinds of tasks should it involve? What concepts, strategies, attitudes, and skills do educators and students need to master if they are to learn effectively and efficiently in such an environment? How can researchers, theorists, and practitioners foster the well-founded and widespread development of such key elements of the learning process? This second edition continues these discussions and suggests some tentative answers. Drawing primarily from research and theory in three distinct but related fields—learning theory, instructional systems design, and information studies—it presents a way to think about learning that responds directly to the actualities of a world brimming with information. The second edition also includes insights from digital and critical literacies and provides a combination of an updated research-and-theory base and a collection of instructional scenarios for helping teachers and librarians implement each step of the I-LEARN model. The book could be used in courses in teacher preparation, academic-librarian preparation, and school-librarian preparation.

At the heart of any discussion about the future of libraries is the future of librarians—and how well our instructional programs, especially the Master of Library Science (MLS) degree, prepare them for their careers. This book continues the critical conversations around preparing future librarians.