With simple, straight-forward directions and hundreds of reproducibles, this book provides you with a step-by-step guide for evaluating your school library media program. Individual chapters cover standards, programs, preparation of media personnel, certification, continuing education, personnel and evaluation, leadership, planning, and management, resources, and facilities. Many of the concepts and guidelines of Information Power have been incorporated into the text.

This guide for the evaluation of school libraries both in practice and in research covers analysis, techniques, and research practices for conducting evaluations of curriculum, collections, facilities, and library personnel performance. This new edition of an important tool for school librarians and administrators describes how and why to conduct evaluations of school libraries and explains the evaluation of curriculum, collections, facilities, student programs and services, and library personnel. The results can be used for strategic planning, curriculum development, and conducting action research. New topics to this edition include explorations of community, faculty, students, and school library research, discussing how to bring all stakeholders to the table when evaluating the school library program, personnel and services, and the collection and facilities. Other new topics include information on high-stakes testing, multiculturalism, special needs students, advocacy, school librarians' self-evaluation, dispositions for learning, and evidence-based practice. This title will be of value to new school librarians in assessing how their program compares to others, as well as to school library professors, who will find this book useful in management and administration courses.

The most recent set of national guidelines for the development of school library media programs, which was published in 1988, identifies underlying changes in the roles of the school library media specialist as well as in the program itself. Viewing the library media specialist as an initiator of curricular activities rather than a purveyor of support services, these guidelines emphasize leadership, partnership, planning, curricular needs, collection development, and equity of access to information. This discussion guide has been developed to help educators at all levels to plan meetings and conduct effective discussion sessions with persons who have become familiar with "Information Power" in its entirety, in order to evaluate local school library media programs in light of the recent revisions. The first of three sections identifies the principal concepts presented in "Information Power" and provides an overview of each of its eight chapters. Procedures by which discussion sections may be effectively organized to promote the successful exchange of knowledge and views are recommended in the second section. The final section identifies specific constituencies for discussion groups and suggests discussion questions for each of the groups--i.e., library media specialists, administrators and boards of education, classroom teachers, college and university faculty, state department of education personnel, and members of the community at large--as well as questions for mixed constituency groups and questions basic to all discussion sessions. (GL)

You can take a proactive role in shaping instruction and respond to your users' needs and requests with this thoroughly revised and expanded guide. You'll learn how to develop and implement an effective library media program by integrating it into the total education environment. Part One covers all aspects of the school environment: students, curriculum and instruction, principals, school district administration, and the community. Part Two shows you how to integratethe school library media program throughout these environments using interaction and collaboration. New in this edition are discussions of special education, post-high school transitions, shared school/public libraries, and more, along with a discussion of recent developments in elementary education, including standards, assessments, and the No Child Left Behind Act.

Reflecting changes—professional, theoretical, legal, and political—in both the library field and education, this new edition of a groundbreaking school library text will equip readers to be leaders at their schools and in their communities.