33.072 - Potential Futures for School Libraries: Researcher Perspectives

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Public schools are undergoing sweeping reforms, including dwindling school library budgets and firing school librarians. This symposium asks: in today’s educational climate, how might we re-imagine the role of the school library, and school librarian? Panelists share the view that to best serve constituents, school libraries must look beyond the rhetoric of current education reform, toward both what works both within and outside school spaces. The papers propose that radical shifts are needed to keep school libraries relevant to the needs of schools and communities. Effects studies traditions, roles of the library and librarian, and the library as a space for interest-driven practices will all be critically assessed. The 4 papers offer varying contours that might shape the field’s future.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research, Education, Information, and School Libraries

Chair

• Jessica Hochman, Pratt Institute

Papers

• School Librarian Voices - Jessica Hochman, Pratt Institute

• Social Constructivist Digital Literacy: A Proposed Model Curriculum for School Librarians - Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers University

• Connected Learning, Coding, and Supporting Nonexpert Librarians in Technical Programming - Crystle Martin, University of California - Irvine

• Easy as Pi: Developing Computational Thinking in the Library With the Raspberry Pi - Eric Meyers, The University of British Columbia

• Works Cited - Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers University