Search

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has created additional opportunities for school librarians to collaborate with classroom teachers, reading specialists, and other educators in support of schools' literacy goals. This potential for expanded collaboration suggests a need for increased focus on reading instruction as part of the school librarian's workload. For a variety of reasons, school librarians may not see this role as a priority within the scope of their many other duties. This convergent mixed-methods study sought to examine the effect of a professional development series emphasizing reading comprehension strategies on school librarians' knowledge and perceptions. Results indicated that participants experienced statistically significant knowledge gains as well as increased acceptance of an enhanced role in literacy instruction.

Teacher Citizenship Behavior (TCB) theory categorizes and explains the extra-role professional behaviors of teachers. Although extensive prior research has sought to understand the professional dispositions of school librarians, limited inquiry exists which has extended the TCB theory to the work of school librarians. In this case study, researchers interviewed eight school librarians who actively volunteered with either a regional professional organization or young adult literature festival. Using a coding structure based upon the TCB theory, participant comments were examined for the presence of voluntary deeds and/or kindnesses exhibited during their work. Findings emphasized a relationship whereby participants' emotional connectedness to their school communities influenced their likelihood to perform behaviors in support of their organization but outside their specified job requirements. Implications include the need for greater mentorship of pre-service librarians as well as additional networking and professional development opportunities for practitioners., Introduction With the 2018 publication of the American Association of School Librarians' National School Library Standards, there has perhaps never been a better time to examine the professional behaviors and [...]

By providing an overview of library services as well as the building layout, the library orientation can help newcomers make optimal use of the library. The benefits of this outreach can be curtailed, however, by the significant staffing required to offer in-person tours. One academic library overcame this issue by turning to user experience research and gamification to provide an individualized online library orientation for four specific user groups: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and community members. The library surveyed 167 users to investigate preferences regarding orientation format, as well as likelihood of future library use as a result of the gamified orientation format. Results demonstrated a preference for the gamified experience among undergraduate students as compared to other surveyed groups., INTRODUCTION Background Newcomers to the academic campus can be a bit overwhelmed by their unfamiliar environment: there are faces to learn, services and processes to navigate, and an unexplored landscape [...]

By providing an overview of library services as well as the building layout, the library orientation can help newcomers make optimal use of the library. The benefits of this outreach can be curtailed, however, by the significant staffing required to offer in-person tours. One academic library overcame this issue by turning to user experience research and gamification to provide an individualized online library orientation for four specific user groups: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and community members. The library surveyed 167 users to investigate preferences regarding orientation format, as well as likelihood of future library use as a result of the gamified orientation format. Results demonstrated a preference for the gamified experience among undergraduate students as compared to other surveyed groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]