The school librarian as curriculum leader

One of the only books to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the role of school librarians in student success, this guide offers everything you'll need to develop, align, and evaluate curriculum with your library collection in mind.

This reference provides school library professors with strategies and tips for creating future school leaders out of current LIS students. Drawing upon her extensive experience as a school librarian, author Jody K. Howard heralds the library professional's role as information specialist, instructional partner, and curriculum advocate. Her insider's perspective is rich with tested strategies to help students seamlessly integrate the responsibilities of their multiple roles into daily activities.

The work explains the process of curriculum mapping and collection development with an eye on teaching these tools to those new to the profession. The content provides methods for developing guided inquiry lessons in collaboration with teachers, illustrates ways to develop leadership skills while aligning the collection with the curriculum, and offers strategies for working alongside curriculum committees and classroom teachers to build a cohesive educational program. The final chapter explores the roles and responsibilities of school librarians at the district, state, and national level.

• Introduction p. xi
• 1 What Is Curriculum? p. 1
• Overview of Curriculum p. 2
• Curriculum Philosophy p. 2
• Curriculum Components p. 3
• Educational Reform-Overview p. 5
• Standards p. 5
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 6
• 2 What Is Curriculum Leadership? p. 9
• Why Leadership? p. 10
• What Is Leadership? p. 10
• Personal Leadership Skills p. 15
• School Librarians' Leadership Roles p. 18
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 19
• 3 School Culture and School Relationships p. 21
• What Is an Organization? p. 22
• What Is Culture? p. 23
• How Do We Measure School Culture? p. 24
• Determining the Culture of an Institution p. 26
• How Can One Change the Culture of the School? p. 28
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 30
• 4 Curriculum Mapping p. 31
• What Is Curriculum Mapping? p. 32
• Barriers: Teaching in Isolation p. 33
• What Is the Process of Curriculum Mapping? p. 34
• Horizontal Lens-Horizontal Mapping p. 36
• Vertical Lens-Vertical Mapping p. 38
• The School Librarian's Role p. 39
• School-wide Curriculum Mapping p. 40
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 41
• 5 Collection Mapping p. 43
• What Is a Collection Map? p. 43
• How Do I Prepare a Collection Map? p. 44
• Step 1 Locate All of the Materials in the Collection p. 46
• Step 2 Divide the Collection into Smaller Parts p. 46
• Step 3 Decide Which Parts of the Collection to Analyze First p. 48
• Step 4 Determine the Number of Items in a Section p. 48
• Step 5 Print a List of Holdings and Match the List with the Items on the Shelf p. 49
• Step 6 Evaluate Each Item through Quantitative Measures p. 49
• Step 7 Physical Condition through Qualitative Information p. 51
• Step 8 Evaluate the Content of the Material through Weeding p. 52
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 53
• 6 Collection Development p. 55
• What Is Collection Development? p. 55
• Learning the Collection p. 56
• Conducting a Needs Assessment p. 57
• Selecting the Materials p. 60
• So, What Should I Purchase? p. 61
• Gifts p. 61
• Baby Steps, Again p. 62
• Policies and Procedures p. 62
• Collection Development Plan Content p. 63
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 64
• 7 Instructional Partner and Change p. 67
• A Brief History of the Instructional Role p. 67
• Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (1988) p. 68
• Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (1998) p. 68
• Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs (2009) p. 69
• What Does Instructional Partner Mean? p. 69
• Change p. 72
• School Librarians Implementing Change p. 72
• Becoming an Instructional Partner in a Nutshell p. 74
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 75
• 8 The Learning Community p. 77
• What Is a Learning Community? p. 78
• Position Responsibility Lens p. 79
• School Lens p. 79
• School Lens: Community of Practice p. 80
• School Lens: Professional Learning Community p. 81
• School Lens: Critical Friends Group p. 81
• School Librarians and Learning Communities p. 83
• Professional Development p. 85
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 86
• 9 Teacher and School Librarian Partnership p. 87
• Learning Theories p. 87
• Inquiry p. 89
• Essential Questions p. 90
• School Library Curriculum p. 92
• Partnership Role p. 93
• What Does All of This Mean? p. 95
• 10 Beyond the School p. 97
• Local Organizations p. 97
• District p. 98
• State, National, and International Opportunities p. 100
• Does All of This Mean? p. 101
• A Final Word p. 103
• References p. 105
• Index p. 113