Celebrating Connection, Reflection, and Joy

Heather Hornor

2025-12-02 04:27 PM

December brings a uniquely chaotic blend of academic pressure, cultural celebration, and seasonal reflection. School libraries offer a powerful blend of academic support, cultural celebration, inclusive practice, and joyful reading. By honoring local traditions, fostering empathy, easing finals stress, and building excitement for upcoming awards, librarians help create a season where every learner feels supported, [...]

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Principals' Perceptions of the AASL National Conference

Amy Brownlee

2025-12-01 09:44 AM

At the AASL National Conference in St. Louis, I had the amazing experience of attending with my building administrator. Our time together at the conference strengthened both our personal and professional relationships. My principal gained valuable insight into the work of school librarians, learned about what matters to us, and developed a new understanding of [...]

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Inviting Administrators into our Clubhouse

Amy Brownlee

2025-11-18 09:00 AM

I attended my second AASL National Conference in St. Louis in October, and it was every bit as impactful as I remembered: the keynote assemblies, free books and author/illustrator signings, exhibit hall, vendors, networking, bags full of free swag, idea lab, poster sessions, panels, and too many concurrent sessions to count. And most of all [...]

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Creating a Sense of Wonder with a Community Read

Kelly Hincks

2025-11-14 09:30 AM

For the past four years, our school community has started with a Community Read. This shared experience has every student, teacher, and staff member read the same book to connect everyone across all grades. Our past book choices have included Potato Pants! by Laurie Keller, Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao by Kat Zhang, and [...]

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Literary Library Contests

Karin Greenberg

2025-11-12 12:33 PM

It's How You Play the Game Winning is fun. Those who research the human mind find that "there is something inexplicably compelling about the nature of competition" (van der Linden 2015). What better way, then, to bring students closer to literature than contests. It's hard enough getting students to read full books for pleasure, so [...]

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Supercharging Your Library with Parent Volunteers 

Marie Langevin

2025-11-10 11:23 AM

We like to think of ourselves as superheroes, right? We can do it all on our own faster, better, more efficiently than anyone else. But here's the truth: not for long. Yes, librarians are capable of amazing things (y'all prove that time and time again), but help allows us to do more, better.  I also [...]

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Building Your Literal Tool Kit: Hand Tools To Improve Your School Library Experience

Steve Tetreault

2025-11-07 11:05 AM

Building Your Tool Kit  We often speak metaphorically about the need for building our professional tool kit, making sure we have the skills and knowledge needed to be successful school librarians. But I have found that having a literal tool kit is also incredibly valuable in my school library.  A recent Bluesky conversation about tape [...]

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