Sharing Our Stories: School Libraries
As many students are heading back to school, it is important for all community members to embrace and advocate for our students' intellectual freedom and access to school libraries staffed by professional school librarians.
Please join American Library Association President Sam Helmick and American Association of School Librarians President Amanda Kordeliski to hear some school library stories and discover how you can help share and amplify these stories to support education and students nationwide.
Panelist Deb Kachel will share results from IMLS-funded research on how urban school districts have added school librarians, and panelist Jenny Lussier will share how Connecticut Association of School Librarians helped pass Connecticut's 2025 Freedom to Read bill.
Sharing Our Stories: School Libraries
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
4:00 p.m. Central/5:00 p.m. Eastern
Register
A recording of this free webinar will be shared with all registrants.
Panelists:
Sam Helmick
Sam Helmick is the Community & Access Services Coordinator as the Iowa City Public Library. They advocate, resource, and support the excellent teams who provide circulation, bookmobile, marketing, outreach, and public relations services to the community.
Sam is a past president of the Iowa Library Association and served during a year when the state experienced the second most school and public library adverse bills in the nation and two intellectual freedom lawsuits. Sam has served as ALA Intellectual Freedom Round Table chair-elect and was the chair of the Iowa Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee when they were awarded the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award.
Sam is President of the American Library Association and speaks internationally on topics related to advocacy, intellectual freedom, social marketing, outreach, wellness, and library fundraising.
Amanda Kordeliski
Amanda Kordeliski is the current President for the American Association of School Librarians and has held a variety of leadership positions within the ALA and AASL. She is a member of ALA PolicyCorps, Unite Against Book Bans Cadre, and the PolicyCorps Advisory Board where she advocates for libraries at the state and national levels. Kordeliski has also served as a Director-at-Large on the AASL Board of Directors, for YALSA on the 2023 Michael L Printz Award committee, and Best Fiction for Young Adults (2020-2022).
Amanda was named at 2025 Library Journal Mover and Shaker for her school library advocacy work and was the recipient of the 2023 Oklahoma Library Association Distinguished Service Award for her advocacy. She is also a recipient of the Oklahoma School Librarians Technology in Education Award, the Oklahoma Polly Clarke School Librarian of the Year Award and the Oklahoma Educators Association Kate Frank Award for Human and Civil Rights.
Deb Kachel
Deb Kachel is an online Affiliate Faculty member of Antioch University Seattle and has over 30 years' experience as a high school librarian and district library coordinator in southeastern PA. In 2022, she became a Core Team member of PARSL-the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians, an all-volunteer grassroots community group that now has almost 1,600 supporters.
Deb has written and administered several federal IMLS grants, including scholarship programs for teachers to earn school library certification at Mansfield University from 2005 through 2015, totally over $4.5 million. She also was the Project Director of an IMLS-funded grant project called SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation--Decline or Evolution? examining the status of school librarian employment nationwide. The current IMLS grant she worked on, the Urban School Library Restoration Project, has been defunded by the current Trump Administration although the work continues with the School District of Philadelphia.
She is an active member of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association's Advocacy Committee and earned American Association of School Librarian's Distinguished Service Award in 2014 and frequently presents and writes about school library advocacy issues.
Jennifer Lussier
Jenny has been in education for 28 years, first as a middle grade classroom teacher and for the past 17 years as an elementary school library media specialist in Connecticut. Jenny has been president of the CT Association of School Librarians for the past two years, but is now happily embracing her role as immediate past president. In addition, she has been a leader in advocacy and intellectual freedom, helping to get Connecticut's Freedom to Read legislation passed.
This webinar is free, please help us spread the word!
Thank you,
Ana Elisa
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Ana Elisa de Campos Salles
Co-chair, Sam Helmick Presidential Advisory Committee
ALA Councilor-at-large
ALA Committee on Committees
Treasurer, Rainbow Round Table (RRT)
ALA Supporter/Public Program Steering Committee
Planning and Budget Assembly (PBA)
She, Her, Hers
2011-2012 ALA Spectrum Scholar
2013 ALA Emerging Leader
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