The document summarizes a study on the perceptions of graduating school librarians regarding professional standards and priorities. It found that the top issues were technology, funding, and information literacy. Other highly ranked issues included collaboration, advocacy, and the role of the school librarian. Perceptions varied between summer and fall graduates. The study provided insights into challenges faced by school librarians in applying standards.

1. The application of standards to delivering
excellence to the profession
Barbara Schultz-Jones, PhD
Toby Faber
Jan Reed
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

2. Background
Method
Results
Discussion
Implications
Questions
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia 2

3. School library certification program online
Students from Texas, other states, other
countries
Program focuses on practitioner skills andProgram focuses on practitioner skills and
orientation to standards (AASL, state, etc.)
Examining the perceptions of graduating
professionals
Perceptions of professional priorities as they
consider the application of professional
standards to the role of school librarian
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

4. Electronic copies of 2 written assessments
39 graduating school librarians
Summer and fall semesters of 2009
1st assessment1 assessment
Research paper discussing the top 3 trends or issues,
from their perspective, facing school librarians today
as they apply school library standards
2nd assessment
Track the postings of LM_Net listserv and identify
the top 3 issues of concern posted by contributing
school librarians.
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

5. Student identification removed from the papers
Assignments were coded according to the
semester and the assignment
LM01-LM23
TRSUM01 – TRSUM16TRSUM01 – TRSUM16
TRFAL01 - TRFAL14
3 coders examined each, individually
Unit of analysis: issue
Coding an iterative process among the coders
Nvivo content analysis software
Final list of 16 issues
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

6. 1. Advocacy
2. Classification (organizing by genre)
3. Collaboration (with teachers & administrators)
4. Copyright
5. Diversity of multicultural literature collection
6. International Baccalaureate (IB) program
7. Inquiry based learning
Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
(alphabetically)
8. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
9. Information literacy
10. Funding or budget
11. Library management
12. Reading recommendations
13. Role of the school librarian
14. Scheduling (fixed or flexible)
15. Space usage in the library
16. Technology, including web 2.0
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

7. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Copyright
4. Information literacy
5. Role of the school librarian
6. Advocacy
7. Collaboration
(Ranked, all sources)
Collaboration
8. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
9. Classification of resources
10. Reading recommendations
11. Multicultural literature collection
12. Scheduling
13. Space usage
14. Inquiry based learning
15. Library management
16. International Baccalaureate (IB) program
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

8. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Information literacy
4. Collaboration
5. Advocacy
(Ranked, summer 2009)
6. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
7. Role of the school librarian
8. Multicultural literature collection
9. Copyright
10. Library management
11. Reading recommendations
12. Scheduling
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

9. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Funding
3. Advocacy
4. Role of the school librarian
5. Scheduling
6. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
(Ranked, fall 2009)
6. Intellectual freedom (censorship/filtering)
7. Information literacy
8. Inquiry based learning
9. Multicultural literature
10. Space
11. Copyright
12. International Baccalaureate program
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

10. 1. Technology, including web 2.0
2. Copyright
3. Classification of resources
4. Information literacy
5. Reading recommendations
6. Role of the school librarian
(Ranked, listserv)
6. Role of the school librarian
7. Collaboration
8. Funding
9. Space
10. Multicultural literature
11. Library management
12. Scheduling
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

11. Advocacy Classifying fiction
Collaboration Copyright Diverse
collection IB program Inquiry Intellectual freedom
Information literacyInformation literacy
FundingLibrary management Reading Role
Scheduling Space Technology
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

12. Dominant themes:
Meeting the challenges of a rapidly
changing information landscape
Sense of urgency
Leadership role inherent in the shifting dynamics of theLeadership role inherent in the shifting dynamics of the
school environment
Student learning
Implications for learning using inquiry process
Meeting the needs of students and teachers
Where are the standards??!!
Issues were discussed in relation to standards (AASL)
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

13. Technology dominates
Web 2.0
Expanding instructional skills
Need to stay up-to-dateNeed to stay up-to-date
Familiarity and comfort level
Which ones to purchase
Availability to students
Assisting teachers with tools
Recognition that a technology rich environment
is conducive to learning
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

14. “What library services will suffer because money
is spent on technology?”
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

15. Funding:
“there are two factors that influence how school
library programs are run – budgets and standards”
“when librarians are filling a fundraising role it takes
away time to devote to students”away time to devote to students”
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

16. Information Literacy:
Recurring issue: Acquiring and using the skills
to access and evaluate resources
Missing: the ways to do soMissing: the ways to do so
Issue identified for students
Not a skill issue for librarians
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

17. Inquiry based learning:
“Todd Effect”
Ross Todd fall 2009Ross Todd fall 2009
Stirring call to action
Impact: significant
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

18. “the advent of new technologies
has made the job of librarians
more relevant and essential
than ever”than ever”
Multiplicity of responsibilities
Creativity challenge
LIS education challenge
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

19. Listserv
Encourage conversations
Practitioner focus
Research infrequentResearch infrequent
Lacking as a vehicle for
research interaction
Ongoing professional
development
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

20. Future Focus
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

21. ??Questions??
IASL & SLAQ, Brisbane QLD Australia

22. Barbara A. Schultz-Jones, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Director, School Library Program
Department of Library and Information Sciences
College of Information, University of North Texas
1155 Union Circle 311068, Denton, Texas 76203-5017
Office: 940-369-8081Office: 940-369-8081
Fax: 940-565-3101
Barbara.Schultz-Jones@unt.edu