Attention all Library Staff!

AkASL will be putting together a presentation to help advocate for library positions and resources throughout the state. The presentation will be made available to share across the state. We need your photos, screenshots, and videos of wonderful things happening in your library. Anything that shows a positive impact on students is welcome. Before sending photos, please double check that all FERPA conditions are met.

Please send the following information with your photos and videos: 1) your name, 2) your position, 3) your library, and 4) a brief background for the photo or video. Please send your materials to your Region Rep or to Deborah Rinio at deborah.rinio@k12northstar.org by May 1. Please note, if your materials are too large to fit in an email, you are welcome to share them via Google Docs.

AASL is calling for nominations for National School Library Program of the Year.

The information and application can be found here. Why should an Alaskan apply? First it is incredibly prestigious. $10,000 in award money (for up to three winners), and a chance to be on the cover of School Library Journal! Second, AASL pointed out that no one from the Northwest has ever won and they were begging for applications from our area. So this might be our year! And third, this would be amazingly great publicity for Alaska librarians at a time when library programs are being cut across the state. So please consider nominating yourself or someone else. If you have ideas of who would be a good nominee (including yourself, don’t be shy!) please email me or an AkASL board member. AkASL will do all we can to support any candidates.

Having just completed the National Boards process in March, I am impressed with how much I learned over the past year.  It is a certification that I would urge librarians around the state to try and achieve.  Not only is it the best professional development that I have engaged in in my eleven years as a school librarian, it is also financially rewarded by most districts, and the state is considering paying an extra stipend too.  However, I urge other Alaska librarians to consider becoming certified not just for for these reasons, but because it strengthens our profession as a whole.  When educators and administrators see a large group of us as nationally certified professionals, they will regard us as more than just book clerks, easy to get rid of in times of financial difficulties.

There are several nationally certified librarians in our state who are very generous with their time and encouraging when helping National Board applicants.  A large percentage of Alaska librarians achieve certification on their first try due in part to the outstanding support from their fellow librarians.  Another wonderful resource we have in the state is the Jump Start course that helps applicants get started each June.  This course is held in Anchorage, is hosted by NEA-AK, and transportation, housing, and two meals a day are also covered.  Taking this course will demystify the process and get you on your way.  The course is now open for registration, but sign up soon, the spaces fill up quickly!  I highly recommend that anyone remotely considering the process take this course.  It will help you make up your mind, and is a very inexpensive and enjoyable two credits!

Although I don’t find out until Thanksgiving whether I am certified, I am happy to answer questions or refer you to someone who knows the answers!

The State Library is sponsoring its second Library Snapshot Day the week of April 16th.  Last year only two school libraries participated.  This year we want many more school libraries to participate!  Why should you participate?

• School librarian positions across the country are being cut.  This is a great proactive way to collect data to help you and everyone in the state advocate for the importance of school librarians!
• It will make you feel really good at the end of the day when you see hard proof of everything you do (and how much your students love you)!
• You will have amazing statistics to share with your administrator, fellow teachers, PTSA, students, and the school board!  Share the statistics in your newsletter or on your website.
• The students will be eager to do it. They love the library too and they will want to know what you find out. Share the results with them!
• It’s not hard, and it’s not much extra work. All the documents you will need are provided on this page below. Just run them off and add a camera. Voila!

To check our the State Library’s Snapshot Day page go here.

To get specific information on how to run a Snapshot Day program in your library, go here.