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The EveryLibrary Institute NFP and Book Riot conducted a series of surveys in late 2023 to investigate parents’ perceptions of school libraries and school librarians in the United States. The surveys were comprehensive, covering a wide range of topics such as the importance of school librarians, access to books, parental involvement in education and reading, […]
Senate File 496 (SF 496) is an Iowa law that restricts schools from teaching about LGBTQ-related topics and requires districts to ban books depicting sex acts. Since its enactment in July 2023, school districts in Iowa have broadly interpreted this law, leading to the removal of a wide range of books from school libraries. The […]
EveryLibrary Institute and Book Riot fielded the “Parents’ Perception of School Libraries and Librarians” survey in December 2023 to get a new understanding of how parents and guardians think and feel about our role in education. We asked 616 parents and guardians and aimed to understand their perceptions on various topics related to school libraries: […]
The “science of reading” is a new pedagogy for supporting reading and an emerging buzzword in education circles. Whether you advocate for its particular approach to literacy or not, school librarians need to be aware that changes to school district and state-level Department of Education policies regarding the science of reading will affect your budget […]
November 2023 Election Hot Take: It was a good night for libraries, a bad night for censorship
| News
There’s no other way to look at it: the results of last night’s elections across the country broke decisively for libraries. EveryLibrary tracked 40 public library funding measures, and in 95% of them, voters approved the requests, often by wide margins. [See: Election Night 2023 Library Wrap-Up] SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS GO OUR WAY While all […]
As we have seen repeatedly over the past two years, it is easy to make accusations against books and librarians. It takes little effort to fill out a materials challenge form alleging that books are obscene or pornographic. Anyone can step up to the microphone at a public meeting and share out-of-context excerpts from award-winning […]
As we all know too well, communities across the country are seeing a huge spike in book challenges and bans in our school and public libraries. Censorship is on the rise, and libraries and librarians are being personally attacked, threatened, and fired, while libraries are seeing their funding threatened unless they remove books written by […]
What would the school library landscape look like if every state Department of Education prioritized a full-time staff role to champion the needs of school librarians and school library programs? According to our colleagues from the SLIDE project, only 13 states have full-time coordinators who support school librarians employed by their state departments of […]
Schools that have high-quality library programs and library staff benefit the entire student body. Student achievement improves when care and consideration is put into a library’s collection, staffing, and funding. A 2012 longitudinal literacy study completed by Dr. Stephen Krashen, an international linguistics scholar, and his colleagues Christy Lao, Sy-ying Lee, and Jeff McQuillan, looked […]
In light of the 2023 legislative session, state school library associations should consider reframing their legislative strategies and shift focus to the pre-session or intersession period as a way to engage electeds outside of the intensity of the regular session. Education policy and funding are largely set at the state level. State school library associations […]
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