A few weeks ago, Patricia de Winter posted to the list opening up opportunities to write for this blog. While this is not the first post I am writing up against a deadline (and will not be the last), I’m nonetheless writing to encourage each of you who has found this blog useful at some point to consider participating.

One thing I have learned about school librarians is that so much feels high-stakes in our work lives, the idea of taking on a blogging opportunity feels quite risky. We worry we are not enough. We want things to be complete, and proven-to-be-perfect, before we feel comfortable sharing it with others.

I’d like to propose that professional sharing communities (such as writing for this blog, presenting at conferences, and even sharing on our list) are specifically the place to share your halfway-there ideas (really, when do we ever actually have all-there ideas?). A supportive and — more importantly — engaged community such as this one offers the chance for asynchronous collaboration that so often is how my own work gets better. Historically, my conference proposals are almost always on topics I really want to set aside time to think about and work with, and submitting a proposal makes me commit to finding the time to do the work. Blog posts are something of a similar animal. One can share ideas, things you tried, and hopefully spark conversations over time that allow you to circle back and improve with input from across the continent.

For example, several years back I wrote a post about an evidently effective, but also super-convoluted, lesson I wrote to teach my seventh graders how search works. Writing it up was my first step to towards realizing that it did not make quite as much sense outside my head as it did inside. Over the years, I’ve gotten various questions about that post that further helped me step back from my chosen method. To my great good luck, Stephanie Gamble posted a much more solid lesson idea a few years later, using Legos. By looking back at conversations I’d had about my original lesson, I was able to better determine what seemed effective to keep and what needed changing.

As a result, I’ve had increasingly effective lessons over the last several years (thank you, Stephanie!) into which I was able to integrate the stronger concepts from my original lesson.

This blog does exist as a vehicle for communal learning, so of course you don’t need to author it to get ideas. However, it does help. As does interacting via comments or emails to post authors.

So, whether you think you have “big ideas” to share, or whether you wish your ideas could get bigger, I recommend stepping up to write, collaborate, and interact. It makes all of us better, working together.

Interested? Maybe even willing to write a single post as a guest blogger? Search your email for a posting dated Sep 16, 2025, subject line: “AISL Blog” — this is the perfect time to raise your hand!