Hello School Librarians,

You may be wondering why I didn’t address this post to Independent School Librarians, since this is the Community Blog of the Association of Independent School Librarians (AISL).  I did it purposely because I know that as a librarian who teaches in a preK to 12 school, what I do has implications that resonate for other school librarians whether that library is in a public, private, charter or perhaps, alien school. (Ah, what the big eyed aliens could teach us about information literacy!)

But I digress, my purpose in creating a community blog is to create a community of voices.  A common place to share your thoughts and ideas about school libraries: preK through 12. To that end, our blog will be organized in the following way:

Week one (the first week of the month)

• Lower Division (AKA Primary School, AKA pre-k to 5th grade): Our amazing bloggers are Lower Division librarians and will be blogging about all Lower Division topics.  These happy (there may be some tears as I understand that happens in Lower!) posts may include reviews, teaching plans, ideas for bulletin boards, you name it.  Please feel free to comment on their blogs and to suggest new topics.  We would LOVE it if you would link to our blog, if you find it useful and entertaining.

Week two (the second week of the month)

• Middle Division (AKA Middle School, AKA 6th grade to 8th Grade): Our bloggers are Middle Division librarians and will be all about the Middle Division experience!  How could this not be the most interesting week? Ha!  I mean, aren’t middle schoolers the most fascinating? Read about books, what works in the classroom and what they are doing in the library. Again, link to us if you find the blog interesting.

Week three (the third week of the month)

• Upper Division (AKA High School, AKA 9th grade to 12th grade): OH MY! These bloggers have it going on!  They will be sharing their stories from the trenches on how to entertain teens, keep them quiet and teach them how to be digital citizens of the world.  You don’t want to miss that, do you?

Week four (Yep, we have a fourth week of the month!)

• Technology and Renovations.   You were probably wondering what the heck were we going to do in week 4, weren’t you?  There is so much going on with ebooks, renovations, information commons, you name it, that we could do a whole blog just on this topic, but we want you to come back for more than just these items.

Please join us on our conversational journey!  It begins Monday, Nov. 4th, 2013 with our first Lower Division post. Don’t miss it.

Be a part of the conversation.

CD McLean, Library Dept. Chair at Berkeley Preparatory School

President 2013-2015

Association of Independent School Librarians

AISL serves independent school librarians in the United States and internationally.  If you are interested in becoming a member, go to www.aislnews.org.