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September 2017
President's Message
Welcome back to school and to what I hope will be a successful year for all. I hope you enjoyed your summer and the opportunity to reflect on how to make your library program the better than ever in the 2017-18 school year.
I was honored to be inducted as NJASL President at our August board meeting and promise to work all year on the behalf of all school librarians in NJ and the students we serve. I am excited to be starting my 11th year at Cherokee High School in Marlton, NJ. Where did the last decade go? When I reflect on how much has changed in my ten years at Cherokee I am amazed. When I started students did not have email accounts, were just starting to use flash drives to take school work home and were texting with flip phones. Twitter was still in its infancy and we got the majority of our news from the TV or newspapers. Now my students are super Google users that can collaborate and create on any platform and use social media to communicate and engage. I am excited to think about the opportunities to create, discover and imagine that the next 10 years will hold for our students.
Thank you everyone on our NJASL Board, as they balance getting their own libraries open and volunteering their time to work on NJASL projects and especially our fall conference. The NJASL Board worked hard this summer, starting with strategic planning in June and ending with approving our Strategic Plan for 2017-18 at our August Board meeting.
The Strategic plan focuses on four major areas:
Board communication and organization
Fiscal Stability
Advocacy
Membership
For more information, see - http://www.njasl.org/StrategicPlan
I am hoping that we can continue to streamline our board organization and inner workings and, as a leaner more efficient board, we will be able to provide more value to members. Please take a minute to review our strategic plan at the link above. NJASL is your professional organization and we want members to feel invested in the work that we do on your behalf. We are always looking for members to help with projects, so please contact me if you have the passion and time to share in support of our plan.
We also need your financial support as a member and a conference attendee. It is your membership and conference support that allows us to advocate for all SLMS in NJ. We have made great legislative gains this year. Please check out all our legislative accomplishments written by Mary Moyer Stubbs (found below). While I admit it was nerve racking at first, the testimonies I gave this year at the state were worth the effort. Library services now have their own category under NJQSAC. We have been invited to be part of the committee creating NJDOE Office of Innovation’s Digital Citizenship Standard and, on 9/27, we will be presenting at the Executive Superintendent’s meeting. We are working hard to advocate for library jobs and programs and are excited by the reception our testimony and work at the NJDOE has received.
NJASL President Elect Christina Cucci and her committee have been working really hard to make this our best conference ever.
On Thursday evening at the conference in the vendor hall, we will be having an NJASL Engagement session (formerly the County Mixer). It will be a great opportunity for members to mingle, network and see what NJASL committees are doing and how you can get involved.
I look forward to meeting new members and catching up with library friends at the conference and I hope we can work together to make this a great school year for all the students New Jersey. See you in November.
Best,
Lisa Bakanas
NJASL President
Professional Practice & Development
NJASL Fall Conference
The NJASL Fall 2017 Conference, Promoting Powerful Partnerships, will be held on Thu. Nov. 16- Fri. Nov. 17 at Ocean Place Resort, in Long Branch, NJ. Keynotes by authors Judy Freeman and Jordan Sonnenblick will open each day. There will be at least 8 hours of PD sessions with topics ranging from the newly updated AASL standards, social media behaviors, research models, news literacy, and coding. You just can’t miss it.
Top 10 Reasons to Go to NJASL Fall 2017 Conference
NJASL has been approved for the travel waiver. This means, if you live more than 50 miles from Long Branch, you may ask your district to reimburse you for overnight stay on Nov. 16. Please print and submit the travel waiver to your district.
Christina Cucci
President's Award
One of the great perks of being NJASL President, is awarding the NJASL President’s Award. This prestigious award is presented by the NJASL President to someone who has demonstrated excellence and has advanced the profession of school library media specialist.
I am pleased to announce that the recipient of this year’s President's Award is Joanne Roukens, Assistant Director of Librarylink NJ. While Joanne’s background is in public libraries, in her role at LibrarylinkNJ she is a true friend, mentor, and resource to NJASL. She graciously attends our NJASL board meetings offering us her insight and assistance when needed. Her skills as a facilitator and strategic planner have helped NJASL immensely. She is the consummate professional and we appreciate her guidance. As she manages LLNJ’s statewide continuing education program, Joanne has helped NJASL to get the most value from the CE grants made available to us. She is a gracious hostess and always welcomes NJASL with a smile as we invade the LibrarylinkNJ offices for our board meetings. We are not alone in thinking highly of Joanne Roukens. In 2007, she was named the New Jersey Library Association’s Librarian of the Year. In keeping with this year’s NJASL Conference theme of “Promoting Powerful Partnerships”, NJASL is very fortunate to have such a powerful partner and ally as Joanne.
Joanne Roukens will be honored with the President’s Award at our Annual Conference to be held on November 16-17th at Ocean Place Spa and Resort.
Website: http://librarylinknj.org/about-us/llnj-staff/joanne-p-roukens
Location: Ocean Place Resort and Spa, Ocean Boulevard, Long Branch, NJ, United States
3D Animal Printing by Arielle Goldstein
Students in grade 3 research biomes and create their own unique animal using 3D printing. Learn more at: https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/39360-animal-adaptations?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Ultimaker&utm_content=Animal%20Adaptations
NJASL Legislative Consultant
- Mary Moyer Stubbs
Calling on School Library Media Specialists to Showcase Collaboration!
innovateNJ Website
The New Jersey Department of Education in partnership with InnovateNJ and the New Jersey Educational Computing Cooperative have created the innovateNJ website, as a place for educators to create, share and leverage collaborative projects. This community is designed for schools and educators who believe that meaningful collaboration improves the learning environment and provides opportunities for all students. The website is free to join and includes such groups as Social Media, Maker Movement, Digital Citizenship, as starting points for discussions and sharing of ideas. Additionally, the website highlights stories of examples of collaborative projects in schools as well as resources and upcoming events such as workshops and conferences. This is a great opportunity for school library media specialists to showcase the great work that they are doing with their students. Take a few minutes to join the exchange and start to share ideas and collaborative projects.Library Construction Bond Ballon Question Construction
During the November 7, 2017 general election, there will be a ballot question which will ask voters if they approve the Library Construction Bond Act, the first-ever statewide public question concerning public libraries in New Jersey. NJASL supports this bill and our position statement is posted below. Please publicize and promote support for this bill that will authorize $125 million in bonds to finance capital projects in public libraries requiring a 1:1 match from the municipality or county. NJASL Position Statement Library Construction Bond Ballot.pdfNJASL Works to Support School Library Media Specialists
During the 2016-2017 school year, NJASL was busy working to support school library media specialists. See the list of accomplishments listed below that were achieved during last school year. NJASL is committed to providing the same support during this school year. Thanks to individual members for responding to requests for comments to the State Board of Education and legislators. Individual responses do make a difference. Members of the State Board of Education and legislators need to hear the personal stories of what is happening in individual schools and libraries. Stay tuned for more ways to participate during 2017-2018 as well as checking out the advocacy resources on the NJASL webpage, http://njasl.org/AdvocacyResources.
Created Comments for State Board of Education, January 2017 on Administrative Code, Chapter 6A:13-2.1 Standards-based instruction
Created testimony for January 4 State Board of Education Public Testimony Session: Testimony on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and NJ Department of Education’s ESSA Implementation Plan
Worked with NJLA including: Library Advocacy Fortnight, promoting legislative bill A4500, Library Construction Bond Bill
Wrote letters of support for School Districts Threatened with Loss of School Librarians: Milburn, Woodbridge, Berlin, West Orange
Created testimony for Assembly Education Committee on School Funding pages 86-92
Created testimony for Assembly and Senate Budget Committee Hearings
Created comments for Social and Emotional Learning Competencies - See Comment 11 from DOE
Created School Library Month Resolution approved by State Board of Education
Created testimony for April State Board of Education Public Testimony Session on QSAC and School Library Media Services See Link for Testimony
NJASL Comments: Programs & Practices to Support Student Achievement Readoption: N.J.A.C. 6A:13
Success with QSAC - Library Services were added as a separate category Under Governance with a point value of 3 points N.J.A.C. 6A:13 See page 6 DOE Comments
Currently, working on collaborative project with DOE on new Digital Citizenship standard.
Due to advocacy on QSAC, NJASL will be presenting to the Executive County Superintendents in September.
NJLTA Report
THE NJASL Public Relations, Communication, and Publications Committee has a lot to accomplish this year and is off to a quick start. We want to publicize and promote items that pertain to libraries and hope you will promote bills described below.
NJ Library Association has done a fantastic job promoting all types of libraries in recent years, thanks especially to James Keehbler and his team. I attended the NJ Library Trustee Association's meeting on Sept. 9th and the presentation on the Unlock Student Potential Taskforce was outstanding. Most of the trustees and others in attendance did not realize how many students don't benefit from having certified SLMSs in their schools or that there are two related bills to support.
The presentations under Trustees & Advocacy: Critical Issues Facing NJ Library Trustees were quite informative and included the following topics:
NJ Library Construction Bond Act – The NJ Construction Bond Act has been signed by the Governor and will be on the ballot of the upcoming November general election. Please publicize and promote support for this bill that will authorize $125 million in bonds to finance capital projects in public libraries requiring a 1:1 match from the municipality or county.
Unlock Student Potential: Support Highly Effective School Library Programs in New Jersey – NJ Library Association, along with NJASL and other partners, are actively advocating for every student in NJ to have the opportunity to learn and develop information, research, media, technology, and digital literacy skills taught by a state certified School Library Media Specialist. Unlike other states, New Jersey does not require every school to have a certified school library media specialist (SLMS); a recent survey revealed that there are 20% fewer SLMSs now than there were in 2007-2008. Additional information is available in a recent report on School Libraries in New Jersey.
Please promote the following bills to provide equity in learning for all NJ students:
A4500/S3258 – Requires certain ratios of school library media specialists to students in public schools.
A4858 – Requires instruction on information literacy in curriculum of students in grades kindergarten through 12.
NJASL Affiliate News
AASL Update
LaDawna Harrington
September 2017 BookMark
AASL Liaison, AA Delegate
The new standards and guidelines are scheduled to launch at AASL National Conference in just a few short weeks. I know that many districts have been working on new curriculums and looking to integrate the learning standards into the content areas. You should know that the current AASL standards will not “go away” with the release of new standards. As with each iteration of the learning standards there will be carry-forward elements. That said I will be attending a pre-conference workshop in Phoenix to learn all about the new standards and will be turn-keying that information back to NJASL at our fall conference. Even in the midst of chaos and change, that our world seems to be going through, we can know that librarians have always been on the cutting edge of change. Change is usually never easy and offers many challenges but we also know that as school librarians we hold social and emotional factors close to our hearts. Remember that our teachers are experiencing many and maybe even more challenges, and our students need a place to connect and try to make sense out of the world of fact and fiction. Let that place be the school library. I look forward to seeing many of you at conference for a time of learning, sharing, conversation, and renewal. Come and learn about the new standards and so much more. See you there!
MCSMA PD Announcement:
Presenter: Stephen Cullis, Randolph High School
This session is free to members (membership opportunity is available at the workshop) and $10 for nonmembers. MCSMA annual membership fee ($15) is waived for all first-year librarians.
Thursday, Oct 19, 2017, 04:00 PM
Parsippany Troy Hills Library, 449 Halsey Rd, Parsippany, Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, United States
NJDOE
Join the NJDOE-NJASL Digital Citizenship Collaborative Work Group!!
by Susan Akers
On August 9, the NJ Department of Education Commissioner, Kimberley Harrington, greeted members of NJASL, NJ Public Library and their School Library Task Force, NJ State Library and NJDOE offices of academics, educational technology and career readiness to the first meeting of the Digital Citizenship Collaborative Work Group. The group will develop NJ’s first Digital Citizenship Standard for students.
The group will work through next spring to identify what NJ students need to know and be able to do as they navigate the Internet as Digital Citizens. A first step will be to reach consensus on a common definition of “digital citizenship” for our state, and then members will review and cull appropriate materials from nationally recognized standards such as AASL and ISTE. The Work Group will also be seeking stakeholder input, especially School Library Media Specialists who are already deeply engaged in teaching and learning digital literacy, and have promising practices to share. A final draft will be made public in spring 2018.
If you would like to be included in Work Group e-mails and/or have information to share, please contact Susan Akers at NJDOE at susan.akers@doe.state.nj.us. Sign up and join the Digital Citizenship Collaborative Work Group at Innovate Exchange to stay abreast of meetings and progress.
Don't forget to join The POST- the NJDOE monthly newsletter from the Division of Teaching and Learning.
NJASL
Email: bookmark@njasl.org
Website: njasl.org
Location: LibraryLinkNJ, Stelton Road, Piscataway Township, NJ, United States
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NJASL/
Twitter: @njasl