PBS and the American Association of School Librarians are collaborating to bring PBS Teachers direct access to content from AASL's flagship publication, Knowledge Quest.

To learn more about AASL's Knowledge Quest and to access KQ on the Web, visit http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqweb.cfm.

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Web 2.0 & You

"Would you like to move students beyond 'searching for information' to using it and creating it, get better results from student projects and research, provide more equitable access to digital tools and resources, integrate 21st-century skills into the curriculum, foster more collaboration with teachers to benefit student achievement, create a website in seconds and post information, images, video, hyperlinks, and sound, share information (and labor) with your colleagues online, showcase library media center activities and promote your program online, do more in less time, [and] make your budget go much further than you - or anyone else - thought you could? If you said 'Yes' to any or all of these questions, Web 2.0 tools may benefit you and your school community." - Donna J. Baumbach

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Ethics from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

"With an improved understanding of how young people use social networking sites and how Web 2.0 tools can enhance education, we are in a much better position to consider implementation issues in a dispassionate manner. In doing so, we can address several professional issues that I believe now assert themselves as ethical obligations. First, in today's digital world, engaging students in conversations about the ramifications of their use of digital technologies must be considered one of the core responsibilities of the school library media specialist." - Frances Jacobson Harris

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Action Research Meets Summer Reading

"As the last days of June melted into summer, students looked forward to the joys of Cape Cod days: beaches, boating, boiled lobster, and books. A tradition of summer reading had been established over several decades at my high school, and teachers liked to think that their students would read at least three books. I had collaborated with English teachers to update the reading lists for each grade. My enthusiasm for promoting summer reading was beginning to wane, however, as I overheard familiar refrains.

Struggling student: "I hate to read! Why do we have to read in the summer?"

I began to wonder whether summer reading really mattered... I knew I had to do something." - Carol Gordon

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The Changing Web and Copyright

"The Web is in a constant state of flux. Along with the Web, copyright practices, too, are evolving. Wikis are being quoted in school papers; blogging and RSS feeds are in use in some classrooms, as well as by private citizens; and "podcast" has become both a noun and verb in popular culture. Faculty, administrators, and students need to understand how new technologies impact our interpretation of copyright." - Rebecca Butler

Get a brief definition for several new terms and technologies and learn how copyright law applies to each.

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The Mantra of Interconnectivity Meets the Mandala of The Looking Glass Wars

"The multiplatform expression of the themes, art, and storytelling of [The Looking Glass Wars], whether in the parallel story of Hatter M's comic book adventures as he searches for the lost princess, in the online game, or as a song from the soundtrack sent as a link by a friend, are all an open invitation to further adventures with characters and environments that have caught a potential reader's imagination. To get someone to read, you do not necessarily have to hand them a book. You can show them a piece of art that inspires them to want to know more about its origins and meanings or you can provide the opportunity for them to create their own card soldier army in an online game or you can play a song from a soundtrack to create an aural world that beckons them in for further exploration." - Frank Beddor

Learn more about the multiplatform resources available for The Looking Glass Wars and how this approach reaches a wide audience.

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Geospatial Technologies: Real Projects in Real Classrooms

Through a partnership between James Madison University and surrounding counties in Virginia, high school seniors are being offered the opportunity to learn more about the 21st century skills of geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and remote sensing (satellite imagery) as they engage in meaningful projects that make a real difference in their local communities and simultaneously earn college credit. For instance, in Hopewell, Virginia, students used GIS software to recreate, record, and improve the efficiencies of bus routes, and in Crozet, Virginia, students worked with the Nature Conservancy to determine how much of the local watershed had become impermeable. These projects from JMU's Geospatial Semester Initiative and similar project can truly engage students and help them transition to either higher education or the workplace.

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Reinventing the Book Club: Graphic Novels as Educational Heavyweights

"We often find ourselves lamenting the loss of emergent readers to video games, television, and, most recently, the TTYL (talk/type to you later) culture of text messaging and Internet social networking. Trying to impart the joy of a good read to middle school students feels like pushing religion onto the perfectly content worshippers of American Idol. Yet, almost as if responding to a distress call, a new type of book has come onto the scene: the graphic novel. This revitalized genre has not only saved the day for recreational reading, it has also turned out to be a heavyweight in the teaching of advanced themes in literature and visual literacy." - Jonathan Seyfried

Learn more about the methods and successes of the Brandeis Hillel Day School's Graphic Novels Book Group elective, and find tips for choosing graphic novels to include in your school library and reading programs.

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Intellectual Freedom for Youth: Social Technology and Social Networks

While Web-based social networks offer today's teens a forum for meeting new people and trading gossip, social networks can do more than facilitate friendships. Author and professor Annette Lamb believes well-designed social media tools such as blogs and wikis can be used to create safe online learning communities. Understanding that the use of such tools in the school environment can be controversial, Dr. Lamb provides information on the role of school librarians in investigating and implementing these valuable online tools with attention to eight key issues including the law, access, and library policy.

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Letter to the Editor

For years Angela Long responded to students', teachers', and colleagues' questions and comments about her job as a school librarian. "Do you have to go to school for that?" "Are you the same as a teacher?" "I thought all you did was check out books." Constant conversations like these eventually prompted Angela to write a letter to the editor of the Indiana Gazette and the Blairsville Dispatch, two of the author's local papers. In this article, the author discusses the events that led her to write her letter to the editor and the resulting positive responses. She also shares a copy of that letter, which not only answers these questions but provides a glimpse into the average day of a school librarian.

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About the Organization

About AASL

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), promotes the improvement and extension of library media services in elementary and secondary schools as a means of strengthening the total education program. Its mission is to advocate excellence, facilitate change and develop leaders in the school library media field.

About Knowledge Quest

Knowledge Quest is devoted to offering substantive information to assist building-level library media specialists, supervisors, library educators and other decision makers concerned with the development of school library media programs and services.

About PBS Content Sharing Alliances

PBS has promotional and content sharing alliances with groups like the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), EF Tours, the National Education Association (NEA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), National History Day and others.
See http://www.pbs.org/teachers/about/partners/ for more information.

If your organization is interested in promotional exchanges with PBS, please contact us.