GACE School Librarian (728) cheat sheet

A school library program is defined by AASL's National School Library Standards through six Shared Foundations (Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, Engage); the four Domains are Think, Create, Share, Grow, and the four Learner categories are Learners, School Librarians, School Libraries, and the Learning Community.

The school librarian's roles under AASL guidance are teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, leader, and program administrator; evaluation instruments should reflect all five, not just circulation or clerical tasks.

A written library program plan aligns library goals to the school improvement plan, states measurable objectives, names stakeholders, and sets a review cycle; a plan without a budget line and an evaluation timeline is incomplete.

Budget categories typically include print and nonprint materials, digital subscriptions and databases, supplies, equipment, and professional development; per-pupil spending benchmarks are locally set, so cite the district figure rather than a national constant.

A needs assessment gathers data from circulation and usage statistics, collection mapping against curriculum, teacher and student surveys, and alignment with school and district goals before goals are written.

Annual and periodic reports should present inputs (budget, staffing, hours), outputs (classes taught, circulations, database sessions), and outcomes (student learning evidence, collaboration count) to demonstrate program value.

Advocacy rests on documented evidence: circulation trends, collaborative lesson counts, database usage, and student work samples; stakeholder groups include administrators, teachers, families, and the school board.

A library advisory committee with administrators, teachers, students, and community members reviews policy, budget priorities, and program goals; its recommendations are advisory, with final authority resting in district policy.

Policies covering selection, reconsideration, privacy, acceptable use, and copyright are board-approved documents; the school librarian drafts and implements them but does not unilaterally create or waive them.

A collection development policy states selection criteria, the selection process, weeding guidelines, reconsideration procedures, and gifts policy; criteria commonly include curriculum relevance, accuracy, currency, authority, literary merit, format, and cost.

The CREW/MUSTIE weeding method weighs Misleading and inaccurate content, Ugly or worn condition, Superseded editions or duplicate copies, Trivial material, Irrelevant to curriculum and community, and available Elsewhere.

The alternative weeding rule is the 5-year/3-year guideline: items in health, science, technology, and travel date quickly (about 3 years), while literature and history may stay longer (about 5 years); age alone never justifies removal.

A reconsideration request is handled with a written, board-approved form; the challenged item stays on the shelf during review, the committee reads the whole work, and the decision follows policy rather than the complainant's preference.

Intellectual freedom positions: ALA's Library Bill of Rights and AASL's position that school library resources are chosen for educational suitability, and that access should not be restricted because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

Collection mapping compares the existing collection against curriculum topics and student demographics; data sources include the catalog, circulation reports, interlibrary loan requests, and professional review sources.

Selection tools include professional review journals (for example Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, VOYA), award and best-of lists, publisher catalogs used with caution, and recommendations from professional networks.

The catalog record has descriptive and subject access points; MARC records carry fields such as 020 (ISBN), 100 (main author), 245 (title), 650 (topical subject), and 526 (reading program), and subject headings enable curriculum-based searching.

Access barriers to remove include fixed scheduling that blocks flexible use, restrictive checkout limits, unstaffed hours, and filters that over-block legitimate research; equitable access also means formats for diverse readers and languages.

Inquiry models used in schools include AASL's Shared Foundation Inquire, the Guided Inquiry Design process (Open, Immerse, Explore, Identify, Gather, Create, Share, Evaluate), and the Big6 skills model; each frames research as a staged, recursive process.

The research process stages are task definition, information seeking strategies, location and access, use of information, synthesis, and evaluation; instruction should target the stage where students struggle rather than only the final product.

Evaluating sources uses criteria such as authority, accuracy, currency, objectivity or purpose, and coverage; lateral reading (checking the source against other sources) is more reliable than judging a single page's appearance.

AASL's Shared Foundation Inquire expects learners to wonder, formulate questions, and pursue inquiry; the librarian co-plans with content teachers so research skills are taught inside a curriculum unit, not as isolated lessons.

The gradual release model (modeled, shared, guided, independent) applies to library instruction: demonstrate a database search, search together, coach small groups, then have students search independently.

Formative assessment in the library includes KWL charts, search logs, annotated bibliographies, conference notes, and exit tickets; summative evidence includes research products scored with a shared rubric.

A research rubric should name observable behaviors such as generating focused questions, selecting appropriate databases, citing sources correctly, and synthesizing findings, rather than vague traits like 'good researcher'.

Plagiarism instruction teaches paraphrase, quotation with attribution, and citation format; the school librarian reinforces academic honesty alongside classroom teachers and matches the district's required citation style.

Collaboration levels range from coordination (scheduling) to cooperation (shared resources) to integrated co-teaching with jointly planned objectives, taught lessons, and shared assessment; the last is the strongest evidence of program impact.

Reading motivation is supported by access, choice, time to read, and social interaction around books; sustained silent reading and booktalks work best when students choose their own texts.

Reader's advisory matches a reader's stated interests to books using appeal factors: pace, character, story line, frame or setting, and language style, rather than reading level alone.

Genre knowledge supports recommendations: realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, biography, informational text, graphic novels, and verse novels each carry distinct reader expectations.

Major youth book awards include the Newbery Medal (most distinguished American children's literature), Caldecott Medal (picture book illustration), Printz Award (young adult literature), Coretta Scott King Awards, Pura Belpré Award, and Schneider Family Book Award.

Diverse books reflect the identities of the student population; selection should include authors and illustrators from marginalized groups writing about their own communities, checked against review sources for authenticity.

Graphic novels and audiobooks are legitimate formats that build vocabulary, visual literacy, and fluency; they count as reading and belong in the collection rather than being treated as lesser.

Censorship versus selection: selection is choosing materials by professional criteria for the whole school community; censorship is removing or restricting access to satisfy an objection, which the reconsideration policy is designed to prevent.

Reading promotion events include book fairs, author visits, book clubs, reading challenges, and displays tied to curriculum; each should have a measurable goal such as participation counts or checkout increases.

Digital citizenship topics include internet safety, privacy and security, digital footprint and reputation, relationships and communication, cyberbullying, information literacy, and law (copyright, fair use, licensing).

Copyright and fair use: the four fair use factors are purpose and character of use, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market; educational use is not automatically fair use, and transformative use weighs in favor of fairness.

The TEACH Act permits certain performances and displays in distance learning when access is limited to enrolled students and technological measures prevent retention and redistribution; it does not cover downloading textbooks.

Creative Commons licenses state reuse permissions: CC BY requires attribution, SA requires share-alike, NC restricts commercial use, and ND forbids derivatives; public domain works have no copyright restrictions.

The ISTE Standards frame technology use for students and educators around empowered learner, digital citizen, knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker, creative communicator, and global collaborator.

AASL's Shared Foundation Explore and the technology integration standards call for learners to use technology to gather, evaluate, and create; integration is purposeful when it serves a learning objective rather than the tool itself.

Student privacy laws: FERPA protects education records, COPPA restricts collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent, and CIPA ties certain federal funding to filtering and acceptable-use policy.

Acceptable use policies define permitted and prohibited technology behavior, consequences, and student and staff responsibilities; the librarian supports them by teaching digital citizenship lessons and modeling ethical use.

Makerspaces and digital tools (coding, 3D printing, media production) support inquiry when tied to curriculum objectives and include clear safety, supervision, and equipment policies.