Land Statement Acknowledgment: From 2016 – 2022, I post to this blog and share information from my home in Tucson, Arizona, which is built upon the traditional homelands of the Tohono O’odham and their ancestors the Hohokam. Their care and keeping of this land allow me to live here today.

NOTE: This blog will remain accessible through August, 2023. Please feel free to link to any post on this blog. If you would like to have a Creative Commons Licensed copy of any particular blog post written by Judi Moreillon, please contact me BEFORE August, 2023, at info@storytrail.com. 

The Purpose: On the School Librarian Leadership blog (formerly Building a Culture of Collaboration blog) I share research and musings, news and views with the hopes of prompting critical thinking regarding coteaching and collaboration between school librarians, classroom teachers, specialists, school administrators, and others involved in deeper learning and effective teaching. I am a staunch advocate for professional school librarians who use their leadership skills to create effective collaborative cultures of learning in their schools. In such cultures, school librarians co-lead with administrators, classroom teachers and specialists, students, and families in order to ensure students’ readiness for college, career, and community.

The Premise: The National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries (ALA 2018), the Common Core State Standards, various state- and national-level literacy initiatives, including Future Ready Librarians and The Lilead Project, and research in the fields of education and library science increasingly point to the efficacy of forming teaching teams and partnerships in order to provide vibrant learning environments and relevant curriculum to positively impact student learning outcomes.

Blogger: Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
I am currently a literacies and libraries consultant. For thirteen years, I served as a school librarian at all three instructional levels. I have taught graduate students in library science since 1995. I served as a mentor for The Lilead Project.

I am the editor of Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Libraries Unlimited 2021) and the author of four professional books for school librarians and classroom teachers: Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018), Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA 2013), a revision of Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA 2007), and Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Secondary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA 2012). I earned the American Library Association’s 2019 Scholastic Library Publishing Award.

I recently served as the chair for the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Reading Position Statements Task Force. I previously served as the chair of AASL’s Innovative Approaches to Literacy Task Force and the School Librarian’s Role in Reading Task Force. I tweet @CactusWoman and my personal website is http://storytrail.com.

My curriculum vitae and my workshop, conference, and inservice presentations are archived online.

Former Co-Bloggers – 2012 – 2016

Judy Kaplan has more than 35 years of experience teaching as a library media specialist in K-12 schools in Massachusetts and Vermont. A member of the American Association of School Librarians, and the Vermont School Library Association, she has presented at national and state conferences on topics that focused on collaboration with classroom teachers in developing and teaching standards based curriculum. In 2007, Judy was appointed Coordinator of the School Library Media Studies Sequence, a concentration strand within the University of Vermont  M.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction Program. She has taught in the sequence since 2001. With an interest in adult learners and distance education, she has developed online courses that examine 21st Century issues in the field of library media for professional educators. For further information: http://learn.uvm.edu/education/licensure-programs/school-library-media-course-sequence-2/

Former Co-Bloggers – 2015-2016

Karla Collins is an assistant professor of school librarianship at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Karla worked as a school librarian at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for over 17 years before earning her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at Old Dominion University. Her research interests are related to the instructional role of the school librarian and how the library addresses the diverse needs of students. She is highly involved in research and advocacy for the educational needs of students with color vision deficiencies and for increased awareness about the condition. Karla is actively involved with the Virginia Association of School Librarians, the American Association of School Librarians, and the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Lucy Santos Green was an associate professor of Instructional Technology at Georgia Southern University where she taught graduate courses in school library media, instructional design and online pedagogy; she is currently on the faculty at the University of South Carolina. Green worked as a school librarian and classroom teacher for eight years in Texas before receiving an EdD in Instructional Technology from Texas Tech University and a Master of Library and Information Science from Texas Woman’s University. Her research focuses on technology integration in K-12 learning environments, instructional partnerships and school librarianship in the twenty-first century. She is the chair of the Georgia Association of School Librarians and president of the AECT School Media Technology Division.

Prior to 2015

Melissa P. Johnston was an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in the School of Library and Information Studies when she contributed to this blog. She is currently an associate professor at the University of West Georgia. She worked as a school librarian for 13 years in Georgia before completing her PhD at FSU’s School of Library & Information Studies where she also worked as a research fellow at The Partnerships Advancing Library Media (PALM) Center. She is actively involved in the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and the International Association of School Librarianship through serving in various leadership and elected positions. Johnston has published in a variety of journals that focus on school library issues and research. Johnston’s research interests include school librarians as leaders, the school librarian’s role in technology integration, and the education of future school librarians. She currently coordinates the school library media certification program at UA and teaches a variety of courses to prepare future school librarians.

Sue Kimmel was a school librarian for over fifteen years in North Carolina. Currently, she is an associate professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia where she teaches in the school library program and in curriculum and instruction. She has a passionate interest in social-cultural approaches to teaching, literacy, and learning.