On December 14, Sara Frazier, librarian at Donegal High School (Mount Joy, PA), hosted a visit by Pennsylvania state Representative Dave Hickernell, a Republican serving parts of Lancaster and Dauphin counties who is also the Chair of the PA House Education Committee. Also attending were Cathi Fuhrman, PSLA Vice President, and Kevin Harley, PSLA’s communication strategist from Quantum Communications who helped to schedule the visit. Donegal’s Superintendent, Michael Lausch also visited with the Representative in the library. During the hour-long visit, Rep. Hickernell was most impressed with the technology in use in the library and how instruction is embedded in the school’s curriculum. He watched Sara teach a lesson on using Gale databases as part of a social studies unit. Sara reported that Rep. Hickernell seemed very impressed with what a school library offers to the school’s students in this small, middle-income, rural community which he represents.
The Donegal Library Program is well supported by its administrators. Each of its four schools has a full-time librarian with library assistants. In recent years, the high school library received a grant plus district money to refresh the look of the high school library to make a more inviting atmosphere for its teenagers. Sara, a “graduate” of the PSLA-University of Pittsburgh Sustaining Leaders Academy, is a strong school library advocate, maintains a nicely designed LibGuide website (http://libguides.donegalsd.org/dhslibrary), and is actively engaged in the instructional program at Donegal. Watch the short video “A Typical Day in the Library” on the library website.
Academic Reference and Instruction Librarian at Bloomsburg University Linda Neyer discusses how PSLA President Allison Burrell, President-Elect Jennifer Bates and Vice President Allison Mackley exemplify and embody the role of servant leaders in the PSLA organization and in their own school districts. As an academic librarian working with freshmen, Linda sees first-hand how the role and val
The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the dwindling number of librarians in one of the nation’s largest school systems. The number of full-time, certified librarians in the Philadelphia School District is now in the single digits.
Published by The Intelligencer, PA State Representative Thomas Murt says a shortage of librarians and libraries in the School District of Philadelphia is negatively impacting students because “the library is the heart and soul of the learning process.” As an educator, a parent and a state representative, Rep. Murt has begun work on a bill that dedicates a portion of state budget funding for schools specifically for school libraries and library staff.
In a world where information is accessible with a click of a few buttons or the touch of a screen, Deb Kachel says emotional appeals and unsubstantiated claims sway popular opinions in our current post-truth era. Published by PennLive, Deb argues that, in order to be successful, students must be able to distinguish false claims, fraudulent sales pitches and dubious websites from trustworthy information and sources.
When hired as the middle school principal in the Central Columbia School District, John Kurelja was introduced to one of the most influential educators he has ever met, a middle school librarian. In an op-ed published by The Standard-Journal, John recalls how Janice Dysart found a way not only to engage students with literature, but to embed their reading into their overall curriculum.
