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AASL NEWS
For Immediate Release
July 10, 2000
Contact: Steven Hofmann
Phone: 312-280-4389
E-mail: shofmann@ala.org

AASL presents National School Library Media Program of the Year Award for 2000

The National School Library Media Program of the Year Award was presented by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) at the AASL Awards Ceremony and Brunch, July 10, 2000. The brunch was held during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

The award, $7,000 in each of three categories, recognizes a large and small school district and a single school for exemplary school library media programs that are fully integrated into the school's curriculum.

The Irving (Texas) Independent School District was presented the award in the large school district category. In October 1997, the citizens of Irving passed a $170 million school bond referendum that has provided new facilities, refurbished old facilities, and allowed major upgrades to technology infrastructure. The district has also added instructional technology specialists to complement librarians as instructional partners fostering collaboration with teachers, and modeling the teaching of information literacy skills.

"The description of our library program may lead one to think that our district serves an affluent community," says Jack Singley, Superintendent of Schools. "Quite the contrary, the majority of our students come from traditionally minority populations, and more than half of our students qualify as economically disadvantaged."

In Irving, library media specialists, instructional technology specialists, technology technicians, library aides, teachers and administrators collaborate to integrate information literacy and technology into teaching and learning for all 27,735 student in the district's 35 schools.

In the small school district category, the award was presented to the Londonderry (N.H.) School District. This fully developed program with library media specialists and support staff has developed benchmarks for information literacy, and all 5,179 students in 5 schools have the opportunity to utilize information literacy skills imbedded in the curriculum. A strong district administrative direction helps collaboration with teachers via a structured information literacy curriculum rubric. Solid, up-to-date collections complement the program.

"The Londonderry School District is bursting with pride to be the recipient of this prestigious award. We are particularly pleased that the collaborative efforts of our elected officials, administrators, teachers, staff and community members, to ensure that our school library media program and services are an essential element of the instructional process, have been recognized," says Susan Ballard, Director of Library, Media and Technology.

The single school category award was presented to the New Trier Township High School (Winnetka, Ill.). This high school program is outstanding for its collaboration with teachers. The professional action research project observes and promotes the essential understanding in which all 3,428 of the school's students are trained for lifelong learning. Each professional is an active part of the curriculum development team, and the librarians instruct all staff (including the district superintendent) with a variety of technology courses.

"Our school's motto is 'minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion, and lives to the service of mankind,'" says Maggie Schmude, Library Department Chair. "To that end, and because we have been richly blessed with both personnel and resources, we plan to share our award with a school library in the city of Chicago which has not had our advantages. We hope that the award will help further that library's programs and services to its students."

AASL's National School Library Media Program of the Year Award, sponsored by Follett Library Resources, emphasizes the importance of the school library media program as an integral part of the instructional process, vital to the curriculum for quality education; demonstrates the fundamental value of excellent school library media programs in the personal and social development of the future leaders, our youth; identifies positive models which, though their approaches may be unique to the specific school community, still share the common goals and principles of meeting the information needs of users; and encourages the development of library media programs that are the result of the collaborative efforts of all those who are responsible for student learning.

AASL is a division of the American Library Association.

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