The Exploratorium to showcase school library media best practices
Contact: Kathy Agarwal
Communications Specialist
312-280-4381
kagarwal@ala.org
For Immediate Release
August 28, 2007
The Exploratorium to showcase school library media best practices
CHICAGO – The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce that MetaMetrics®, Inc., developer of the Lexile Framework® for Reading, will sponsor the Exploratorium at the AASL 13th National Conference & Exhibition in Reno, Nev., October 25 - 28, 2007.
The Exploratorium will be held on Thursday, October 25, from 1 to 3 p.m. This two-hour educational session, consisting of over 50 individual learning stations, will showcase “best practices” from the school library media community. Attendees can browse at their own pace spending as much or as little time at each station as they wish. The Exploratorium provides a national forum to share school library media successes from a school, district or state level, and is open to National Conference registrants.
“The AASL National Conference Exploratorium is like a big science fair for library media specialists,” explained Carl A. Harvey II, co-chair of the National Conference Committee. “During the two-hour session, participants have plenty of time to interact one-on-one with the presenters and to focus on the topics and displays that interest them the most.”
“As instructional leaders in their schools, we know that school library media specialists play an important role in ensuring that students are given reading material that matches both their interests and their developmental and ability levels,” said Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., president, MetaMetrics. “We are proud to sponsor the Exploratorium as a way for school librarians from around the country to share best practices for fostering student literacy and other important topics.”
The Lexile Framework provides a common, developmental scale for matching reader ability and text difficulty. Lexile® measures enable educators, parents and students to select targeted materials that can improve reading skills and to monitor reading growth across the curriculum, in the library and at home. For more information, visit
www.Lexile.com.
The first AASL Exploratorium was held at the 11th National Conference and Exhibition in Kansas City, Mo., in 2003, where the AASL @ your library campaign was launched.
Online registration for the AASL National Conference is now open at
http://www.ala.org/aasl/reno . The conference will feature three full-day and five half-day preconference workshops, several school and educational tours, more than 100 educational sessions, author events and more than 200 exhibiting companies.
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.
