Honor the best in the profession with an AASL award

CHICAGO – Applications for the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) 2014 awards season are now available using AASL’s online awards database. AASL members are encouraged to nominate a colleague or themselves to be lauded for their outstanding talent and dedication to the profession as part of this prestigious program. AASL awards and grants recognize excellence and showcase best practices in the school library field in categories that include collaboration, leadership and innovation.

Applications now open include:

• the Collaborative School Library Award, $2,500, sponsored by Upstart, which recognizes and encourages collaboration and partnerships between school librarians and teachers in meeting goals outlined in “Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs” through joint planning of a program, unit or event in support of the curriculum and using media center resources;
• the ABC-CLIO Leadership Grant, up to $1,750, sponsored by ABC-CLIO, which is given to school library associations that are AASL affiliates for planning and implementing leadership programs at the state, regional or local levels;
• the Distinguished Service Award, $3,000, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, which recognizes an individual member of the library profession who has, over a significant period of time, made an outstanding national contribution to school librarianship and school library development;
• the Distinguished School Administrator Award, $2,000, sponsored by ProQuest, which is given to a school administrator who has made worthy contributions to the operations of an exemplary school library and to advancing the role of the school library in the educational program;
• the Frances Henne Award, $1,250, sponsored by ABC-CLIO, which enables a school librarian with five or fewer years in the field to attend an ALA Annual Conference or AASL National Conference for the first time;
• the Information Technology Pathfinder Award, $1,000 to the school librarian and $500 to the library, sponsored by Follett, which recognizes and honors a school librarian who demonstrates vision and leadership through the use of information technology to build lifelong learners - there are two categories: Elementary and Secondary;
• the Innovative Reading Grant, $2,500, sponsored by Capstone, which is designed to fund literacy projects for grades K-9 that promote the importance of reading and facilitate literacy development by supporting current reading research, practice and policy;
• the Intellectual Freedom Award, $2,000 to the winner and $1,000 to the school library of the winner’s choice, sponsored by ProQuest, which is given for upholding the principles of intellectual freedom as set forth by AASL and the ALA.

The deadline for submitting applications or nominations for the awards and grants listed above is Feb. 1, 2014. All applications will close at 4:30 p.m. CST on the day of the deadline. Applicants are encouraged to read all award and grant criteria on the AASL website before applying. Rating sheets are provided to give applicants an understanding of the items the award committee will use to base their scores. Questions about the application process should be directed to Allison Cline at acline@ala.org.

Applications for the National School Library Program of the Year (NSLPY) award will open no later than Sept. 3 and an announcement advising its availability will be made. The deadline for NSLPY applications is Jan. 1, 2014.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), promotes the improvement and extension of library 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 field.