CHICAGO – School librarians have been identified as the “go-to” people for digital content in a recently published report by the national education non-profit group, Project Tomorrow.  The report, “The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered - How Today’s Educators are Advancing a New Vision for Teaching and Learning (PDF),”  shares the teacher, librarian and administrator findings from the group’s Speak Up 2010 survey.

The survey finds that the role of the school librarian is increasingly focused on the use of digital content in the classroom. In many schools, the school librarian has the responsibility for identifying, evaluating and recommending digital resources to teachers. Of the 2,125 school librarians surveyed:

• 78 percent identify websites for classroom use,
• 56 percent create collections of resources for curriculum support, and
• 47 percent find specific digital content, podcasts and videos to support classroom lessons.

With the increased variety and depth of the digital resources available for classroom use, librarians are also enabling and empowering teachers’ skills with digital content:

• 85 percent of school librarians answer questions about technology tools,
• 66 percent participate with teachers in professional learning communities, and
• 33 percent train teachers how to locate and evaluate digital content.

Project Tomorrow’s vision is to ensure that today’s students are well prepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world.  We believe that by supporting the innovative uses of science, math and technology resources in our K-12 schools and communities, students will develop the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills needed to compete and thrive in the 21st century. 

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.

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