Dear Colleagues,

Today’s secondary school students must have information literacy skills to ensure a successful future in a technology rich work environment or to pursue a successful post-secondary education. Yet numerous studies confirm that students lack these critical skills. Coupled with the Governor’s “Seniors to Sophomores” initiative, this situation compels Ohio’s school and academic librarians to take action. School and academic librarians already work within their individual organizations to prepare young people for an information-intensive world and are uniquely positioned to influence student success.

INFOhio, the PreK-12 school library information network, and OhioLINK, the academic library consortium, currently support teaching and learning by providing quality information that serves student needs across PreK-20. However, an even greater effort to teach students to use these resources effectively must be coordinated if Ohio is to return to its place as an economically competitive giant in the global marketplace.

INFOhio and OhioLINK have formed a joint task force of school and academic librarians to accomplish projects that inform and engage our communities about the importance of instilling these critical information literacy skills in Ohio's students. We are pleased to announce the following:

1. The Joint Task Force has written a white paper which outlines six goals that will enable INFOhio and OhioLINK to move to the next level of cooperation to help Ohio achieve global economic competitiveness through the development of an educated, talented, and creative workforce. This white paper is available online at http://www.infohio.org/12-13TransitionWhitePaper200809.pdf and has already been presented at 2008 OELMA and ALAO conferences.

2. A Web page, Preparing 21st Century Ohio Learners for Success: Helping Today's Students & Tomorrow's Teachers, has been published to collect related materials and links for school and college librarians and other educators. In addition to basic information, the page links to Ohio and national standards sites. (It is linked from INFOhio’s Educator and Library Staff pages in the Transition From High School to College section.)

3. An Information Literacy E-List (listserv) is available for in-service and pre-service educators who wish to share ideas and best practices related to the integration of information literacy and 21st century skills in standards-based classrooms. INFOhio and OhioLINK will use the listserv to update subscribers about Task Force progress and  Ohio’s efforts to prepare 21st century Ohio learners for success in school, college and work life. Free subscriptions can be placed at http://lm.nwoca.org/cgi/wa.exe?SUBED1=INFOHIO-INFO-LIT-L&A=1. (It is linked from INFOhio’s home page > About INFOhio > E-Lists.)

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Post to the E-List
or e-mail 12-13Transition@infohio.org.

Theresa M. Fredericka

INFOhio Executive Director

Tom Sanville

OhioLINK Executive Director