The air is cool and crisp. The leaves are a vibrant orange or fiery red. Pumkins and mums are starting to appear on the front porches in your neighborhood. Students come to school each morning, accustomed to the habits of the school day. Things finally feel settled, almost peaceful. Students are in their classrooms, starting a new research unit...and then you hear it. It's the same thing you hear every year around the last week of September or the first week of October. It starts with one voice, but others quickly echo until it builds to a roar, filling the hallways of the school: "I don't know my username and password!"

As School Library Month comes to an end, it’s natural for library staff to ask: how can we increase awareness and keep the momentum going? This month INFOhio staff have had several meaningful interactions with library staff, INFOhio Providers, and administrators that have given us a few ideas on how school library staff can continue to demonstrate the value of their school library all year long. Whether your job title is Teacher Librarian, Library Paraprofessional, Library Aide, School Library Media Specialist, or Library Support Staff, make it your goal to demonstrate your school library’s value and finish the school year strong.

As we mentioned in a previous post, social-emotional learning is trending lately. That may be related to language in the Every Student Succeeds Act that makes provisions for schools to count social and emotional growth toward their improvement strategies. To see how  this topic is making the news, try a search on your favorite social media platform for one of these:

• #SocialEmotionalLearning
• #SEL
• #mindfulness

Make your data speak

Numbers in a vacuum are rarely impressive. Now that you’ve got some organized data, there are lots of free applications that let you get really jazzy with your numbers. What should you do? Use your data to tell your story.

• In the first quarter of the 2016-2017 school year, INFOhio Staff, ICoaches, and DBICoaches delivered 175 presentations to 4,701 students, educators, and administrators.
• In the first quarter of the 2016-2017 school year, the INFOhio main website had 1,143,692 page views.
• In the first quarter of the 2016-2017 school year, students in all 88 counties in Ohio logged into the INFOhio website.
• During the 2015-2016 school year, Ohio 4^th graders read 2,927,497 pages in Storia.

How does that grab you?​ It probably doesn’t.

Ohio school librarians have some really great websites and we want to highlight a few that we think are All-Star School Library Websites. Why is it important to have a good library website? "Making libraries more visible on the web has two benefits: improving the service for the ones who are already committed to the library...and giving libraries the opportunity to reach those who never—or only sometimes—think about the library" (Fons). Much of the research on library website design is focused on academic and public libraries but proponents of the PreK-12 Virtual Learning Commons would argue that a school library's online presence is equally important because "it serves learning 24/7" (Schaffhauser).

This week we're focusing on Zanesville High School Media Center.

Ohio school librarians have some really great websites and we want to highlight a few that we think are All-Star School Library Websites. Why is it important to have a good library website? "Making libraries more visible on the web has two benefits: improving the service for the ones who are already committed to the library...and giving libraries the opportunity to reach those who never—or only sometimes—think about the library" (Fons). Much of the research on library website design is focused on academic and public libraries but proponents of the PreK-12 Virtual Learning Commons would argue that a school library's online presence is equally important because "it serves learning 24/7" (Schaffhauser).

This week we're focusing on Saint Joseph Academy's Nazareth Library.

Ohio school librarians have some really great websites and we want to highlight a few that we think are All-Star School Library Websites. Why is it important to have a good library website? "Making libraries more visible on the web has two benefits: improving the service for the ones who are already committed to the library...and giving libraries the opportunity to reach those who never—or only sometimes—think about the library" (Fons). Much of the research on library website design is focused on academic and public libraries but proponents of the PreK-12 Virtual Learning Commons would argue that a school library's online presence is equally important because "it serves learning 24/7" (Schaffhauser).

This week we're focusing on Jackson Local Schools in Stark County.