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= What is the 21st Century Librarian Guide? =

As technology evolves and advances, students and teachers have access to a greater abundance of information and they need help learning to harness its power. This task may be easy for many educators who have experience in the information technology world and harder for others who have less practice in the area. School Library Media Specialists (school librarians) are educators whose job it is to provide the school community with information technology skills to promote life-long learning. Librarians are trained to organize print, web, and virtual information and train teachers and students how to use the tools appropriately. Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell have examined the impact school library media centers have on academic achievement. They found that school librarians help increase student achievement when they work cooperatively with teachers and train them in information literacy skills. (//Measuring Up To Standards,// 2000). Educators, whether school librarians or teachers, follow state standards as a guide during student instruction. Just as classroom teachers have standards to follow, school librarians have them as well. The American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) //Standards for the 21st Century Learners// provide educators with skills sets learners must develop to harness the power of information in this day and age. Thinking critically, creating new knowledge, sharing ethically, and pursuing growth are the standards librarians teach to their students. Each standard is broken up into skills the learners acquire, such as; skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies” (2000). Although many educators find the 21st century standards helpful, it is challenging to merge both 21st century and state standards into an everyday lesson plan. AASL, recognizing this need, developed the Crosswalk //of the Common Core Standards// (2010) as a tool to help school librarians ease their patrons into the skills, dispositions, responsibilities and self-assessment strategies required of the 21st Century learner. AASL’s //Standards for the 21st–Century Learners// and the //Crosswalk of the Common Core Standards// are essential tools for librarians and educators and are included within this guide. The objective of The //Twenty-first Century Librarians Guide// (TCLG) is to build and field test a technology literacy booklet for educators in a low or high budget schools. It is hoped that the guide will serve as a school library advocacy tool for changing the way school administrators, staff, and students think about information. The guide will help the school community collaborate with one another to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information (AASL, 2007).