Hello NSLA Members & School Librarians in Nebraska!
My name is Courtney Pentland, and I will be serving as the Nebraska School Librarians Association president this year.  I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to be working with our current executive board, liaisons, and committee members.  This group of fabulous education professionals is passionate about school libraries and school librarians in Nebraska.  We wanted to give you just a few updates on what you can look forward to from your professional organization this year.  (Many of the items below are based off of feedback that we received from over 400! school library folks who answered our survey in the fall of 2017.)
For a full list of our board members, liaisons, and committee chairs, please visit our website.  www.neschoolibrarians.org
Now is a great time to become a member or renew your membership!  Membership fees will continue at the same rates.  $30 general member, $15 student, $10 for retired.  Beginning in 2019, we will have a general due date for memberships—September 30th.  You can register and/or check your membership status online on our website. Current members will be emailed a copy of a membership certificate to print and fill out on their own in the beginning of September.
Your membership fees will gain you access to our listserv, provide a discount to the fall NLA/NSLA conference, give you free admission to Nebraska School Librarians Day, and help provide funding for scholarships and professional learning opportunities across the state.  Check out a few of the benefits below.

• The NLA/NSLA Conference is October 5-6, 2018 in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Early bird registration ends August 15th.  Get in on the fun today!  We have 20 school library focused sessions (10 each day) with our keynote and NSLA business meeting (free lunch!) on Saturday.  Plus, with your registration, you can attend the Golden Sower Gala on Friday night.  We hope to see you there!https://www.nebraskalibraries.org/general/custom.asp?page=Neblib2018
•  Mark your calendars!  Nebraska School Librarians Day will be held on April 6, 2019 from 9:00-12:30 in Omaha, Kearney, Norfolk, and Scottsbluff.  NSLD is free for NSLA members. 
  
• We are looking for recommendations for a keynote speaker for the NETA conference March 27-29, 2019 in Omaha, NE.  If you would like to nominate someone, please email me at mrspentland@gmail.com
  
• There is still time to submit a scholarship application or to nominate someone for an award.  The deadline is August 15th, so don’t delay!  http://www.neschoollibrarians.org/awards-and-scholarships.html
  
• Ongoing communication.  Each month a board member will share a blog post about a topic relevant to school libraries.  You will also continue to see posts on the listserv and our social media about topics relevant to SLs.
  
• We are setting up a mentor network for new school librarians in Nebraska.  We will match new SLs with veteran SLs in their area.  If you would like to volunteer to be a mentor or are a joining us as a new school librarian (Congrats!!), please fill out one of the forms below.
  
• Mentees:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevURDvPT7AVJFMO4t_VdL9f3YNut_cZAS5teSpKrssmplP6g/viewform?usp=sf_link

•  Mentors:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeih_RYl5p6oExHQVa5vsd-kaZku1rq5E6CGcdTenukxvhKRQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

• We are also looking to spotlight some of the fabulous school libraries in our state.  If you would like to see your school featured on our social media, please fill out the form below.  Our goal is to feature at least one school each month, but we will gladly do more if we get more entries!  All featured libraries will go into a drawing to win a fun prize each semester.Spotlight:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHSGqXkJV0jz3LOIfBigKo5ogzI2Lesy-2Y-tJX3R4CD__bw/viewform?usp=sf_link

•  Would you like a copy of the AASL Standards book, but you aren’t a member of ALA and would love to get it at the discounted $99 member price?  You’re in luck!  We are able to order the books at the member price as an affiliate organization.  You will be able to order the book online soon for $99 and possibly a small shipping fee.  More information coming in a separate email!
  
• We are once again teaming up with Midwest Library Chat on Twitter!  We will have one date during the fall semester and one during the spring where we join forces to discuss relevant issues about school libraries.  More info coming soon!
  
• We also plan to continue offering webinars for professional learning.  You have the following webinars to look forward to this year!  We will provide more information on how to attend as each webinar’s dates draws near.  Please email me if you would like to suggest a topic OR if you would like to host a webinar!
  
  • Lesson Plan Support--Courtney (Tues Sept 25 7:00 PM CST, Thur Oct 25  7:00 PM CST)  This webinar will be discussion based.  Come with a lesson plan you’d like to share or a lesson plan you would like feedback on from other SLs. 
    
  • Classroom management--Courtney (September 9 3:00 PM CST)
    
  • Makerspaces
    
  • Copyright
    
  • OER
    
  • Collection Development
    
  • Policy & Data support
    
  • Future Ready
    
  • Indie Authors

I can speak for all the board members in saying that we are so proud to serve as your volunteer board for the Nebraska School Librarians Association.  We are here if you have any questions or have any feedback.  Have a wonderful start to the school year, and we hope to see you at one of our professional learning opportunities this year whether in person or online!

I had the opportunity to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado in February.  Wow! What an experience!!! I would like to share a few things with you that I took away from the conference and a few tips if you ever get the chance to attend a national conference

First of all, there were so many sessions! So many that during several of the blocks there were at least 5 sessions I wanted to attend! One thing I did in the weeks leading up to the conference was went through the schedule several times.  I would pick my favorites for each time slot. Once I got to the conference I went to the session that was my top pick and if it wasn’t what I thought it would be I got up and went to the next one! Time is too precious to sit through a presentation that I was not interested in.  The presenters are aware of the time constraints so people were coming and going through most of them. I recommend you do this at any conference you go to. Don’t sit through something you aren’t interested in.
The next big surprise for me was the vendor show.  I have never been to a library specific conference so this was a huge surprise.  All of the publishers and authors were giving away books, bags, pencils and much more.  I was so excited to see some of my student favorites too! I tried to be selective, but it was so amazing! So many books! I drove to the conference so I had the luxury of taking as much as I wanted.  If you were flying, that would not be the case. However, they did have an onsite post office so you could ship the books back directly to your library!
Of course the hot topic for school librarians was the new standards.  I sat in on several sessions and the affiliate meeting to learn more. It was very interesting to really see all of the advocacy efforts that are going on behind the scenes for the implementation of the new standards.  Each of the sessions really highlighted the online resources that they have developed for school librarians. There are so many things but one of my favorite resources were the persona cards. Each of these cards were developed to help you convey information on the standards to the different stakeholders in your library, such as teachers, administration and parents.  I highly recommend going to the standards implementation page and reviewing all of the resources they have provided. http://standards.aasl.org/implementation/
The last thing that I wanted to plug for Nebraskans was Do Space.  If you haven’t heard about Do Space you need to check in out when you are in the Omaha area! I was able to listen to their Executive Director, Rebecca Stavick tell her story.  It was very inspiring. Do Space is ultimately helping to decrease the digital divide in their community. They are providing access to technology for others that would not have it.  She considers their model very similar to a public library. I can’t wait to visit Do Space soon! Visit their website to learn more https://www.dospace.org/.

- Angela Blankenship

It is hard to believe the 2017-18 school year is already half over! I would like to share with you some information about Break Out boxes. This is something I first heard about at the 2016-17 NLA/NSLA conference in Kearney. I attended a session presented by Crys Bauermeister and part of her presentation involved talking about Break Out boxes used in the library. I found the presentation very interesting and brought the information back to share with my teachers. Our Academic Decathlon moderator, who is also one of our English teachers, purchased two of the Break Out boxes from Breakoutedu.com. If your budget does not allow you to purchase the pre-made kits online, it is very easy to create your own kits using items purchased at local retail stores. The official Breakout kits include: 1 large locking box, 1 small locking box, 1 hasp, variety of locks (alpha, directional, color wheels, number wheels, three digit, four digit, and key), reflection cards, red lens viewer, UV light, USB thumb drive and 2 hint cards.

The website has free registration and offers several free games already created by fellow educators, digital games and a tutorial for how to create your own digital game by offering free design a game tools. I assisted our English teacher with a Breakout game on Shakespeare that she was able to find free online. My goal is to create a Breakout session of my own to share with the English department in the future. The students had fun working through the puzzles to get to the final prize.

One other take away from Crys’s session was providing a jigsaw puzzle in the library for students, faculty and staff to put together. I started providing 1000 piece puzzles that were put together on our circulation desk. This went over really well with students, faculty and staff. My principal even made a comment that he liked the idea of the puzzle creating a sense of community with the puzzle being available for everyone to work on together.

I hope you find Breakout EDU and jigsaw puzzles to be a positive addition to your library.

Diane Sands

The New Standards for Library are finally here. The new National School Library Standards were introduced at the AASL Conference in Phoenix. The National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians and School Libraries replaces the former AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner, Standards in Action and Empowering Learners.

The National School Library Standards will help school librarians develop plans to meet the needs of today’s learners with standards that will update and improve library lessons to reflect the current learning environment and best professional practices for an effective school library. 

As stated in the “National School Library Standards”, the new standards include:

• Common Beliefs statement reflects current learning environments and professional practices for effective school libraries.
  
• The standards framework features five shared components- Shared foundations, Key Commitments, Domains, Competencies and Alignments, all which are designed to reflect each other.
  
• It includes a sections dedicated to assessment and evaluation, and provides examples on how to develop your own tools to align your school and district models align with the new AASL standards.
  
• It provides scenarios for various types of school library professionals and demonstrates techniques and practices for implementing.
  
• Included in the book is a glossary of terms, useful verbs, and a list of evident as well as other appendices. 

The American Association of School Librarians standards include foundations and key commitments have six shared foundations:  Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage.  Each of the shared foundations are broken into three to five competencies for each learning category or domain, which include, Think, Create, Share and Grow.  The Competencies are measurable statements that describe the knowledge and skills that are necessary for learners and school librarians. 
 
At the AASL Conference in Phoenix, Affiliate Assembly members participated in a two day workshop about the standards.  Included in the conference were many sessions about implementing the standards, as well as ideas to present the new standards to our local organizations.   NSLA is in the process of planning ways to inform and involve members in the implementation of the New National School Library Standards.

​Betty Meyer, AASL Liaison

​The beginning of the school year is a great time to think about collaborating with others to enhance the educational experience of your students and the resources offered through your school library.  Below are just a few ideas on how to collaborate with a variety of stakeholders both in and outside of your building.  Who do you collaborate with?  Help us add to our list of ideas by sending your suggestion to contactnsla@gmail.com

Check out this post on The Elementary Librarian Community
on The Power of Collaboration!

We hear a lot about collaboration in the school library. Collaboration really is the key to creating a dynamic library program at your school. You may be asking yourself: how can I find time to collaborate with teachers when I have a fixed schedule? I'll let you in on a little secret. It's not as hard as it seems.
​
Full article: https://elementarylibrarian.com/the-power-of-collaboration/

Why Teachers and School Librarians Should Unite by Rachel Grover, a secondary librarian, on MiddleWeb

The skills librarians teach can enhance students’ understanding of topics already covered in the classroom. Librarians can also teach students critical skills important in every content area, such as asking good research questions, determining credible sources, searching the internet more effectively, and avoiding plagiarism when creating a project, presentation, or research paper.

In addition to teaching, there are so many additional ways librarians can enhance instruction in all content areas. For example, librarians can provide books and other resources for a unit, so if students finish their work early, they can choose one of these resources to continue learning about the topic.

Full article: https://www.middleweb.com/34240/why-teachers-school-librarians-should-unite/

A new school year is upon us! In this issue of NSLA News you'll find some helpful information for the new school year.

Five Ways to Make This School Year Your Best Yet
​BY STEVEN YATES, 2017-2018 AASL PRESIDENT on 08/08/2017
As our school libraries come back to life for another year of personalized learning for each and every one of our students, I wanted to share five ways that you can transform your professional life this school year. You will see that a few of these have deadlines creeping up soon, but I assure you that there is something for EVERY educator in this list.

1. ALA’s committee volunteer form is available online from August 1 to November 3. There are hundreds of opportunities to serve and all you have to is follow this link! See this informative press release for a specific list of vacancies to assist you in completing the form. School library voices are needed and heeded on every ALA committee and ALA Council. Increasing AASL involvement in ALA is the thrust of my presidential initiative, and completing this form is a fantastic first step. Read more about my initiative in my recent blog post.
2. The application form for the 2018 ALA Emerging Leaders program is open through August 31. Being a 2010 Emerging Leader transformed my involvement in ALA and AASL. Check out a previous blog post of mine if you’d like to know more about my experience with the program. If you are in your first five years as a library professional or paraprofessional, please read more about Emerging Leaders and start the application process today!
3. Could you use up to $25,000 to design computer science programs with and for your students? I thought so! Check out Phase III of the Libraries Ready to Code Initiative generously sponsored by Google. Unveiled during ALA Annual 2017 in Chicago, Phase III grant applications are being accepted until August 31. Start your application today right here. This would be a perfect opportunity to involve a variety of community partners on a project that could transform your library’s impact far beyond the walls of your school.
4. August is the perfect month for planning…specifically strategic relationship planning. Each time I started to work in a new school library, I created a list of people I wanted to target for collaboration and library instruction opportunities. Of course, every first year my list included every single adult in the school. If that seems too daunting or if you are a veteran in your building, think of two to three people you would like to see use the school library in new and exciting ways. Then, go about making that happen with strategic planning. I encourage all types of tactics to make these connections, including attending after-school sports, tutoring, book clubs, and even finding ways to make the carpool line the best duty assignment. Your impact and success as a school librarian is built on relationships, and thinking strategically on how to grow them can pay off for years to come!
5. Do you know the best time to visit the lovely oasis otherwise known as Phoenix, Arizona? I do! It’s November 9-11 for our 2017 National Conference and Exhibition. Early-bird registration ends August 17, so start your journey to our new National School Library Standards today by visiting https://national.aasl.org. Once we all get to Phoenix, I hope you will stop me when you see me so that we can meet and share with one another about the great things we are learning alongside 2,000+ of our school library and administrator colleagues!

See, these five things will change your professional life! Don’t forget to follow AASL on social media to stay current with the numerous ways our phenomenal volunteers and staff are working each day to empower leaders to transform teaching and learning.
Author: Steven Yates, 2017-2018 AASL President