This innovative and forward-thinking library CEO shares her secrets to becoming a role model for libraries around the world. She discusses how the roles of librarians and libraries are changing to be community leaders and change agents. Librarians are the new superheroes - developing new toolkits, skills, and relationships to facilitate positive change in their communities. We can change the world by working with our communities and helping make them better places to live, work, learn, and play. 

Evidence informs the practice of librarianship, helps us plan for program growth, and ensures that learners are learning. Evidence is also about leadership. Careful use of selected emerging tools presents new models for librarians, teachers, and students to leverage technology for their own collaboration and analysis. Joyce, Michelle and Shannon share a toolkit of innovative approaches for gathering and analyzing evidence, tools that demonstrate vision, accountability, and professional leadership to reinvigorate your practice.

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries staff have been working on an ambitious pilot project to put the Libraries’ digital images directly into PK-12 classrooms across the U.S., with London-based company Museum in a Box. The pilot is designed to expand the Smithsonian Libraries’ visual literacy resource, I See Wonder, and connect students with a new object every day for a school year. Museum in a Box is a cutting-edge tool for object-based learning, where museum objects (3D and 2D) are fitted with sensors that connect with a computer in the box, called the “brain.” Touching an item on the brain plays back a story or fact about it, and the students can even record their impression back into the brain. Come try a box and hear about the project so far.

Every year, the CIL Internet@Schools track provides a wealth of information. How can librarians and educators track technology for the remaining 51 weeks of the year? What are practical ways to develop our skills in the midst of our busy schedules? A school librarian and public reference librarian have been researching that question over the past year and share findings from a literature search; from an informal poll of librarians, teachers and technologists; and from their own personal experiences in this area. Take their tips on how to stay on top of tech.

recent collaborative effort between a high school social studies teacher and a school librarian transformed a “same-old” unit on social movements in the 20th century into a dynamic study of effective social activism—and how students can become effective activists. Using both primary and secondary resources, students learned to analyze social issues, then to identify the type of activism that proved effective for those issues. Next, students selected social situations important to them, analyzed the changes they sought to effect, and determined a means of activism to effect that change in practical—and often surprising—ways. The project’s design and implementation is straightforward and replicable. This session provides concrete steps to follow, specific patterns for locating learning resources, and reproducible forms that educators can carry back to their own campuses.

There is good news out there in school library land! Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia is a system where the superintendent supports, fully staffs, and funds school libraries. The result? Libraries as sources of inspiration. Hear from three Albemarle County school librarians as they share maker success, discuss the variety of experiences they promote … and get honest about challenges.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

In her research on the digital culture, author Patricia Martin defines the top priorities essential to a successful transformation for libraries looking to thrive in the 21st century. Surprising and sometimes seismic, she explores the shifts that are about to rock the culture and how libraries can emerge even stronger.

Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

By offering game design as a catalyst for learning, educators can take learning to the next level. Students explore their interests, passions, and curiosities as they become creative, innovative, and practice thinking outside of the box. Come learn to use game design to create transdisciplinary learning opportunities that give students a voice.

Get an overview and demonstrations of crowdsourcing projects that teachers and students can get involved with to increase online access to the National Archive’s historical records. The presenters cover the Innovation Hub citizen scanning efforts, along with online activities in tagging, transcription, and on Wikipedia projects. The session also highlights some of the student projects that have been accomplished as part of these efforts.

In this session, presenters share and discuss a long-term curriculum project developing blended learning unit plans for high school social studies curriculum that leverages library and web resources. The goal of the Social Studies & Library Digital Curriculum Project is to expand the teaching and learning ecosystem for the 21st-century learner. The project entails implementing a blended learning environment in the classroom and utilizing learner-centered teaching strategies to enhance the time, place, path, and pace of student learning. This is a joint collaborative project between social studies teachers and librarians.

Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

This session seeks to assist education professionals in developing a plan to use Google’s G Suite or similar tools to create assignments around the principle of a “crowdsourced annotated bibliography.” A crowdsourced annotated bibliography is an online tool created by students for use in research projects. Groups of students conduct searches of the available online databases and post their annotations. Those annotations are then added to by other students who utilize the articles in their own research. The end result is a living annotated bibliography that is constantly expanding and evolving. This session provides fun and practical assistance on how to begin, assess, and grow similar resources using free tools available online.

Learn how school librarians can use their information literacy training to help implement a mandate for research across all curriculum areas and grade levels. The end goal is not only to make students “college and career ready,” but to make research an innate process that engages students, helping them to take ownership of their learning. The basic tenants and principals are discussed and expanded upon with Margaux providing hands-on tips and tools for attendees looking to implement, or expand, a research program.