Published bimonthly September through June, Knowledge Quest is devoted to offering substantive information to assist building-level school librarians, supervisors, library educators, and other decision makers concerned with the development of school library programs and services. This collection contains issues dating back until 2011. Archives issues back to 2008 can be accessed via ERIC.
Access to school library resources is central to ALA’s Library Bill of Rights. This issue of Knowledge Quest addresses the specific topic of access to diverse voices. Authors offer practical tips, tools, and strategies to navigate book challenges and selection policies. You will also find the perspectives of a YA author, high school student, and middle school librarian from Florida faced with restrictive legislation.
AASL President Jennisen Lucas discusses the science of “library science” and how selection policies are vital when the expertise of school librarians can be called into question. Lucas also reminds readers to not forget the “art” of school librarianship that allows the school library to have something to inspire everyone.
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Straddling Parallel Tracks: Diversifying Novels in the ELA Curriculum while Facing Book Challenges about Diverse Texts (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 24-27)
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Cesari takes the experience of book challenges as an opportunity for positive curricular changes by walking readers through the development of a formalized procedure for selecting new, diverse texts to add to the ELA program curriculum. While the new process hasn’t silenced criticism, it has made it easier to defend the titles.
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KQ Editorial Board Liaison Column: The Issue of Access: Looking Back, Stepping Up, and Moving Forward (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 6-7)
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CBC Column Covid: Kills Books, Too (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 64-66)
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Author Lois Wickstrom shares her experience as a library browser and the value of physical access for random encounters of book discovery. Wickstrom makes the case that between COVID-19 restrictions, narrow-interest online groups, and shifts in book reviews, the curiosity and random discovery of books are gone.
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Research into Practice Column: School Library Instruction: Does Experience Matter? (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 60-63)
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Robinson presents his finding by looking at the instructional competencies between novice and experienced school librarians. The results revealed that school librarians with less than four years of teaching experience may need more specialized mentoring and professional development to advance in the complex school library setting.
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LibraryDen: A Tool for Learning about Research and Information Literacy Pedagogy (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 54-59)
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Croft and Barnhart share their experience when learning shifted to online at the University of West Georgia and the LibraryDen, a library mini course, was developed and used in the Multiple Literacies for School Library Media Course. Particularly impressive was the transferability of skills between the academic and school library setting.
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Access: Why We Defend This Core Value (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 40-46)
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Sharing both her personal and professional journey of finding mirrors, windows and sliding doors through access to diverse collections, Mack offers steps to consider for maintaining learners’ access when books relating to diverse characters, LGBTQ+ characters, or written by people of color are more frequently challenged.
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Approaching the Storm: Using the Shared Foundations to Grow in the Face of Book Challenges and Attacks on Intellectual Freedom (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 18-23)
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Using the AASL National School Library Standards, and the essential questions developed out of Rivera’s work on the Emerging Leaders project Defending Intellectual Freedom LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries resource guide, readers are taken through applying essential questions to think about intellectual freedom in the face of book challenges.
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Joining Forces to Amplify Voice (Volume 50, No.5, pgs 10-17)
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If there was ever a time to review material selection policy and bring stakeholders into the conversation, the time is now. Kowalski discusses the school librarian as an instructional leader who must keep administrators informed, but also organizational partners, and stakeholders. Teachers, family partners, and student partners are also discussed as critical pieces of the school community. She reminds the reader that hard work and leadership will strengthen the school library.
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