April is School Library Month

April is School Library Month. There are so many ways you can celebrate this month, even from home.  

First, visit the AASL and download free banners and signs you can use on all of your social media accounts.  There are several versions of this year's banners and signs available as well as past years' themes.

Share a fact about school libraries once a week or every day on social media.  You can flip through this Google Slides presentation to see examples of facts you could share.

You can download my free advocacy pack with fact pages on it HERE.  I made this pack last year to go with the 2019 AASL SLM theme.  The theme this year is more generic, so I decided not to change the pack for this year.

In past years, I have made a display to put in the media center with the facts listed on it.  I put out the "I love my school library" sheets out in front of the display and had students write what they love about our library on them.  

I would hang up their responses on a bulletin board in the hallway.  I can't do that this year, but one way to digitize this would be to create a Google form for students to fill out. You could then put these responses into a Google Slide to share.

And speaking of Google Forms, the Georgia Library Media Association has created a fun Google Form you can fill out to celebrate National School Library Month.  The Google Form creates a Librarygram that will be sent to the school librarian of your choice.  You just need to know the name of the school or organization where that librarian works and their email address.  The Librarygram will be sent to them to brighten their day.

Here is the one I received just last week. It really made my day!

So how are you planning to celebrate School Library Month?

April is School Library Month

In case you hadn't heard...April is School Library Month, and this week in particular is  National Library Week.  I always make special morning announcements every day at my school about school libraries during National Library week, but this year I decided to take advantage of this week to promote school libraries even more.

Maybe it was because I had energy from being off for a week of Spring Break, or maybe I just love my job, but when I came back on Monday, I decided to decorate the doors of our media center.  A lot of students and teachers have commented on how colorful and cheerful it is.  It just makes me smile walking by it.

I made fact sheets about school libraries based on some information I found online.  These are also the facts I share during morning announcements.  Some of the sources I used are listed below.

I Dare You Not to Share (So Many AASL School Library Month Goodies!) by Joyce Valenza

AASL Toolkits

AASL Advocacy Resources

ALA's Quoteable Facts About America's Libraries (2012)

ALA Facts About School Libraries (2013)

LRS Infographic (2013)

Institute of Education Sciences

Library Research Service

Pew Research Center, 10 Facts About American and Public Libraries (2014)

More Interesting Reads:

Why Do We Need School Libraries? Written by Melinda Graham, 2005

Occupational Outlook Handbook, Librarians (2012)

Why You Need Your School Librarian Written by Kimberly Shearer (2012)

Elementary Librarian: Are School Libraries Still Necessary (2013)

How Cuts and Closures of Elementary School Libraries Are Hurting Our Kids by Solvej Schou (2014)

I downloaded the free School Libraries Transform Learning poster from AASL and printed them on our poster printer at school.  You can snag yours at the bottom of the first link above.  Joyce made it easy to access.  =)

I also made a sheet for patrons to write about what they love about our school library media center.  I added these to the door display.

What the students have been writing is so sweet and heartwarming.

A couple of classes showed me even more love with flowers and cards.

I've put together a pack of the fact sheets I created as well as the "I love my school library media center because" sheet.  You can download it for FREE on TpT.  Just click HERE.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Happy National Library Week!

Happy National Library Week and Tax Day!

It's School Library Month and National Library Week (yay!) and Tax Day is tomorrow (boo!) so I thought I would throw a little sale to make this week a little more fun!

Everything in my TpT store is 15% off this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Just click here or on the picture above to check it out.  Hope this makes the week a little more happy.  =)