Glossary

Glossary

21st Century Skills: The skills, knowledge and expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century. See Framework for 21st Century Learning.

School Library Information Specialist (SLIS): Another name for a school librarian which reflects the person's role in building programs to educate learners in the 21st century information fluency; AKA teacher-librarian or school library media specialist.

Collaborative Planning: In preparation for a class visit to the library, the school library information specialist and the teacher(s) plan the lesson or unit together, decide who will teach what portion of the lesson or unit, and develop and administer student assessment collaboratively.

Collection Development Plan: School librarians build collections for curriculum needs. This plan identifies what areas will be addressed each year to ensure an up-to-date collection.

Common School Fund: A Constitutionally created state trust fund which, by statute, provides money for the purchase of library books and other instructional materials for school libraries. A complete explanation can be found at the DPI website.

Flexible Access or Scheduling: Considered best practice for library usage, flexible scheduling is an open plan with no regularly occurring classes. Flexible access promotes collaboration and point-of-need access. For this to work, the SLIS needs to be an active marketer.

Fixed Access or Scheduling: In a fixed schedule, classes come to the library as part of a regular special class rotation. While this has benefits—the SLIS sees every student regularly—the instruction can be less effective as collaboration during a fixed schedule is a challenge.

ICT: Information, communication and technology skills.

Information Fluency: Another term for information literacy; this describes competence with a set of print and digital information skills for locating, evaluating, using, creating and publishing information.

Information Literacy: see information fluency.

Intellectual Freedom: The principle of free access to information and ideas representing diverse points of view.

Library 2.0: a loosely defined model for a modernized form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. The focus is on user-centered change and participation in the creation of content and community. This includes using web-based tools for writing, rating, developing, and commenting on resources. For more information, see this article in Library Journal, 9/1/2006.

Selection / Reconsideration Policy: A comprehensive district policy that provides the philosophy and general guidelines for selection of all resources. The policy is the basis for collection development, and the board-approved procedures for handling challenged materials.

Weeding: The process of removing old, damaged, or inaccurate materials from the library's collection.

(Adapted From: "An Administrators' Guide to School LIbraries" by Christopher Harris, 2007 - Creative Commons License)