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Scaffolding Research Skills for the Next Generation of Thinkers
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This poster session introduces a K–12 research skills scaffold aligned with the AASL Standards for Learners and School Librarians. Developed with input from school librarians and classroom teachers, the framework has been shared at conferences across New York and can be easily adapted for use in other states. Attendees will explore a clear visual guide—along with a QR code for easy access—that supports research instruction and builds digital fluency and computer science skills across all grade levels. The session also encourages cross-grade and cross-subject collaboration to promote consistent, school-wide instruction.
Queering the Library: Creating Safe & Affirming Spaces for LGBTQ+ Students
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Other
Description: "Queering the Library: Creating Safe & Affirming Spaces for LGBTQ+ Students"
Join us for a captivating poster presentation exploring the power of school libraries to foster LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Discover: Innovative strategies for creating welcoming and affirming library spaces for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Explore: High-impact resources and materials that celebrate LGBTQ+ voices and experiences.
Learn: Practical tips for addressing homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination within the school community.
Connect: Network with fellow librarians passionate about creating inclusive learning environments.
Historical Children’s Books in the Library: Making Room or Drawing Lines?
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: Familiar children’s books often evoke feelings of nostalgia and enjoyment in adults. We want to share our favorite stories, illustrations, and authors with the students in our libraries and classrooms, so they might become similarly enchanted with the books we love. But what happens when we realize the “oldie but goodie” books we want to share may have messages that do not resonate with all students? Or worse, how do we respond when we recognize that an award-winning or beloved book contains potentially hurtful or harmful content? We developed a rubric to help answer these questions about our K-12 curriculum materials collection and to help our pre-teachers become more reflective and responsive in their own book selections.
12-15 Year Olds Need Books, Too! It's Time for Young Teen Lit
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: Librarians know that engaging books for 12-15-year-olds are hard to find. Middle grade is too young, and YA is too mature. Join a seasoned middle school librarian to learn about the call for a new publishing category for the kids stuck in the middle called Young Teen Lit--and the six criteria that define it. Discover how librarians are advocating for change and how you can join the #itstimeforyoungteenlit movement. Take away links to resources with books young teens love and books we want to see published.
Building Community Coalitions to Support Libraries
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: The Right to Read coalition is a grassroots organization advocating for libraries and librarians across Missouri. With guidance from the Missouri Library Association, the group monitors legislation and actions that affect libraries statewide. When necessary, Steering Committee members provide written or in-person testimony and public statements on legislation or policies that impact libraries.
Convention attendees will gain insights on how to establish a similar coalition in their own states. This includes the recruitment of individual and organizational coalition members, the roles and responsibilities of a Steering Committee, and developing strategies to effectively advocate for libraries, librarians, and educators.
STEAMING with Girls Who Code in Library Worlds
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Through specific case studies and examples, The Girls Who Code Club will be shown to be a vehicle for library advocacy. Live student accounts thanks to students tuning into this specific session via Streaming will provide how students implemented advocacy through Girls Who Code. By needing and relying on a "third space" like the library, all audiences will learn how youth and STEAM objectives can plan a powerful advocacy to stockholders on the community (legislators, parents, business and community members).
Due to the lack of females in the Science/Technology/ Engineering/Coding fields, school library settings partnered with school librarians to create a launchpad for opportunity for these fields. Additionally, library advocacy is more powerful in the hands of students that experience their libraries everyday; students being advocates for the opportunities occurring in their school libraries carry a more powerful voice.
Illuminating Impact: Applying Ripple Effect Mapping and the Community Capitals Framework to School Library Programs
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: How do school libraries contribute not just to student success, but to the well-being of the entire community? This poster presents an innovative approach to evaluating school library programs using Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF). These tools capture visible and hidden effects—both positive and negative—across the types of community capital.
Attendees will explore how REM can reveal how value is added—or lost—through library initiatives, partnerships, and leadership. By emphasizing a whole-community perspective, this method shifts the conversation from isolated outcomes to long-term impact.
Whether you’re managing a reading program, makerspace, or curriculum project, this approach helps answer the question: What are we really changing, and who is feeling the effects?
Leave inspired to examine your own program’s ripple effects and consider its true value in your school and community.
Collaborative Partnerships with School Librarians in Fixed Rotation: A Qualitative Study
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collaboration
Presenter
Janice Anderson
Janice Anderson, EdD, MLIS, MS-SLIS, is a school librarian at River Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas. Her dream of becoming a school librarian was sparked in the 5th grade at Curundu Elementary in Fort Clayton, Canal Zone, Panama, when Mr. Beck suggested she become a librarian after she organized the classroom library. It was the best decision a ten-year-old could make. because it's the best job in the field of education, and possibly the best job in the world.
Description: Discover how school librarians on the specials or enrichment rotation perceive professional collaboration and overcome the constraints of their fixed schedule. The poster session discusses the limitations created by being on the rotation. Still, it reveals the tenacity of 14 school librarians and their ability to adapt their understanding of what it means to collaborate when schedules are rigid and time is precious.
Read in Love: Centering Joy, Justice, and Black Girlhood Through Romance
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Literacy
Presenter
Jessica Grider
Jessica Grider is a high school librarian and PhD student in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Language, Diversity, and Literacy. She is passionate about creating inclusive, equity-driven library programs that celebrate student voice and identity. Previously an ELA teacher for 12 years, she has now been her school's librarian for 4 years. In that time, she launched a romance book club centering Black girls and other students of color, which fosters joy, belonging, and critical literacy through diverse YA literature. Jessica’s work highlights the power of pleasure reading as both a literacy strategy and a tool for liberation, reflecting her commitment to culturally responsive, student-centered librarianship.
Description: Visit the poster session Read in Love: Centering Joy, Justice, and Black Girlhood Through Romance to discover how one high school librarian launched a romance book club that affirms identity, builds community, and fosters critical literacy—all through the power of love stories. This session showcases how YA romance novels by and about Black girls and other students of color can spark rich conversations about relationships, representation, and resistance. You’ll leave with programming ideas, curated book recommendations, and strategies for using genre fiction to create inclusive, student-led library spaces. Whether you're new to book clubs or looking to reimagine your current offerings, this poster will inspire you to embrace pleasure reading as a powerful tool for engagement and equity. If you're looking for fresh, joyful ways to engage teen readers and celebrate diverse voices, come explore how centering love in your library can also center liberation, joy, and belonging.
Teaching Students to be Good Consumers of Information in an Age of AI Hallucinations
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education, school librarians play a vital role in guiding students to use these tools ethically and responsibly. This engaging poster session explores how AI is shaping student research and learning, highlighting both its potential benefits and its critical shortcomings—such as misinformation and “artificial hallucinations.” Participants will discover practical strategies to help students evaluate AI-generated content using fact-checking methods like the CRAAP test and lateral reading. Real-world examples will illustrate the risks of unverified AI use, including fabricated information and deepfakes. Attendees will leave with tools to teach students how to become critical consumers of AI-powered information and how to harness AI for ethical problem-solving. Prepare your students for the digital future by empowering them with the skills they need to navigate and evaluate the evolving world of artificial intelligence.
Copyright Foundations: Respecting Creative Rights in Elementary
Grade Level: 3-5
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Today’s students aren’t just consumers of digital content — they’re creators. From movies to storytelling to 3D printing to graphic design, elementary students are producing original work at an early age. But do they understand their creative rights? And do they understand how to respect the rights of others?
Participants will explore how to empower young learners to take ownership of their creative work while making responsible choices about using and sharing content. Educators will gain strategies to:
• Introduce copyright as a tool that protects creativity, not just a set of rules.
• Help students recognize their own creative rights — their stories, artwork, and projects matter!
• Relate copyright laws to youth culture so students understand the world they live in.
• Connect copyright to your school’s core values.
• Teach students to give proper credit when using others’ work.
• Celebrate when content enters the public domain!
TRAC in ASEC: Teaching source evaluation in and through the library
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Students need to develop media literacy through critical practices and habits around source evaluation and their use of information to be competent and autonomous participants in our world.
1) Participants will learn to use the TRAC in ASEC* instructional framework to guide their K-12 lesson development for information literacy, inquiry, and source evaluation (lateral reading) lessons.
2) Librarians may share the TRAC in ASEC* framework with their upper elementary through high school students as they teach source evaluation using lateral reading with information literacy instruction.
3) Participants will also learn direct alignments to the AASL Standards for Learners and the Common Core Literacy Standards in the strands of writing and reading informational text. The presenters will demonstrate connections to be made with AASL for varied grade levels including grades 2, 5, 8, and 12.
*TRAC in ASEC is an instructional framework created by Karla Steege Justice and Joan Bessman Taylor.
Information Literacy in Charter School Culture
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: This poster shows what I found in my study of information literacy (IL) in charter high schools. I did an exploratory study of school culture and IL in two South Carolina charter high schools. Four aspects of school culture emerged that seemed to make a difference to IL: teacher leadership, individualized college and career preparation, social and emotional support, and libraries. Looking across the wider charter sector, each school has their own school culture that may have more or less IL. By seeing how the education system works and the affordances charters have to establish innovative school cultures, LIS can advocate for schools to make choices that increase IL. Schools with a stronger culture of IL are likely to have or want to establish strong library programs, so advocating for IL is advocating for effective school libraries.
Deceptively simple, authentically meaningful: Discover practical tools for student-driven, inquiry-based primary source learning
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Discover free resources and take-on-your-own time professional learning for increasing students’ engagement, agency, and enthusiasm for primary source learning with ease. Explore the Right Question Institute’s Primary Source Hub and Primary Source Online Modules, made possible by the Library of Congress. These free, high quality online resources make it easy for teachers to learn how to use the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) with primary sources from the Library of Congress to deepen learning, enhance critical thinking and media literacy, and power independent research. Browse educator-written lesson plans, videos, and lesson planning tools, examine samples of student work, and talk with two of the educator-librarians who helped develop these resources to get fresh ideas and walk away ready to implement a simple, yet effective student inquiry strategy in the library and beyond.
Promoting Student Reading Motivation Through Targeted Initiatives
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: When reading scores for a particular grade cohort at my elementary school were lagging, the principal called upon me to help. See how I collaborated with my principal and classroom teachers to conduct an action research program that produced exciting results and received the Innovative School Library Program award for my state. I’ll show you how I took advantage of my library's flexible schedule to launch subsequent initiatives that made reading a greater priority for our learning community. This poster will demonstrate the role of the school librarian as an instructional leader and researcher both inside and outside the library space.
Finding Support Through Librarian Professional Friendships
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Being a librarian, or even a pair of librarians, can be lonely work. Often you are the only person, or only people in the
building who work in your subject area, people often misunderstand your role, community members often hold
outdated ideas of what librarians and libraries do, and current trends in political realms can shift how stakeholders
view you and the work you do. Now more than ever, professional friendships and support systems are essential to
both being emotionally healthy and professionally fulfilled as a librarian. But how do you build those relationships
when librarians are often siloed at their schools and lack dedicated time for collaborating?
This poster presentation will discuss how four librarians at two schools organically built a partnership that has allowed all four
librarians to use their interests and skills to support each other and grow healthy school library programs across
campuses and grade levels
Pop Up PD: Personalized Professional Development for Educators
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Join Lesley for an exciting poster session on Pop Up PD, a unique program designed to deliver personalized professional development (PD) directly to educators. This innovative approach ensures that teachers receive the support and resources they need, exactly when they need them. Whether it's a quick session during a lunch break or a more in-depth workshop after school, Pop Up PD is tailored to fit the busy schedules of teachers. Explore the benefits of personalized PD, see examples of successful sessions, and find out how you can bring Pop Up PD to your school or district. Sample templates and a list of tools used to create the program will be available, enabling you to implement Pop Up PD in your own educational setting.
Designing a Trauma-Informed Library Program…
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Designing a Trauma-Informed Library Program…how your library looks and feels matters! Transform your library into a safe space for all students, intentionally design lessons to support trauma-impacted students, and take-away tips and tricks to build student relationships.
Library Student Aides: Attracting The Next Generation of Librarians
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: How to organize and persuade your library student aides to be their best selves and benefit your library program.
Decentering the White Gaze: The Effects of Involving African-American Students in Curricular Decision-Making in an Independent School Library
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: This poster session will proclaim the power that school librarians have to transform the lives of Black students at independent schools. These students are vastly underrepresented and often feel alone on campuses that have historically taught to a White standard of excellence. But by involving them in curricular decision-making, librarians can change this narrative. This research focused on the significant impact a library diversity audit had on the lives of several fourth-grade students who often felt overlooked. Giving them the authority to decide what ended up on the library shelves gave them ownership and pride and increased their sense of belonging at the school. The idea that they were making things better for the upcoming Black students also allowed them to feel like they were doing something to change their current status quo. Making the library a place for voice, choice, and action can significantly impact student lives.
Real Men Read: A Literacy Outreach Partnership Between An Academic Library and P–6 Schools
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: Real Men Read at William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ) is a literacy outreach initiative led by the David and Lorraine Cheng Library in partnership with the College of Education. Established in 2020, the program connects male mentors—including faculty, librarians, staff, and students—with Pre-K to 6th grade learners across over 50 schools in northern New Jersey. Readers—many of whom are Black and Latino men—serve as positive role models, fostering a love of reading through live and virtual read-aloud sessions each March during NEA’s Read Across America. By promoting representation, early literacy, and male mentorship, the program helps close gaps in reading motivation for boys, especially those from underrepresented communities. With over 6,400 students served, WPUNJ’s Real Men Read was recognized in 2025 by the Library of Congress as an Emerging Strategies Award Winner. The program is a replicable, research-based model for higher education-led school outreach.
A Case for the Caldecott: Librarians Tell the Story
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: In today’s climate of rising book censorship and intense spotlight on prestigious awards, how do school librarians navigate the selection of Caldecott-winning titles? This program explores the behind-the-scenes decision-making processes librarians use when curating their collections amidst national debates and public pressure. Inspired by School Library Journal’s “heavy medals” coverage and guided by a qualitative narrative methodology (Polkinghorne, 1995), this study investigates whether librarians rely on BISAC codes, award prestige, popular demand, or a unique combination of strategies. Are they critically evaluating content for alignment with community needs and educational goals, or are they simply following trends? Attendees will gain insight into the thoughtful, and sometimes complex, methods librarians use to balance literary excellence with responsible collection development. This timely exploration will be especially valuable for educators, library professionals, and stakeholders concerned with intellectual freedom and equitable access to literature in schools.
Librarians and Counselors in Collaboration: Resilience and Transformation in School Libraries
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Presenter
Rita Soulen
Dr. Rita Soulen is an Associate Professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. She teaches library materials & programming and library instruction. Her research focuses on school libraries and children's services. She also serves as Co-Editor of AASL's School Library Research.
Description: Human- and nature-induced events may adversely affect the workings of the school library. This research study investigates the influence of such events such as school shootings/threats, suicide, school bombings/bomb threats, weather events, or natural disasters on the role of the school librarian, library instruction, programming, collection development as well as response to such events in collaboration with school counselors. Attendees will be offered the opportunity to voluntarily participate in a research study to describe the influence of such events in their own schools and libraries.
Creating Camp Read S'more - What's In Your Library Backpack?
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Camp Read S’more has been a HUGE success at our school where the motto is “The s’more you read, the s’more you know!” Learn how to turn your library space into a camping and reading experience your students will never forget! From easy to make tents and signage to reading and tech tools - Novel Effect, Canva, and more - for your library backpack, we have been able to inspire all of our students and teachers to become happy campers ready for their next reading adventure!
Developing Responsibly Engaged Learners in an Interconnected World
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Members of a 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders team were tasked by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) to develop an activity guide with resources to support professional development and instruction around the skills inherent in the National School Library Standards Shared Foundation of Engage as a way to "demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world" (American Association of School Librarians 2018, 113).
Revitalizing Learning Spaces: Adapting Libraries on a Budget
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Presenter
Siobhan Mccann
I have been an Elementary School Librarian in South Carolina for the past six years. I love books and movies, but ultimately I think the book is always better. I am always working on different activities and ways to keep students and staff engaged with the library.
Description: Maybe your library feels outdated—or maybe you’re working with a tight budget. Either way, transforming it into a flexible, modern learning environment is possible. In this poster presentation, we’ll share how we redesigned our library spaces to meet the evolving needs of students, instructional goals, and staff—while balancing function and flexibility.
We’ll present visual strategies for adapting existing furniture and reimagining layouts to make the most of what you already have. From seating arrangements to reading areas, thoughtful furniture placement can help create a more student-centered and adaptable environment.
This session highlights how to:
• Create flexible learning areas that support diverse learners
• Maintain teacher workspaces
• Design multipurpose spaces for various events
The layout of tables, chairs, and other furnishings plays a critical role in how a space functions. Flexible options allow for quick adjustments, helping your space grow and change alongside your school community.
From Code to Creation: Engaging Students in STEM with Ozobots and 3D Printing
Grade Level: 3-5
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Discover how Ozobots and 3D printing can ignite student curiosity, creativity, and collaboration in STEM learning. This poster highlights an engaging library-based program where students designed courses, coded robots to navigate them, and 3D printed custom inventions. We’ll share practical tips, student work samples, and lesson ideas that integrate computer science, engineering design, and digital literacy. Whether you're a tech novice or a STEM champion, you'll walk away with ideas to implement in your own school library. We will also share grant writing tips for acquiring tech.
Affirming Multilingualism: How the Library Collabs with World Language Teachers and Students
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: All 50 states and Washington, DC have approved statewide programs to award the Seal of Biliteracy, recognizing students who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages by the time they graduate high school. Tara Thibault-Edmonds (Library Media Specialist) and Victoria Robertson (World Language Teacher) come from the Rondout Valley Central School District in the Hudson Valley Region of New York State, where they have had a thriving Seal of Biliteracy Program for the past five years. During this presentation they will share what they have learned to start and grow a successful program that celebrates the multilingual proficiency of all students. Special focus will be on collaboration, tools and lessons that prepare students for successful multilingual research, and the crucial role that our school librarians play in supporting multilingual students.
Bringing State History/Traditions to Life!
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Rinnnnng! And their off! Yes, that's right learn how one librarian, with little collaboration has created a "winning" school wide celebrated "Kentucky Derby". 2025 marks the fifth annual "Derby Day" where every student in the building participates in one activity. Students dive into the state's rich history and traditions, creating products to celebrate it. Make the choice and bring your state history/traditions "ALIVE" in the library!
How a 15 Minute Author Skype Turned Into a Service Learning Project in Cameroon
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Take your author visit to the next level! See how a free fifteen minute Zoom with an author transformed into a community-wide service learning project. In 2019, Miranda and Baptiste Paul, authors of "I Am Farmer," visited our school district with Cameroonian grassroots environmentalist "Farmer Tantoh." Students were inspired by Farmer's story and were empowered to act. Students and the community at large got involved to raise funds for a water project. To make the project more personal, we then traveled to Cameroon to help install the well that our community raised funds for. Blogging allowed our students to be actively involved in the journey. Six years later we are supporting Farmer's projects and the same students are just as engaged in their passion for clean water as they were on the day they first read "I Am Farmer."
Read, Learn, Repeat: A K-5 Library Curriculum That Sticks
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Read, Learn, Repeat: The K-5 Curriculum That Sticks
How do we make library lessons memorable, meaningful, and lasting? This poster presentation shares a comprehensive K-5 library curriculum designed to help young learners build capacity to access library resources, develop core literacy skills year after year all while fostering a love for reading and creating a reading culture. This curriculum framework supports academic growth and curiosity. Attendees will walk away with strategies, a full year of completed lessons and tools that can be adapted for any elementary library setting.
Action Steps to Bring Early Literacy and the Scarborough Reading Rope to Life
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: Visit this poster session to explore actionable steps to infuse rich literature with language comprehension and word recognition that bring to life many facets of the Scarborough Reading Rope. You'll take back to your school specific steps that empowers you to:
• Connect popular picture books to more than a dozen phonemic classifications
• Extend decoding, phonemic awareness, and sight recognition with printable activities
• Advance early childhood vocabulary with multi-faceted graphic organizers
• Encourage consideration of cause/effect, problem/solution, fact/opinion, and main idea/details
The poster session highlights early literacy action steps that...
• Enhances reading instruction with favorite books that you likely own
• Infuses multiple facets of the Scarborough Reading Rope into instructional practice
• Provides you with resources to integrate into your lessons and read alouds
Librarian + Classroom Teacher = Edu-tainment: The Dynamic Duo Tag Teaming Education
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Step into the ring with a school librarian and 6th-grade social studies teacher as they show how their tag team transforms lessons into high-energy, can’t-miss edu-tainment! Learn how this dynamic duo plans and teaches side-by-side, mixing literacy skills and content knowledge to keep students on their toes and ready to rumble with learning. Discover how collaboration pins down boredom and body-slams disengagement with fun, interactive activities that get every student in the action. Whether you’re ready to tag in as a librarian or teacher, this session delivers knockout ideas and easy ways to build your own winning team. Get ready to raise the championship belt for student success through teamwork and creativity!
Social Emotional Factors in Information Literacy Instruction
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This poster will present research findings from a survey exploring social emotional considerations in information literacy (IL) instruction. This research aims to develop a novel information literacy instruction model that integrates elements of social-emotional literacy (SEL) with traditional information literacy (IL) skills. The poster will focus on findings developed from a survey of school library educators and practitioners to highlight current practices in information literacy instruction and identify training needs. Our results will inform school librarians on current practices particularly in the underexplored intersection of IL and SEL.
This work will identify future directions for information literacy research and develop recommendations for best practices in applying an information literacy model for school library IL instruction practitioners.
Nature-based Library Learning
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This session will provide resources, curricular connections, and actionable ideas for integrating environmental education in PK-12 school libraries to enhance student learning outcomes. A growing body of research has shown that learning in and about nature enhances educational outcomes by improving academic performance, focus, behavior, and love of learning. It can even reduce stress and ADHD symptoms. This is especially true for students with disabilities or from low socio-economic backgrounds. Librarians can provide nature-based learning opportunities and programs for all students, reducing the significant disparities in access to and contact with nature and environmental education that can occur. Whether it’s gardening, observing nature, creating wildlife habitats, recycling, or reducing waste, authentic learning will take place when librarians integrate sustainability and environmental education into programs and instruction.
Dewey Lite: Reorganizing Nonfiction in an Elementary Library
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: Dewey or don't we? This question has been asked of librarians for the past decade. In this session, discover one elementary librarian’s journey to rethinking and reorganizing the nonfiction section. Attendees will explore the reasons behind the change, walk through the practical steps taken to implement it, and learn about the outcomes—both expected and surprising.
Paraphrasing Activities
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Paraphrasing Activities: Check out these quick and fun paraphrasing activities that can be done as solo activities or as stations to help students practice the difference between paraphrasing, summarizing and plagiarism.
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This poster session introduces a K–12 research skills scaffold aligned with the AASL Standards for Learners and School Librarians. Developed with input from school librarians and classroom teachers, the framework has been shared at conferences across New York and can be easily adapted for use in other states. Attendees will explore a clear visual guide—along with a QR code for easy access—that supports research instruction and builds digital fluency and computer science skills across all grade levels. The session also encourages cross-grade and cross-subject collaboration to promote consistent, school-wide instruction.
Queering the Library: Creating Safe & Affirming Spaces for LGBTQ+ Students
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Other
Description: "Queering the Library: Creating Safe & Affirming Spaces for LGBTQ+ Students"
Join us for a captivating poster presentation exploring the power of school libraries to foster LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Discover: Innovative strategies for creating welcoming and affirming library spaces for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Explore: High-impact resources and materials that celebrate LGBTQ+ voices and experiences.
Learn: Practical tips for addressing homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination within the school community.
Connect: Network with fellow librarians passionate about creating inclusive learning environments.
Historical Children’s Books in the Library: Making Room or Drawing Lines?
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: Familiar children’s books often evoke feelings of nostalgia and enjoyment in adults. We want to share our favorite stories, illustrations, and authors with the students in our libraries and classrooms, so they might become similarly enchanted with the books we love. But what happens when we realize the “oldie but goodie” books we want to share may have messages that do not resonate with all students? Or worse, how do we respond when we recognize that an award-winning or beloved book contains potentially hurtful or harmful content? We developed a rubric to help answer these questions about our K-12 curriculum materials collection and to help our pre-teachers become more reflective and responsive in their own book selections.
12-15 Year Olds Need Books, Too! It's Time for Young Teen Lit
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: Librarians know that engaging books for 12-15-year-olds are hard to find. Middle grade is too young, and YA is too mature. Join a seasoned middle school librarian to learn about the call for a new publishing category for the kids stuck in the middle called Young Teen Lit--and the six criteria that define it. Discover how librarians are advocating for change and how you can join the #itstimeforyoungteenlit movement. Take away links to resources with books young teens love and books we want to see published.
Building Community Coalitions to Support Libraries
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: The Right to Read coalition is a grassroots organization advocating for libraries and librarians across Missouri. With guidance from the Missouri Library Association, the group monitors legislation and actions that affect libraries statewide. When necessary, Steering Committee members provide written or in-person testimony and public statements on legislation or policies that impact libraries.
Convention attendees will gain insights on how to establish a similar coalition in their own states. This includes the recruitment of individual and organizational coalition members, the roles and responsibilities of a Steering Committee, and developing strategies to effectively advocate for libraries, librarians, and educators.
STEAMING with Girls Who Code in Library Worlds
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Through specific case studies and examples, The Girls Who Code Club will be shown to be a vehicle for library advocacy. Live student accounts thanks to students tuning into this specific session via Streaming will provide how students implemented advocacy through Girls Who Code. By needing and relying on a "third space" like the library, all audiences will learn how youth and STEAM objectives can plan a powerful advocacy to stockholders on the community (legislators, parents, business and community members).
Due to the lack of females in the Science/Technology/ Engineering/Coding fields, school library settings partnered with school librarians to create a launchpad for opportunity for these fields. Additionally, library advocacy is more powerful in the hands of students that experience their libraries everyday; students being advocates for the opportunities occurring in their school libraries carry a more powerful voice.
Illuminating Impact: Applying Ripple Effect Mapping and the Community Capitals Framework to School Library Programs
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: How do school libraries contribute not just to student success, but to the well-being of the entire community? This poster presents an innovative approach to evaluating school library programs using Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF). These tools capture visible and hidden effects—both positive and negative—across the types of community capital.
Attendees will explore how REM can reveal how value is added—or lost—through library initiatives, partnerships, and leadership. By emphasizing a whole-community perspective, this method shifts the conversation from isolated outcomes to long-term impact.
Whether you’re managing a reading program, makerspace, or curriculum project, this approach helps answer the question: What are we really changing, and who is feeling the effects?
Leave inspired to examine your own program’s ripple effects and consider its true value in your school and community.
Collaborative Partnerships with School Librarians in Fixed Rotation: A Qualitative Study
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collaboration
Presenter
Janice Anderson
Janice Anderson, EdD, MLIS, MS-SLIS, is a school librarian at River Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas. Her dream of becoming a school librarian was sparked in the 5th grade at Curundu Elementary in Fort Clayton, Canal Zone, Panama, when Mr. Beck suggested she become a librarian after she organized the classroom library. It was the best decision a ten-year-old could make. because it's the best job in the field of education, and possibly the best job in the world.
Description: Discover how school librarians on the specials or enrichment rotation perceive professional collaboration and overcome the constraints of their fixed schedule. The poster session discusses the limitations created by being on the rotation. Still, it reveals the tenacity of 14 school librarians and their ability to adapt their understanding of what it means to collaborate when schedules are rigid and time is precious.
Read in Love: Centering Joy, Justice, and Black Girlhood Through Romance
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Literacy
Presenter
Jessica Grider
Jessica Grider is a high school librarian and PhD student in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Language, Diversity, and Literacy. She is passionate about creating inclusive, equity-driven library programs that celebrate student voice and identity. Previously an ELA teacher for 12 years, she has now been her school's librarian for 4 years. In that time, she launched a romance book club centering Black girls and other students of color, which fosters joy, belonging, and critical literacy through diverse YA literature. Jessica’s work highlights the power of pleasure reading as both a literacy strategy and a tool for liberation, reflecting her commitment to culturally responsive, student-centered librarianship.
Description: Visit the poster session Read in Love: Centering Joy, Justice, and Black Girlhood Through Romance to discover how one high school librarian launched a romance book club that affirms identity, builds community, and fosters critical literacy—all through the power of love stories. This session showcases how YA romance novels by and about Black girls and other students of color can spark rich conversations about relationships, representation, and resistance. You’ll leave with programming ideas, curated book recommendations, and strategies for using genre fiction to create inclusive, student-led library spaces. Whether you're new to book clubs or looking to reimagine your current offerings, this poster will inspire you to embrace pleasure reading as a powerful tool for engagement and equity. If you're looking for fresh, joyful ways to engage teen readers and celebrate diverse voices, come explore how centering love in your library can also center liberation, joy, and belonging.
Teaching Students to be Good Consumers of Information in an Age of AI Hallucinations
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education, school librarians play a vital role in guiding students to use these tools ethically and responsibly. This engaging poster session explores how AI is shaping student research and learning, highlighting both its potential benefits and its critical shortcomings—such as misinformation and “artificial hallucinations.” Participants will discover practical strategies to help students evaluate AI-generated content using fact-checking methods like the CRAAP test and lateral reading. Real-world examples will illustrate the risks of unverified AI use, including fabricated information and deepfakes. Attendees will leave with tools to teach students how to become critical consumers of AI-powered information and how to harness AI for ethical problem-solving. Prepare your students for the digital future by empowering them with the skills they need to navigate and evaluate the evolving world of artificial intelligence.
Copyright Foundations: Respecting Creative Rights in Elementary
Grade Level: 3-5
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Today’s students aren’t just consumers of digital content — they’re creators. From movies to storytelling to 3D printing to graphic design, elementary students are producing original work at an early age. But do they understand their creative rights? And do they understand how to respect the rights of others?
Participants will explore how to empower young learners to take ownership of their creative work while making responsible choices about using and sharing content. Educators will gain strategies to:
• Introduce copyright as a tool that protects creativity, not just a set of rules.
• Help students recognize their own creative rights — their stories, artwork, and projects matter!
• Relate copyright laws to youth culture so students understand the world they live in.
• Connect copyright to your school’s core values.
• Teach students to give proper credit when using others’ work.
• Celebrate when content enters the public domain!
TRAC in ASEC: Teaching source evaluation in and through the library
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Students need to develop media literacy through critical practices and habits around source evaluation and their use of information to be competent and autonomous participants in our world.
1) Participants will learn to use the TRAC in ASEC* instructional framework to guide their K-12 lesson development for information literacy, inquiry, and source evaluation (lateral reading) lessons.
2) Librarians may share the TRAC in ASEC* framework with their upper elementary through high school students as they teach source evaluation using lateral reading with information literacy instruction.
3) Participants will also learn direct alignments to the AASL Standards for Learners and the Common Core Literacy Standards in the strands of writing and reading informational text. The presenters will demonstrate connections to be made with AASL for varied grade levels including grades 2, 5, 8, and 12.
*TRAC in ASEC is an instructional framework created by Karla Steege Justice and Joan Bessman Taylor.
Information Literacy in Charter School Culture
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: This poster shows what I found in my study of information literacy (IL) in charter high schools. I did an exploratory study of school culture and IL in two South Carolina charter high schools. Four aspects of school culture emerged that seemed to make a difference to IL: teacher leadership, individualized college and career preparation, social and emotional support, and libraries. Looking across the wider charter sector, each school has their own school culture that may have more or less IL. By seeing how the education system works and the affordances charters have to establish innovative school cultures, LIS can advocate for schools to make choices that increase IL. Schools with a stronger culture of IL are likely to have or want to establish strong library programs, so advocating for IL is advocating for effective school libraries.
Deceptively simple, authentically meaningful: Discover practical tools for student-driven, inquiry-based primary source learning
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Discover free resources and take-on-your-own time professional learning for increasing students’ engagement, agency, and enthusiasm for primary source learning with ease. Explore the Right Question Institute’s Primary Source Hub and Primary Source Online Modules, made possible by the Library of Congress. These free, high quality online resources make it easy for teachers to learn how to use the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) with primary sources from the Library of Congress to deepen learning, enhance critical thinking and media literacy, and power independent research. Browse educator-written lesson plans, videos, and lesson planning tools, examine samples of student work, and talk with two of the educator-librarians who helped develop these resources to get fresh ideas and walk away ready to implement a simple, yet effective student inquiry strategy in the library and beyond.
Promoting Student Reading Motivation Through Targeted Initiatives
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: When reading scores for a particular grade cohort at my elementary school were lagging, the principal called upon me to help. See how I collaborated with my principal and classroom teachers to conduct an action research program that produced exciting results and received the Innovative School Library Program award for my state. I’ll show you how I took advantage of my library's flexible schedule to launch subsequent initiatives that made reading a greater priority for our learning community. This poster will demonstrate the role of the school librarian as an instructional leader and researcher both inside and outside the library space.
Finding Support Through Librarian Professional Friendships
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Being a librarian, or even a pair of librarians, can be lonely work. Often you are the only person, or only people in the
building who work in your subject area, people often misunderstand your role, community members often hold
outdated ideas of what librarians and libraries do, and current trends in political realms can shift how stakeholders
view you and the work you do. Now more than ever, professional friendships and support systems are essential to
both being emotionally healthy and professionally fulfilled as a librarian. But how do you build those relationships
when librarians are often siloed at their schools and lack dedicated time for collaborating?
This poster presentation will discuss how four librarians at two schools organically built a partnership that has allowed all four
librarians to use their interests and skills to support each other and grow healthy school library programs across
campuses and grade levels
Pop Up PD: Personalized Professional Development for Educators
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Join Lesley for an exciting poster session on Pop Up PD, a unique program designed to deliver personalized professional development (PD) directly to educators. This innovative approach ensures that teachers receive the support and resources they need, exactly when they need them. Whether it's a quick session during a lunch break or a more in-depth workshop after school, Pop Up PD is tailored to fit the busy schedules of teachers. Explore the benefits of personalized PD, see examples of successful sessions, and find out how you can bring Pop Up PD to your school or district. Sample templates and a list of tools used to create the program will be available, enabling you to implement Pop Up PD in your own educational setting.
Designing a Trauma-Informed Library Program…
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Designing a Trauma-Informed Library Program…how your library looks and feels matters! Transform your library into a safe space for all students, intentionally design lessons to support trauma-impacted students, and take-away tips and tricks to build student relationships.
Library Student Aides: Attracting The Next Generation of Librarians
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: How to organize and persuade your library student aides to be their best selves and benefit your library program.
Decentering the White Gaze: The Effects of Involving African-American Students in Curricular Decision-Making in an Independent School Library
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8
Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy
Description: This poster session will proclaim the power that school librarians have to transform the lives of Black students at independent schools. These students are vastly underrepresented and often feel alone on campuses that have historically taught to a White standard of excellence. But by involving them in curricular decision-making, librarians can change this narrative. This research focused on the significant impact a library diversity audit had on the lives of several fourth-grade students who often felt overlooked. Giving them the authority to decide what ended up on the library shelves gave them ownership and pride and increased their sense of belonging at the school. The idea that they were making things better for the upcoming Black students also allowed them to feel like they were doing something to change their current status quo. Making the library a place for voice, choice, and action can significantly impact student lives.
Real Men Read: A Literacy Outreach Partnership Between An Academic Library and P–6 Schools
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: Real Men Read at William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ) is a literacy outreach initiative led by the David and Lorraine Cheng Library in partnership with the College of Education. Established in 2020, the program connects male mentors—including faculty, librarians, staff, and students—with Pre-K to 6th grade learners across over 50 schools in northern New Jersey. Readers—many of whom are Black and Latino men—serve as positive role models, fostering a love of reading through live and virtual read-aloud sessions each March during NEA’s Read Across America. By promoting representation, early literacy, and male mentorship, the program helps close gaps in reading motivation for boys, especially those from underrepresented communities. With over 6,400 students served, WPUNJ’s Real Men Read was recognized in 2025 by the Library of Congress as an Emerging Strategies Award Winner. The program is a replicable, research-based model for higher education-led school outreach.
A Case for the Caldecott: Librarians Tell the Story
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: In today’s climate of rising book censorship and intense spotlight on prestigious awards, how do school librarians navigate the selection of Caldecott-winning titles? This program explores the behind-the-scenes decision-making processes librarians use when curating their collections amidst national debates and public pressure. Inspired by School Library Journal’s “heavy medals” coverage and guided by a qualitative narrative methodology (Polkinghorne, 1995), this study investigates whether librarians rely on BISAC codes, award prestige, popular demand, or a unique combination of strategies. Are they critically evaluating content for alignment with community needs and educational goals, or are they simply following trends? Attendees will gain insight into the thoughtful, and sometimes complex, methods librarians use to balance literary excellence with responsible collection development. This timely exploration will be especially valuable for educators, library professionals, and stakeholders concerned with intellectual freedom and equitable access to literature in schools.
Librarians and Counselors in Collaboration: Resilience and Transformation in School Libraries
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Presenter
Rita Soulen
Dr. Rita Soulen is an Associate Professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. She teaches library materials & programming and library instruction. Her research focuses on school libraries and children's services. She also serves as Co-Editor of AASL's School Library Research.
Description: Human- and nature-induced events may adversely affect the workings of the school library. This research study investigates the influence of such events such as school shootings/threats, suicide, school bombings/bomb threats, weather events, or natural disasters on the role of the school librarian, library instruction, programming, collection development as well as response to such events in collaboration with school counselors. Attendees will be offered the opportunity to voluntarily participate in a research study to describe the influence of such events in their own schools and libraries.
Creating Camp Read S'more - What's In Your Library Backpack?
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Camp Read S’more has been a HUGE success at our school where the motto is “The s’more you read, the s’more you know!” Learn how to turn your library space into a camping and reading experience your students will never forget! From easy to make tents and signage to reading and tech tools - Novel Effect, Canva, and more - for your library backpack, we have been able to inspire all of our students and teachers to become happy campers ready for their next reading adventure!
Developing Responsibly Engaged Learners in an Interconnected World
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Members of a 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders team were tasked by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) to develop an activity guide with resources to support professional development and instruction around the skills inherent in the National School Library Standards Shared Foundation of Engage as a way to "demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world" (American Association of School Librarians 2018, 113).
Revitalizing Learning Spaces: Adapting Libraries on a Budget
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Presenter
Siobhan Mccann
I have been an Elementary School Librarian in South Carolina for the past six years. I love books and movies, but ultimately I think the book is always better. I am always working on different activities and ways to keep students and staff engaged with the library.
Description: Maybe your library feels outdated—or maybe you’re working with a tight budget. Either way, transforming it into a flexible, modern learning environment is possible. In this poster presentation, we’ll share how we redesigned our library spaces to meet the evolving needs of students, instructional goals, and staff—while balancing function and flexibility.
We’ll present visual strategies for adapting existing furniture and reimagining layouts to make the most of what you already have. From seating arrangements to reading areas, thoughtful furniture placement can help create a more student-centered and adaptable environment.
This session highlights how to:
• Create flexible learning areas that support diverse learners
• Maintain teacher workspaces
• Design multipurpose spaces for various events
The layout of tables, chairs, and other furnishings plays a critical role in how a space functions. Flexible options allow for quick adjustments, helping your space grow and change alongside your school community.
From Code to Creation: Engaging Students in STEM with Ozobots and 3D Printing
Grade Level: 3-5
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Discover how Ozobots and 3D printing can ignite student curiosity, creativity, and collaboration in STEM learning. This poster highlights an engaging library-based program where students designed courses, coded robots to navigate them, and 3D printed custom inventions. We’ll share practical tips, student work samples, and lesson ideas that integrate computer science, engineering design, and digital literacy. Whether you're a tech novice or a STEM champion, you'll walk away with ideas to implement in your own school library. We will also share grant writing tips for acquiring tech.
Affirming Multilingualism: How the Library Collabs with World Language Teachers and Students
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: All 50 states and Washington, DC have approved statewide programs to award the Seal of Biliteracy, recognizing students who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages by the time they graduate high school. Tara Thibault-Edmonds (Library Media Specialist) and Victoria Robertson (World Language Teacher) come from the Rondout Valley Central School District in the Hudson Valley Region of New York State, where they have had a thriving Seal of Biliteracy Program for the past five years. During this presentation they will share what they have learned to start and grow a successful program that celebrates the multilingual proficiency of all students. Special focus will be on collaboration, tools and lessons that prepare students for successful multilingual research, and the crucial role that our school librarians play in supporting multilingual students.
Bringing State History/Traditions to Life!
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Rinnnnng! And their off! Yes, that's right learn how one librarian, with little collaboration has created a "winning" school wide celebrated "Kentucky Derby". 2025 marks the fifth annual "Derby Day" where every student in the building participates in one activity. Students dive into the state's rich history and traditions, creating products to celebrate it. Make the choice and bring your state history/traditions "ALIVE" in the library!
How a 15 Minute Author Skype Turned Into a Service Learning Project in Cameroon
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Design & Create
Description: Take your author visit to the next level! See how a free fifteen minute Zoom with an author transformed into a community-wide service learning project. In 2019, Miranda and Baptiste Paul, authors of "I Am Farmer," visited our school district with Cameroonian grassroots environmentalist "Farmer Tantoh." Students were inspired by Farmer's story and were empowered to act. Students and the community at large got involved to raise funds for a water project. To make the project more personal, we then traveled to Cameroon to help install the well that our community raised funds for. Blogging allowed our students to be actively involved in the journey. Six years later we are supporting Farmer's projects and the same students are just as engaged in their passion for clean water as they were on the day they first read "I Am Farmer."
Read, Learn, Repeat: A K-5 Library Curriculum That Sticks
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Read, Learn, Repeat: The K-5 Curriculum That Sticks
How do we make library lessons memorable, meaningful, and lasting? This poster presentation shares a comprehensive K-5 library curriculum designed to help young learners build capacity to access library resources, develop core literacy skills year after year all while fostering a love for reading and creating a reading culture. This curriculum framework supports academic growth and curiosity. Attendees will walk away with strategies, a full year of completed lessons and tools that can be adapted for any elementary library setting.
Action Steps to Bring Early Literacy and the Scarborough Reading Rope to Life
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Literacy
Description: Visit this poster session to explore actionable steps to infuse rich literature with language comprehension and word recognition that bring to life many facets of the Scarborough Reading Rope. You'll take back to your school specific steps that empowers you to:
• Connect popular picture books to more than a dozen phonemic classifications
• Extend decoding, phonemic awareness, and sight recognition with printable activities
• Advance early childhood vocabulary with multi-faceted graphic organizers
• Encourage consideration of cause/effect, problem/solution, fact/opinion, and main idea/details
The poster session highlights early literacy action steps that...
• Enhances reading instruction with favorite books that you likely own
• Infuses multiple facets of the Scarborough Reading Rope into instructional practice
• Provides you with resources to integrate into your lessons and read alouds
Librarian + Classroom Teacher = Edu-tainment: The Dynamic Duo Tag Teaming Education
Grade Level: Not grade specific
Session Strand: Collaboration
Description: Step into the ring with a school librarian and 6th-grade social studies teacher as they show how their tag team transforms lessons into high-energy, can’t-miss edu-tainment! Learn how this dynamic duo plans and teaches side-by-side, mixing literacy skills and content knowledge to keep students on their toes and ready to rumble with learning. Discover how collaboration pins down boredom and body-slams disengagement with fun, interactive activities that get every student in the action. Whether you’re ready to tag in as a librarian or teacher, this session delivers knockout ideas and easy ways to build your own winning team. Get ready to raise the championship belt for student success through teamwork and creativity!
Social Emotional Factors in Information Literacy Instruction
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This poster will present research findings from a survey exploring social emotional considerations in information literacy (IL) instruction. This research aims to develop a novel information literacy instruction model that integrates elements of social-emotional literacy (SEL) with traditional information literacy (IL) skills. The poster will focus on findings developed from a survey of school library educators and practitioners to highlight current practices in information literacy instruction and identify training needs. Our results will inform school librarians on current practices particularly in the underexplored intersection of IL and SEL.
This work will identify future directions for information literacy research and develop recommendations for best practices in applying an information literacy model for school library IL instruction practitioners.
Nature-based Library Learning
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5, 6-8, Not grade specific
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: This session will provide resources, curricular connections, and actionable ideas for integrating environmental education in PK-12 school libraries to enhance student learning outcomes. A growing body of research has shown that learning in and about nature enhances educational outcomes by improving academic performance, focus, behavior, and love of learning. It can even reduce stress and ADHD symptoms. This is especially true for students with disabilities or from low socio-economic backgrounds. Librarians can provide nature-based learning opportunities and programs for all students, reducing the significant disparities in access to and contact with nature and environmental education that can occur. Whether it’s gardening, observing nature, creating wildlife habitats, recycling, or reducing waste, authentic learning will take place when librarians integrate sustainability and environmental education into programs and instruction.
Dewey Lite: Reorganizing Nonfiction in an Elementary Library
Grade Level: Prek-2, 3-5
Session Strand: Collection Development
Description: Dewey or don't we? This question has been asked of librarians for the past decade. In this session, discover one elementary librarian’s journey to rethinking and reorganizing the nonfiction section. Attendees will explore the reasons behind the change, walk through the practical steps taken to implement it, and learn about the outcomes—both expected and surprising.
Paraphrasing Activities
Grade Level: 9-12
Session Strand: Teaching & Learning
Description: Paraphrasing Activities: Check out these quick and fun paraphrasing activities that can be done as solo activities or as stations to help students practice the difference between paraphrasing, summarizing and plagiarism.
Poster Presentations
Description
Poster Presentations
Date: 10/16/2025Time: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Room: Exhibitor Showcase (Hall 2)