Stripling a key speaker at 2012 NYLA/SSL Leadership Institute Retreat

The librarianship profession is witnessing a major shift in library sciences as over 45 states adopt the Common Core State Standards Initiative to offer students high-quality education to prepare for college and careers beyond high school.

To help school librarians in New York prepare for this change, Barbara Stripling, assistant professor of practice at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) will speak at the 2012 New York Library Association’s Section of School Librarians Leadership Institute Retreat to be held at Cornell University on August 6 and 7.

Stripling will provide presentations, discussions, hands-on activities and networking opportunities to help New York’s librarians “Lead with the Common Core,” the theme of this year’s retreat. She plans to educate the 150 attendees from all school levels about the Common Core and plan lessons that help librarians implement skills from the Common Core Standards and NYC Library System’s Information Fluency Continuum.

“We hope librarians will leave the institute energized and empowered to take a leadership role in implementing the Common Core through the library program in their schools,” says Stripling. “We plan for them to be able to help classroom teachers find appropriate complex texts to use in their classrooms, plan inquiry- and literacy-based units that integrate the teaching of those skills with content learning, and understand the role of the library in a Common Core environment.”

Stripling and other faculty at the iSchool have incorporated Common Core Initiative Standards into the curriculum. Stripling brought these ideas into her School Media Management Class that she taught last spring, and is confident her students are well prepared for their leadership roles in their first library jobs.

Using her curriculum and the principles developed by the NYC Library System, Stripling hopes to prepare librarians to teach their students to analyze and apply what they learn to succeed in the Information Age.

“This type of teaching goes way beyond simply helping students find appropriate books,” says Stripling. “It involves teaching students to identify point of view, evaluate information for accuracy and relevance, develop a line of argument with supporting evidence, evaluate a website, draw conclusions, form opinions, and many other sophisticated skills required of our students to succeed in our information-laden world.”