[aisle] What are your most pressing issues

[Janine Asmus]

The most pressing issue for Illinois school librarians is how we are
perceived.

How do we demonstrate our value and our need in ALL Illinois schools? This
should be paramount. An all-out marketing campaign letting Illinois schools
(and the decision makers in them) know who we are, what we do, and how we
contribute to student growth and achievement is the number one priority.

Many states are losing their certified school librarians or have a handful
at best. I fear we are not far behind.

What should be our angle? Target audience? Who do we solicit in our midst
to help us and gather support? Illinois public librarians? Classroom
teachers? Book publishers? Well known Illinois authors? If we could create
a true campaign (AISLE/ISBE taskforce just for this) at the state level
that others could follow or emulate, we might be able to increase our
budgets, improve our schedules and access more materials and maintain our
positions.  Many of you travel to several schools, have no clerk/assistant
and operate on a budget of next to nothing.  This can't sustain itself.

Every Illinois school librarian should be a member of our organization and
find a way to contribute-- not necessarily monetarily.  Rather, contribute
with time, great ideas, even greater enthusiasm and a stalwart conviction
to the profession itself.  Advocate right from where you sit.  If you are
in a small town or in a large suburban District, sit and think about how
you can directly impact your colleagues in this profession.

Janine M. Asmus
West Leyden High School, Librarian
Leyden High Schools District # 212
Northlake, IL 60164

On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 9:11 AM HELEN BIBLER via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> Maximizing student access to books
>
> On 06/16/2021 8:06 AM Pres Elect via AISLE <aisle at list.railslibraries.info>
> wrote:
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> Could you please let me know what your pressing issues as you look towards
> fall?
>
> Budget, regaining space and staff?  If you went into classroom last year,
> are you going back to library?
>
> We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to support you.  This
> information will also be shared with Rails
> And IHLS Systems.
> --
> Mary Jo Matousek
> President Elect 20-21
> Association of Illinois School Library Educators
> Preselect at aisled.org
> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
> _______________________________________________
> AISLE mailing list
> AISLE at list.railslibraries.info
>
> For list archives and subscription options, visit:
> http://list.railslibraries.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aisle
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> aisle-leave at list.railslibraries.info
>
> https://www.aisled.org/
>
> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
> _______________________________________________
> AISLE mailing list
> AISLE at list.railslibraries.info
>
> For list archives and subscription options, visit:
> http://list.railslibraries.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aisle
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> aisle-leave at list.railslibraries.info
>
> https://www.aisled.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.railslibraries.info/pipermail/aisle/attachments/20210618/9e1e0197/attachment.html>