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As a high school librarian, I embraced the 1998 publication of Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. Earlier, I had followed the guidelines of the 1988 Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs and worked to help my students and staff become effective users of ideas and information. However, the 1998 Information Power took me a step further; my job was to help students learn to access information efficiently and effectively, evaluate information critically and competently, and use information accurately and creatively. I was tasked with helping students become information-literate independent lifelong learners. AASL's Empowering Learners clarified my mission even further: to "empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information" (2009, 8). The compelling question: What is our ultimate job as school librarians?
We meet our students' reading needs. We offer books in which they can travel to places they could not otherwise visit, meet characters who are like them or not like them, and learn from both experiences. We provide access to reading materials on topics of interest and encourage students to check out these materials whether they are on, above, or below their reading level, because it's the access and interest that matter. We encourage reading for information and for enjoyment. We encourage reading, period.
We foster inquiry at every opportunity whether it is through our work as instructional leaders in our schools as we collaborate with teachers to facilitate inquirybased learning or through our direct interactions with students as we help them develop questions and pursue information around topics of interest. We encourage students to engage, explore, explain, and extend (Marshall 2013).
We offer students the opportunity to participate in coding experiences, although computer science and coding might be outside our comfort zone and area of expertise. We make this stretch because students thrive...