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Dear Fellow Teacher-Librarians, If you are reading this, you must be at http://www.kysma.org. So after you’ve read this, check out the rest, especially our scrapblog. WELCOME! Know that we are a group of active, retired, or student School Teacher-Librarians who want to communicate to students so that they achieve lifelong learning through books, and technology. We realize they need 21st Century Literacy Skills to reach that goal. To that end, many of us have traveled to the AASL Conference in Reno, the ALA Mid-Winter in Philly, the National Library Legislative Day in Washington, DC, and to our district meetings. As we share procedures and ideas, we have brought back many of them to enhance our own Library Media Centers. July 8 we will travel to Louisville for a one-day summer refresher, and again to Louisville on October 3 and 4 to a BIG 4-Association Fall Conference! After Thanksgiving, I was privileged to travel to Arizona to a conference sponsored by School Library Journal about EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE, a concept that began in the medical profession. As it applies to teacher-librarians, it involves a) collecting data and information about the current situation, b) developing a plan to change the current situation, c) implement the plan, and d) evaluate data taken after the plan. I know it sounds simple, but often times we just go ahead and develop a new program based on our own good intentions. EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE requires more. I congratulate our Past President Terri Kirk who had an article published in AASL’s publication Knowledge Quest. She wrote about her activities and rewards during her tenures in the alphabetic groups of KSMA, KLA, AASL, and ALA. I am sad to see a numbered of valued KSMA members retiring. We wish them the best of luck and good fortune. I know they will always be concerned about school libraries in our state and elsewhere. Having said that, I must ask all of you to RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS FOR KSMA!!! We need a young, vibrant, ongoing professional association to advocate best practices for school libraries. As always, feel free to write me your comments and/or concerns.
Evie Topcik, President, Kentucky School Media Association
P.S. You’ll find more information at our website http://www.kysma.org/ Especially check out the scrapblog for pictures.
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