The question about how reading is an important part of the standards is one that I feel strongly about, and I’ve had many conversations with folks on this recently. Please remember that every single indicator in the standards can be wrapped in the practice of reading. The standards-writing team of 30 Kentucky school librarians chose to base them on the national standards from AASL with good reason and reflection.

We all love reading and want kids to love reading, but our library programs must be more than that singular and limited focus. Media literacy/fluency, intellectual freedom, digital citizenship, technologies, and other areas are also important parts of our work and goals for students. How we help our students meet the standards is totally a local decision, but we all need to be on the same page with what we want students to know and be able to do. That’s what standards are for. If library media instruction is happening in a school, these are the standards that must be used. 

If you are finding the standards difficult, that is ok. Giving yourself grace and time is important. If your program has not been using the AASL standards until now, it may be quite a lift to get things aligned in your school. This transition doesn’t have to happen completely overnight. It will be something we all continue to refine and there are many resources available to help with this. KASL, #KyLChat, and this listserv are full of individuals we can lean on too. Also, keep in mind the importance of collaboration with other teachers in your building. Our students are likely demonstrating their competency in many of the library media standards in other classrooms and content areas. 

Thank you to Dr. Sam Northern for sharing this work from AASL in which he was involved. This is their position statement on “The School Librarian’s Role in Reading.”

This is one of the six common beliefs listed in our KAS for Library Media: page 8

This is on page 14:

Also on page 14:

Page 15 & 16

Featured image Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash