It’s April and that means it’s School Library Month! School libraries and librarians are vital to a student's education. They foster a love of reading and instill digital, information, and media literacy skills to help students become literate and successful citizens. Since April 1985, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has been “celebrating the essential role that strong school libraries play in transforming learning.” To help spread the word, AASL has created several advocacy tools for librarians to highlight their important work. The AASL School Library Month webpage includes links to playlists of supportive videos, infographics, recorded webinars, graphics, and other resources to help celebrate and promote the school library. The Learner Engagement Resources are one example of fun and engaging activities that can be incorporated into your monthly celebrations. 

INFOhio loves school libraries and supports school librarians with equitable access to quality resources and cost-effective instructional and technical support to transform student learning. We love hearing stories of how INFOhio resources are used in libraries and classrooms across Ohio. To celebrate school librarians, we want to highlight some of the amazing work Ohio School Librarians are doing. The following stories were shared by INFOhio ICoaches or INFOhio Users Council members through a brief survey or on social media. If you have an #INFOhioWorks story, we’d love to hear from you too. 

"Being a part of Users Council has given me the confidence to become more of a leader in my building when it comes to gathering resources for teachers and students. The more high-quality resources I can provide to teachers, the more they want!"

- Christine Wenning
Teacher Librarian, INFOhio Users Council Vice Chair, INFOhio ICoach, Perry Local School District 

"My favorite INFOhio resource is Points of View Reference Center because it gives both points of view on global and domestic issues. I use this resource when helping students select topics for debates or global issues projects. All topics are well organized in overarching categories. This lets students view and explore issues they may not have thought of. More importantly, it gives them a clear and direct view of both sides of a topic as a research starter." 

- Katy Reed-Brown
Library Media Specialist, INFOhio ICoach, EHOVE Career Center 

"My favorite INFOhio resources would probably be the World Book Encyclopedia resources and World Almanac resources. I like the features of both World Book Kids and World Book Student which include videos, games, activities, Webquests, featured media and images, a biography center, articles, and educator tools. The World Almanac for Kids also has great features like Did You Know?, Featured Topics, Fun Facts, Teacher Resources, and more. These resources are easy to navigate and the interesting, vibrant images on the homepage always spark curiosity. I’ve enjoyed watching students answer questions, test their knowledge, and discover new facts while exploring these resources. World Book and World Almanac are definitely resources I would recommend to upper elementary and middle school students and teachers."

- Angela Reagins
Library Media Specialist, INFOhio ICoach, Cleveland Metropolitan School District 

"My biggest win [as an INFOhio ICoach]  has been pulling the eyes of my teachers to different resources that I highlight in my monthly newsletter. Each month I create a newsletter to share activities that have happened in my space and I also share an INFOhio resource each month. Teachers have scheduled time for their classes to come down and learn how to use Academic Search Premier for their research papers. Just letting teachers know what resources are out there has helped me to connect them to INFOhio."

- Dr. Jessica Dennison
Library Media Teacher, INFOhio ICoach, Kettering City School District  

"I feel like whenever we (Users Council) can make WorkFlows (the library software) better, or give feedback on the OPAC (online public access catalog), database use, etc. there is always a positive outcome. Our recommendations are heard and actioned upon."

- Karon Lippincott
Secondary Library Media Teacher, INFOhio ICoach, INFOhio Users Council, Medina City Schools

"I enjoy helping the staff find and integrate INFOhio resources that they can use for themselves or their students. Especially when I can work with a teacher one-on-one to help them enrich their lessons."

- Tina Lindy
Elementary Librarian, INFOhio ICoach, INFOhio Users Council, Cuyahoga Falls City Schools 

"My biggest win demonstrates how my role as an ICoach and integration of INFOhio resources supports instruction. I assist students at our International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) school and they need to find information for Exhibition topics and share their findings. Also for staff that focus on specific units of inquiry, INFOhio's Explora helped for specific topics like "Sharing the Planet." This was a great unit where students found different animals as a feature to spotlight and shared their findings with their teacher via email and writing."

- Annette Culp
Library Media Specialist, INFOhio ICoach, Akron City Schools 

"Students of today are technology driven so INFOhio allows me the flexibility to meet my K-6 graders where they are while introducing them to additional resources. I absolutely love BookFlix and so do my students. It is a wonderful tool to use during small group."

- Arnice Smith
School Librarian,
Cincinnati Public Schools 

Thank you school librarians for the tireless work you do every day to transform teaching and impact learning through your work in and outside of the school library. If these stories have inspired you, please share with INFOhio how you plan to include INFOhio resources in your School Library Month celebrations by including #INFOhioWorks in your social media posts during April. We’d love to celebrate with you!