February 3, 2015

Since the Oregon School Library Standards relate to information literacy and OSLIS is an information literacy website, I am posting this information on OSLIST.

At their January 22nd meeting, the Oregon State Board of Education (SBOE) adopted the Oregon School Library Standards. Adoption means the State Board of Education gave their seal of approval about the standards. For the standards to be mandatory, the SBOE would have to adopt an administrative rule directing districts to use the standards. How the adoption will affect school library programs is yet to be determined, but it supports the requirement for districts to respond to two school library program indicators (DTL5.5 and DTL5.6, pages 101-105) when submitting continuous improvement plans:

• Indicator DTL5.5
  The district provides all students and staff in each school with equitable access to a comprehensive library program which provides instruction in information literacy and research proficiencies, promotes integration of digital learning resources, advances reading engagement, and creates collaborative learning opportunities with teachers.

• Indicator DTL5.6
  The district ensures that all students and staff in each school have equitable access to a professionally-developed and well-managed school library collection of current and diverse print and electronic resources that supports teaching and learning, college and career readiness, and reading engagement.

The Oregon Association of School Libraries’ standards committee will seek more information and develop next steps. If you have questions about the standards, contact Peggy Christensen, chair of the OASL standards committee. In the meantime, please (re-)familiarize yourself with the four strands of the standards: information literacy, reading engagement, social responsibility, and technology integration.