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Professional Development Center

Professional Development Topics
School and Public Library Cooperation

School Public Library Cooperation Area III of Young Adults Deserve the Best: Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth.

Online Resources

School/Public Library Cooperative Activities
Click on the above link for a bibliography on school & public library partnerships, links to school & public library cooperative programs, and lists of exemplary websites about school & public library partnerships.

The ALSC/AASL/YALSA Joint Task Force on School/Public Library Cooperative Activities looks at local and national models of school/public library cooperative activities. The group met for the first time at the January 2004 Midwinter Meeting. The group is charged with creating an action plan to develop a product (program, Web site, toolkit) to function as a clearinghouse for ideas about activities, programs, and services to promote best practices in school/public library cooperation.

AASL Affiliate Assembly Directory of State and Regional Affiliate Organizations 
Links to state educational media associations and state school library associations.

Model Programs

The Giant Step Award
The Giant Step Award is sponsored by The Gale Group and School Library Journal. Eligibility: "U.S. and Canadian school library media centers (an individual library media center or entire district's library media services programs) and the youth services departments in U.S. and Canadian public libraries that partner with local schools (a single library/branch library or an entire library system."

Selected Print Resources

American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998.
Sets out standards for the mission and goals of the school library media program including a chapter on "Connection to the Learning Community" which emphasizes collaboration with public libraries and other institutions and organizations.

Auld, Hampton and others.  “Combined School-Public Library Facilities: Opinion, Case Studies, and Questions to Consider, Part 2.”  Public Libraries 41.6 (Nov./Dec. 2002): 310-16.

Bush, Gail.   “Walking the Road between Libraries: Best Practices in School and Public Library Cooperative Activities.”  School Library Media Activities Monthly.  22.6 (February 2006): 25-8. Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Brown, Laura Jeanette.  “S.O.S.: Save Online Services.” Library Media Connection.
23.5 (Oct. 2004): 50-51.
Available Online. Wilson Web. Full text.
Examples of how schools and other libraries, including public and college libraries, work together to provide online sources. 

Callison, Daniel. Expanding Collaboration for Literacy Promotion in Public and School Libraries. Journal of Youth Services in Libraries. 11.3 (Fall 1997): 37-48.
Demonstrates the need for school library media specialists and public library youth librarians to promote and create reading and learning opportunities for adolescents.

Delsemme, Deborah and Sandy Stuart.  “Combined School-Public Libraries.”
Knowledge Quest. 32.1 (Sept./Oct. 2003): 58-61. 
The authors summarize the research on combined school-public libraries with two examples of how school and public libraries combine resources in Kansas. Delsemme writes about the combined North Kansas City Public Library/High School Media Center, and Sandy Stuart writes about the administrative partnership between Kansas City public and school libraries.

Fitzgibbons, Shirley A. School and Public Library Relationships: Essential Ingredients Implementing Educational Reforms and Improving Student Learning.
Explores the "range of successful, cooperative relationships between public libraries and school library media centers" and "delineates factors that need to be considered when building successful relationships."

Gross, Valerie.   “A+ Partners in Education: Linking Libraries to Education for a Flourishing Future.” Public Libraries. 44.4 (July/August 2005): 217-22. Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Jackson, Elise.   “Formal and Informal Opportunities for Public Libraries to Partner with Schools.” Bookmobile and Outreach Services. 8.2 (2005): 45-67.

Available Online.   Wilson Web.   Full text.

JOYS School and Public Library Cooperation Special isssue. Ed. by Jana Fine. Journal of Youth Services. 4.3 (Spring 2000): 3- 22.
Includes "School and Public Library Relationships," by Shirley A. Fitzgibbons containing recommendations for successful cooperation; "Public Library-School Library Cooperation;" by Blanche Woolls; "Queensborough Public Library and the Connecting Libraries and Schools Project," by Margaret Tice; and "Hand in Hand: Public and School Cooperative Projects," by Jana Fine.

LaMaster, Jennifer.   “Collaboration of Indiana Public and School Media Center Youth Services: A Survey Analysis of Current Practices.” Indiana Libraries. 24.1 (2005): 38-41. Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Muir, Maya.  “Community Connectivity: Partnerships with Public Libraries Extend the Reach and Expand the Resources of School Libraries.”  Northwest Education. 9.1 (Fall, 2003): 30-32.
Available Online. Ebsco. Full text. 
Also: http://www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-01/comm.asp
Describes a variety of partnerships between school and public libraries “from summer reading programs to continuous collaboration.” 

Rutherford, Dawn and Brenna Shanks. “A Fantastic Team: Schools and Public Libraries.”  VOYA. Vol. 27.5 (Dec. 2004): 357-359.
The authors, Teen Service Librarians in the King County Library System near Seattle share their ideas, programs, and projects that they have developed in cooperating with Bellevue Public Schools.  Includes booktalking and a summer reading project.

Scordato, Julie. “School and Public Librarians Working Together.” Library Media Connection. 22.7 (April/May 2004): 32-3.

Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Smith, Mark. “California DREAMin': A Model for School-Public Library Cooperation to Improve Student Achievement.” Public Libraries. 43.1 (January/February 2004): 47-51. Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Spelman, Anne and Paula Kelly.  “In Visible Light: Illuminating Partnerships Across Libraries To Facilitate Lifelong learning for Young People.”  APLIS. Vol. 17.4 (Mar. 2004): 4-27.
While this article is focused on a school and public library partnership in Australia, the literature review and concepts of partnership based on “developing partnerships to achieve better learning outcomes” for young people is informative for all youth librarians.

Vandergrift, Kay E. Cooperative Dialogue: Using An Instrument to Empower. Voya. 17 (June, 1994): 73-77.
Includes self-evaluation inventories for school library media specialists and public library youth librarians that are designed to encourage dialogue and cooperation between youth librarians.

Whelan, Debra Lau.  “Picture Perfect.” School Library Journal. Vol.50.6 (June 2004): 48-50. 
Describes a winning program of the SLJ/Thomson Gale Giant Step Award in which the Williamsburg (VA) Regional Library cooperated with Matthew Whaley Elementary School in a program involving a visual literacy project in which picture books were used with upper-elementary and middle-school students.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.  Public Library Development.
Combined School and Public Libraries: Guidelines for Decision Makers.
2nd ed. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning, 1998.

Van Linden Tol, Paul, et al. “Reaching Out to Middle and High Schools.” Public Libraries. 44.2 (March/April 2005): 65-6, 85. Available Online.   Wilson Web.  Full text.

Young Adult Library Services Association.  Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults: The Nation’s Top Programs. 4th ed. Edited by Renee McGrath Vaillancourt.
Chicago: American Library Association, 2004.
Includes award-winning programs for youth involving school and public library cooperation.  Contact persons are provided.

Ziarnik, Natalie Rief.  School and Public Libraries: Developing the National Alliances.
Chicago: American Library Association, 2003.
A highly useful work that brings together a history of school and public library cooperation, an overview of the different strengths of school and public libraries, information on grants, resources, kinds of services public libraries can offer school libraries, and program descriptions designed for shared programming.

If you have questions or comments about the Professional Development Center contact YALSA.