WCPS Library Media Policies and Procedures Guide: Issues and Trends

Create Inclusive, affirming schools for LGBTQ sudents (lesson plan and resources from Scholastic) 

"They Kind of Rely on the Library": School Librarians Serving LGBT Students (scholarly article from The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults. 

* Please consider joining our Literature Focus group during the 2019/2020 school year for more information about selecting quality literature and developing a diverse collection in support of all students. More details can be found in the Professional Growth page of this LibGuide. 

The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Students" (an Association for Library Service to Children whitepaper) 

Can Diverse Books Save Us? In a Divided World, Librarian's are on a Mission (article from School Library Journal) 

* Please follow the collection development and selection quidelines provided in the Collection Development page of this LibGuide.  

* Please consider joining our Literature Focus group during the 2019/2020 school year for more information about selecting quality literature and developing a diverse collection in support of all students. More details can be found in the Professional Growth page of this LibGuide. 

Intellectual Freedom brochure from AASL

This brochure describes why intellectual freedom is important in a school library program, the difference between selection and censorship, what to do before a challenge occurs, where to obtain assistance during a challenge, why schools filter and how it affects students intellectual freedom, and how the ALA Code of Ethics affects school librarians.

* Please refer to the Program Management section of this libguide for WCPS specific guidelines about selection of materials and book challenges.

Fake News: Resources for School Librarians 

Beyond Fake News: Determining what sources to trust (from American Libraries Magazine) 

Fake News: Libraries Role (LibGuide from California State University) 

AI (Artificial Intellegence) 

The American Library Association’s (ALA) Center for the Future of Libraries works to identify global trends that affect libraries. Two prominent trends—artificial intelligence and smart community development—help demonstrate libraries’ ability to adapt to emerging roles and contexts.

Artificial intelligence (AI). Library professionals have an interest in AI, deep learning, machine learning, and natural language processing, all of which seek to develop intelligent machines that work and react more like humans. While libraries pride themselves on expanding access to information, they are also central to encouraging curiosity and advancing knowledge production in their communities. While AI could become an invaluable tool for organizing and making accessible large amounts of data, it also has the potential to threaten human navigation in an increasingly complex information environment.

Several libraries are embarking on programs to make AI more accessible and useful.

• In 2018, the University of Rhode Island opened the first AI lab to be housed in a university library. This cross-disciplinary facility was designed to be available to all students, faculty, staff, as well as the wider Rhode Island community, allowing them to explore the social context of these emerging technologies.

• Stanford (Calif.) University Libraries’ Library AI initiative helps identify and try out AI applications—machine perception, machine learning, machine reasoning, and language recognition— that can help make the libraries’ collections more discoverable, accessible, and analyzable for scholars.

• The Cambridge (Mass.) Public Library partnered with both the metaLAB (at) Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Hayden Library to host the “Laughing Room,” an interactive art installation in which participants enter an artificially intelligent room that plays a laugh track whenever the participants say something that the room’s algorithm deems to be funny. The installation is meant to encourage consideration for how surveillance and artificial intelligence could affect our lives.