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AASL continued: This last is our newest external relationship. Their focus is literacy in every classroom and every PLC and includes collaboration and vignettes for websites. They are looking for outstanding and exemplary models of schools.

CSLA (The California Campaign for Strong School Libraries) - Connie Williams and Jessica Gillis – (Each year we get a presentation of a strong program somewhere in the country. With California’s school libraries experiencing even worse challenges than we are seeing in New Jersey, this was particularly illuminating.)

The California Campaign for Strong School Libraries started as an effort to strengthen California’s school library programs. When the initiative started, California was 51st in their library programs. Advocacy is the campaigns strong suit, and it is changing the story of California school libraries. They worked on the presumption of four principles (or Ah Ha! moments) to start their campaign.

• 1st Ah Ha! Action Advocacy - In the spring of 2007, Connie and Jackie co-lead web 2.0 tutorials. This specially tailored course was for K-12 teacher librarians and staff and led to a number of web 2.0, assistive technology, and other digital literacy tutorials including the newest ones that specifically address digital citizenship: Digital Citizenship for Educators: http://ecitizenship.csla.net, and Tools2Create for Teens: (http://library.iusd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2 87:tools2create4school&catid=136:wikis&Itemid=135).

• 2nd Ah Ha! CSLA decided that the first thing that needed to be done was to tell the story.

• The Old Story: Books (literacy) • The New Story: Books + tech Tools (digital literacy and cyber safety) They began to gather and share stories about school libraries entitled “Circulate This: Stories from the School Library” They also created http://www.circulatethis.posterous.com • 3rd Ah Ha! SELL IT! It was time for CSLA to market their story. They began by creating a new theme: Strong School Libraries Build Strong Students (http://www.csla.net/index.php/foundation/strong-schoollibraries). They began a public awareness campaign and developed a “back story” so that the “facts and figures” people would have data to use. They created press releases and a library store. They sent e-mails to educational and ed. tech media leaders. CSLA writes letters and makes calls. They began by targeting and sharing information with parents. Letters and e-mails were sent to organizations and ad agencies, and the story was circulated widely outside of education.

• 4th Ah Ha! All this could also be used with any MLIS student who wants or needs internships or real-life projects that can take advocacy to a new level. Encourage them to develop a tangible “product” or program to promote which would capture the public’s imagination and urge action.

Next month, for my last column of the year, I will report on our always interesting Region II meeting. As always, if you want any information about ALA/AASL, including membership and committee appointments, or if you want further information about anything relating to AASL, contact me at 732-566-1995 or e-mail to: hildakw@gmail.com.