We are 7 days away from the unveiling of the new library national standards but you don’t have to wait until then to start thinking and interacting with related resources.  If you haven’t already, consider familiarizing yourself with some, or all, of the resources below.

AASL Standards Portal is the site that will house links to all of their resources.  Specific links that may be helpful to check out before the unveiling are the Common Beliefs, Shared Foundations, and the AASL Twitter chat archive. In addition to what’s already posted, other resources will be added over time. Another great resource to look through is the #KyLChat archive for the discussion entitled Building a Strong Foundation, in which the new standards and various infographics were introduced and discussed in the October 24, 2017 chat.

If you are heading to AASL’s national conference, pre-conference workshops as well as numerous concurrent sessions will be focused on the new standards and ways to implement them. If you are not able to attend this year, follow the excitement from those posting on Twitter using the hashtag #AASL17. In addition, KnowledgeQuest will have some live-blogging going on during the conference that you can follow.

Also, mark your calendars for the November 16, 2017 AASL Webinar entitled, It All Fits Together at 7pm EST (6pm Central).

Kentucky Association of School Librarians (KASL) too is hoping to address the new standards in additional blog posts and future #KyLChat discussions. We are hoping librarians share regularly on social media and regional KASL organizations will include information in their spring meetings too.

Later this month, consider promoting the new standards once you’ve had a chance to delve into them. One way to accomplish this is by informing state and local administrators about the new standards and why they are important. Consider promoting ways the standards will strengthen your school library program and continue to influence positive student achievement too. For more information on KASL’s advocacy initiative, including twitter handles of people or groups to include in your outreach, visit the Advocacy is as Easy as 1-2-3 post for ideas.