CONTINUING EDUCATION

[National Guidelines]    [Washington State Endorsement Competencies]     [Obtaining Endorsements]   

[Grants for Endorsements] [Additional Resources]

A. National Guidelines for School Library Media Preparation

• AASL Standards for School Library Media Specialist Preparation (pdf) - Recommendations to NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) for professional preparation of school librarians. NCATE approves standards for their national Accreditation process.

• National Board Certification for Library Media Specialists. - The ECYA/Library Media certificate is designed for teachers of students ages 3-18+. The National Board Certification? process is voluntary and is open to public and private school teachers from pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

B. Washington State Endorsement Competencies

Washington State's OSPI has embarked on an initiative to develop sets of teacher competencies - what teachers are expected to know and be able to do - in each of the endorsement areas listed in chapter 180-82 WAC. The Library Media competencies are part of this effort. This effort has been codified in the Performance-Based Teacher Competency Endorsements, WAC 180-82A, passed by the legislature in 2002.

The current Library Media endorsement is controlled by the Washington Administrative Code: WAC 180-82. There are currently two endorsements. Please note that the word primary is used to indicate desired or top level endorsement.

• 180-82-344 Library media -- All levels, primary. (45-quarter credits)

• 180-82-346 Library media -- All levels, supporting. (24-quarter credits)

A summary chart for Professional Preparation of School Librarians in Washington State is available in Word document format.

C. Obtaining Endorsements

1. College and university programs in Washington State:

University of Washington

• Information about Endorsement and certifications

• University of Washington School Library Media Specialist Certificate Program - This five-quarter, 28-credit program prepares K-12 educators to manage a successful school library media program.

• University of Washington MLIS Degree: The University of Washington is the only university in Washington which offers the ALA-accredited program for the Masters of Library and Information Science Degree. (63 quarter credits)

Pacific Lutheran University

• Library Media Endorsement program courses at PLU

Central Washington University

• Library Media Endorsement courses. This is a 27-credit program and is offered on campus at Central WA University in Ellensburg, Washington each July. Students complete 12 credits the first summer and 12 credits the second summer with a practicum during the school year. Upon completion the candidate will be endorsed to manage a K-12 library in Washington state.

Eastern Washington University

• Department of Education
  Library Media Endorsement K-12 Library Science Minor

Seattle Pacific University

• Educational Technology Courses

Western Washington University

• Woodring College of Education

Distance/Evening/Summer Options

• Programs that offer distance, summer or evening options to acquire the endorsement are listed at OSPI Certification Page (2005)

Spokane Falls Community College Library Technician online training  News June 2007 abou tthe new program.

2. ESD Workshops

Many Educational Service Districts offer continuing education workshops, which may be applicable for college credit. Check your ESD for their catalog and credit classes.

3. WLMA Fall Conference
The annual WLMA fall conference provides many preconference workshops (4-8 hours), over 65 concurrent sessions, major exhibitors, and plenty of networking opportunities with fellow library media specialists. College credit or clock hours are available.

D. Continuing Education Grants to help you achieve competencies & endorsements. Funds are available to help defray continuing education costs:

1. The Washington State Library provides continuing education funds, which require matching funds from librarian or the librarian's district.

2. The Washington Library Media Association provides continuing education funds in the form of scholarships:

• WLMA Memorial Award - for a Washington State resident with a bachelor's degree who is working toward a library media endorsement or degree in this field.

• WLMA Award - for a current library media specialist and who is taking more college level library media courses.

• Sharon Bates Award - $500 to attend a professional workshop or conference.

• Laura Hahn Award - for Washington State residents holding a bachelor's degree who has been accepted into a graduate degree program in a library-related field

• Eleanor Ahler's Award - for an experienced librarian/media specialist in Washington State who is working toward an advanced degree, or who is doing planned individual research or a study at the graduate level.

• Denny Bond Award - for a paraprofessional to attend a professional course, workshop, or conference.

• Leadership Award - for WLMA leaders to attend national conferences.

3. Technology and Learning Network has an online searchable grants page. Type in librarian or library media to see what is available for continuing education fundings.

4. Teacher-Librarian magazine has an online journal information about professional development grants including for substitute time to work with teachers for subscribers

E. Additional Self-Education Resources

1. LM_NET Archives
LM_NET is a nation-wide discussion group for school librarians. To continue educating yourself in the issues of school librarianship, you may want to subscribe to the listserv. You can also drop on in the LM_NET archives, if you don't have time to subscribe to those many daily messages. (lmnet).

2. Washington State Library Workshops
The State Library provides Training for Staff in Washington State Libraries.

3. Tutorials

• Finding Information on the Internet: a Tutorial from the UC Berkeley Teaching Library.
  One of the best introductions to Internet searching on the Web. Be sure to check out the section on how to choose search tools - there is a chart comparing the features of the major Web search engines and directories. From the UC Berkeley Teaching Library.

• Southern Oregon University Internet Search Tools Page
  A favorite place to find out the most currently-useful search engines and how they differ from each other. Listing is in order of the "most useful for research."

• Internet Training: Links from the Librarians' Index to the Internet
  Many excellent resources located by California librarians for Internet training.

• Staff Development Lesson Plans; Information Literacy and the Net
  Bellingham Public Schools has an 8-hour web-based course for teachers just beginning to use and integrate the Internet in the classroom.

• Search Strategies
  The Oregon Public Education Network has created a site which addresses search strategies using subject and keyword searching, search engines, online resources, the research process, works cited, and research related terms.

• Acceptable Use Policies
  A selection of school district Internet policies and the key issues involved.

• Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians
  For those who are interested in doing home pages and collecting Internet resources of reference interest to students and teachers, this site can give a background to how to create pages for the Web.

• List of Tutorials

  All kinds of useful topics, from Dreamweaver and Microsoft Access to IT and Web-based training.

• Technology Tutorials

  The Innovative Teaching Newsletter collects tutorial links. Plus a link to other free online tutorials.