Making an Impact @ Your School Board Meeting

School librarians Rose Luna and Margaux DelGuidice made not only an impact on their school board, but a big hit at AASL in Reno! Their presentation was informative, well-organized, and just delightful. Both Rose and Margaux exemplify hard work, perseverance, and an upbeat attitude. Rather than complain and whine about the difficult and bleak state of the school libraries in Freeport, New York. They are high school librarians who led the charge for their district in making their voices heard through a reasonable and well-documented presentation to the Freeport School Board. The goals of the library media program in which they work are as follows:

• Cultivating Information Literacy Skills in students and staff
• Attaining higher levels of student achievement

These goals where highlighted in their presentation to the school board, as well as the four roles of the Library Media Specialist as stated in Information Power: Teachers, Instructional Partners, Information Specialists, and program Managers. During the presentation, Rose and Margaux highlighted the collaborative measures in place, both when working with staff as well as the staff at the public library. They also sighted two of the Lance studies showing that student achievement increases with the presence of a strong library program, fully staffed and funded.

Their presentation, conducted near the end of 2005 was a hit in Freeport. Rose and Margaux garnered the attention of the school board, making not only the physical facilities better, but also improving the book-buying budget and the library program as a whole.

These two creative and energetic librarians used their leadership and presentation skills to create a wonderful and informative presentation for their school board. It has paid of in numerous ways, the message being: exhaust all avenues before becoming discouraged about the district you work in - and try hard to improve your own situations.