For the past several months, a small group of representatives from the New Jersey State Library, LibraryLinkNJ, NJASL, the New Jersey Department of Education, and select New Jersey public school educators have been hard at work initiating the “Information Literacy Reimagined” project - an IMLS-funded initiative designed to prepare the Garden State for the forthcoming Information Literacy Student Learning Standards.
This working group, with input from a National Advisory Board, seeks to find ways to help all relevant parties - including parents, school administrators, classroom educators, and librarians of all types - understand the critical importance of information literacy as a life skill, define their role in helping students achieve information literacy, and prepare to support the forthcoming Standards and the certified School Library Media Specialists who will take the lead in implementing them in New Jersey’s K-12 public schools.
Members of the Working Group are slated to serve on some of the NJ DOE’s Information Literacy Standards Writing Committees - including Standards Writing, Expert Review, Implementation Support, and College and Career Readiness - which will convene over the course of Summer 2024. The group has additional long-term goals that include crafting relevant professional development and training opportunities, communicating the progress of Standards creation, and drafting documents that will help guide implementation, progress has already been made in the following areas:
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Project Members at the NJDOE have added valuable resources on Information Literacy to their STAMP Platform. You can find them at the following link, with specific Information Literacy resources available under many of the content area drop-down menus: https://www.nj.gov/education/standards/stamp/
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A one-page guide for public libraries seeking ways to support information literacy work was published in June and distributed at the recent NJLA Annual Conference. Missed it? Grab the PDF here: How Your Public Library Can Support Information Literacy Acquisition
The team is also hard at work preparing for a busy fall:
- Select members of the Working Group will present at the Fall 2024 NJ Principals and Supervisors Association Conference on the topic “Getting Your School Ready for the Upcoming Information Literacy Standards.”
- Group member Sharon Rawlins from the New Jersey State Library, along with additional State Library staff member Michael Maziekien, will touch upon the project at the 2024 New Jersey Education Association Convention with the presentation “Information Literacy Resources from the New Jersey State Library.”
- Those who wish to learn more will also find the project represented in the exhibit hall at both of the above events!
Additional future plans include a dedicated landing page where you’ll find valuable resources crafted by the project, along with information from partners and peer groups - like NJASL’s Model Information Literacy Curriculum, LibraryLinkNJ’s On-Demand Information Literacy Series of PD modules, and recaps and resources from a wide variety of conference presentations and informational sessions.
The working group will continue to share updates as progress is made! In the meantime, questions can be directed to Sharon Rawlins of the New Jersey State Library: Email