The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) provide the National School Library Standards. These act as a practical guide for librarians to design or personalize their own curriculum and be influencers in their schools. The AASL standards consist of five components: Shared Foundations, Key Commitments, Domains, Competencies, and Alignments. The Shared Foundations are made up of six elements: Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage. These Shared Foundations are further explained in more detail via the Key Commitments.
American Library Association, 2022.
Four Domains are applied to the Shared Foundations: Think, Create, Share, and Grow. The Domains are learning categories that librarians and learners should progress through in order. For example, once mastery is achieved in Think, move on to Create. The standard Competencies are examples of how students and librarians demonstrate mastery for each domain. For example, learners in the inquiry process are thinking curiously by asking questions about a subject being introduced. Lastly, Alignments describe what the Key Commitments would look like in the school library specifically (American Library Association, 2018).
In comparison, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) created five sets of standards for students, educators, education leaders, coaches, and computational thinking, so the standards are meant to apply to a larger population in which technology is being used. Although each set of standards is different depending on the intended recipient, the ISTE’s overarching goal is help educators and leaders prepare learners to be successful citizens in an ever-changing world (International Society for Technology in Education, 2020a). This theme is much like the heart of the AASL standards; however, one key difference is ISTE’s obvious emphasis on technology being used effectively. The ISTE has seven standards for students: empowered learner, digital citizen, knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker, creative communicator, and global collaborator (International Society for Technology in Education, 2020b).
International Society for Technology in Education, 2020b.
Many of the same ideals are present in both set of standards, such as encouraging students to take responsibility of their learning and use feedback to grow; however, the ISTE standards have a particular focus on certain abilities (how to ethically use technology) rather than attitudes. For example, there are no ISTE standards that reflect the learner competencies of the Think Domain in the AASL’s Include Foundation that promote understanding of cultures. But, both AASL and ISTE standards can, and arguably should, be used to guide curriculum and culture in the library to create more well-rounded and informed citizens.
Kathy Cromartie and Elizabeth Burns (2019) depict a similar balance in their article for Knowledge Quest in which they describe school librarians utilizing both educator and information professional skills like a pair of skis as they navigate the slopes of information practice and instruction (p. 79). The authors assure readers that the standards (specifically the AASL standards) help librarians develop and practice dispositions that guide them successfully through their careers. They also emphasize how acting out of these standards or dispositions help librarians meet the needs of their learners and fellow educators, which is a highly important fact when discussing the valuable role librarians play to administrators and other stakeholders. In addition, the standards promote a healthy learning culture (one of inquiry, creativity, inclusiveness, advocacy, community, and life-long learning). The authors of this article would likely agree that the AASL and ISTE standards used together can foster exemplary school library professionals by “giving them direction and momentum to traverse the slopes of academic knowledge and skills learners must navigate” (Cromartie & Burns, 2019, p. 83).
References
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.
American Library Association (ALA) (2022, June 28). Libraries transform: The expert in the school library: AASL national school library standards. [Image]. https://libguides.ala.org/school-library-expert/aasl-natl-standards
Cromartie, K. and Burns, E. (2019, May/June). Navigating the library slopes: Dispositional shifts in the national school library standards. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), pp. 78-83.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2023a). The ISTE standards. ISTE. https://www.iste.org/standards
International Society for Technology in Education. (2023b). ISTE standards: Students. ISTE. https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
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