Other Ways of Knowing: How School Librarians Can Take a Leadership Role in Addressing Multi-literacies Across the Curriculum in the School Library

Abstract

School librarians have a unique, unprecedented, and unparalleled opportunity to affirm their role in students’ use of basic literacy skills – reading and writing – while highlighting their relatively new role, guiding students through the acquisition of information through multiple modes of communication with new technologies. School librarians can create and facilitate opportunities for students to enhance their learning and become multiliterate. These learning opportunities and a focus on “core” literacies shed a much needed spotlight on the important role and influence of the school librarian on overall academic achievement and the acquisition of multiliteracy skills that have become a necessity in a changing technological and global environment. This article isbased on a presentation given at the International Association of School Librarians Conference in Doha, Qatar (2012), the goals of which were to share an overview of the multiliteracies concept, suggest strategies for facilitating literacy in the school library and classroom, and share professional resources for continued learning and the integration of multiliteracies across the curriculum.