SILT

Certainly, as Educators, our Library/Media Professionals are one of our best resources for disseminating information.  But information, being organic, grows and flows beyond the school doors. In the Southwestern Illinois region, we have an organized, dedicated group of Library/Media Professionals – Southern Illinois Librarians Together (SILT).  SILT is a member of the Association of Illinois School Library Educators.

From SILT’s website:

“Southern Illinois Librarians Together (SILT) is a group of school librarians who work together to address matters relevant to K – 12 school libraries.  We are a standards-based, future-ready organization that provides professional development opportunities, collaboration, and support across districts.  Our goal is to advance student literacy and to prepare students for post-secondary education and participation in the workforce.  We provide support to faculty and staff with whom we work and advocate for all students to have a certified librarian accessible to them daily.”

SILT completed a project involving a review of literacy skills needed at the post-secondary level in 2019. After that, they began work on a workforce readiness project. The official workforce readiness roundtable, set to occur last spring, was delayed due to COVID. This year, the workforce readiness project is back on track for the project so that they can better understand the literacy skills needed for workforce readiness. This will inform their practices as school librarians.

Contact information for the current officers is siltchapter@aisled.org.  The current Director of SILT is Jennifer Lara from the O’Fallon, IL school district.

By visiting and interviewing colleges, universities, and trade schools in both Illinois and Missouri,  SILT completed a project involving a review of literacy skills needed at the post-secondary level in 2019. After that, they began work on a workforce readiness project in collaboration with the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois. The official workforce readiness roundtable, set to occur last spring, was delayed due to COVID. This year, the workforce readiness project is back on track so that we can better understand the literacy skills needed for workforce readiness. This will inform our practices as school librarians.

Contact information for the current officers is siltchapter@aisled.org.  The current Director of SILT is Jennifer Lara from the O’Fallon Township High School District #230 school district.