Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

This article describes a collaborative project designed to use action research to assess and advocate for innovative design changes in a school library. The high school library was in its fifth year of service, and yet the layout of the library was not meeting the learning and technological needs of 21st-century high school students. The purpose of the codesigned study was to create a more useable space and make the school library an indispensable part of the school.

With an increasing prevalence of virtual high school programs in the United States, a better understanding of evaluative tools available for distance educators and administrators is needed. These evaluative tools would provide opportunities for assessment and a determination of success within virtual schools. This article seeks to provide an analysis and classification of instrumentation currently available. It addresses issues regarding the limited arsenal of assessments and evaluation instrumentation for virtual schools. (Contains 8 tables.)

Academic librarians have recognized the need for and the benefits of instructional outreach to high schools, but faced with budgetary challenges, increasing workloads, and other pressures, librarians sometimes struggle with if and how to work with high schools. This paper will seek to provide practical direction in considering these questions. Using the library high school outreach program at Kent State University Informed Transitions as a sample case, this paper will share observations, discuss practical considerations, and offer recommendations that will serve to guide academic librarians in determining what role they can play in providing instructional outreach to local high schools.