Campus Librarian Network

The Campus Librarian Network (CLN) is a professional learning community of NYC school librarians and teachers-assigned to the library who support secondary schools on multi-school campuses, as well as other educational professionals who support this community of practitioners.

What is a campus librarian?

As noted in The Co-Location Handbook, “Sharing space has become common in New York City Public Schools” (NYCDOE, 2d Ed, Spring 2017). In New York City, a campus library is shared among several schools co-located in the same building; the campus librarian is the pedagogue who supports these schools with that library’s programs and resources.

Campus Librarian Network (CLN)

Librarians at 178 campuses with at least one secondary school are invited to participate in CLN.

Librarians at an additional 24 schools (New Visions and continuing participants) are invited to CLN workshops.

Together, these librarians support 542 schools. However, 98 campuses have no identifiable librarian as of September 2019

The goal of the Campus Librarian's Handbook is to support school librarians, administrators, and stakeholders in the unique context of a campus to develop a school library program to serve all students.

Librarians who read and use this handbook will be able to understand the unique qualities of a campus school library and apply the tools of school librarianship to support the several communities sharing their campus.

Library Participating in CLN workshops (33 as of September 2019)

Staffed Campus Library (71 as of September 2019)

Campus Library, Unknown Staffing (98 as of September 2019)

Participating librarians engage in professional development workshops designed to build their capacity as instructional leaders; to strengthen their ability to advocate and use library data; to promote 21st century technology; to share best practices and resources around curriculum support; and to work to ensure students are acquiring the information literacy skills necessary to be successful in school, college and career. The sessions offer networking and hands-on opportunities for developing library management strategies and resources.

This calendar includes the Campus Librarian Network workshops alongside the professional development offerings of the NYC School Library System.

CLN workshops are co-designed and co-facilitated by the Astor Center for Public School Libraries at New Visions and the New York City School Library System.

Participating librarians are expected to collaboratively explore best practices around library and curriculum work with their colleagues. In addition to sharing deliverables, library lessons, tools, projects and best practices, participating librarians can receive Young Adult books for their libraries through the New Visions & Publishers Weekly donations program.

Collaboration Grant Program

When funding is available, The Astor Center for Public School Libraries will offer small grants (up to $5000) to libraries that develop a curriculum project that (1) is aligned with this year’s themes, (2) develops a specific unit within the identified curriculum materials, and (3) is developed by a librarian-teacher partnership. Details about the application criteria and process will be available before the first workshop meeting of the school year.