OSLIS Turns 25

A Review of Twenty-Five Years of Research Learning

By: Molly Sloan, OSLIS Committee Chair

Tara Perkins, OSLIS Committee Member

Carrie Light, OSLIS Committee Member

For most Oregon School library personnel, the Oregon School Library Information System (better known as OSLIS) feels like the Cascade mountains or the Columbia River–a stalwart standby of research teaching and learning for the students and educators of Oregon. You might be surprised to learn that OSLIS is celebrating just 25 years of information literacy service. Happy birthday, OSLIS! This milestone warrants a look back at the formation of OSLIS and the pioneers who envisioned a public resource to support Oregon’s learners–not just for accessing quality information but also for teaching Oregon’s kids how to use that information responsibly.

In 1998, OSLIS began with the visionary concept that all of Oregon’s students should have equitable access to reliable information and instruction on the research process. Innovative teacher-librarians including Mary McClintock, JoAnn Klassen, Cheryl Steinke, and later Patty Sorensen, Marlene Lee, Jen Maurer, and others built a website dedicated to information literacy and the research process. Funding to build and maintain the OSLIS site was (and still is) provided by an LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant. OSLIS became the home for centralized K-12 access to the statewide subscription databases (Gale suite of resources) where you can still find them today. But beyond information, the site became a place for educators, paraeducators, and parents to access instructional materials to teach research.

Before EasyBib, Noodle Tools, or Google Citations, there was CITATION MAKER! The OSLIS founders believed that proper bibliographic citations should be quick, easy and accurate for students to create, so they built Citation Maker. The intricacy of creating and maintaining both MLA and APA style formats with the associations’ ever-updating manuals has been a long and arduous task successfully surmounted by the OSLIS committee, primarily Marlene Lee and Jen Maurer in more recent years. Their efforts have kept responsible citation habits a priority for Oregon student researchers.

Today the OSLIS committee remains dedicated to keeping Oregon students up to date as the information landscape changes, including by creating content for the Learn to Research section of the website. The members continue to create video tutorials about the research process in response to emerging best practices and trends. Look for new instructional videos about understanding algorithms, lateral reading, using AI responsibly, evaluating videos as sources, and more! Rest assured, the OSLIS committee continues to help kids become critical thinkers by creating new content and updating the platform. In celebration of OSLIS’s 25th Anniversary, check your email for promotional announcements and professional development opportunities.

It was my honor to serve on the OSLIS committee for 15 years and as its chairperson for 8 years. During that time the website was updated to a new look, content grew, I worked with Jen Maurer to update Citation Maker to conform with new citation guidelines 5 times, worked on creating Learn to Research videos and so much more. Working on OSLIS was a wonderful way to continue to contribute during my first almost dozen years of retirement. It’s heartwarming to see the continued progress the committee is currently making with additional content and videos.

The kudos we continually received made the effort worthwhile. One of my proudest moments was last year when my granddaughter thanked me for Citation Maker. She was using it in her middle school classes. She knew it was important to find good sources and cite them, but was thankful for Citation Maker to format them for her. From Marlene Lee, former OSLIS Committee Chair

As the information landscape continues to evolve with advancements in technology which might have seemed unfathomable to the early OSLIS visionaries, the underlying mission of the project remains the same: to help Oregon educators teach Oregon’s kids how to access, analyze and use information in all its various forms. Whether by using World Book Online in 1998 or ChatGPT today, teaching students to define, plan, find, create, present, and reflect on their information learning remains at the center of OSLIS’s mission. Together we are all still learning to research and researching to learn.

Be a part of the OSLIS story in the next twenty-five years by teaching students how to use the resources available at OSLIS and empowering them to be the information leaders of tomorrow.

Page updated

Report abuse