Debbie Abilock - Growing Schools

DEBBIE ABILOCK is the co-founder of NoodleTools, Inc., an online platform for teaching academic research. She speaks and consults in schools in the United States, Europe, and Asia based on over thirty years as a school administrator, curriculum coordinator, librarian, and ICT director. As a K8 school librarian she taught a range of high-potential students, from learning-disabled gifted to profoundly gifted, and developed differentiated curriculum in collaborative faculty teams each year for most grades. She is currently President of BayNet, a multitype library network in the Bay Area, and has worked on numerous local, state, and national boards and committees. Founding editor of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians (19962010), she also edited Standards and Guidelines for Strong School Libraries (2004) for the California School Library Association. She has authored over fifty articles and chapters, most recently True - or Not? (Educational Leadership, March 2012) and co-authored Sea Changes in Technology Services and Learning (Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on Excellence, ABC-CLIO/Libraries Unlimited, 2011). Debbie has been honored as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in the library community, appointed a Library of Congress American Memory Fellow, received the CSLA President's Award for curricular leadership, and won Grand Prize for innovative online curriculum from Time magazine. My favorite prize is a school consulting job that included a opportunity to teach 3rd graders to evaluate information.

KELLY AHLFELD is Librarian and Technology Coordinator for the Mettawee Community School, a small, rural elementary school in West Pawlet, Vermont, in the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union. She earned her BA from Smith College, and since earning her MLS from Simmons College, Kelly has worked in libraries for over fifteen years. She loves to work with technology and teachers, and her favorite pastime is developing lifelong readers in unexpected places. Kelly serves on her school district's Instructional Leadership Team and has presented on a variety of topics, including professional development, media literacy, and reluctant readers. When she is not spending time with her favorite people (husband Peter, and two sons, Russ and Henry), she likes running, reading, cooking, writing, and cheering on her boys.

ANNE ARRIAGA received her BA from Bowdoin College and her MLIS from San Jose State University. Soon after being accepted into San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, she began working as a library assistant at Moreau Catholic High School and two years later became co-librarian. During her final summer as a graduate student, she served as the Exploratorium's Learning Commons and Teacher Institute intern where she supported a cohort of math and science teachers from around the country. At Moreau Catholic, Anne developed the Live from MCHS program and the MCHS Library's 24 Hour Read-a-thon. She has presented on a variety of topics, all of which fall under the broad category of librarians serving as student- and teacher-support specialists in 21st-century schools.

JENNIFER BLOOMINGDALE graduated from the College of St. Rose in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in Childhood Education. In 2011 she completed her master's in Educational Technology and became a New York Statecertified Educational Technology Specialist. Jennifer was a 5th grade teacher at Mettawee Community School in West Pawlet, Vermont, for four years. It was through her teaching experience and master's program that Jennifer developed a passion for integrating technology and assisting others in doing so. Jennifer lives in upstate New York with her husband and son. In her free time she likes to knit, read, and spend time with her family.

MARIAH CHEREM holds an MSI degree from the University of Michigan's School of Information, specializing in Community Informatics and Library and Information Science. Before returning to school, she served in a variety of communications, outreach, publicity, and program/event-planning roles for a collegiate art museum and a children's publishing house. Most recently, she applied her outreach and engagement experience to launching and building Yelp's community and brand in Southeastern Michigan. Her main questions upon returning to school focused upon online social interaction. However, she has found herself increasingly intrigued by the shifting roles of libraries and museums, and how such institutions were seeking new ways to connect with the public. She serves on the organizing committee for Ann Arbor Ignite, and continues to work on projects for organizations from 826National to the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Mariah's primary interests revolve around the intersection of communities, technology, and learning. She is particularly interested in the social side of tech and how various tools, platforms, and ideas about technology and collaboration can both support and constrain teaching and learning.

LINDA DIEKMAN is Director of the Learning Resource Center (LRC) at Glen Grove Elementary School in Illinois, working with 3rd to 5th grade readers and researchers. She was a participant in the Here's the Evidence project while she was the library media specialist at Central Elementary School in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Diekman holds a Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her 2009 research project titled Exploring Research: Lessons Learned from Library Assessment expanded on her Here's the Evidence work on assessment. She has an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in Personnel Administration from Michigan State University. Diekman currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's, Graduate School of Information Sciences, teaching Information Books and Resources for Youth. She also teaches Collection Development and Teaching Research to Children and Adolescents at National Louis University's College of Education School Library Media Program. A frequent lecturer on assessment and collaboration, Diekman has presented at numerous professional conferences. Along with Pamela Kramer, she published Evidence = Assessment = Advocacy in Teacher Librarian (2010).

KIM DORITY is the founder and president of Dority & Associates, an information strategy and content development company focusing on research, writing, editing, information process design, and publishing. She has consulted in all types of organizations to design, build, and execute effective information strategies. During her career, she has worked in the academic, publishing, telecommunications, and library fields, in for-profit and nonprofit settings, for both established companies and start-ups. In addition to her work with Dority & Associates, she is on the advisory board of the University of Denver's Library and Information Science graduate program, where she created and teaches a course on alternative career paths for LIS students and practitioners. She is the author of numerous articles and several books on library and information science career topics, including Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals (Libraries Unlimited, 2006). She created and manages the LinkedIn LIS Career Options group, which now includes more than 1,700 members from 30 different countries commenting on roughly 200 discussions. She received her MLS from the University of Denver.

MIKE EISENBERG is a professor and founding dean of the Information School at the University of Washington, serving from 1998 to 2006. During his tenure, Mike transformed the school from a single graduate degree program into a broad-based information school with a wide range of research and academic programs, including an undergraduate degree in informatics, master's degrees in information management and library and information science (adding a distance learning program and doubling enrollment), and a doctorate degree in information science. Mike's current work focuses on information literacy (Project Information Literacy) and information problem solving in virtual environments (funded by the MacArthur Foundation), and K20 information science education. His Big6 approach to information problem-solving is the most widely used information literacy program in the world. Mike is a prolific author (nine books and dozens of articles and papers) and has worked with thousands of studentspre-K through higher educationas well as people in business, government, and communities to improve their information and technology skills.