History of NJASL

History of NJASL

On March 13, 1915, Miss Elizabeth White of the Passaic Public Library invited the high school librarians of the state to meet. The purpose of this meeting, which had been suggested by Miss Mary E. Hall, Librarian of the Brooklyn Girls High School, was to discuss common problems and means of meeting them. The April 1915 issue of Library Journal records the result of this meeting was the formation of the “The New Jersey School Librarians’ Association”, an organization which would include among its members librarians of secondary and normal schools throughout the state. The New Jersey School Librarians’ Association formed the second organization of its kind in the country. California was the only state which at that time had such an association. The 15 librarians who accepted Miss White’s invitation, and thus became charter members, comprised a large majority of the state’s school librarians. The N.J. Department of Public Instruction reports that there were 18 libraries among 115 high schools in 1915.Since its inception, members constantly endeavored to raise the level of professional competence, to establish criteria for state certification, and to strive toward meeting those standards set up by ALA.

In the fall of 1933, the New Jersey School Librarians’ Association became the the New Jersey School Library Association. As the name changed, the membership grew. The decades from 1930 to 1950 brought growing strength to New Jersey libraries. Opportunities for training for librarians, standards for the certification for librarians, accreditation for libraries and formation of various library associations had increased professional awareness and the Public Library Commission had made advisory services available. Those 15 charter members had become the nucleus of an organization that in 1933 boasted a membership of 130. By 1960, membership was up to 254 out of a possible 621, and “The New Jersey School Media Association represents a significant change in name and function with real impact for all school librarians” wrote Past President Paul Anderson.

Topics of concern sixty years included overcrowding, intellectual freedom, double sessions, and elementary school libraries were constant discussion topics. AS the organization increased in membership and thus in strength, it was better able to tackle the recurring problems of professional training and standards and undertake ambitious projects. AS the second half of the century began, most of the ingredients of discussions for the next twenty years had appeared—only the terminology would change.

The arrival of the age of grants and joint-funding gave further impetus to action. In 1961, NJSLA was awarded a grant from AASL to help NJ reach the recommended levels of achievement by The School Standards of Library Programs. The School Library Development Project (SLDP) aim was to work on pre-service and in-service education in the use of instructional materials and library resources for teachers, administrators and supervisors. The SLDP was effective and had a long lasting effect on the building of New Jersey school libraries.

Beginning in the 1967, the Association provided workshops to provide opportunities for members to update our thinking and our professional competencies. The Association started with a series of Media Centers and continued to plan courses and seminars. At the request of the State Board of Examiners, suggestions were submitted to the Association for certification of media specialist thus beginning a history of working with the State, heads of library schools, and other organizations.

In 1975, the New Jersey School Media Association (NJSMA) merged with the New Jersey Association for Educational Communications and Technology (NJAECT) to form the Educational Media Association of New Jersey (EMAnj) Several reasons led to this development: the new State certification that classified all librarians and audiovisual personnel as Educational Media Specialists or Association Educational Media Specialists; the increased incidents of offerings of both NJSMA and NJAECT appealed to the same groups. As its conferences, meetings and publications grew, EMAnj became a potent advocate for the best in school librarianship in New Jersey. During the first year of this merger all members received two periodicals, Signal Tab and Infokineticator. The first edition of EMANATIONS was published in the Winter of 1977. Both during the merger and after, EMAnj was able to benefit from its many outstanding leaders including Carolyn Markuson, Robert Ruezinsky, Ruth Toor, who later became President of American Association of School Librarians, and Albert Saley.

EMAnj changed to New Jersey Association of School Librarians to provide the organization with a strong, positive and identifiable image in order to reach constituencies that are either unaware of the Association’s existence or about the role played by the certified librarian in New Jersey Schools. State legislators, state agencies, other New Jersey associations and organizations, some schooladministrators, parents of school-aged children and the public at large do not have enough informationabout the role of the certified school librarian. Many would be surprised to leam that school librarians spend

most of their day actively teaching, while still managing to oversee a library.

New Jersey Association of School Librarians history shows the tremendous progress the Association and the profession have made since 1915. NJASL has been facilitating human learning in the state of New Jersey through the development of high quality programs in educational media and technology.