Nancy Everhart, an associate professor at The Florida State University’s College of Information, has been elected president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association. Established in 1951, AASL is the nation’s only association for school library media professionals and has nearly 10,000 members.
Her term as president-elect begins in July and she will assume the presidency in July 2010.
“My objective as AASL president will be to get the nation focused on what 21st century school libraries staffed with certified school library media specialists leaders look like, and what they can do for students. I hope to accomplish this by visiting an outstanding public or private school library media program in each of our 50 states during my presidency and sharing my visits through online social networking both within the AASL community and with the world — hopefully with a major media outlet,” she said. “I will appoint an AASL task force to assist me in identifying amazing sites and leaders.”
As an AASL member since 1981, Everhart has served the organization in many capacities, including as a member of the board of directors; as research editor of the association’s journal, Knowledge Quest, and as chair of numerous committees.
Everhart’s teaching and research have focused on school library leadership. At Florida State, she co-developed an online leadership program, Project LEAD, for aspiring school library media specialists based on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards tenets. A new grant will follow these 30 potential leaders into their first year on the job to determine the impact of their leadership education. Everhart also directs the PALM Center at Florida State, an interdisciplinary school library research center, in collaboration with College of Education faculty.
Everhart obtained her Ph.D. in 1990 from The Florida State University. She was on the faculty of St. John’s University in New York for 10 years and served as a media specialist in Pennsylvania for 14 years. She is the recipient of the numerous awards in the field as well as the author of several books and more than 50 journal publications. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Florida Association for Media in Education.