I am writing on behalf of the officers of the Research, Education, Information, and School Libraries (REISL) special interest group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to encourage you to become a member, or renew your membership. As a small and relatively new SIG, REISL especially values your support and participation.
Per our mission, REISL seeks to “enable educational researchers who are interested in school libraries to cultivate, enhance, and disseminate new scholarship in a supportive community.” More important, though, REISL and its members serve as an important bridge to educational researchers in the field beyond school librarianship. In this era of increasing fiscal and other administrative pressures on school librarians to demonstrate their programs’ roles in enhancing student learning, finding common ground with other educational researchers in critically important.
Attendance at the annual AERA conference is a stimulating opportunity to learn about recent research, and to speak with these researchers whose findings are not yet available in the professional literature. These presentations may spur your own research agenda thus enhancing school library scholarship. At the upcoming conference in Vancouver, Canada, from April 12 to April 18, 2012, REISL members are presenting their latest research on learning practices of students and their librarians, including new studies on collaboration, learning communities, and information literacy approaches.
So, please, take a few minutes to visit the REISL webpage at http://www.aera.net/default.aspx?menu_id=326&id=2070
You have several options for joining REISL or renewing your membership:
To join: Become a member of AERA and elect to join the REISL SIG. Its number is 166—and membership in the SIG is only $5. There are special much-reduced student rates to encourage university students to join AERA. To join, go to the AERA homepage at www.aera.net and click on the “Membership” link.
To renew: Go to the AERA homepage at http://www.aera.net and click on either the “Membership” or “Member Login” link. You will logon using your member ID and password. If you have forgotten either of these then contact AERA at 202-238-3200 for member/password information, or you can renew by phone.
We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver. Jami
Jami Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Library Science
Department of Library Science
Mail Stop 172
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
(252) 341-6490 (w)
(252) 328-4368 (fax)
Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
J.B. Priestley English critic, dramatist, & novelist (1894 - 1984)