Valenza

= Joyce Valenza Ph. D =

Joyce Valenza is a prolific teacher librarian who has won numerous awards for her extensive work in the field and has also been published in many periodicals, online journals, and other media resources. Valenza is the author of several books, including //Power Tools// (1998), //Power Research Tools// (2000), and //Power Tools Recharged// (2004). In 2009 alone, some of her achievements include: being named the PSLA Outstanding Contributor of 2009, being included in Best Colleges Online Top 100 Librarian Tweeters, and being named as an AASL Conference Technology Committee Co-Chair. Over the years, she has also received many other prestigious achievements and awards, including but not limited to:
 * AASL / Highsmith Research Grant, 2005
 * Queens City College SLIS Alumna of the Year, 2005
 * Pennsylvania Individual School Library Program of the Year Award, 2005
 * ISTE Library Media SIG officer, 2002
 * IASL School Library Web-page of the Year Award, 2001([|Joyce Valenza's School Webpage)]
 * ALA OITP Library Future Task-force
 * Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, 97/98

Valenza's blog, [|NeverEndingSearch]on schoollibraryjournal.com has received much attention over the years, and in the 2009 Edublog Awards it took home the first place prize for Best Librarian / Library Blog. [|NeverEndingSearch Blog] was also nominated in 2005, and was recently listed as one of the 100 Most Inspiring and Innovative Blogs for Educators by Online University Reviews. Some of Valenza's recent posts from her blog tackle topics such as changes with Ebsco, how to leverage the Superbowl with learning, and how many teacher-librarians know what needs to be done but are stopped in their tracks by "higher forces". Educators all over the world tune into Valenza's blog for advice, latest trends, and new ideas in the field of School Library Media, and the insight that Valenza provides certainly come with years of experience and background.

Joyce is currently the teacher librarian at Springfield Township High school in Erdenheim, PA and she received her Ph. D from the University of North Texas's School of Library and Information Sciences. She has dedicated much of her career to fighting plagiarism, making research count, and making it easier for students to research topics through use of a virtual classroom. Her website, [|Springfield Township HS Virtual Library] is a clear demonstration of these ideas.

I personally found Valenza's blog and school website to be utterly inspiring. As a future Library Media Specialist myself, I know that I will be able to use the resources provided by these two tools every day in my career, and I look forward to learning more about what Valenza has to offer. I find reassurance in the fact that there are people like Valenza out there, leading the way for School Librarians and Educational Technology Teachers like us everywhere.

-Christie

It's very nice to see that a librarian such as Valenza not only demonstrating her technological skills to herself or simply showing students how to use computers and other research tools, but also integrating these skills to better student's work quality with skills that not only fight cheating but make it easier for kids to embrace technology.

-Chris Gargasz

Nice page Christie! Joyce seems to have her stuff figured out! What a lot of work and information she has to help others become successful. We have a school librarian who is nothing but a teacher working to get out of the media specialist job. It is sad that so much more could be done in our building. I wish all school librarians had the heard of Joyce. -Andy Luciano