Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) professors
Marilyn Arnone
and Ruth Small's project,
S.O.S. for Information Literacy, was recently named one of the
Top 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning by the American Association of School
Librarians (AASL).
"This is the first such award by AASL, and we are very pleased to be included among
this prestigious group of sites," says Small.
AASL selected its list of 25 sites based on several criteria, including the site's ability to
foster innovation, creativity, active participation and collaboration. The S.O.S. site
ranked among the best in curriculum sharing and for being user-friendly and
encouraging a community of learners to explore and discover.
Founded in 2000, S.O.S. for Information Literacy is a free, Web-based multimedia
resource for K-16 educators. The site contains lesson plans, handouts, videos and other
teaching material for information literacy that has been carefully reviewed through a
comprehensive quality control system to ensure the resources are of high caliber.
Arnone has received numerous grants for S.O.S. for Information Literacy, most of which
have come from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), including the
latest grant, a National Leadership Grant awarded in fall 2008.
Currently, the project is in its final stages of development so that it can be expanded to
include high school- and college-level educators. S.O.S. for Information Literacy is also
working with the Center for Natural Language Processing (CNLP) on an IMLS grant to
update the national curriculum standards for the 21st century learner to meet AASL
guidelines. Small and Arnone are also hoping to expand S.O.S. in the future to include
public library youth program activities.
Other members of the S.O.S. team include Senior Project Consultant Abby Kasowitz-
Scheer G'96, G'98, who is program head of instructional services at Syracuse University
Library, and Technical Director Thomas Hardy of Data Momentum, who works on all
aspects of site design, development and implementation.
For more information about S.O.S. for Information Literacy, visit
http://informationliteracy.org/. To see the other websites named in AASL's Top 25 Best
Websites for Teaching and Learning, visit
http://ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/
aboutaasl/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cfm.
