Job description

American Youth Academy is an Islamic-based private school located in Tampa, Florida, one of the fastest-growing communities in the entire country. AYA was established in 1992 and currently serves 960 students in grades pre-K through 12, increasing every year. One of AYA's top priorities is to create an environment and structure that allows all students to engage in experiences that prepare them for the future. As enrollment continues to grow, we are looking for additional staff and administrators to join our team to help us with our next step into the future.

Reports to: Head of School

How We Work

We believe in the power of leadership and the importance of team dynamics - not only do we cultivate that in others, but we are incredibly attentive to it within our own team. We bring a unique blend of technical and adaptive approaches to how we develop others. We are highly collaborative as a team while being able to lead work independently. We are committed to our own growth, reflection and continuous improvement- we seek out feedback frequently from each other and our school leaders and make the necessary changes so we can continue to grow and learn.

Job Type: Full-Time, Salary, Exempt, 12 months.

Reports to: Head of School

Candidate Qualifications:

• State certified as a school librarian
• Master of Library Science (MLS) or equivalent from a program accredited by the American Library Association or from a master’s level program in library and information studies.
• Or completed a teacher preparation program educational degree

Job Goals:

• To empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, ethical users of information
• To instill a love of learning in all students and ensure equitable access to information
• To collaborate with classroom teachers to design and implement units of instruction, assess student learning
• To align the School Library Program (SLP) with the mission, goals, and objectives of the school / school district

Roles and Responsibilities

Promote high standards and expectations for all students and staff for academic performance and responsibility for behavior.

• Works with the Head of School in carrying out the school's library program.
• Flexibility, curiosity, enthusiasm, and an extensive knowledge of young adult literature
• An understanding of the scope and the sequence of library and information literacy curriculum
• Experience in evaluating and selecting print and digital resources with a commitment to
• equity and inclusion

School Librarian:

• Fosters a creative, flexible environment so that the school library is an essential part of the learning community.
• Cooperates and networks with other libraries/agencies.
• Establishes procedures for selection, acquisition, circulation, resource sharing of resources in all formats.
• Evaluates, promotes and uses existing and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning.
• Helps students develop attitudes and skills leading to lifelong learning and library use.
• Promotes literacy, reading, and library use through such activities as book talks, displays, publications, and special events.
• Provides reference and readers’ advisory services to the general student population, including students who have special learning needs or specialized intellectual interests.
• Provides professional development for the faculty in such areas as new information technologies and information literacy.
• Supports the continuing educational research of faculty and administrators.

Administrative

• Participates in curriculum development and implementation.
• Develops cooperative relationships with local public and academic libraries and other community organizations.
• Prepares schedules, with input from teachers and building administrators, for integrated information skills instruction.
• To create an environment that is conducive to active and participatory learning, resource-based instructional practices, and collaboration with teaching staff.
• To carry out classification and cataloguing of resources using the Library Management System, and supervising labelling, protection, display and shelving of library stock.
• Establishes an environment that encourages learning and fosters use, encouraging appropriate conduct of students using the facility.
• Remain current in professional practices and developments, information technologies, and educational research applicable to school library programs
• Liaise with the Registrar and IT Director to ensure books are returned from students who are leaving or charges for fines/replacement.
• Promote the library services to the school community.
• Other duties reasonable to assist in the smooth operation of the library

Teacher:

• Collaborates with classroom teachers as a partner in the instructional process
• Collaborates to design, teach, and assess learning experiences that incorporate inquiry learning, information literacies in their formats, critical thinking and self-assessment
• Assists teachers in identifying and accessing materials to support content-area instruction as well as professional growth.
• Promotes a love of reading and lifelong learning; and instructional technology to improve learning.

Leader:

• Serves on decision making teams, school improvement and accreditation activities; presenting at meetings benchmarks the SLP to school, state, and national standards
• Advocates for SLP through an effective public relations program
• Collects and analyzes data to improve instruction; demonstrates correlations between the SLP and student achievement
• Participates in the recruiting, hiring, training and supervising of library staff and volunteers; evaluates support staff.

Information Access and Delivery

• Functions as the informational technology leader within the school.
• Develops policies, procedures, and criteria for selecting a balanced collection to support the curriculum, representative of diverse points of view of a pluralistic society.
• Encourages faculty and student input concerning recommendations for purchase.
• Develops and maintains information networks and services; organizes, retrieves, and disseminates resources to support learners’ needs.
• Provides training to students and faculty in effective use of information systems.
• Interprets and applies information technologies in curricular context.
• Assumes a leadership role in fostering the principles of intellectual freedom; creates an environment to promote free inquiry and to exposes students to a broad range of ideas.
• Ensures intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats for all learners.
• Promotes awareness of information resources beyond the school facility.
• Serves as a district/school resource for issues regarding ethical use of information including issues of copyright and intellectual freedom.
• Prepares lists of topical and new materials to support class assignments and to promote interest in reading.
• Provides orientation for new students and faculty.

Professional Development

• Reads field-related professional literature and scans materials in content-area journals for items of interest to the professional growth of colleagues.
• Keeps well-informed of online resources (mailing lists, databases, Websites) that foster professional growth.
• Maintains professional contacts with faculty, administrative staff, and library colleagues.

Ability To:

• Ability to work alone and as part of a team.
• Ability to communicate well within the school and wider communities.
• Exhibit a personality that demonstrates enthusiasm and interpersonal skills to relate well with students, staff, administration, parents, and the community.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively in English, both orally and in writing, using proper grammar and vocabulary.
• Enthusiastic about working constructively with students and teachers.
• Support and contribute to the school’s responsibility for safeguarding students
• Ability to develop a culture of mutual respect with the students.
• Maintain a positive and effective relationship with supervisors.
• Uphold and maintain all school policies and rule

Physical Demand:

The physical demands described here represent those that must be met by an employee to perform the essential responsibilities and functions of the job successfully and are not meant to be all-inclusive. Reasonable accommodation may enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential responsibilities and functions of the job. Unless reasonable accommodations can be made while performing this job, the staff member shall:

• Use strength to lift items needed to perform the functions of the job.
• Sit, stand and walk for required periods.
• Use close vision, color vision, peripheral vision and depth perception, and the ability to focus vision.
• Physical mobility, dexterity, strength, and visual acuity to meet student needs, deal with student problems and assist with building maintenance problems and school ground monitoring activities.

Environmental Demands:

The environmental demands described here represent those that must be met by an employee to perform the essential responsibilities and functions of the job successfully and are not meant to be all-inclusive.

Salary: Salary will be based on background and experience.

Disclaimer:

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by the employee(s) within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees to this position.

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Monday to Friday

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Tampa, FL: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• Library services: 3 years (Preferred)
• Integrated library system: 2 years (Required)

Work Location: In person

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