Introduction During my fi rst year as a grade 7–8 school librarian in Arizona, I was simultaneously working on my master’s degree in library science. The instructor of one of my courses, Current Resources in School Libraries, was working with her state legislator to draft a bill for the upcoming leg- islative session that would require all schools in the state to employ certi- fi ed school librarians, that is, K-12 public school teachers with a school library endorsement, in addition to restoring the school library consul- tant position at the Arizona Department of Education. Although the course was not about political library advocacy, my instructor seamlessly wove her work with the legislator into our course material. We were learning about how WebQuests, wikis, and electronic resources could be used for teaching information literacy processes. My instructor made one thing clear: without the state infrastructure in place to guarantee that all students are served by an effective school library program, it is incredibly diffi cult to teach students how to fi nd and use information in order to develop vital critical thinking skills and a disposition as a lifelong learner. Furthermore, every student has a right to this educational content school library programs are not a luxury for schools with robust funding. During the summer course, my instructor, a Democrat, worked with her Republican Representative to craft the bill that would be introduced in the upcoming legislative session. She approached her Representative six months prior to the session to begin working on the bill. Additionally, she collected petition signatures to ensure that her Representative quali- fi ed to be placed on the ballot for her upcoming reelection. My instructor didn’t agree with every stance of her Representative, but they were able to fi nd common ground on an issue that mattered to both of them, regard- less of their political and ideological differences. I also learned that my instructor was working with the Arizona Library Association (AzLA) to
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