Currently director of libraries and instructional technology for Norman Public Schools in Oklahoma, Kordeliski will serve as the 2025–2026 president of the American Association of School Librarians. She has done extensive committee work within both the AASL and ALA, most recently as a director-at-large on the AASL board of directors as well as a member of the ALA Policy Corps’ Unite Against Book Bans cadre and the 2023 Printz committee. In her home state, she has worked with legislators as chair of the school library division of the Oklahoma Library Association and the OLA Advocacy committee—efforts that helped earn her recognition as a 2025 Library Journal Mover & Shaker. PW spoke with Kordeliski about the importance of advocacy in the school librarian profession today, and how she sees AASL aiding in the fight against censorship.
What are your goals for leading AASL in the year ahead?
When we were in Tampa for our national conference in 2023, we put together a new strategic plan, and [outgoing AASL president] Becky Calzada has spent this year pushing that forward and aligning all of our resources and initiatives to our strategic plan. My goal is to really move it into the future. I feel like we’ve streamlined and aligned things now to the point that we can dig in and start offering librarians the resources that they’re saying that they need and the support that they’re hungry for.
What are the biggest obstacles school librarians are facing today, and how can AASL assist in those situations?
Across the board, the big focus for libraries currently is advocacy and speaking up and sharing our library stories. One of my goals is to make sure that every school librarian is empowered to advocate for themselves and their school library. Sometimes, when you get through graduate school library programs, you understand the nuts and bolts of how to do everything but don’t feel like you’re very prepared to advocate—whether it’s for more positions or more money for your library, or a flexible schedule so you can meet teachers where they are and where they need to be met. I want to be able to equip librarians, specifically school librarians, to have those conversations with their teachers and their colleagues, but also with their administration. I want them to realize they’re the experts in the room and what they have to contribute is valuable, and to not be afraid to speak up.
What are some additional issues school librarians need to navigate with advocacy?
For most librarians, it will be censorship. But with the uncertainty with the Department of Education right now, I know that is also a major focus to make sure that schools have funding to be able to operate successfully. What I’m seeing as I’m traveling during my president-elect year is that school librarians are asking for more resources and more professional development or more support that focuses on advocacy and censorship.
What is your best advice to someone considering entering the profession?
It’s a little tough right now, because you see libraries in the news. But I love my job so much. If you are passionate about learners being able to master their critical thinking skills and understand and contribute to the world, then being a school librarian is the most rewarding thing that you can do. It’s not just about books—it’s about so, so many other things. And I encourage those who are considering it to talk to some actual practicing school librarians and see what their perspective is, because it’s stressful, but it’s not as scary as everyone is assuming that it is.
How can community members and other stakeholders best support and advocate for school librarians?
There are so many talking points about how to advocate for school librarians and for access available on the Unite Against Book Bans website, and those are almost always the resources that I point people to first. But the main thing that you can do without having to sign up for any newsletters is to speak up. Tell your legislators that libraries are important to you and that access to information is critical for a healthy democracy. With Policy Corps’ work, I know that phone calls to your legislators do make an impact. The best thing that you can do, if you want to take even a small action step, is to speak up, reach out to your legislators, and correct misinformation when you see it happening in your community.
The biggest area of misinformation that I work on right now is the idea that censoring books isn’t censorship; just because something is available to purchase does not mean that it’s accessible to everybody. So explaining the difference between a library and a bookstore can sometimes be the very best advocacy.
