The researchers, staff and members of the Advisory Board of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries strongly support the following beliefs:

• The integration of learning, information, and technology presents unique challenges for teachers, school librarians, administrators and students in 21st century schools;
• Inquiry learning is at the heart of effective teaching;
• Inquiry learning shifts emphasis to student questioning, critical thinking, problem solving, engagement with diverse information sources,  and development of deep knowledge and understanding;
• Carefully  designed teaching and learning initiatives that guide and engage students in their inquiry enable students to transform information to knowledge;
• Five decades of research, experience, insights and systematic measures support the transformative role of school libraries in the development of the student’s personal, social and cultural growth;
• CISSL has a commitment to be the connection between the research and the practitioners in the field of school librarianship;
• School libraries are 21st century places of inquiry-based learning; they are now, more than ever, crucial to the development of students as intellectual agents;
• School libraries can and should play an integral role in school reform.