University of South Florida (University of South Florida, School of Information)

The University of South Florida, in collaboration with Old Dominion University, will address the knowledge gap that many school librarians report in working with students with autism. This project will gather practicing school librarians across the nation to learn valuable information from autism experts. This project’s activities will include 1) planning a national virtual forum to bring school librarians together for autism education; 2) hosting the national virtual forum; 3) creating recordings, abstracts, and fact sheets from the national virtual forum; 4) publishing information on an eLearning platform; and 5) disseminating via platforms such as the Project ENABLE website, the Targeting Autism blog, conference presentations, and practitioner publications. Together, these live and recorded sessions and complementary materials will help to address the need for more autism-informed school librarians, ultimately leading to more inclusive and accepting school libraries for children with autism.