Introduction According to Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (American Association of School Librarians, 2009), “The school library media program is built by professionals who they model leadership and best practices for the school community” (p. 45). This leadership role is new for school librarians; Previous guideline documents (AASL, 1988; AASL, 1998) incorporated leadership activities into the roles of information specialist, consultant or instructional partner, teacher, and program administrator. These previous guidelines were aligned with the broader educational culture, in which school librarians were rarely viewed as leaders by their colleagues, administrators, or themselves (Hartzell, 2002; Ishizuka, Minkel, & St. Lifer, 2002; McCracken, 2001 ). Perhaps because of this perception, few researchers have studied the activities of school librarians who act as leaders. The purpose of Empowering Learners (AASL, 2009) is to define “the future direction of school library multimedia programs” (p. 5). Both Empowering Learners and its predecessors (AASL, 1988; AASL, 1998) serve as guidelines for exemplary media programs in school libraries, providing a mission and vision for the program and identifying and describing the roles of the library media coordinator schools (SLMC). The mission of the program is “to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information” (AASL, 2009, p. 8), and to support this mission the SLMC must assume multiple roles. The original guidelines document, Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Multimedia Programs (AASL, 1988) defined these roles as information specialist, teacher, and instructional consultant. The 1998 version of the guidelines (AASL...... middle of document ......ndards as classroom teachers, but the SLMC standards are currently under revision and will closely parallel teaching standards, including a leadership component (R White, personal communication, October 8, 2010). School library media coordinators must demonstrate leadership to meet the expectations of their national professional organization, to obtain advanced teaching credentials, and even, in North Carolina, to maintain their professional positions Empowering publication Learners (AASL, 2009), no research has examined the extent to which librarians are able to carry out the identified leadership practices, however, it is important to know how school library leaders behave and to what extent implement these practices, both to evaluate standards and to provide examples of leadership development for school librarians.