Helen Boelens, Kalsbeek College, Woerden. The Netherlands

1. "Imagine …You may say I'm a dreamer,but I’m not the only one," *The school library and information centre at the heart of the learning process and as an integral part of the learning environment. * Lennon, John : Imagine, 1971 Helen Boelens, Kalsbeek College, Woerden. The Netherlands Presented on 15 March 2007 in Milan, Italy

2. What kind of school is the Kalsbeek College? • It is an ordinary secondary school • It is located in an ordinary Dutch town • Pupils come from all different levels of Dutch (multicultural) society • It is a public school, funded by the Dutch government. It has normal funding. It is not a selective school.

3. Democratic process within the school • School policy • Historical background • Democracy within the school • Discussion at the regular meetings of team leaders

4. An “informal parliament” • The following staff members take part in the regular meetings of team leaders. • Important decisions regarding the school policy are discussed at these meetings. • Membership • 1 director from the central Board of Directors • 1 director, upper school, Schilderspark location • 1 director, lower school, Schilderspart location • 4 team leaders - upper school • 4 team leaders - lower school • 1 team leader - sport and gym • 1 or 2 representatives from each faculty group (depending on the size of the faculty • The school information specialist (representative of the school library and information centre (SLIC)

5. What does the school want to achieve? • Experience has taught us that learning in the 21ste century is a combination of traditional and new concepts of learning. • The school wants to find a successful way to link traditional concepts of learning with the new concepts and opportunities.

6. Discussions about the school policy statement. • Important factors: • Educational aims for: • Personnel • Pupils and parents • Organisation • Atmosphere and ambience within the school

7. How do we approach this? • Respect for traditional concepts of learning. • At the same time, make use of new concepts of learning. Some new concepts of learning are made possible due to the use of ICT within the school. • Integration of ICT throughout the entire school • Technical use of ICT • Administrative use of ICT • Using ICT as a source of, and to store educational content and resources. • Instruction in ICT skills for all teachers and pupils: • Technical skills • Administrative skills (for personnel) • Information literacy skills

8. Educational Matrix • Important factors: • Vertical: • co-operation between all subject groups within the same school year. This requires consistent supervision, adaptation and adjustment. Specific staff members have been appointed to carry out this supervision • Horizontal: • alignment of the educational programme and connections between the different subject groups, e.g. • co-ordination of the teaching programme and the content • co-ordination of skills which need to be learned – who teaches which skills (especially general skills, which are used by pupils for different subjects) • co-operation between two or more subject groups, during the course of the academic year and during special project weeks : interdisciplinary, project-based education.

9. The importance of information literacy skills • School policy places great importance on the teaching of information literacy skills to teachers and pupils. • This was discussed and confirmed by a democratic process (please refer to previous slide). • This fact is described in the school policy statement. • It is also mentioned in the school information book, for pupils and parents.

10. Discussions and conclusions • De school library and information centre (SLIC) combines traditional forms of learning with new theories of learning. • Instruction which takes place in the SLIC is interdisciplinary. • It becomes the heart of the learning environment and plays an essential part in the learning process.

11. A new school library and information centre (SLIC) : Background information. • A new school library and information centre (SLIC) • A new building (location) • Aims of the School Library and Information Centre • List of requirements • Communication • Success factors • Co-operation between the SLIC and the teachers • A fully qualified, capable and competent school librarian (teaching librarian) or school information specialist • Use of educational information throughout the entire school (traditional and digital) • Quality of the collection • Quality of the personnel. • Results up until now • Improvement in academic results (better marks and higher quality of assignments) • Borrowing of traditional information and books has increased by 17% in one calendar year. • The study desks and PC’s are nearly always completely occupied (approximately 100 pupils are present in the SLIC at any one time)

12. What is the KILM?

13. Kalsbeek Information Literacy Matrix (KILM) • A combination of • Organisation • Methodology By making use of the KILM, it is possible to give structured instruction in interdisciplinary information literacy skills to pupils and teachers throughout the entire school (in all different types of schools)

14. KILM • The KILM is a sub-matrix of the educational matrix • Document “How to write a paper” • Citation of resources, references or bibliography – one rule for the whole school • General decisions at directorate level. • Co-ordinating committee (which advises the Board of Directors): • ICT (technical) – co-operation and co-ordination of: • ELO (Electronic Learning Environment), plagiarism, administrative programmes: entering marks into the administrative programme (Magister) • ICT (content) – co-operation and co-ordination of: • Information literacy instruction throughout the entire school. Attendance at instruction lessons is compulsory for all teachers and pupils. It is NOT voluntary. • KILM (Kalsbeek information Literacy Matrix) • Plagiarism.

15. The most important factors in the development of the KILM • The vision and integrity of the school leadership. • Communication and co-operation throughout the school • A modern school with good facilities

16. Instructions which take place within the scope of the KILM • Basic instruction per class per school year • Compulsory instruction for all teachers • Extra instruction related to the Project Week and other projects • Instruction related to specific tasks • Extra challenges for talented pupil • Extra instruction for pupils with learning difficulties • Use of the ELO (Electronic learning environment)

17. The KILM Curriculum • Clear definition of information literacy: • ALA standards: Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognise when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." • http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm • Structure used during information literacy instruction: • Constant repetition of the information literacy rules (learnt in instruction lessons and applied to different assignments) • A reminder (prompt) in the form of a bookmark • Instruction sheets are placed in the ELO (sometimes with homework)

18. Last but not least • Top of the iceberg • Reactions from pupils who have received instruction using the KILM: • It was fun and we also learnt something new • We would like to have some more instruction • Pupils made suggestions for new kinds of information literacy instruction which they would like to have. • Reactions from teachers who have received instruction using the KILM and who have co-operated with the SLIC: • Very useful • We would like to co-operate more often with the SLIC • General remarks: • Statistics show that the use of the SLIC has increased and that marks for assignments have increased. The quality of papers has improved.

19. References: • A large part of this presentation is based on the following academic publication and articles, written by Helen Boelens: • BOELENS, Helen. A new kind of information specialist for a new kind of learning • BOELENS, Helen. Filters make it more difficult for pupils to find information: Instruction in • specific information literacy skills, in several different languages, for final examination pupils • BOELENS, Helen. Specific information literacy skills, in several different languages, for pupils studying for university entrance examinations. • BOELENS, Helen. Paradise. Newsletter for IFLA, School libraries and Resource Centres Section (Section Nr. 11), Issue 43, December 2006. • These articles can be found as pdf-files on the ENSIL website:www.ensil.eu .