Literacy and the Role of School Libraries

1. Literacy and the Role of School Libraries Have we thrown the baby out with the bathwater? Ray Doiron, Ph.D. Faculty of Education, UPEI CSBA - Congress 2002 July 6, 2002

2. Introduction • Who I am • Carrier and others decry the state of school libraries in Canada. • Consolidation and down-sizing in Boards has had a major negative impact. • Evidence is growing that we need to re-examine out actions and start re-building.

3. Goals of Today’s Session • Explore the current status of school libraries in Canada • Examine the evidence that school libraries make a difference. • De-bunk myths about school libraries. • Re-affirm a commitment to school libraries.

4. Session Outline • Warm-up activity • Cross-Canada Check-up • The Canadian School Library Scene • Activity Two – What is literacy today? • What do school libraries do to support literacy? • What the research says? • Evidence-based practice. • Myths about School Libraries • Turning the Tide • Activity Three • Summarize

5. Activity One • List: 1 social, • 1 political and • 1 economic pressure faced by school boards in Canada today.

6. Cross-Canada Check-up What are the major influences that have affected school libraries? • National picture • CMEC - focus national standards, testing and mobility • Curriculum consortia formed • Focus on core curriculum - math, science. LA – other areas extra • IT in a big way - Industry Canada, SchoolNet, CAP ....

7. National Picture (continued…) • Family and adult literacy emerge as major social, educational and political issues • Downsizing - consolidation — municipalities, boards, airlines, gov. Depts..... • Globalization - Canadian culture/content go head-to-head with U.S & WWW

8. Regional interpretations of the National Picture • New regional curriculum has no role for SL - housing & access • Move to technicians and volunteers - someone to ‘run’ the place. • Deterioration/elimination of teacher education for T-L’s • Ministries of Education drop SL consultants • Some educators/T-L’s resist IT - Union roles... • Expectation for R-BL, Information Literacy and IT competence

9. The School Library picture • Traditional problems have become magnified and more widespread. • Pockets of support and barren regions • Information literacy slow to be accepted • SL community embraces IT - management and in new instructional ways. • Deterioration in influence of national and provincial associations. • Push for IT - diverted us from our traditional roles of connecting children to Canadian culture. • Retirements and aging demographic create vacuum. • View of organizations as service providers - not passion for a cause.

10. The Canadian School Library Scene • School district evidence • University programs for new teachers and new teacher-librarians. • Book sellers, publishers

11. Examining the School District Evidence • Per capita spending on SL resources • Teacher-librarian cuts – • De-professionalizing of teacher-librarian work. • Hiring technicians and using volunteers.

12. What’s happening in University Programs? • Down to 3 Diploma Programs in SL • 3 others have some activity – remainder are gone. • Little evidence that Faculties of Education are teaching new teachers about the role of the SL, even for resource provisioning. • New training programs expecting information literacy and R-BL when they get to the system, but it is not there.

13. Book sellers, publishers • Stats Can and National Library Study showed dramatic drop in purchasing of Canadian books & materials for school libraries. www.nlc-bnc.ca/9/14/index-e.html • This same report also noted that children are having less access to the collections of materials that are there. Cited: less than 20 hours per week many SL are even opened.

14. Activity Two: What is Literacy today? • What are the key skills we need to live and learn in our ever-changing global world?

15. The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be • Thornburg article: www.tcpd.org • The educational models of the past operated on the assumption that content was king. In fact, content is free and overwhelming in size. In a world of rapid information growth, it is context that matters. Context is king. This means that learners at all ages need to master two very important skills. The first is the ability to locate information specifically related to the question they are exploring, and the second is to establish the veracity and utility of this information.

16. A Paradigm Shift • Just in Case to Just in Time • The learning experience of most people outside the school system has already made this change. • When the rate of change inside the institution is less than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight!

17. What Do School Library Programs do to Support Literacy? • Access to resources- Canada’s cultural heritage – our national endowment • Access to global resources – bookmarked sites, thematic resources, local community resources, human resources. • Connecting curriculum goals and resources. • Support reading programs through school-wide literacy promotion.

18. Supporting Literacy (part 2) • Supports cross-curricular programs through science fairs, heritage fair, research projects, guest speakers, • Help students select materials to match level and interest. • Teach children how to use resources for their learning. • Teach students information literacy learning outcomes. • Collaborate with teachers to integrate new ICT and other resources.

19. Key Point to Remember • A school library is just a place to store materials. However, • A school library with a qualified teacher-librarian is powerful force • for curriculum implementation, • for the efficient and effective use of learning resources, and • for students’ achievement of a wide range of learning outcomes.

20. Research Supporting School Libraries • Handbill of major studies - • Lance studies • Haycock review • Todd studies – information literacy • Williams & Wavell – study skills, • Krashen – power of reading • Doiron – classroom collections • Gniewek – research summary http://librarypower.phila.k12.pa.us/clemente/gniewek.html

21. Key Points to Remember about Research • We believe research that confirms what we already believe or want to believe. • We refute, dismiss or ignore research that challenges us to act differently and change what we believe. • The movement to “evidence-based practice.”

22. What is Evidence-Based Practice • “The conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current research findings to make decisions that affect learning and the needs of students.” (Todd, R. May 2002) • Publishers are responding and decision-makers are starting to seriously consider their policies and practices.

23. Ways to Ignore the Evidence • Beat around the bush. • Drag your heels. • Run around in circles. • Jump on bandwagons. • Accept as true, these three myths about school libraries:

24. Myths about School Libraries • Myth 1: Libraries are expensive – nice to have if we have the money. • Myth 2: We don’t need books. WWW has everything we need. (Canadian content..) • Myth 3: We don’t need teachers in the school library positions. Technicians and volunteers will do just fine.

25. Turning the Tide • National Library of Canada initiatives • Coalition for Canadian School Libraries • Canadian Library Association (CLA) • Canadian School Library Association (CSLA) • Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) • National Standards Document

26. Turning the Tide (continued…) • Provincial Initiatives: • British Columbia – IT policies • Alberta – Quality Education & School Libraries • Ontario evidence – Info Studies, OSLA, Summit • PEI – BIL, Ministerial Directive

27. Activity Three – What can we do?

28. Summary Thoughts • Have we thrown out the baby with the bathwater? • In some places – yes • In some places – didn’t have a baby to throw out. • In some places – baby is in the air and we are trying to catch it.

29. Key Things We Need to be Successful • Good teachers and good teaching; • Wide range of resources (not just IT) to meet curriculum expectations; • Someone needs to lead Information Literacy at the school level; • Integration (of IT or anything) only happens when teachers collaborate and work out a learning plan;

30. And finally . . . • School libraries run by a qualified teacher-librarian are still the most efficient, the most effective, and economically sound concept we have for delivering equity of programming, equity of resources and equity of access for all Canadian students.