scholarly journals Evolution and Revolution in School Library Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-122
Author(s):  
Suzette Boyd

What future are we as teacher-librarians doing to respond to...or choose for ourselves? Will it be the safe, well-worn “evolutionary” highway on which the majority of school libraries are moving, or will it be the exciting and challenging “revolutionary” path with its associated risks? The revolutionary library signals a new era for schools and their students. Here roles are continually being redefined and services and programs are continually restructure. This paper outlines some strategies for implementing change and challenges and inspires our profession to reinvent itself.

Author(s):  
Barbara McNeil

This paper draws attention to the important role school libraries, teacher-librarians, and principals can and need to play in the lives of marginalized adolescent boys in order to advance the goals of social justice and equity, and to make school libraries more relevant to citizens and communities. As an illustration of how teacher-librarians can intervene in the lives of such students, the author presents preliminary insights from a recent literacy research project that involved a school principal, a professor/school library specialist, and a professor in school leadership. Using a modified, contextually tailored version of literature circles, the researchers explored ways of enhancing the critical literacy engagement of marginalized adolescent boys in an urban school in western Canada.


Author(s):  
Ana Novo ◽  
José António Calixto

This paper presents the current situation of the school library teams’ specific training in the Portuguese Integrated Elementary Schools that in 2005 were already in the Portuguese School Libraries’ Network. Other countries’ studies, like the ones from the USA and UK, suggest that students achieve higher levels of literacy, learning and problem solving when teacher librarians have specific training to perform their duties. The analysis of data gathered from a questionnaire shows that 32% of the Portuguese school librarians do not have any kind of specific training. This scenario suggests that there hasn’t been any significant improvement since 10 years ago especially in what school librarians’ training is concerned.


Author(s):  
Andrea Dömsödy ◽  
Marianna Edit Pataki

The today’s school libraries in Hungary trace back to the 18th century. After 1970 the school librarianship became an independent profession and library pedagogy was elaborated as well. Nowadays the Hungarian School Library Association provides the most support. In spite of difficulties Hungarian school librarianship has much strength but needs to be improved in many fields yet. There are well operating libraries, committed teacher librarians and a good legislation. Library instruction is built into curriculum. In 2012 has changed the education policy, which also affected school libraries badly. A way to save the profession is to elaborate the library pedagogy program and declare how libraries can support information literacy and independent learners.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Belau Olatunde Gbadamosi

Objective -- As a first step in gathering evidence, this study surveyed school libraries and examined the services those libraries provide in relation to the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program at a primary level. The purpose of this paper is to explore these UBE factors in relation to school libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria. Methods -- A questionnaire was sent to the 33 schools which have a library and information centre staffed by a teacher-librarian, in order to examine library services and the views of those providing them. The questionnaire covers library space, categories of library resources, student activities during library visits, mobile library services, and the teacher-librarians’ perception of the adequacy of the collection and the challenges in the use of library. Results -- Questionnaires were returned by 30 teacher-librarians out of 33, a response rate of 91%. Although pupils across each local government area have the chance to visit school libraries, the system of one short visit per week is inadequate for developing a universal interest in reading and in study skills. Staff responsible for the libraries consider many of the resources to be inadequate or outdated and stock is depleted as pupils borrow books, leaving fewer for those who follow. Conclusions -- As a first step to implementing evidence based practice, this paper describes the primary school library system in Nigeria and provides evidence on how it operates in Oyo State. Teacher-librarians who staff the libraries confirm the inadequacies in the system. They perceive collections to be inadequate and confirm that some pupils in the state have only limited access to library resources. Respondents also believe that they need further training, particularly in computer and information literacy.


Author(s):  
Prasanna Ranaweera

This study focuses on challenges and issues faced by the Sri Lankan School Library staff recruited under the General Education Project 2 (GEP 2). The study was conducted in order to identify the pros and cons of the GEP 2 Library staff training project. 4000 teacher librarians were recruited to the school libraries under the GEP 2 Project. The National Institute of Library and Information Science (NILIS), University of Colombo, was established under this project. In 2003 NILIS introduced Masters, Post-graduate Diplomas, Diploma and Certificate courses in Library Sciences, in order to train the newly recruited teacher librarians and support staff. This study proposes to reveal the main factors which contributed towards the inadequate number of students for the NILIS courses, which were mainly due to the policies of the government regarding staff training, and the school libraries in Sri Lanka. This study was carried out with the available written documents, communications, and face to face interviews, with the relevant parties. NILIS is struggling to improve the training of school library staff throughout the island in numerous ways, in spite of the red notice by the authorities to close down the Institute. Subsequently due to the best practice of NILIS it was possible to convince the officials of the Ministry of Education regarding the importance of School libraries, and staff training, which resulted in the increase of the number of students from 26 in 2013, to 250 in 2016.


Author(s):  
Pradeepa Wijetunge

School Library Development in Sri Lanka is a large scale project which covers 4000 schools and includes building construction, distribution of books, furniture and equipment and training of human resources funded by the World Bank. BOBLEP (Book Based Language Enrichment Programme) developed from the concept of reading promotion within the library project. The project not only promotes reading using the purchased books, but it also promotes production of books by school children as well as teachers. It was decided as a result of the success of the project, to expand similar reading promotion activities in general. Teacher and Teacher Librarian education programmes of Sri Lanka incorporated a variety of such activities to train reading promotion among school children. The full paper will present the history and the structure of the project and activities carried out by the teacher librarians to expand it from an English language project to a reading promotion project conducted by the school libraries. It is expected that by sharing the information of this project, other developing countries which face similar constraints in providing suitable reading material can gain useful ideas.


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindiwe Shandu ◽  
Neil Evans ◽  
Janneke Mostert

This article reports on a study that investigated the issues and challenges in the provision of school libraries in secondary schools in Katlehong, Gauteng province, South Africa. A qualitative research method was used to conduct the study among 14 secondary schools in Katlehong. The target population included 14 teacher-librarians, 14 principals and one Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) official, who were interviewed. Additionally, 102 teachers participated in focus group discussions (FGDs). Convenience sampling was used to select the teachers, while purposive sampling was used to select all the other participants in the study. The study revealed that teachers are not using school libraries in Katlehong because they are unable to provide relevant information services due to a lack of space; out-dated and inadequate information collections; uncatalogued and poorly organised books; inaccessible opening hours; and a lack of funds and networked computers. Only 29 per cent of the schools had qualified teacher-librarians in their employ, while the 71 per cent unqualified ‘teacher-librarians’ indicated that they were managing the school libraries without the professional skills required to guide both teachers and learners in the use of library resources. The teacher-librarians were also burdened with additional teaching loads, which negatively affected the opening hours of the libraries. It was recommended, firstly, that a specific library period be allocated to each class to allow for library orientation; secondly, that sufficient funding be allocated to each school library to enable it to function optimally; and, thirdly, that library hours be regulated and qualified library staff be employed.


Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Branch ◽  
Lesley S. J. Farmer

This paper provides an introduction to a presentation that will explore the standards and academic preparation of teacher-librarians in North America and selected countries (e.g., Brazil, Denmark, Portugal, India) to ascertain both the core competencies required for 21st century work in school libraries and the factors that predict high-quality teacherlibrarianship preparation programs. In the process, the presentation will discuss ways that professional school library associations can advocate for standards that insure high-quality school library programs. The presentation will also uncover possible universal and culturally-determined curriculum.


2021 ◽  
pp. 324-337
Author(s):  
Judy O’Connell ◽  
Jenni Bales ◽  
Pru Mitchell

Igniting a passion for reading and research is core business for school libraries, inevitably placing the library at the center of the 21st century reading and learning experience. It is in this context that digital literature creates some challenging questions for teachers and librarians in schools, while the emergence of digital technology and/or device options also offers a great many opportunities. Collection development in school libraries encompasses an understanding of the need to contextualize these e-literature needs within the learning and teaching experiences in the school. The Australian Library and Information Association’s 2013 statement Future of collections 50:50 predicted that library print and ebook collections in libraries would establish a 50:50 equilibrium by 2020 and that this balance would be maintained for the foreseeable future. This statement from the Australian professional body raised the need to know more about e-collections in school libraries. For teacher librarians in Australian schools, the nature of online collections, and the integration of ebooks into the evolving reading culture is influenced by the range and diversity of texts, interfaces, devices, and experiences available to complement existing print and media collections or services. Management and budget constraints also influence e-collections. By undertaking a review of the literature, a discussion of the education context, and a critical analysis of the trends evidenced by national survey data, this paper presents an overview of the changes and emerging trends in digital literature and ebook collections in school library services in Australia today.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Marlene Asselin

This study assessed factors of effective school library programs in one school system. All teacher-librarians and principals and a sample of teachers in all public schools in an urban district were surveyed about a) background information of the teacher-librarians and school; b) library collection; c) library program; and d) issues facing the school library. Results of descriptive and correlational analyses indicate recent district-based initiatives to strengthen school libraries appear positive. Recommendations include increased leadership activities by teacher-librarians, advocacy targeted at principal education about school libraries, augmenting the number of teachers participating in substantive partnerships with teacher-librarians are recommended, and working toward a shared vision of the school library as the information center of the school.


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