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Information Scotland
The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and
Information Professionals in Scotland
December 2005 Volume 3 (6)
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Schools
High school libraries, US style
As part of her studies at Robert Gordon University Alison Turriff
is investigating how secondary school librarians in America and Scotland
use evidence and research in decision making. She reports on a visit to America
where she observed school libraries in action.
I found that US school libraries were very much larger than Scottish school libraries
I have visited – sometimes three or four times the size, and often with related
facilities such as AV suites, recording suites and teacher support rooms. Schools
tended to have bigger rolls (2000 pupils in some cases).
In addition, staffing levels were better – there were usually two librarians and
at least one or two library assistants. As well as providing extra support in
the library, this gave the librarians the time and opportunity to reflect, to
brainstorm and share ideas with a colleague onsite. There was more money for the
library, too. For one school with 1,700 students, the budget was approximately
£20,000. In one state they use a ‘Common Good Fund’ to fund education. This money
comes from criminal activities and speeding fines. An idea in another school was
to raise funds with a birthday book programme, where each parent contributed $25
each year to library funds, with a bookplate in each new book to celebrate a named
child’s birthday. Other ideas to raise money for schools included a tax-free gift
scheme.
US school librarians are trained as teachers and have to hold a teaching licence
before they can practice as school librarians. This means that they are also paid
as teachers and have the same conditions of service. Many of them then take a
part-time Masters LIS course to fulfil the school librarian requirements. Collaboration
with teachers seemed to be largely informal. There was little evidence of formal
INSET taking place, although there were regular working meetings, often focused
on technology issues. I also found that most school librarians did not have formal
policies or development plans in place. Libraries were very well equipped with
computers, scanners and other equipment.
The school day is very different – schools normally start at 7.30, finish at 2.30
or 3.00, then the students attend sports activities. Vocational schools are available
for students who want to focus on technical or craft trades. One major difference
is that in the eight-period day, teachers have class contact for six periods,
one period for preparation and one for duty. This duty can range from supervising
the corridors, to offering subject-specific help in rooms adjoining the library.
The supervised study halls I saw were completely silent, even with 150 students
working. Students could visit the library from study hall, but had to have a signed
slip and be specific about what they were looking for in the library.
I was very aware of inspirational messages throughout the school, for example
on posters, screensavers and on internal radio/tv broadcasts. These included:
“be the best you can be”; “risk-taking is scary but brings out the best in you”;
and “reflect on the three things you learned at school today”. These messages
were consolidated and reinforced regularly and students seemed seriously focused
on achievement and future education and employment. One librarian talked about
her belief that anything can be changed in the school culture in just three weeks.
Once a problem was identified it would be challenged by everyone at all times
and within three weeks it would be eliminated, for example, wearing coats indoors.
How successfully could this be applied to some library problems we have?
Some schools had daily radio or TV broadcasts organised and delivered by students,
including headlines, sports news, weather and forthcoming activities. As well
as the most obvious front-of-camera roles, students also tackled the technical
roles such as camera operator, producer and vision mixer. The students were very
relaxed about the process and treated it as a daily routine.
On a serious note, one school had an unannounced lockdown drill, where staff and
students prepare for someone bringing guns into schools. Rooms are identified
that can be locked from inside, and the SWAT team and local police arrive to carry
out their tasks of making the school safe and to evacuate casualties and disable
the gunman. In all of the schools I visited, I never saw any security gates, metal
detectors or security staff.
Schools had a very relaxed and warm atmosphere, and this was reflected in the
libraries. I saw some libraries offering coffee and cookies (due to the early
starts of some students, who could be away from home for 12 hours each day). Boxes
of paper tissues were also in evidence everywhere I visited.
The most radical thing I saw was sofas and mats for students to take a quick nap
between lessons! However, as the students seemed so mature and well-behaved, this
facility was not abused. In many libraries classical music was being played –
this was said to relax students but also to cover up background noise. I also
saw fish tanks and frog tanks in libraries, adding to the relaxing atmosphere,
although the frogs sometimes made a bid for freedom.
In two schools there were whiteboards with words of the week (such as “confrontational”)
and their definitions – a really simple and effective way to increase vocabulary.
In one school, they promoted easy books as “Everybody Books” which they felt prevented
students feel they were being marginalised. Many of the schools had accession
barcodes on the outside of books, which saved time opening them at issue and return
– the students then stamped their own books out.
The reading programme in many schools was based on ‘Accelerated Reader’, a national
programme where books are graded according to difficulty of interest and ability.
Children read the books and then answer multiple choice e-quizzes to gain personal
reading scores. These contribute to formal grades in English.
Information literacy
The most impressive area of development was in information literacy, where the
programme was started early, reinforced and developed constantly. Sessions began
in kindergarten, with five year-old students researching an animal and putting
relevant information and a picture into a simple Word document, with help from
the librarian and teacher. The primary (elementary) schools I visited also had
librarians. They focused on promoting literacy and simple information skills tasks.
There was a wide use of electronic databases in all schools, such as e-library
and Proquest, giving access to focused and relevant authoritative sources of information,
rather than the use of Google-type search engines. The librarian might spend half
to two thirds of the budget on these databases. Library assignments were graded
and counted towards final subject grades, which makes library work relevant and
a real focus for students.
I saw some very sophisticated skills, such as twelve year-olds watching a film
of the Roswell incident (Alien Autopsy), finding information from different viewpoints,
putting forward their opinions on the subject, listening to the views of others
and debating the truth of the film as they interpreted it. One school librarian
talked about the need to take students outwith their comfort zone when teaching
information literacy, to make them think critically and be equipped to debate.
In one school the librarians spent between five and seven hours per senior student
per topic (one each term). This obviously has huge implications on time but the
school had small numbers of students, and student information literacy and critical
thinking skills were recognised as crucial to their education.
Information literacy development is intended to prepare students for university
work. A recent survey of university students from one school indicated that the
experience of information literacy had helped their search skills, problem solving
and critical thinking in university work. There is also teaching on citation forming
and the bibliographic process, which is also invaluable for university students.
I saw examples of a librarian reviewing and evaluating the search process with
students after a research project, and establishing how they thought that their
information literacy skills had developed, what their strengths were and where
they still needed to develop. This evaluation and discussion is important to the
whole learning process.
Comparisons
In advance of my visit, I distributed a paper outlining how school librarians
operate in Scotland to American school librarians. Practically the first thing
each person said when I met them was how amazed they were with the situation for
Scottish school librarians. They could not imagine what it would be like to work
alone without the support of other library staff, with insufficient amounts of
money and without electronic databases. They were very impressed with the range
of services and development work Scottish school librarians provided under these
conditions. I have since spoken to many Scottish school librarians about what
I discovered during my visit. People have been surprised to hear about the different
situation in America. Ideas such as the development of critical thinking skills
and money raising schemes created interest, and also the presence of teachers
in the library for duty. Less popular ideas were the provision of sleeping mats
and coffee and cookies!
In terms of collecting evidence for decision making, I did not find much difference
between Scottish and American practice. School librarians in both nations collect
information, but are not always aware that what they are doing is termed as collecting
evidence to help them form a decision. With regard to the theory of decision making,
the best fit with a formal theory is that of incremental decision making, where
librarians reach an end point by working towards it year on year. Very often the
model is to decide on a way forward and try it out, and if it doesn’t meet requirements,
to change direction.
I would welcome any input or comments. I have developed a tool to record the progress
of decisions, and if anyone would like to try this I would be happy to send this
to them. I aim to produce a model of good practice in this area over the next
two years, and I will be happy to share that with school librarians once it is
complete.
Get involved...
These visits stimulated my interest in several major areas. If anyone has tried
or would like to try some of the following ideas, I would be very keen to discuss
them in more detail or to hear about the experiences of school librarians in
Scotland:
>>Would playing classical
music help to reduce noise levels and keep students calm?
>>Does working with a library
assistant help the librarian have the time to reflect and collaborate with teachers?
>>How can teacher supervision
of study pupils make a difference to the work of the librarian?
>>Can we prove that structured
electronic database use offers benefits to pupil achievement?
>>How can we introduce a
programme to develop and consolidate critical thinking and information literacy
skills over the whole school experience?
>>Can inspirational messages
help pupils to achieve more? (see library specialist catalogues for details
of items such as banners, bookmarks and posters)
>>How can teachers be used
to support students in the library?
>>Can the three week zero
tolerance scheme work on library problems?
Alison Turriff is Principal
Officer (CRIS), Aberdeen City Council.
© Chartered Institute
of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland
Disclaimer
Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS
electronic publishing service based at the Centre
for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE
(Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship
and information management in Scotland.
Last updated:
01-Feb-2006->
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