More than just a pretty face....
and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship
Emergency Librarian , v.20(2) November/December, 1992 pg 9-12
The Evolution of the School Library
The title is provocative - a trendy way of suggesting that the School Library
has changed. Surprise! Yet the "evolution" dimension has much
more to say than mere change for it brings the concept of the school library
and the institution of which it is a part, into a different perspective.
We cannot, by definition, see evolutionary change affecting inanimate objects.
The notion behind "evolution" is organic - an organism changes as its environment
alters. If it cannot sustain or modify itself to the changes that press
upon it - outside its control - then it withers and dies. To apply
this biological concept to this living organism, or perhaps more correctly
- this living "organization", and determine its health and growth as
its environment and conditions have changed and altered, is the object of
this discussion.
For the times they are a'changin- that is certain. The move away from
content based, text oriented and driven schools to process oriented, learner
focused, schools-as-brains where people are not processed, but nourished
and provided with the tools of learning so that they may truly become all
they can be is fully underway. There is an organic feel to these new
approaches that reflects societal concern over the effectiveness of the public
school and public education.
School libraries have evolved - they have changed to more accurately
reflect the environment in which they are expected to function. What
is fascinating in this development is to glimpse the way in which we have
clung to the traditional while attempting to implement those changes.
Conservation is an essential quality of our species. We love change,
but only when it does not affect our comfort levels. We want change,
but only if we can easily control its outcome, its effect on our position.
The extent of real "educational innovation" in our schools over the past
several decades has not been significant. The overhead projection has
become an "old" item yet has not fully reached the expectations once held
for it. The video cassette recorder is probably the device that has
changed the process of teaching more than any other electronic appliance
this past decade. The microcomputer looms large but, has yet to acquire
a universal audience fully in tune with its potential. These tools
often seem to satisfy someone else's objectives and as such remain mere toys
on the edge of our perception. The "educational innovation" that is
the school library has probably never been viewed in the collective educational
psyche as a major change or improvement except by school librarians.
The school library is part of our schools. "We have always had a school
library". "As long as I can remember there has been a library
in this school". The concept of the school library as a support for
learning and learners, as a repository, as a quiet oasis away from the formal
regimen of the classroom has been with us as long as the public school has
existed.
Change has occurred in the culture and concept of the school that has altered
the environment for the school library. The school library has responded.
The phases of that change has been described and defended through the following
stages. There are, however, no fixed boundaries to this structure.
The changes have not been sudden, nor have all adherents and participants
seen these changes as profound or interesting. In essence, this model
is only a theoretical construct offered as a mechanism for further discussion.
The attached diagram provides a overview of the construct.
1. Reactive
This is the Library that views its function as protective. Springing
directly from the early public library tradition, it is a small, compact,
organized space devoted to the maintenance of a few precious books.
At least they are precious in the view of the keeper or the school librarian.
This library has its roots in scarcity and in the notion that the book had
intrinsic value - like a work of art or painting. That protective approach
leads to the structure we embrace with check-out desks, controlled access,
overdue procedures and other systems. The card catalogue is of prime
importance occupying the full attention of the librarian, for access to the
collection was as important as control. the new computerized
catalogue and circulation systems are part of this reactive role. This is
the quiet space in the school - a place for serious contemplation and study.
In the scheme of things high schools acquired these "safety deposit boxes"
before the elementary, but when conditions led to incorporating their values
into the lower grades, the structure simply was carried over. We have seldom,
if ever, created an elementary school library that physically was merely
a scaled down high school library. "A home for little people."
It is interesting now to consider how much we have been influenced by this
"branch" public library in our schools and how resistant they are to change.
School librarians today, even in many new buildings closely resemble their
relatives in schools built in the 1950's and 60's. But then formal
library science programs produced professional librarians anxious to cling
to traditional practice.
The reactive school library waits for customers. Sometimes those customers
are sent en masse for "library instruction" - a process best described as
an entertainment devised to keep patrons reasonably content and quiet until
the end of the period. The library class period is ostensibly an opportunity
for library "hygiene" instruction - the care of books and the uses of the
room and the attention to specific rules - most of which have moved along
unchallenged to our present conditions. Overdues and library fines,
book cards and lost book charges remain semi-permanent reminders of this
reactionary period where the materials are more important than the students
they might have served. Here the form is often more visible than the
objective it was designed to satisfy.
2. Proactive
This is the school library that reaches out with its collection and services.
It acts more like an aggressive store pledged to sell - to give away
its many treasures, and depending on the inspiration - to enjoy them.
This is the library that contains the "enthusiastic" school librarian - convinced
that good books and reading are essential qualities for everyone. This
missionary has enormous appeal in lower grades but gradually becomes redundant
as children grow up and away from identification with things that are good
for them. This is the child-oriented library. This is the bookstore
in many school librarians' dreams.
Displays and posters, bulletin boards and annuals, fish and birds, populate
these libraries and treasures in the form of "good" books surround the room.
Library lessons (again part of the school's organizational structure) and
fun and usually games. Find the author, the title, the shelf.
The library has chess boards, dungeons and dragons, library clubs and reading
clubs and other admonitions to the joy of involvement in the world
of the book. There is a buzz of activity present - at least when
children are booked in.
3. Curricular
The school has taken up the full or partial ownership of the school library.
The teacher-librarian (note the subtle name change as the emphasis has evolved)
relates all collection development activity to the curriculum operant in
the school. This demands that the teacher takes an active role
in determining the collection and, directly following that action, plans
the use of that collection with students. The cooperative, collaboratively
planned structure lends to a school library that is a "resource centre" losing
much of its proactive program to a larger purpose. The school library
program - the formal expectations of the teacher librarian and the school,
become inseparable from the teacher's objectives. Skills are taught
as part of classroom expectations by the teacher-librarian or teacher, each
aware of, and committed to the overall mission of the school.
With changes in educational thinking, greater emphasis will be given to the
"learner" leading to a natural requirement for a more extensive resource
pool. The curricular library will be forced to move out from the school
to embrace wider community resources and further afield through electronic
information services. We can see the beginnings of the electronic library
as the machine links our little collections into a giant, accessible
resource.
This is the school library we now believe will best meet the needs
of its environment. The transition stages have many vestigial remnants.
Parts of the reactive and proactive remain in every school library even as
the schools endure continual restructuring activities as we seek solutions
to many failures and lost opportunities. This does not mean that we
are able to rest on our laurels. In fact, few sing hosannas to this
new vision . There are many who do not recognize that the library in
the school must change or wither. And there is a future stage providing
fuel for many. Consider the creative...
4. Creative
The cycle completes itself. This is the school library as "learning
centre" - a self-directed, multimediated resource opportunity for the self-activated
learner. It was that student we expected would emerge from our curricular
model. The creative centre would be the place where information would
be assembled as that the learner could investigate and experience as he or
she desired. Interactive computer terminals would assist in meeting
many needs, while print and other media resources would be available in profusion.
This is the library in the "school-without-walls". This is the library
in the school-as-brain where thinking and creative skills are part of every
curriculum. Where the curriculum is as fluid as our imaginations can
nurture. Surely this self-education concept was part of the reactive
library. Books provide ideas for those willing (and able) to use them.
The missing ingredient was the commitment of the school to the "learner"
as an individual capable of directing his own growth. They had to be
taught to do that. This personalizing function was ignored and we lost
many individuals who were unable to grow in a structured, staged educational
factory. The irony is that the creative stage is only an outcome of
the "curricular". If the school can assist its students to be self-directed,
lifelong learners then the library in the school will become only one
of that student's learning centres or laboratories along with public libraries,
museums, personal contacts and all the other learning opportunities that
make life interesting.
Conclusion
The theory of evolution suggests that once altered, the successful
organism moves gradually to accept and adapt to new conditions as they arrive.
In the case of the school library there can be little assurance that any
stage will be fixed or refined. For the school library, like the school,
will draw its energy and direction from the individuals who direct and nurture
it. Without vision and energy the school library's mission will not
be reached or evolve. To change requires acceptance of the need to
change. May those who direct and sustain our school libraries recognize
that change will only be affected by individuals who can see that mission
and act accordingly.
Donald Hamilton