More than just a pretty face....
and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship
School Libraries in Canada, v.19(1) 1999 pg [29]
Listen closely
(This is the sound track of a DVD disk released in 2004 called “ Changing Priorities: The Closing of the School Library”)
Let us consider the school of the future that no longer embraces the notion
of a school library as an instructional space. There is no school library
in this school. In fact we have closed all the computer labs in the
school as well repositioning all the computers into classrooms. There
are some classrooms that do not even have computers particularly in the humanities
areas where larger class sizes have mitigated against and prevented access
to them in a meaningful way. Now our students are encouraged to acquire
machines at home. While laptops are useful we do not actually encourage
their use in the school preferring that access be done at home rather than
during school time. There are still books in the school and a central
catalogue of holdings in the school and District Resources Centre is available
on the many computer kiosks in every hall and most classrooms. Materials
are selected by teachers and district staff and catalogued at the DRC. Books
are part of every English and social studies classroom and are also kept
in the teacher offices that serve as central points for subject oriented
teachers in high school and team teachers in elementary programs. In
this school, the computer is simply part of the instructional framework
of the program without special places or attention. Every classroom
teacher has access to a competent “instructional assistant” who provides
expertize and support for the teacher from assistance with computer access
to locating important resources in other resource centres.
The Web is the first choice for factual material with books used to provide
perspective to the data. All students must complete the tutorials on
the Web and other resources in the system in the first few days of entry
into the school. Given the open nature of the school, it is possible
for students to attend only two or three classes per day. They are
encouraged to use the resources available to them through their home computers,
the public library, and the whole range of public resources that touch them.
All teachers are expected to create learning opportunities that fully exploit
the rich resource base that is available to them. Assignments are structured
to ensure that every student engages a wide range of learning resources in
all media formats as part of their personal growth. All teachers are
expected to create Web pages that will offer their students and others in
the community (especially parents) access to important sites. While
students do often find inappropriate sites, it is expected that maturity
will gradually reduce such behavior. Regular tutorials are held in
which students discuss aspects of the media- the web, television, radio,
popular music, movies, newspapers, and compare their responses to those of
their peers.
While the school library has disappeared, students are expected to engage
reading for information, inspiration and entertainment. The public
library is seen as an important source of reading or viewing
for pleasure materials. In addition, students are encouraged through discounts
and assignments to purchase books, videos and tapes through new and used
outlets. The school may organize book sales to extend this approach.
Discounts are also available for students to acquire periodicals of
interest to them through stores and by subscription. It is the view
of the school that students will read more widely when they have the opportunity
to choose from a much larger collection than can be assembled by the school.
School library education programs at the universities have long had difficulty
in recruiting teachers who were willing to take on the incredible role demanded
of the “teacher-librarian”. Now those programs devote their attention
to the creation of well qualified teachers capable of recognizing their fundamental
role in teaching students to become users of information towards their own
learning. Without the fully engaged, committed teacher, the school
library often became the teacher-librarian’s personal domain as he or she
tried to change students and teachers without adequate support or training.
Removing the school library as a fixed physical space, forced administrators
and teachers to recognize the importance of resource-based teaching and learning
and to apply its principles directly to the classroom. The availability
of the new electronic tools both at school and in the home forced teachers
to reappraise their methods to fully meet the needs of this new technology
competent generation.
The school library is no more. It is a symbol of an educational innovation
that was never fully implemented as part of the fundamental requirements
of a modern school. It became less and less important in the life of
the school while perhaps inhibiting the better use of resources right in
the classroom. The school library was an innovation that demanded too
much from its passionate devotees. It gradually came to represent a
“Luddite” remnant from the past. The school library is dead,
the victim of truth to the adage that it had long used to defend its purpose
“form follows function”. The new school has incorporated all the important
elements of the program that was the “heart of the school” and left the rest
to wither.
Recorded by
Donald Hamilton