What is a School Library Media Program

(or is it a School Library Program)?

And How Did the Idea Get Started?

LIB 620 Library ManagementFall 2011

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School Library Media Program?

• Why such a mouthful?–School?–Library?–Media?–Program?

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School?

• Yeah, School?– “We are students of words: we are shut up in schools,

and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.” • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

– “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.” • Yogi Berra    

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School?

• Main Entry: 1school – Pronunciation: 'skül

Function: nounEtymology: Middle English scole, from Old English scOl, from Latin schola, from Greek scholE leisure, discussion, lecture, school; perhaps akin to Greek echein to hold -- more at SCHEME1 : an organization that provides instruction: as a : an institution for the teaching of children b : COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY c (1) : a group of scholars and teachers pursuing knowledge together that with similar groups constituted a medieval university (2) : one of the four faculties of a medieval university (3) : an institution for specialized higher education often associated with a university <the school of engineering> d : an establishment offering specialized instruction <a secretarial school> <driving schools>

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Library?

• OK, Library?– “A truly great library contains something in it

to offend everyone.” • Jo Godwin

– “If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.”  • Frank Zappa

– Online Dictionary of Quotations

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Library?

– “You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians.” • Monty Python skit

Gorilla Librarian (script)

Watch the skit on Youtube

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Dictionary definition of

Library?• Main Entry: li·brary– Pronunciation: 'lI-"brer-E; British usually and US sometimes -br&r-E; US sometimes -brE, ÷-"ber-EFunction: nounInflected Form(s): plural -brar·iesEtymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin librarium, from Latin, neuter of librarius of books, from libr-, liber inner bark, rind, book1 a : a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale b : a collection of such materials2 a : a collection resembling or suggesting a library <a library of computer programs> <wine library> b : MORGUE 2

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Media?

• What do you mean, media?– Not mediums (that’s spiritualism)!– Nor:

• “When the media ask him [George W. Bush] a question, he answers, ‘Can I use a lifeline?’” ~ Robin Williams

– 2media 1 : a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression; especially : MEDIUM 2b1me·di·um 2 : a means of effecting or conveying something: b plural usually media (1) : a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment

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Program?

• What is a program?– A program is a planned sequence and combination of

activities designed to achieve specified goals. Programs normally involve

• equipment • materials • money • personnel, and • time

• This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999.

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Program in a dictionary?

•  Main Entry: 1pro·gram Pronunciation: 'prO-"gram, -gr&mFunction: nounEtymology: French programme agenda, public notice, from Greek programma, from prographein to write

before, from pro- before + graphein to write • 3 : a plan or system under which action may be

taken toward a goal

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Important caveat about programs

• From the father of hypertext– “I am a design chauvinist. I believe that

good design is magical and not to be lightly tinkered with. The difference between a great design and a lousy one is in the meshing of the thousand details that either fit or don’t, and the spirit of the passionate intellect that has tied them together, or tried. That’s why programming-- or buying software-- on the basis of “lists of features” is a doomed and misguided effort. The features can be thrown together, as in a garbage can, or carefully laid together and interwoven in elegant unification, as in APL, or the Forth language, or the game of chess.” • Ted Nelson—quoted in a Dr. Dobbs article on Modern Forth

Ted Nelson

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Put ‘em together, and what have you got?

• School Library Media Program– The New School Librarian version 2001

Amanda Credaro

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History of School Libraries

• Not very well known!– Although the American public school library is one of

this nation’s most ubiquitous educational institutions, we know very little about its history.• First sentence of:

Roles of the school library in history

• Laurel Ann Clyde:1. the school library established to support

the teaching and learning activities of the school

2. school library established to provide recreational reading

3. the library established to serve both the school and the community

4. school library established as a scholars’ library to serve the needs of a particular group within the school

5. the school library established as a memorial• Based on Clyde, Laurel A. (1981)

The magic casements: a survey of school library history from the eighth to the twentieth century. PhD thesis, James Cook University as summarized in Laurel A. Clyde -- Thesis

L. Anne Clyde1946-2005

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A Pioneer of School Librarianship

• Hannah Logasa (1879-1967) – General objectives of the library study-room:

1. To serve as the laboratory and workroom of the school

2. To make available library material for the use of teachers and pupils

3. To coöperate with all departments of the school in the carrying out of their objectives

4. To serve as the centralizing agency in the plan of school organization– The High School Library: Its Function in Education (1928)

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The Three Revolutions 1

• The First Revolution:– Just after World War II, “revolutionaries challenged the idea that

a school library should be a repository for books designed to supplement a child’s reading. In the place of a warehouse, these leaders dreamed of a center in each school, staffed by a trained professional educator, which would contain not only printed materials, but a wide range of audiovisual materials and equipment as well.”• David V. Loertscher, Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program

(1988)– Result? ALA Standards for School Library Programs (1945,

1960) then Standards for School Library Media Programs (1969)

• NATIONAL SCHOOL LIBRARY STANDARDS: A CHRONOLOGY (no longer available on the web).

• See also History of School Library Standards- A Timeline

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The Three Revolutions 2

• The Second Revolution– “In the last ten years [i.e. 1970s and 80s],

a new concept, instructional development or resource-based teaching, has emerged from the fields of educational psychology and instructional technology. Teachers and library media specialists work together to systematically created sound instructional modules or units for learners using the full resources of the library media center.”• Loertscher,

Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program (2nd ed., 2000).

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The Three Revolutions

3

• The Third Revolution– “Revolutionaries of the third kind include

administrators, library media specialists, and teachers who are too impatient to wait while the library media center evolves gradually from a passive warehouse facility into an active participant in instruction. • Loertscher (1988).

Information Power: Guidelines for School Library

Media Programs (1988)

• 1st edition– Guidelines for School Library Media Programs

• “reasserts that library media specialists have the responsibility to accept roles and responsibilities at the highest levels of curriculum development. Given the trends in education and the rate at which information is produced, school library media specialists find themselves at the crux of change, finally in a position to narrow the gap between theory and practice.”

– Curriculum Roles and Responsibilities of Library Media Specialists  by Berkowitz, Robert E. and Eisenberg, Michael B. ERIC Digest ED308880(1989)

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Information Power (1998)2nd edition

• Building Partnerships for Learning

…Because Student Achievement

ISTHE BOTTOM LINE

Information Power PowerPoint 2000 version

Successor to Information Power

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• Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (2009)– Empowering Learners advances school library

media programs to meet the needs of the changing school library environment and is guided by the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action.

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Kentucky Policy on Library Media

Programs1st edition (2001)• Integral to the school’s educational program:

– “The school Library Media Program is an integral part of the school’s total educational program. In today’s information age, an individual’s success in problem solving, becoming an informed citizen, even in pursuing personal interests largely depends upon the ability to access, use and evaluate information from a variety of resources thus ensuring that students become information literate.”•

• Beyond Proficiency @ your library® is a web-based tool to guide Kentucky school media librarians, school administrators and SBDM councils in creating and maintaining effective library media programs for the 21st century.

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Kentucky Policy on Library Media Programs2nd edition (2010)

4-page pdf

• 4 additional links:– Characteristics

of Highly Effective Teaching and Learning in the Library

– School Library Media Program Rubric

– School Media Librarian Evaluation Instrument

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Other state standards

Ohio Guidelines for Effective School Library Media Programs

School Library Standards and Evaluation

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Remember the quote from Ted Nelson?

• A Program is an integral whole!– “I believe that good design is magical and not to be

lightly tinkered with. The difference between a great design and a lousy one is in the meshing of the thousand details that either fit or don’t, and the spirit of the passionate intellect that has tied them together, or tried.”• “meshing of the details”• “the passionate intellect that has tied them together”

School Librarian or School Library Media Specialist

or what?

• AASL Adopts “School Librarian” As Official Term for the Profession Forget media specialist or teacher-librarian– Forget media specialist or teacher-librarian. As far as the

American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is concerned, the official title for the profession is now school librarian.

– The AASL board of directors voted in favor of the move on Saturday [January 16, 2010] during the American Librarian Association’s midwinter meeting in Boston. And that means “school librarian” will be used in all of the profession’s advocacy efforts and publications, including reports and press

releases.• By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 01/21/2010

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