Digital Bookends

Okay, well, it’s not January 1st…but it’s close enough!  Yesterday was a busy one for my daughter (a senior) and me as we worked on her college admissions essays.  She began the process on New Year’s Eve and wrote through most of the day and night (which is a good thing.)  Then she gave them to me to review and make suggestions…..at 11:30 p.m. we finished the final essay which needed to be submitted before midnight on January 1st!  (Talk about procrastination…and, yes, I did push her to start earlier, but I also know how teenagers are when it comes to writing essays!)

Although we finished only two essays (the ones with the January 1st deadline), my daughter’s comment to me afterwards was….”Thanks, Mom, for all your help!  If I had known how much help you were with this kind of stuff, I would have let you help with me with ALL my research and writing!”

Hello?  I guess when you’re this close to the situation (and the parent), it’s hard for your child to realize how much help you can be; however, the help that I provided was no different from what I normally do at school when I’m helping high school students in the library.  Allowing her to research, take notes, pre-write, write, and then edit are all important parts of the instructional process….but how many students don’t get this opportunity to work one-on-one with a teacher or even a librarian?

As a high school librarian I have always assisted students with essays, college applications, and other writing assignments.  I am happy to say that most (if not all) of the time, the students have been very happy with the results of our interactions and the one-to-one conversations that allowed me to mentor and share some of the resources and information that our libraries provide.  Many times, however, I have watched students struggle to meet the goals of their research or writing assignments without ever approaching me (even when I have offered my assistance during a formal class presentation).  Unfortunately, I have also been in some situations where just ”being available” to assist students was virtually impossible because there were just too many students, too much work to do, no library paraprofessional to help with the clerical work, and too many “fires to put out!”

In many schools, librarians are often the greatest instructional resources for students who need additional help with research or writing.  Many times librarians are often available to review bibliographies, read through papers, make suggestions for additional content through library resources that are available, or to advise students about who to speak with for additional help.  However, for those schools that do not provide certified librarians, many students are left without anyone with the expertise in these areas.  Many student are left without that additional level of support that libraries and librarians provide.  In addition, for those students who do not receive assistance from their parents at home and do not have a certified librarian to provide a “safety layer” of support within the school for research assignments, it is nearly impossible for them to receive the same quality of instruction and information that can be found in those schools that do provide certified librarians.

Does this mean that the school librarian is the “Super Hero” of the school….well, actually, yes!  Certified school librarians are teachers first with a background in education and a teaching degree!  Additional hours of library and information science provides them with the qualifications to become a school librarian (and to many, the “hero of the day!”).  When schools fail to provide certified school librarians on every campus, they remove a “safety layer” of educational support that will ensure student achievement.  At every level, school librarians impact student achievement, provide instructional collaboration opportunities with teachers, and share quality resources and information better than any other individual on the campus.  As Dizzy Dean once stated, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do!” 

Let’s hope that this New Year provides all of us with the opportunities to know what a certified librarian can do for a school and for student achievement.  Just yesterday, California introduced its new Library Standards that describes a strong library program through quality levels (much like Texas’ levels of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, below standards); however, unless these standards are adopted by the state legislature as mandates (and not “suggestions”), it will become more verbage to be ignored by those who are already overwhelmed by double-speak. (http://www.csla.net/pdf/CSLA_Standards.pdf ). 

Let’s hope that 2008 is a year for changes in how educational leaders view school libraries!  Student achievement and academic success comes from a variety of individuals working together to guide and mentor.  Let’s be sure that every school library provides that certified librarian that will make a difference in a child’s life.

Recently I was asked to provide our district with year-end information regarding the library.  There were the basic questions:

**Number of books in the collection?

**Number of books weeded this year?

**Age of the collection?

**Total circulation for the year?

**Number of lesson taught?

**Number of students served?

While the information is interesting to a librarian who wants to know exactly what materials were circulated or how many items were added or deselected over the past few months, I knew that this was not the information that would show administrators, teachers, or parents exactly what happened in my library.  In fact, I’d hoped for a form that asked for lesson plans, evidence of assessment, and teacher-collaboration evidence.  Obviously, I was way ahead of myself.

During the year, I’ve been reading about teacher-library collaboration and how it impacts student achievement.  While the Ross Todd, Keith Curry Lance, and Carol Kuhlthau studies that show that providing up-to-date library materials, as well as additional support staff  can add to the librarian’s ability to actually impact student achievement, the evidence still shows only the statistical quantities within the library— (How many new books were added? How many certified librarians? How many support personnel?  How many hours is the library open?).   What about the quality of the instruction?  How can you determine if the students are learning? What evidence do you have to show that instruction and collaboration has improved student achievement?

Maybe I’m just a professional student (my kids call me a “library geek”) because I’m always reading library research, but recent articles (and books) by Dr. Violet Harada (from the University of Hawaii) have intrigued me.  Her work centers on Evidence-Based Practices or how we can provide the information that administrators need in determining that libraries (and librarians) impact student achievement.  (See articles:  http://www2.hawaii.edu/~vharada/Jounals.htm )

While teachers are being asked to show evidence of student achievement through grades, test results, and classroom activities, librarians are still counting books, calculating the number of hours the library is open, and determining the age of our collection.  We pull all the information together and share it with lackluster responses from those who have the power to determine our futures.  Then when library programs are cut and positions are eliminated, we wonder why others don’t see our value to the instructional curriculum.  We are teaching important skills!  We know we’ve taught some wonderful lessons with outstanding results….but does anyone else know?

What evidence do we provide to show that our students are learning?  With state academic content standards, as well as Information Power standards, librarians should be collaborating with teachers to design instruction that provides evidence that students can demonstrate what they know and what they can do.  At that point, librarians can collect that evidence that demonstrates that the library has made an impact in student achievement.

The big questions that still loom are: 

Are librarians being provided the opportunity to work as instructional partners?  Can they collaborate with teachers to design instructional content that will help students demonstrate what they know?  If so, what evidence is gathered and shared?  These questions hold the key to determining what impact libraries make on student achievement.  It’s time to stop collecting quantities of “things” in our libraries and start collecting the evidence of “quality” of student learning.