The Mission of the School Library - IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto:
The school library offers learning services, books, and resources that enable all members of the school community to become critical thinkers and effective users of information in all formats and media. (“IFLA,” 2006, para. 2)
Physical and Intellectual Access to information within a school library is the primary service facilitated by the school librarian. As stated in the Canadian Association for School Libraries’ (CASL) report on student information needs in the 21st century the school librarian “provides leadership in collaborative program planning and teaching to ensure both physical and intellectual access to information and commitment to voluntary reading” (“CLA,” 2007, para. 1.2).
Physical access involves the ability to retrieve and circulate materials. Intellectual access is the ability to bring the information seeker and the information together (Jaeger, 2005, p. 67).
Physical Services and Physical Access:
Physical Access to school libraries will vary from school board to school board, and from school to school. Primarily they offer print material although some libraries may offer equipment such as laptops, cameras, and GPS units. Circulation procedures, shelving considerations, display areas, storytelling areas, study tables, and good visibility are all aspects of providing physical access to the library and its collection.
Intellectual Services and Intellectual Access:
Intellectual services in a school library will depend on two things: the age group they are serving and the amount of time the librarian has at each school. While the school librarian’s profession requires they “create and sustain an atmosphere of open inquiry” (Toor, p. 172) they are also required to offer a collection that supports the curriculum as laid out for each subject and grade level in the school. Teacher support, access to databases, education on research techniques, copyright issues, and fair dealing as pertains to Canadian copyright laws are all aspects of intellectual services offered in school libraries.
All library users of any school library should be able to obtain the items they need as well as access to intellectual information appropriate to their age, their needs, and their abilities regardless of any personal limitations they may experience. According to the IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto “Access to services and collections should be based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms, and should not be subject to any form of ideological, political, or religious censorship, or to commercial pressures” (IFLA, 2006, para. 10).
Curriculum Support:
School librarians require a good understanding of the school population they serve and the curriculum needs of the teaching staff. Print materials, databases, and website resources would ideally be decided on through consultation with teachers. Both schools I visited, one elementary and one high school, had guides rather than policies developed for collection development. The handbook provided by the school board was described as very vague by both librarians, indicating an intimate knowledge of the population served and the current collection as the most useful tools in building the collection.
In both cases, the main barrier to creating a good collection for the library (covering both physical and intellectual access) is a lack of communication with teaching staff. As one librarian I spoke with pointed out, many teachers these days are working under term conditions and their personal focus around finding next year’s job means they are not able to devote themselves to their current position. One of the aspects of their job that doesn’t get attended to is developing a collection with the school librarian that will support their curriculum. This means that when students are looking for more material for their queries the material available is more limited than it should be because the librarian doesn't have the input required to make purchase decisions.
Copyright Issues:
Intellectual access as it pertains to citations and copyright issues is another difficult area for the school librarian. Apparently, some “old school” teachers have little regard for the new copyright laws and little understanding of the “Fair Dealing” aspect of the Canadian Copyright Act. There appears to be little consideration for acknowledging intellectual property and little teaching that goes on in the area of citations. Cutting and pasting techniques available to today’s students make it very easy for them to inadvertently plagiarize material. “Students need to realize that just changing one or two words in a sentence from a source does not constitute paraphrasing” (Toor, p. 178). Students are notoriously lax in providing good bibliographies and citations and if the teachers don’t encourage proper citing it is difficult for the librarian to encourage proper use.
Collection Development:
Another barrier to creating the best possible physical and intellectual access is a lack of understanding on the part of the administration about the library profession’s obligation to provide material on all subjects. As part of a profession that prides itself on upholding high ethical standards around access to information, the school librarian finds themselves working very closely with an administration that doesn’t have the same concerns. Very similar stories were told to me by both librarians about having books challenged by parents. In both cases the school administration’s position was to immediately remove the book or, in one case, all the titles in a series from the shelves. The librarians had to decide whether to uphold their obligation to their profession or their obligation to work within a school environment. The ultimate decision seemed to depend on the book in question and whether or not the librarian felt the title was worth the fight. In neither case was there a form regarding book challenges that could be given to the person challenging the title to state their case, and no policy around what to do when an item was challenged.
Physical Space:
Another communication barrier, which was mentioned in both conversations quite, surprised me. Both the school libraries I visited are in brand new schools. They both look quite lovely, but on closer inspection with the librarian’s commentary, it becomes obvious that no librarian was consulted when designing the library space. The doors are very heavy in the elementary school, making it difficult for small children to open the door themselves, and neither door had an automatic button for wheelchair access. The high school library has good visibility but only because the librarian re-arranged the shelving and sitting spaces during his first days on the job, (when he had anticipated working on his collection). The elementary school librarian has almost no visibility around her library, shelving choices were poor, and bulletin boards and display areas are not in ideal places. Both libraries had lighting issues, but were making do with what was provided.
Finally, both librarians have experienced a lack of understanding on the part of the administration about what a librarian’s job actually entails. The biggest barrier to providing access to the library at the elementary school is the fact that the librarian is responsible for three schools so the library is only open on certain days. In addition, at the elementary school the school librarian is expected to have face time with students all her working hours. This means all the jobs she does around collection development, program planning, website development, and circulation are done when there are people in the library. She knows many people in her profession end up taking work home with them and doing it on a “volunteer” bases in order to run their library the way they want it to run and have it look the way they want it to look.
The high school librarian experienced the opposite situation. The administration was very hands-off, to the point that the librarian is not even invited to attend weekly staff meetings. This could be seen as a good thing as it gave him autonomy over his library and a break from meetings, but he also said it lulled him into a false sense of security. When problems arise (book challenges, budget considerations, collection development issues) there is no relationship developed to facilitate discussion with administration or staff. Also, in his case the students are not encouraged to use the library, classes are not brought in by the teachers, so he only sees the students who are keen about libraries and doesn’t get to reach out to the ones who don’t voluntarily cross the library threshold.
Recommendations:
Ideally the school librarian would be an instructional partner and able to take a “leading role in developing policies, practices, and curricula that guide students to develop the full range of information and communication abilities” (Toor, p. 90).
Research and Citation: The school librarian has the ability to offer research advice and citation education. This could be accomplished by giving lessons in-class around intellectual property rights if teaching personnel are willing to work with the librarian.
Budgets: More money is almost always a concern in the library world. Collection development is a on a tight budget as school librarians need to satisfy curriculum support, fiction for leisure reading, and electronic source purchases. Staffing considerations would also fall under budget concerns. The situation where one librarian serves three schools could be improved by having a librarian at each school.
Communication: The most glaring problem I noticed in my discussions with the school librarians is a lack of communication. There is no communication with library personnel when developing the physical space, there is little communication with teaching staff, and poor communication with the administration.
Policy Development: There are few if any policies developed for library use and management, so any communication relies completely on the personalities involved with no formal mandates or precedents to draw from for understanding and support. Although creating policies can be a painful process, I believe most people who work in situations where policies guide and support their actions find it easier to do their jobs effectively. Policies would also aid in helping other school staff members understand the librarian’s role.
I believe the two discussions I had with the school librarians were representative of the school library situation in general. There seems to be a lack of understanding about what a library is and could be. If administration and library staff could have open and frequent communication, many of the barriers could be broken down enabling the library to offer the best service possible and enriching the school environment.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the school library is an afterthought.
Canadian Library Association (2007). CASL-Students’ information literacy needs in the 21st century: Competencies for teacher-librarians. Retrieved May 28, 2010 from http://www.cla.ca/casl/literacyneeds.html
International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (2006). School libraries and resource centers section. Activities & services. Retrieved May 28, 2010 from http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/manifest.htm
Jaegar, P. T., & Bowman, C. (2005). Understanding disability: inclusion, access, diversity, and civil rights. Retrieved May 30, 2010 from http://books.google.ca
Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. (2007). New on the job: a school library media specialist’s guide to success. Chicago: American Library Association.
Researched and written by Pam Eakin.
