(BC Teacher: 2005 May/June) by Maureen L. MacDonald
I chased my dream to be an elementary music teacher, and it was good. But when I taught from 1969 to 1971 in a school with a marvelous library program and a dynamic teacher-librarian named Doris Fuller, I knew that I would make a change. I quit my job and returned to UBC to take a year in teacher-librarianship, and I have never regretted that decision.
When I was first a teacher-librarian, times were exciting for school libraries. Budgets were sufficient to allow the purchase of many new books each year—perhaps two or three per student. Walls were knocked down so that the one-room libraries could expand to the size of two or three classrooms to meet the demand for shelf and student space. Collections expanded to include more than books. Teacher-librarians practiced Co-operative Program Planning and Teaching (CPPT) with colleagues. Students borrowed books and tapes and, in my school, stuffed animals to read to.
The point of the library program always was, and still is, to enhance literacy. Long before the days of mission statements and school growth plans it was understood that literacy was our goal. No one said "improve literacy" and "slash the staffing and materials budgets" in the same breath. Not until just after the provincial election of 2001.
Is it any wonder that the members of the educational community are scratching their heads in amazement at the ridiculousness of the juxtaposition of the partial closure of libraries and the admonishment to keep up high standards? Scholars, parents, teachers, students, newspaper columnists, and members of the public fail to see any logic in the plan of the Gordon Campbell-led provincial government to underfund the public education system. Perhaps the benefit of this plan is only seen by the operators of private, for-profit schools that advertise to attract well-off students to their big libraries and their small classes.
BCTF members have dealt with the library crisis in a variety of ways—endless fundraising activities to stock the libraries, calling on volunteers to pitch in where there used to be staff, relying more on student monitors. Why do we try to fill the gaps left by deliberate underfunding? You know why! We don’t want the students to lose any opportunities to learn. We add to our own workloads until we can stand no more.
The breaking point for teachers has come. We cannot do more with less. We cannot even do the same with less. We can only do less with less.
Let’s stop covering up for the deficiencies in the system. Let’s let the public and the school community have a taste of reality. How will they know if we don’t show them? Wouldn’t a knowledgeable public want to see the restoration of the library programs cut by the Liberal government since 2001?
Literacy is the cornerstone of democracy. Our urgent and immediate job as teachers in this democratic society is to protect literacy. One way to do this is to recognize the changing social and economic conditions in society and to reflect that in public school libraries. In other words, provide students with well-stocked libraries staffed by professional teacher-librarians and learning will ensue. That, my friends, is common sense.
When I see the school library in the big picture, I notice that the outline has been erased and the image is getting smaller. Multiply this times a thousand schools. The picture is not pretty.
The stripping of teachers’ bargaining rights, the elimination of class-size and class-composition clauses from our collective agreement, the mockery of assuming that libraries can run without teacher-librarians, and the slashing of budgets for staff and materials was highly detrimental to the learning conditions of our students. Success is not achieved by supplying fewer resources.
We have a different set of MLAs to educate now. Let’s tell them what a good library program would do to enhance literacy. It is false economy to reduce educational opportunities because today’s students are the most valuable assets of our future.
Maureen MacDonald is a teacher-librarian at Elsie Roy Elementary School, Vancouver.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Is it a library or a bookstore?
(BC Teacher: 2005 January/February) by Chris Bocking
My elementary school library has been closed for almost a week. Why? Well, a huge transnational corporation based in the United States has been using it as a profit centre. Yes, Scholastic Corporation has set up its books, pencils, stickers, and posters in attractive displays, and the students have been encouraged to bring money to school to support this "book" event.
Teachers who see Scholastic as a benign presence like being able to purchase books and stickers for their students. They argue that book sales raise money for the library. I suggest that these reasons are insufficient and that teachers should not support commercialism in the public school system.
Richard Robinson, who is not only chair, but also president and CEO of Scholastic Corporation, says on his company’s web site that his company is "dedicated to helping children around the world to read and learn." How noble.
That mammoth company had revenues of $2.23 billion in 2004. Elsewhere on the web site, we learn that the good people at Scholastic are "helping children learn, grow and be happy."
Staggering profits could not be achieved without willing support and tireless efforts of the teachers who volunteer tens of thousands of hours promoting Scholastic’s products to their students, collecting the forms, filling out papers, supervising book sales, and so on.
Scholastic is excited about the Internet’s possibilities for bringing future growth. In May of 2004 alone, Scholastic’s teacher web site had 1.26 million unique visitors. I have heard from teachers about the ease of ordering products online or using Scholastic’s phone service.
Does anybody still want to consider the library the heart of a school? Closing it down and turning it into a private, for-profit book and junk-item store to raise money is wrong. That should not happen. And teachers’ time could be spent in better ways than padding the profits of the largest book company on the planet.
For information on the upcoming Public Education Not For Sale II conference, February 18–19, 2005, go to http://bctf.ca/notforsale/PrivatizationConference.
Chris Bocking teaches at Keating Elementary School, Saanich.
My elementary school library has been closed for almost a week. Why? Well, a huge transnational corporation based in the United States has been using it as a profit centre. Yes, Scholastic Corporation has set up its books, pencils, stickers, and posters in attractive displays, and the students have been encouraged to bring money to school to support this "book" event.
Teachers who see Scholastic as a benign presence like being able to purchase books and stickers for their students. They argue that book sales raise money for the library. I suggest that these reasons are insufficient and that teachers should not support commercialism in the public school system.
Richard Robinson, who is not only chair, but also president and CEO of Scholastic Corporation, says on his company’s web site that his company is "dedicated to helping children around the world to read and learn." How noble.
That mammoth company had revenues of $2.23 billion in 2004. Elsewhere on the web site, we learn that the good people at Scholastic are "helping children learn, grow and be happy."
Staggering profits could not be achieved without willing support and tireless efforts of the teachers who volunteer tens of thousands of hours promoting Scholastic’s products to their students, collecting the forms, filling out papers, supervising book sales, and so on.
Scholastic is excited about the Internet’s possibilities for bringing future growth. In May of 2004 alone, Scholastic’s teacher web site had 1.26 million unique visitors. I have heard from teachers about the ease of ordering products online or using Scholastic’s phone service.
Does anybody still want to consider the library the heart of a school? Closing it down and turning it into a private, for-profit book and junk-item store to raise money is wrong. That should not happen. And teachers’ time could be spent in better ways than padding the profits of the largest book company on the planet.
For information on the upcoming Public Education Not For Sale II conference, February 18–19, 2005, go to http://bctf.ca/notforsale/PrivatizationConference.
Chris Bocking teaches at Keating Elementary School, Saanich.
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
But I changed the words around! Preventing cheating and plagiarism in the classroom
(BC Teacher: 2004 November/December) by Diane Gallagher-Hayashi
You have handed out a math test to your class. You have arranged the desks to make copying difficult. You watch the class closely. A boy in the back row catches your eye. You stand up, stretch, and wander around the room. You can see nothing wrong in what he is doing, so you go back to your desk. He keeps checking his watch, but you figure he is just nervous about getting the test done on time. When you mark the test, you find that he has done all the questions correctly. Obviously he knew his stuff—you were worried for nothing. Or were you?
Changes in technology outstrip our abilities to keep up. Perhaps the boy in the math class really did know his stuff and passed the test fairly. Or perhaps he had downloaded all the formulas into his digital watch. Sound outlandish? Not according to Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss, who wrote Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. "Students today enjoy the challenge of discovering what they can accomplish with each new high-tech toy. Unfortunately, many are quick to see the possibilities of using the new technologies to cheat on tests and homework." (Lathrop et al., p. 10). Hand-held computers and programmable calculators can store and send information and questions to other devices (and other students) outside the classrooms. Pagers and cell phones can be set on vibrate, and text messages can be sent quietly to students writing tests. Access to the Internet has changed student research. The Internet has become a valuable tool for students, but it has also become a supermarket of term papers for students who wish to cheat.
The problem is not just accessibility to tools allowing students to cheat and plagiarize. Attitudes about cheating have changed too. Studies on student cheating show a marked increase in frequency and tolerance. A 1998 study of the academically top 5% of American students showed that 80% cheated (Lathrop et al., p. 30). Another 1998 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics surveyed over 20,000 middle- and high-school students and found that 70% of them had cheated within the past year (Lathrop et al., p. 31). More disturbing is the change in attitude. Schab’s longitudinal study on cheating showed that in 1969, only 34% said yes when asked if they had ever cheated on a test; whereas in 1989 a full 68% said yes. In 1969, when asked if they agreed with the phrase, Honesty is the best policy, 82% said yes, but in 1989 only 60% said yes. For many students today, the issue is not, Should I cheat or not? but How can I avoid getting caught when I cheat? (Lathrop et al., p. 30).
The change in attitude and the increased access to technology that will allow students to cheat has teachers trying to create situations that make cheating and plagiarism difficult AND policing students’ assignments after they are done. Classroom teachers are not alone in their battle against plagiarism. Every school with a teacher-librarian has a ready-made expert in research. Giving assignments that are generic or using the same assignment year after year invites plagiarism and cheating. Trained and experienced, the teacher-librarian can help develop research units and assignments that are difficult to plagiarize. Compare these two assignments: 1) Describe Hamlet’s state of mind just before his death. 2) You are Hamlet’s psychiatrist. Write an entry in his file for the day before his death.
Both assignments would have the same criteria. A paper matching the first assignment would be very easy to find on the Internet. A paper matching the second assignment would be much more difficult to find.
The teacher-librarian can help the classroom teacher when a suspicious paper has been submitted. The teacher-librarian has an arsenal of tactics that can help find papers that have been plagiarized. The simplest is to take a doubtful line from the assignment and search for that line, enclosed in quotation marks, in a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Dogpile. If the student could find the assignment on the Internet, so can the teacher-librarian or the classroom teacher.
Working with the teacher-librarian to teach students good research and note-taking skills, and to require students to follow every step of the Ministry of Education’s Research Quest when they research will make plagiarism difficult and unnecessary. To become lifelong learners, students must know where to find information, how to evaluate and use that information, and how to evaluate their research performance. Once students become comfortable with this process, the temptation to plagiarize will be much less.
Diane Gallagher-Hayashi is a teacher-librarian at Stelly’s Secondary School, Saanich.
Resources Lathrop, Ann, and Kathleen Foss. Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 2000
You have handed out a math test to your class. You have arranged the desks to make copying difficult. You watch the class closely. A boy in the back row catches your eye. You stand up, stretch, and wander around the room. You can see nothing wrong in what he is doing, so you go back to your desk. He keeps checking his watch, but you figure he is just nervous about getting the test done on time. When you mark the test, you find that he has done all the questions correctly. Obviously he knew his stuff—you were worried for nothing. Or were you?
Changes in technology outstrip our abilities to keep up. Perhaps the boy in the math class really did know his stuff and passed the test fairly. Or perhaps he had downloaded all the formulas into his digital watch. Sound outlandish? Not according to Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss, who wrote Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. "Students today enjoy the challenge of discovering what they can accomplish with each new high-tech toy. Unfortunately, many are quick to see the possibilities of using the new technologies to cheat on tests and homework." (Lathrop et al., p. 10). Hand-held computers and programmable calculators can store and send information and questions to other devices (and other students) outside the classrooms. Pagers and cell phones can be set on vibrate, and text messages can be sent quietly to students writing tests. Access to the Internet has changed student research. The Internet has become a valuable tool for students, but it has also become a supermarket of term papers for students who wish to cheat.
The problem is not just accessibility to tools allowing students to cheat and plagiarize. Attitudes about cheating have changed too. Studies on student cheating show a marked increase in frequency and tolerance. A 1998 study of the academically top 5% of American students showed that 80% cheated (Lathrop et al., p. 30). Another 1998 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics surveyed over 20,000 middle- and high-school students and found that 70% of them had cheated within the past year (Lathrop et al., p. 31). More disturbing is the change in attitude. Schab’s longitudinal study on cheating showed that in 1969, only 34% said yes when asked if they had ever cheated on a test; whereas in 1989 a full 68% said yes. In 1969, when asked if they agreed with the phrase, Honesty is the best policy, 82% said yes, but in 1989 only 60% said yes. For many students today, the issue is not, Should I cheat or not? but How can I avoid getting caught when I cheat? (Lathrop et al., p. 30).
The change in attitude and the increased access to technology that will allow students to cheat has teachers trying to create situations that make cheating and plagiarism difficult AND policing students’ assignments after they are done. Classroom teachers are not alone in their battle against plagiarism. Every school with a teacher-librarian has a ready-made expert in research. Giving assignments that are generic or using the same assignment year after year invites plagiarism and cheating. Trained and experienced, the teacher-librarian can help develop research units and assignments that are difficult to plagiarize. Compare these two assignments: 1) Describe Hamlet’s state of mind just before his death. 2) You are Hamlet’s psychiatrist. Write an entry in his file for the day before his death.
Both assignments would have the same criteria. A paper matching the first assignment would be very easy to find on the Internet. A paper matching the second assignment would be much more difficult to find.
The teacher-librarian can help the classroom teacher when a suspicious paper has been submitted. The teacher-librarian has an arsenal of tactics that can help find papers that have been plagiarized. The simplest is to take a doubtful line from the assignment and search for that line, enclosed in quotation marks, in a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Dogpile. If the student could find the assignment on the Internet, so can the teacher-librarian or the classroom teacher.
Working with the teacher-librarian to teach students good research and note-taking skills, and to require students to follow every step of the Ministry of Education’s Research Quest when they research will make plagiarism difficult and unnecessary. To become lifelong learners, students must know where to find information, how to evaluate and use that information, and how to evaluate their research performance. Once students become comfortable with this process, the temptation to plagiarize will be much less.
Diane Gallagher-Hayashi is a teacher-librarian at Stelly’s Secondary School, Saanich.
Resources Lathrop, Ann, and Kathleen Foss. Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 2000
Friday, October 1, 2004
You and your teacher-librarian
(BC Teacher: 2004 October) by Lynn Turner
Are you looking for new ways to interest your students in reading? Would you like some unique resources for your classroom? Do you want to include research or enrichment in the curriculum? Are you looking for a different way of presenting information?
Your teacher-librarian can help.
Teacher-librarians are aware of the importance of free voluntary—recreational—reading and its role in the development of reading skills from Kindergarten through Grade 12. To that end, teacher-librarians can help students with their choice of library books--with appropriate reading levels, with favourite genres or authors, or perhaps with bibliotherapy.
Your teacher-librarian is your partner in promoting reading at all grade levels. While you are working on an individual basis with students, the teacher-librarian’s approach encompasses groups, classes, and frequently the entire school. Throughout the school year, teacher-librarians engage in a variety of activities, all with the goal of promoting reading, of encouraging students to become aware of and interested in books. From the most basic of promotions, such as bulletin boards and new book displays, to organization and implementation of long-term reading programs, teacher-librarians are constantly encouraging reading. Through story reading, storytelling, book talks, and book fairs, they present quality literature to the students.
Are you planning a thematic or curricular unit? Do you need posters, pictures, maps, or charts for your classroom to help with that unit? Ask your teacher-librarian, as most school libraries have a poster file that is available to teachers as well as to students.
The development of a quality collection is another aspect of a teacher-librarian’s role. That involves the selection of literature to promote recreational reading, the addition of resources in a variety of media to support the curriculum, and the elimination of outdated information and seldom-used materials. Declining budgets and increasing costs of resources make developing a quality collection a very challenging task.
Your teacher-librarian works co-operatively with classroom teachers to plan, teach, and evaluate units of study. The units might be organized around a central theme or might arise directly from a curricular topic. Co-operative planning and teaching, a central focus for teacher-librarians, involves several main steps.
Planning
During planning, the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher meet to determine the topic to be studied, the learning objectives to be addressed, the procedure for the unit, responsibilities of the teacher and of the teacher-librarian before and during the presentation of the unit, the form of the final product, and evaluation. Planning meetings are not always lengthy or formal; many take place over lunch in the staffroom.
Gathering resources
The teacher-librarian ensures that there are enough resources in a variety of media and at a variety of reading levels for the group or class participating in the unit of study.
Teaching or presenting the unit
This is a team-teaching effort, with both the classroom teacher and the teacher-librarian assisting students with the unit of study. The classroom teacher will be oriented toward the subject material, and the teacher-librarian will be assisting students with the research process.
Evaluating
Both members of the teaching team can and should be involved in evaluating the research process and the final product.
Teacher-librarians are specialists in information literacy, usually referred to as the research process. This involves training students to access relevant resources, to evaluate the selected resources, to take notes from all types of media, to organize information into a logical sequence and present it in the student’s own words, and to cite sources of information and write bibliographies.
As school libraries become more computerized, and as the Internet becomes an increasingly important resource for research, teacher-librarians—exemplifying lifelong learning—have developed technology skills. In many schools, it is the teacher-librarian who is the computer expert.
In addition to the roles they fulfill in school, teacher-librarians provide leadership roles in education. Many have served on district and ministry committees. Some have been responsible for the development of curriculum, either at the local or at the provincial level. And many have made presentations to parents, to teaching colleagues, to administrators, and to student teachers.
In a number of districts in British Columbia, staffing of school libraries has been drastically reduced over the past few years. The cuts have made it difficult for teacher-librarians to do the job to the standard they would like. Nevertheless, they have worked through the challenges to try to accommodate staff and students.
If you would like more information about the roles of a teacher-librarian, or about the ways in which you and your teacher-librarian can work together to enhance students’ learning and perhaps make your job a little easier, speak with the teacher-librarian in your school. The B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association can also assist with any requests.
Lynn Turner is a teacher-librarian at Thornhill Junior Secondary School, Terrace.
Are you looking for new ways to interest your students in reading? Would you like some unique resources for your classroom? Do you want to include research or enrichment in the curriculum? Are you looking for a different way of presenting information?
Your teacher-librarian can help.
Teacher-librarians are aware of the importance of free voluntary—recreational—reading and its role in the development of reading skills from Kindergarten through Grade 12. To that end, teacher-librarians can help students with their choice of library books--with appropriate reading levels, with favourite genres or authors, or perhaps with bibliotherapy.
Your teacher-librarian is your partner in promoting reading at all grade levels. While you are working on an individual basis with students, the teacher-librarian’s approach encompasses groups, classes, and frequently the entire school. Throughout the school year, teacher-librarians engage in a variety of activities, all with the goal of promoting reading, of encouraging students to become aware of and interested in books. From the most basic of promotions, such as bulletin boards and new book displays, to organization and implementation of long-term reading programs, teacher-librarians are constantly encouraging reading. Through story reading, storytelling, book talks, and book fairs, they present quality literature to the students.
Are you planning a thematic or curricular unit? Do you need posters, pictures, maps, or charts for your classroom to help with that unit? Ask your teacher-librarian, as most school libraries have a poster file that is available to teachers as well as to students.
The development of a quality collection is another aspect of a teacher-librarian’s role. That involves the selection of literature to promote recreational reading, the addition of resources in a variety of media to support the curriculum, and the elimination of outdated information and seldom-used materials. Declining budgets and increasing costs of resources make developing a quality collection a very challenging task.
Your teacher-librarian works co-operatively with classroom teachers to plan, teach, and evaluate units of study. The units might be organized around a central theme or might arise directly from a curricular topic. Co-operative planning and teaching, a central focus for teacher-librarians, involves several main steps.
Planning
During planning, the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher meet to determine the topic to be studied, the learning objectives to be addressed, the procedure for the unit, responsibilities of the teacher and of the teacher-librarian before and during the presentation of the unit, the form of the final product, and evaluation. Planning meetings are not always lengthy or formal; many take place over lunch in the staffroom.
Gathering resources
The teacher-librarian ensures that there are enough resources in a variety of media and at a variety of reading levels for the group or class participating in the unit of study.
Teaching or presenting the unit
This is a team-teaching effort, with both the classroom teacher and the teacher-librarian assisting students with the unit of study. The classroom teacher will be oriented toward the subject material, and the teacher-librarian will be assisting students with the research process.
Evaluating
Both members of the teaching team can and should be involved in evaluating the research process and the final product.
Teacher-librarians are specialists in information literacy, usually referred to as the research process. This involves training students to access relevant resources, to evaluate the selected resources, to take notes from all types of media, to organize information into a logical sequence and present it in the student’s own words, and to cite sources of information and write bibliographies.
As school libraries become more computerized, and as the Internet becomes an increasingly important resource for research, teacher-librarians—exemplifying lifelong learning—have developed technology skills. In many schools, it is the teacher-librarian who is the computer expert.
In addition to the roles they fulfill in school, teacher-librarians provide leadership roles in education. Many have served on district and ministry committees. Some have been responsible for the development of curriculum, either at the local or at the provincial level. And many have made presentations to parents, to teaching colleagues, to administrators, and to student teachers.
In a number of districts in British Columbia, staffing of school libraries has been drastically reduced over the past few years. The cuts have made it difficult for teacher-librarians to do the job to the standard they would like. Nevertheless, they have worked through the challenges to try to accommodate staff and students.
If you would like more information about the roles of a teacher-librarian, or about the ways in which you and your teacher-librarian can work together to enhance students’ learning and perhaps make your job a little easier, speak with the teacher-librarian in your school. The B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association can also assist with any requests.
Lynn Turner is a teacher-librarian at Thornhill Junior Secondary School, Terrace.
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
The school library
(BC Teacher: 2004 September) by Randi Louise Hermans
All children in Canada should have access to a school library run by a qualified teacher-librarian. Does your school have one? A teacher-librarian is a certified teacher who has an additional education diploma in the professional and management functions of a school library.
In 1998, the B.C. teachers’ contract had ratios for non-enrolling teachers. Schools were required to have one teacher-librarian for every 702 students. The language for non-enrolling teachers was stripped from our collective agreements by the B.C. Liberals in January 2002. Since then, many schools in our province have no teacher-librarian running the library, or the teacher-librarian time has been cut back to such a degree that there is no time to offer a quality library program. Many teacher-librarians have been forced to incorporate prep-time coverage into their library assignment. This is not the answer.
Teacher-librarians do far more than sign out books to students. Besides managing the collection, they teach research skills, encourage children to read, provide book talks and story times, work with teachers on co-operative units, organize author visits and book fairs, and select and purchase material to support the school curriculum. Teacher-librarians serve all students and every educational level, as well as every area of the curriculum.
Research done in nine states since 1999 shows that schools that have well-stocked school libraries, staffed by qualified teacher-librarians working with staff on co-operative units, have higher levels of student achievement. The research shows that scores are 10 to 20% higher in those schools. Similar results are likely in Canada.
In June 2003, the first Summit on Canadian School Libraries was held in Ottawa. Roch Carrier, the National Librarian of Canada at the time, deplored the state of school libraries in Canada: "The state of our school libraries can only be described as desperate in almost every province." British Columbia is one of the best provinces for school libraries in Canada, but unfortunately cuts continue to happen in all districts. A clerk or parent volunteer in the school library is not the answer. Many children are introduced to Canadian authors and Canadian stories at school. Children learn about our country’s culture and heritage by reading both fiction and non-fiction books written by Canadian authors. When teacher-librarians are eliminated or have their budgets slashed, these books don’t get purchased for the school library.
In his report titled "The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Reinvestment," published in June 2003, Dr. Ken Haycock states: "Studies show that qualified teacher-librarians have systematically sought out Canadian books and other media to ensure that the Canadian experience forms a significant part of each child’s education."
The Canadian Coalition for School Libraries was formed in March 2002. Publishers, parents, authors, teachers, and teacher-librarians have joined forces to advocate for school libraries across Canada. The CCSL advocates for well-funded school libraries staffed by qualified teacher-librarians. More information is available on its web site: www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition. As well, the B.C. Coalition for School Libraries was formed in the summer of 2003 to provide a provincial view and to advocate for school libraries in B.C.
Now that most homes and schools have access to computers and the Internet, parents, teachers, and administrators may feel that print resources are unimportant. But children need to learn the research steps in elementary school using print resources. The Internet can be a valuable resource tool, but students need to learn the process so they are not plagiarizing. Teacher-librarians working with classroom teachers are the best providers to teach this skill.
The School Library Manifesto was prepared by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and approved by UNESCO in 1999. It states:
The school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today’s society, which is increasingly information and knowledge-based. The school library equips students with lifelong learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens.
October 25 is National School Library Day and International School Library Day. Schools across Canada and around the world will be using this day to celebrate school libraries. Please find out what is happening at your school and help to celebrate it. The web site for NSLD is www.nsld.ca/.
If your school or your child’s school doesn’t have a teacher-librarian, find out why. Teachers, parents, and grandparents need to demand that their children have access to a quality school library.
In future columns, we’ll be sharing ideas about how you can work with your teacher-librarian. My sincerest hope is that you have a teacher-librarian in your school.
Randi Louise Hermans is a teacher-librarian and is vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association.
All children in Canada should have access to a school library run by a qualified teacher-librarian. Does your school have one? A teacher-librarian is a certified teacher who has an additional education diploma in the professional and management functions of a school library.
In 1998, the B.C. teachers’ contract had ratios for non-enrolling teachers. Schools were required to have one teacher-librarian for every 702 students. The language for non-enrolling teachers was stripped from our collective agreements by the B.C. Liberals in January 2002. Since then, many schools in our province have no teacher-librarian running the library, or the teacher-librarian time has been cut back to such a degree that there is no time to offer a quality library program. Many teacher-librarians have been forced to incorporate prep-time coverage into their library assignment. This is not the answer.
Teacher-librarians do far more than sign out books to students. Besides managing the collection, they teach research skills, encourage children to read, provide book talks and story times, work with teachers on co-operative units, organize author visits and book fairs, and select and purchase material to support the school curriculum. Teacher-librarians serve all students and every educational level, as well as every area of the curriculum.
Research done in nine states since 1999 shows that schools that have well-stocked school libraries, staffed by qualified teacher-librarians working with staff on co-operative units, have higher levels of student achievement. The research shows that scores are 10 to 20% higher in those schools. Similar results are likely in Canada.
In June 2003, the first Summit on Canadian School Libraries was held in Ottawa. Roch Carrier, the National Librarian of Canada at the time, deplored the state of school libraries in Canada: "The state of our school libraries can only be described as desperate in almost every province." British Columbia is one of the best provinces for school libraries in Canada, but unfortunately cuts continue to happen in all districts. A clerk or parent volunteer in the school library is not the answer. Many children are introduced to Canadian authors and Canadian stories at school. Children learn about our country’s culture and heritage by reading both fiction and non-fiction books written by Canadian authors. When teacher-librarians are eliminated or have their budgets slashed, these books don’t get purchased for the school library.
In his report titled "The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Reinvestment," published in June 2003, Dr. Ken Haycock states: "Studies show that qualified teacher-librarians have systematically sought out Canadian books and other media to ensure that the Canadian experience forms a significant part of each child’s education."
The Canadian Coalition for School Libraries was formed in March 2002. Publishers, parents, authors, teachers, and teacher-librarians have joined forces to advocate for school libraries across Canada. The CCSL advocates for well-funded school libraries staffed by qualified teacher-librarians. More information is available on its web site: www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition. As well, the B.C. Coalition for School Libraries was formed in the summer of 2003 to provide a provincial view and to advocate for school libraries in B.C.
Now that most homes and schools have access to computers and the Internet, parents, teachers, and administrators may feel that print resources are unimportant. But children need to learn the research steps in elementary school using print resources. The Internet can be a valuable resource tool, but students need to learn the process so they are not plagiarizing. Teacher-librarians working with classroom teachers are the best providers to teach this skill.
The School Library Manifesto was prepared by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and approved by UNESCO in 1999. It states:
The school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today’s society, which is increasingly information and knowledge-based. The school library equips students with lifelong learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens.
October 25 is National School Library Day and International School Library Day. Schools across Canada and around the world will be using this day to celebrate school libraries. Please find out what is happening at your school and help to celebrate it. The web site for NSLD is www.nsld.ca/.
If your school or your child’s school doesn’t have a teacher-librarian, find out why. Teachers, parents, and grandparents need to demand that their children have access to a quality school library.
In future columns, we’ll be sharing ideas about how you can work with your teacher-librarian. My sincerest hope is that you have a teacher-librarian in your school.
Randi Louise Hermans is a teacher-librarian and is vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association.
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