Elementary Library Status Report

The Status of Our Elementary School Libraries

November 2007

“A person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information . . . Information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them.”

-- ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy

“Good schools have good libraries.”

-- Rep. Robert L. Rice, Testimony before

Joint Committee on Education

History:

Following the 2003-04 school year, budget constraints eliminated professional library staff in Winchester Public School (WPS) elementary schools.

Without staff, our elementary libraries would have closed completely. Instead, at each school, committed groups of parents volunteered to keep the libraries open. This is our fourth year doing so. There are from 40 to 75 volunteers, and a core group of volunteer coordinators, at each school keeping the libraries open on a limited basis, about 2.5 days per week. Volunteers also do what they can to maintain the collections. The volunteers perform an inventory at the end of each school year to identify and bill for unreturned materials. Over the past three years, parent volunteers have also automated three elementary school libraries. Parents do this without a budget for library books or supplies.

In 2006 – 2007, the district hired LeeAnne Toner as elementary library media specialist. LeeAnne was hired to oversee the five elementary school libraries, to assess the most immediate needs, and to do what she can to meet those needs. She continues in that role this year.

LeeAnne has added the following important items:

(1) Library Skills -- LeeAnne teaches library skills to fifth grade students and, where feasible, fourth grade classes. The last time this year’s fifth graders received such instruction was in first grade.

(2) Maintaining and Developing the Collections -- Last year LeeAnne provided us with approved fiction book lists from which we could order books using donated funds. This year she is developing a general “core collection” in at least some of the non-fiction curriculum areas. With this list, volunteers can then review their school’s own library collection and order according to its needs. Also, LeeAnne is able to review book donations, as well as to recommend what to do when a book is beyond repair.

(3) Renewing Reading Programs -- Because of LeeAnne, Winchester can again participate in the much loved Massachusetts Children Book Awards (MCBA) program. Funding to buy the MCBA books was through a Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence (WFEE) grant. She provides us with support for Authorfest, a day organized by the Community School Association, in which one or more published authors or illustrators visit classes in the elementary schools. Some schools were able to revive Read Across America day this year as well.

(4) Follett Software --Thanks to the administration and LeeAnne we now have technical support from Follett for our library software. LeeAnne is trained on Follett library software and is able to train volunteers in circulation, cataloging, inventory, and search functions, as well as to “trouble-shoot” when we have problems. (The Ed Tech Department provides support only for hardware.)

(5) Support -- LeeAnne has brought us great support and a voice. She is open and responsive to our needs. She facilitates library co-chair meetings where we can bring questions and share ideas. She provides a much needed liaison between the libraries and the district’s Ed Tech support team. She has helped to show ISS employees how they can be more useful in the library. With her, we can better leverage the resources that we do have.

Shortcomings:

Nevertheless, the libraries have many shortcomings. We are far from excellence, or even the standard among other schools in the Education Collaborative (EDCO). (See attached chart, EDCO Members Elementary Library Staff.) Most other school districts have a full-time, professionally staffed, 21st century library media center in each elementary school.

The field of library and information science is rapidly evolving in response to advances in digital technology and media, and has developed the concept of Information Literacy, which many elementary schools begin to teach in their library media programs. Information Literacy is a skill set that includes recognizing when information is needed, formulating questions, locating relevant information and evaluating that information’s reliability, and finally organizing and using that information.

“As a fourth grade teacher who has taught with and without media specialists, I am writing to express my desire for their return to our schools. I do not have the knowledge, skills, or time to develop lessons to teach my students the fundamentals of media. On a personal level, I love libraries and books; however, taking my students to the library without a specialist creates a time for read aloud and book checkout only. Although these are two important pieces of the puzzle, I worry about my student’s perceptions of libraries; lack of skills; and excitement. Kids deserve the opportunity and excitement of all a school library has to offer with the presence of a trained, skilled media specialist.”

-- Elementary Teacher

“I don’t know what we would do without them, but having the volunteers really masks the severity of the problem. The library impacts so many different areas: differentiated instruction in reading, research skills in social studies, having books on new topics as they’re added to state frameworks, etc. Class sizes are going up and our resources are going down.”

-- Elementary Teacher

Here are some of the reasons we fall short:

• No library is open full time. V–O, for example, is officially open for book exchange only two days per week.

• Without a Library Media Specialist in each building, library skills instruction to fifth and fourth graders is limited and isolated from the curriculum.

• There should be a library program, staffed by professional Library Media Specialists to support faculty and classrooms, and reinforce the curriculum.

• Across the district in grades K–2, building aides accompany children to the library while classroom teachers have prep time. These teachers then are not involved in the library process. While parent volunteers do their best to steer students toward appropriate material, no teacher or LMS is in the library during the visit to help a child make a book selection, follow up the next week, and recommend another book. As parent volunteers, we don’t know the children’s’ abilities, interests, or special needs. We are missing a tremendous opportunity to foster younger children’s reading.

• Communication between teachers and library volunteers is difficult and far from optimal. Volunteers often do not get direction on curriculum areas being studied or on specific books teachers want read to the class. As a result what is read aloud is most often unconnected to the large curriculum. If a volunteer notices an issue concerning a student in K through 2, there is a three- or four- point chain of communication from the volunteer, through LeeAnne or ISS staff, to the classroom teacher. A child can take out the same book week after week and check out books not appropriate to their reading level.

• Reduced library hours means it is less convenient for teachers and children to check out books; it is tempting simply to take a book, rather than to go through proper checkout procedures when the library is open. This is a threat to the collection.

• While LeeAnne is doing all she can to strengthen the collections, as one person she cannot effectively weed, select acquisitions, or keep up with curriculum frameworks changes for five schools. Coupled with the fact that we have no budget for new book purchases, the result is the collections become more dated with each passing year. The Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA) guidelines say 70% of a collection should be published in the last 10 years. At Muraco, the average age of the collection is 1988; at Lincoln and V–O it is 1989; at Lynch it is 1991; at Ambrose, it is 1994. (See attached reports of Titlewave Analysis.) In addition, last year's program review of the science program did not include any content review of the science books in the elementary school libraries, due to lack of library staff time to accomplish that.

• It is questionable whether or not the current level of volunteer staffing is sustainable. Each year some schools find it significantly harder to fill their volunteer library needs. Schools also increasingly report that because the library requires so many people, other school volunteer committees are struggling.

• It is anomalous to have a professional department run by volunteers.

To improve the situation, we recommend the following:

• We need a full-time library media specialist as part of the instructional team in each elementary school. A professional LMS would not only staff the library during all school hours and properly manage the collection, but would also collaborate with the Ed Tech and classroom teachers to teach Information Literacy at all grade levels and in the context of the curriculum topics children are working on in the classroom. Teaching library skills in isolation is a start, but we can do better. Children need access to digital media as well as print books and periodicals. An Information Literacy curriculum would increase the integration of technology in Winchester elementary schools.

• We need a realistic library materials purchase budget for each elementary school.

• Having added computers in each elementary library which run specialized library system software, we need support from Technology: someone who knows the Follett library software and can administer the elementary, middle and high school library system.

• In order to facilitate collaboration among the classroom teachers, Ed Tech specialists, other faculty and the Library Media Specialist in each building, there should be an Elementary Library/Media Program Planning Committee to coordinate meetings, inform the staff about what Information Literacy is, and identify ways to integrate each LMS into the team at each school.

Legislation:

Adding School Libraries to M.G.L. Ch. 70 There is a bill presently pending in the state legislature to amend Chapter 70 to explicitly include school libraries, House Bill 564, sponsored by Rep. William Smizik of Brookline. The rationale for this proposed amendment is to clarify that the library is not an optional, but an essential, component of each school.

Adding Highly Qualified Library Media Specialists to No Child Left Behind There is also legislation pending in the U.S. Congress called the "Strengthening Kids' Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs ) Act.” The SKILLs Act would amend the federal statute No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to require every school to have a "highly qualified" library media specialist in the same way that the law requires "highly qualified" teachers. The bill number of the SKILLs in the Senate is S.1699, and in the House it is H.R. 2864. NCLB presently makes federal grants available to Title 1 districts for library media centers.

Partnership for 21st Century Learning Finally, Gov. Patrick has announced that Massachusetts is a participant in the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, which recognizes that instruction in Information Literacy skills is essential to effective primary education.