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Carol Collier Kuhlthau - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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guided inquiry School Libraries in the 21st century
School Libraries Worldwide, 2010Co-Authors: Carol Collier KuhlthauAbstract:Global interconnectedness enabled by information technology calls for new skills, knowledge and ways of learning to prepare students for living and working in the 21st century. Guided Inquiry equips students with abilities and competencies to address the challenges of an uncertain, changing world. School librarians are vital partners in creating Schools that enable students to learn through vast resources and multiple communication channels. School Libraries are dynamic learning centers in information age Schools with School librarians as primary agents for designing Schools for 21st century learners. Call for 21st Century Skills The 21st century calls for new skills, knowledge and ways of learning to prepare students with abilities and competencies to address the challenges of an uncertain, changing world. Some think that an Internet connection in the classroom is all that is needed to transform a 20th century School into a 21st century learning space. If only it were that simple. Some assume that the Internet makes School Libraries obsolete. Research shows that this is definitely not the case. A new way of learning is needed that prepares students for living and working in a complex information environment. Our research shows that School Libraries are an essential component of information age Schools. School librarians are vital partners in creating Schools that enable students to learn through vast resources and multiple communication channels. Teachers cannot do this alone. School librarians are primary agents in Schools for 21st century learners. School Libraries are dynamic learning centers in information age Schools. Information Technology - The Upside and the Downside Consider some of the attributes of emerging information and communication technologies that change the way we live. Internet connection provides direct access to vast information resources. Mobile devices provide instantaneous communication any time and any place. Multifunctional hand-held devices are ubiquitous around the world from cosmopolitan urban centers to remote rural outposts. Web 2.0 tools help us interact, connect and collaborate in new ways. Technological tools that have become part of our everyday life have great benefit for people across the world. However, there are potential dangers as well. There is an upside and a downside to these fantastic devices. For instance, information technology is instantaneous and mobile providing equality of voice, access and communication in real time. Everyone has a voice but this also produces an abundance of misinformation and misunderstandings, intended or not. Questions arise of what is accurate, reliable, important and wise. There is confusion between what is enduring and what is ephemeral in online information. What is intended to be ephemeral keeps cropping up and reappearing as a digital footprint, frequently at awkward times, such as personal photos on Facebook that become part of a prospective employer's consideration for hiring a candidate. What is intended to be enduring and long lasting disappears and is hard to track when most needed. For example, that interesting website you found last week is no longer accessible today. Personal communities expand with like-minded people on blogs and wikis while disengagement with the here and now in the physical present is prevalent. Questions arise about who are our friends and what is our relationship with others. Information technology has an impact on education, the economy, and politics in phenomenal ways that change the way we learn, work and are governed. New skills, new knowledge and new ways of learning are essential to function and thrive in this vibrant environment. Students who are unprepared are headed on an exceedingly slippery slope leading to disappointment, confusion and possible disaster. We need to move beyond teaching how to use technology tools to teaching technology in use for creativity and meaning. …
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Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries, Part 1: How Effective School Libraries Help Students
School Libraries Worldwide, 2005Co-Authors: Ross J. Todd, Carol Collier KuhlthauAbstract:This article provides an overview of the Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries research study undertaken from October 2002 through December 2003. The study involved 39 effective School Libraries across Ohio; the participants included 13,123 students in grades 3 to 12 and 879 faculty. The focus question of the study was: How do School Libraries help students with their learning in and away from School? The findings, both quantitative and qualitative, showed that effective School Libraries help students with their learning in many ways across the various grade levels. Effective School Libraries play an active rather than passive role in students' learning. The concept of help was understood in two ways: helps-as-inputs, or help that engages students in the process of effective learning through the School library; and helps-as-outcomes/impacts, or demonstrated outcomes of meaningful learning-academic achievement and personal agency. The study shows that an effective School library is not just informational, but transformational and formational, leading to knowledge creation, knowledge production, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use, as well as the development of information values. Introduction Historically, library services worldwide have been based on the assumption that they contribute to the social good, facilitating personal decision-making, societal well-being, the growth of democracy, and the development of a knowledgeable society (Kranich, 2001). Yet understanding how Libraries actually help people remains a vexing question. Increasingly, service providers, funding authorities, and publics are calling for clear evidence that expended resources actually produce benefits for people (Durrance & Fisher-Pettigrew, 2002). School Libraries are not immune to such calls. In an environment of reduced budgets and staffing, and a prevailing public perception that School Libraries are marginal rather than integral to student learning outcomes, there is an urgent need for School librarians to demonstrate and substantiate the vital effect of their School library program on student learning and to take an evidence-based approach to practice (Todd, 2002a, 2002b). How Do School Libraries Help? The central concept of this research is help, and it is embedded in the focus question: How do School Libraries help students with their learning in and away from School? Help refers to both the institutional involvement through advice and assistance in the information experiences of people (helps-as-inputs) and the effect of this involvement on the people it serves (helps-as-outcomes/impacts). This study has been informed by four streams of literature: the information search process, information intents, outcomes measurement, and information literacy standards. Each is briefly elaborated here to establish the theoretical underpinnings and research base of this study. The Information Search Process Kuhlthau's research (1991, 1994, 1999, 2004) provides an understanding of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of the information search process and presents an understanding of the information-to-knowledge experience of people. This work emphasizes how people may be enabled and supported in their quest to seek meaning and develop understanding through information-seeking and use. Mediation and intervention as key help mechanisms are central to this process. Kuhlthau (2004) defines mediation as the "human intervention to assist information seeking and learning from information access and use.... a person who assists, guides, enables, and otherwise intervenes in another person's information search process" (p. 107). Intervention centers on how "mediators become involved in the constructive process of another person ... in information seeking and use" (p. 127). Kuhlthau's research shows that most interventions tend to be based on source and certainty orientations, that is, matching a person's query with the organized collection and often with little attention given to the holistic experience of users in the process of constructing new understandings and meanings. …
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student learning through ohio School Libraries part 2 faculty perceptions of effective School Libraries
School Libraries Worldwide, 2005Co-Authors: Ross J. Todd, Carol Collier KuhlthauAbstract:This article focuses on the perceptions of School principals and teaching faculty in relation to the School library and the helps it provides to students. Set against a brief review of current literature, it examines data provided by 879 faculty in 39 elementary, middle, and high Schools in Ohio as part of the Student Learning Through Ohio School Library research study. In a parallel survey to the Impacts on Learning Survey for students participating in this research, the Perceptions of Learning survey sought to gather faculty's perceptions of the helps provided by the School library to their students. This article presents a summary of the findings, provides a brief comparison with the student data, and addresses the concept of evidence of School library helps as observed by the teaching faculty. Introduction Support of the School principal and teaching faculty is considered an essential factor in effective School library programs. This support involves principals as decision-makers and controllers of budgets, including library budgets; staff allocation; School schedules and timetables; and policies related to instructional integration, information technology provision, and use, all of which shape and influence the School library program. The support also involves teachers as both resource users and instructional partners in the design, delivery, and assessment of information literacy instruction (Hartzell, 2002). There is some evidence from School librarians that School faculty generally do not understand the nature and dimensions of the role of the School librarian and that School librarians perceive a lack of value, importance, and appreciation of their role and a negative perception of their image. The consequence of this is that they are unable to perform at the desired level (Hartzell, 2002; Lau, 2002; Todd, 2001). Lau identified that although principals lack knowledge about the role of School Libraries and their ability to improve student learning, ownership of this lack is not merely in their hands: School librarians need to make themselves more visible by articulating and enabling their vision. This is echoed by Henri and Boyd (2002), who found that School librarians were not consciously using the heuristics of influential people, that is, likeability, expertise, sensitivity, a controlled ego, and focused energy and effort. In contrast to Lau's study are the findings of Henri, Hay, and Oberg (2002). Their study found that the beliefs of principals and School librarians about the role of the principal were well aligned except where librarians were not also qualified teachers. Principals and School librarians differed most on their current and future perceptions of the role of the principal in advocating and facilitating the development of an information-literate School community. To date, few studies have targeted the perceptions of classroom teachers toward Libraries and School librarians. Nakamura (2000) found that the importance of the pedagogical role of School Libraries and School librarians was acknowledged by most faculty. The findings of the De Witt WallaceReaders' Digest Library Power project undertaken from 1988 to 1999 (comprehensively documented in School Libraries Worldwide, 5(2), 1990) similarly showed that School faculty valued the library for meeting their instructional and resource needs and enabling effective learning outcomes. However, a gap in this literature particularly centers on understanding how teaching faculty see the School library more explicitly helping the students that they teach and how this help is evidenced in students' learning outcomes. Contemporary School librarianship literature is based on the assumption that there should be a strong and positive collaborative relationship with classroom teachers, with mutual planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of instructional interventions to ensure that students develop the appropriate cognitive, behavioral, and affective scaffolds for finding and using information in their learning tasks. …
Cheryl R Dee - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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chat reference service in medical Libraries part 2 trends in medical School Libraries
Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 2003Co-Authors: Cheryl R DeeAbstract:An increasing number of medical School Libraries offer chat service to provide immediate, high quality information at the time and point of need to students, faculty, staff, and health care professionals. Part 2 of Chat Reference Service in Medical Libraries presents a snapshot of the current trends in chat reference service in medical School Libraries. In late 2002, 25 (21%) medical School Libraries provided chat reference. Trends in chat reference services in medical School Libraries were compiled from an exploration of medical School library Web sites and informal correspondence from medical School library personnel. Many medical Libraries are actively investigating and planning new chat reference services, while others have decided not to pursue chat reference at this time. Anecdotal comments from medical School library staff provide insights into chat reference service.
Ross J. Todd - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Libraries in the Digital Age: Conceptions of the Next Gen School Libraries
2012Co-Authors: Ross J. ToddAbstract:This paper reports on selected findings from the New Jersey School Library research study One Common Goal: Student Learning that provides insights into the future of School Libraries, and their evolution and transformation in the digital age. The research was undertaken by scholars in the Center for International scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) at Rutgers University in two phases from 2009 to 2011. Collectively the findings showed that New Jersey School Libraries and School librarians contribute in rich and diverse ways to the intellectual life of a School, and to the development of students who can function in a complex and increasingly digital information environment. Phase 2 of this study examined 12 public Schools in New Jersey whose School librarians reported high levels of instructional collaboration with classroom teachers. It sought to understand the dynamics of these successful School Libraries, particularly through the eyes of School leaders and classroom teachers. Data were collected from 97 participants in focus groups in these Schools. The findings provide a framework for conceptualizing Gen Next School Libraries for a digital world, which center on five core dimensions: (1) the School library as a learning and pedagogical center, and the School librarian as a co- teacher and information learning specialist for faculty and students; (2) the School library as an inquiry learning center; (3) the School library as a center for digital citizenship; (4) the School library as community connector; and (5) the School library as a surrogate home.
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Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries, Part 1: How Effective School Libraries Help Students
School Libraries Worldwide, 2005Co-Authors: Ross J. Todd, Carol Collier KuhlthauAbstract:This article provides an overview of the Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries research study undertaken from October 2002 through December 2003. The study involved 39 effective School Libraries across Ohio; the participants included 13,123 students in grades 3 to 12 and 879 faculty. The focus question of the study was: How do School Libraries help students with their learning in and away from School? The findings, both quantitative and qualitative, showed that effective School Libraries help students with their learning in many ways across the various grade levels. Effective School Libraries play an active rather than passive role in students' learning. The concept of help was understood in two ways: helps-as-inputs, or help that engages students in the process of effective learning through the School library; and helps-as-outcomes/impacts, or demonstrated outcomes of meaningful learning-academic achievement and personal agency. The study shows that an effective School library is not just informational, but transformational and formational, leading to knowledge creation, knowledge production, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use, as well as the development of information values. Introduction Historically, library services worldwide have been based on the assumption that they contribute to the social good, facilitating personal decision-making, societal well-being, the growth of democracy, and the development of a knowledgeable society (Kranich, 2001). Yet understanding how Libraries actually help people remains a vexing question. Increasingly, service providers, funding authorities, and publics are calling for clear evidence that expended resources actually produce benefits for people (Durrance & Fisher-Pettigrew, 2002). School Libraries are not immune to such calls. In an environment of reduced budgets and staffing, and a prevailing public perception that School Libraries are marginal rather than integral to student learning outcomes, there is an urgent need for School librarians to demonstrate and substantiate the vital effect of their School library program on student learning and to take an evidence-based approach to practice (Todd, 2002a, 2002b). How Do School Libraries Help? The central concept of this research is help, and it is embedded in the focus question: How do School Libraries help students with their learning in and away from School? Help refers to both the institutional involvement through advice and assistance in the information experiences of people (helps-as-inputs) and the effect of this involvement on the people it serves (helps-as-outcomes/impacts). This study has been informed by four streams of literature: the information search process, information intents, outcomes measurement, and information literacy standards. Each is briefly elaborated here to establish the theoretical underpinnings and research base of this study. The Information Search Process Kuhlthau's research (1991, 1994, 1999, 2004) provides an understanding of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of the information search process and presents an understanding of the information-to-knowledge experience of people. This work emphasizes how people may be enabled and supported in their quest to seek meaning and develop understanding through information-seeking and use. Mediation and intervention as key help mechanisms are central to this process. Kuhlthau (2004) defines mediation as the "human intervention to assist information seeking and learning from information access and use.... a person who assists, guides, enables, and otherwise intervenes in another person's information search process" (p. 107). Intervention centers on how "mediators become involved in the constructive process of another person ... in information seeking and use" (p. 127). Kuhlthau's research shows that most interventions tend to be based on source and certainty orientations, that is, matching a person's query with the organized collection and often with little attention given to the holistic experience of users in the process of constructing new understandings and meanings. …
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student learning through ohio School Libraries part 2 faculty perceptions of effective School Libraries
School Libraries Worldwide, 2005Co-Authors: Ross J. Todd, Carol Collier KuhlthauAbstract:This article focuses on the perceptions of School principals and teaching faculty in relation to the School library and the helps it provides to students. Set against a brief review of current literature, it examines data provided by 879 faculty in 39 elementary, middle, and high Schools in Ohio as part of the Student Learning Through Ohio School Library research study. In a parallel survey to the Impacts on Learning Survey for students participating in this research, the Perceptions of Learning survey sought to gather faculty's perceptions of the helps provided by the School library to their students. This article presents a summary of the findings, provides a brief comparison with the student data, and addresses the concept of evidence of School library helps as observed by the teaching faculty. Introduction Support of the School principal and teaching faculty is considered an essential factor in effective School library programs. This support involves principals as decision-makers and controllers of budgets, including library budgets; staff allocation; School schedules and timetables; and policies related to instructional integration, information technology provision, and use, all of which shape and influence the School library program. The support also involves teachers as both resource users and instructional partners in the design, delivery, and assessment of information literacy instruction (Hartzell, 2002). There is some evidence from School librarians that School faculty generally do not understand the nature and dimensions of the role of the School librarian and that School librarians perceive a lack of value, importance, and appreciation of their role and a negative perception of their image. The consequence of this is that they are unable to perform at the desired level (Hartzell, 2002; Lau, 2002; Todd, 2001). Lau identified that although principals lack knowledge about the role of School Libraries and their ability to improve student learning, ownership of this lack is not merely in their hands: School librarians need to make themselves more visible by articulating and enabling their vision. This is echoed by Henri and Boyd (2002), who found that School librarians were not consciously using the heuristics of influential people, that is, likeability, expertise, sensitivity, a controlled ego, and focused energy and effort. In contrast to Lau's study are the findings of Henri, Hay, and Oberg (2002). Their study found that the beliefs of principals and School librarians about the role of the principal were well aligned except where librarians were not also qualified teachers. Principals and School librarians differed most on their current and future perceptions of the role of the principal in advocating and facilitating the development of an information-literate School community. To date, few studies have targeted the perceptions of classroom teachers toward Libraries and School librarians. Nakamura (2000) found that the importance of the pedagogical role of School Libraries and School librarians was acknowledged by most faculty. The findings of the De Witt WallaceReaders' Digest Library Power project undertaken from 1988 to 1999 (comprehensively documented in School Libraries Worldwide, 5(2), 1990) similarly showed that School faculty valued the library for meeting their instructional and resource needs and enabling effective learning outcomes. However, a gap in this literature particularly centers on understanding how teaching faculty see the School library more explicitly helping the students that they teach and how this help is evidenced in students' learning outcomes. Contemporary School librarianship literature is based on the assumption that there should be a strong and positive collaborative relationship with classroom teachers, with mutual planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of instructional interventions to ensure that students develop the appropriate cognitive, behavioral, and affective scaffolds for finding and using information in their learning tasks. …
Maredi Samuel Mojapelo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A LEGISLATED School LIBRARY POLICY: CAN FUNCTIONAL School Libraries BE ENVISIONED WITHOUT ONE?
Mousaion: South African Journal of Information Studies, 2015Co-Authors: Maredi Samuel MojapeloAbstract:Although School Libraries are important resource centres that support curriculum delivery and important pedagogical matters, it is disturbing that, in South Africa, only a minority (7.2%) of Schools have well-stocked functional School Libraries. A legislated School library policy is crucial for a country to roll out effective School library and information services (LIS). This is particularly true in South African Schools, which are characterised by enormous disparities in the provision of resources because of the legacy of apartheid. Grounded in the literature review, the fact that the national Department of Basic Education (DBE) does not have a legislated and approved School library policy is a stumbling block to developing and sustaining an active and dynamic School library service for all public Schools in South Africa. The purpose of this article is to help relevant stakeholders understand the importance of a legislated School library policy in championing the establishment and development of an active, vibrant and dynamic functional School library service to support the progressive, constructivist and resource based curriculum in the country. The study recommends that the National Guidelines for School Library and Information Services (SA DBE 2012) be amended to a legislated School library policy to resuscitate indeterminate and non-functional Libraries in the majority of Schools.Â
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information access in high School Libraries in limpopo province south africa
South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science, 2015Co-Authors: Maredi Samuel Mojapelo, Luyanda DubeAbstract:Researchers agree that information resources are imperative for curriculum support. Equitable access to information resources by teachers and learners is absolutely essential to enable them to execute their curriculum-related tasks. However, only a few Schools have functional Libraries in South Africa making accessibility to the information resources a major challenge to the majority of the teachers and learners. Where School Libraries are inadequate, other information services become significant. The purpose of this study was to investigate information access by teachers and learners in high Schools in the Limpopo province. The study was largely quantitative blended with triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from the principals and teacher-librarians whilst an interview schedule was used to collect qualitative data from the education officials. The findings established that access to information by teachers and learners is a daunting challenge in the majority of the Schools. The study recommends that the National Guidelines for School Library and Information Services document (2012) be converted into a legislated School library policy to ensure functionality of the different School library models to improve information access for curriculum support.
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A legislated School library policy : can functional School Libraries be envisioned without one? : library and information services to children
2015Co-Authors: Maredi Samuel MojapeloAbstract:Although School Libraries are important resource centres that support curriculum delivery and important pedagogical matters, it is disturbing that, in South Africa, only a minority (7.2%) of Schools have well-stocked functional School Libraries. A legislated School library policy is crucial for a country to roll out effective School library and information services (LIS). This is particularly true in South African Schools, which are characterised by enormous disparities in the provision of resources because of the legacy of apartheid. Grounded in the literature review, the fact that the national Department of Basic Education (DBE) does not have a legislated and approved School library policy is a stumbling block to developing and sustaining an active and dynamic School library service for all public Schools in South Africa. The purpose of this article is to help relevant stakeholders understand the importance of a legislated School library policy in championing the establishment and development of an active, vibrant and dynamic functional School library service to support the progressive, constructivist and resource based curriculum in the country. The study recommends that the National Guidelines for School Library and Information Services (SA DBE 2012) be amended to a legislated School library policy to resuscitate indeterminate and non-functional Libraries in the majority of Schools.
Hilary Hughes - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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School Libraries teacher librarians and student outcomes presenting and using the evidence
School Libraries Worldwide, 2014Co-Authors: Hilary HughesAbstract:Evidence is required to ensure the future viability of School Libraries and teacher-librarians. Education policy makers and School principals need detailed, reliable evidence to support informed decision-making about School library resourcing and staffing. Teacher-librarians need evidence to guide their professional practice and demonstrate their contribution to student learning outcomes. This review, which arises from recent Australian research (Hughes, 2013), collates international and Australian research about the impacts of School Libraries and teacher librarians. It strengthens the evidence base, and recommends how this evidence can be best used to advance School Libraries and teacher-librarians and enhance student learning.
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Reimagining School Libraries: emerging teacher pedagogic practices
2013Co-Authors: Jill Willis, Derek C. Bland, Hilary Hughes, Raylee Elliott BurnsAbstract:Agile learning spaces have the potential to afford flexible and innovative pedagogic practice. However there is little known about the experiences of teachers and learners in newly designed learning spaces, and whether the potential for reimagined pedagogies is being realised. This paper uses data from a recent study into the experiences of teacher-librarians, teachers, students and leaders of seven Queensland School Libraries built with Building the Education Revolution (BER) funding, to explore the question, “how does the physical environment of School Libraries influence pedagogic practices?” This paper proposes that teachers explored new pedagogies within the spaces when there was opportunity for flexibility and experimentation and the spaces sufficiently supported their beliefs about student learning. The perspectives of a range of library users were gathered through an innovative research design incorporating student drawings, videoed library tours and reflections, and interviews. The research team collected qualitative data from School Libraries throughout 2012. The Libraries represented a variety of geographic locations, socioeconomic conditions and both primary and secondary campuses. The use of multiple data sources, and also the perspectives of the multiple researchers who visited the sites and then coded the data, enabled complementary insights and synergies to emerge. Principles of effective teacher learning that can underpin School wide learning about the potential for agile learning spaces to enhance student learning, are identified. The paper concludes that widespread innovative use of the new library spaces was significantly enhanced when the School leadership fostered whole School discussions about the type of learning the spaces might provoke. This research has the potential to inform School designers, teachers and teacher-librarians to make the most of the transformative potential of next generation learning spaces.
