The State of Reference in School Libraries
Lawrence V. Ghezzi and Walter Johnson
What is the state of reference in school libraries? Before this question can be addressed, others must be asked and answered: What is the definition of a “school library,” and who are the individuals providing the reference services? What is a virtual library, and how can virtual libraries be used in schools? How have virtual libraries transformed today’s school libraries? What roles do school librarians play within this changing learning environment? And what is the role of reference for today’s school librarian?
Defining School Libraries and Librarians
In this time of transition from conventional to virtual services, it is not only the reference services that are being reshaped but also entire spaces and position descriptions. The physical changes in the spaces where students seek information affect the way reference and instruction services are delivered. The names of these physical spaces do not always identify them as libraries, with some being labeled as “media centers” or “information commons.” While the term “school library” often refers to those in a K–12 environment, this chapter discusses some innovations and examples from post–secondary schools.
Just as the names of the physical spaces are not always consistent, neither is the description of the person providing the reference assistance. According to the official web log of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), the term “school librarian” was officially adopted as the title used to describe the individual providing reference services in a school library (Pentlin 2010). Previously, the term “school library media specialist” had been the official term. In addition to the official terms, these professionals have been known as “media specialists,” “teacher librarians,” “library teachers,” and other similar descriptive titles. The reaction to this name change has not been entirely positive, with many in the profession thinking that this change was a return to an outdated title that many states had already abandoned (Staino 2010).
The authors found no indication in the real world that school districts are following this recommendation. A perusal of several school websites, staff directories, and media center websites confirmed that this change is not universal. Colleges and universities continue to offer courses in media specialization. The authors’ state of employment, New Jersey, uses the term “school library media specialist,” and while the authors identify with the former term, the official AASL term, “school librarian,” is used in this chapter. Regardless of the name used, professionals who maintain, manage, and are leading school libraries into the future are currently faced with many challenges involving the changing face of school library reference.
The Nature of Virtual Libraries
In the past, a library was measured by the physical size of the library and the physical numbers in its collection. Today, size is determined by the packet of the library’s server. Through electronics, any library, regardless of dimension and position, can tout possession of the complete contents of the Library of Congress, the complete repository of the Louvre, the complete assemblage of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the complete aggregation of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the complete treasures of the Vatican, and so on. All of this can be available on a computer monitor or, as is fast becoming the case, on a minuscule plastic instrument attached to the belt of any person.
Although there is an extensive scope of technology available to students in different school districts, often restricted by socioeconomic factors, digital accessibility is more and more the norm rather than the exception. As a consequence, the avenue of access is no longer confined to a particular geographic position. A student may access the library’s resources while sipping a Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbucks, curled up on a comfortable bed, or sitting under the leafy boughs of an elm tree. In addition, literally millions of sources of trivia (some of which may actually be accurate) can also be found in the blink of an eye.
What impact does this readily available pastiche of information have on a typical school library and its users? How has it changed reference in school libraries? Let us first look at the manner in which computerization and the World Wide Web have changed what typifies a library.
What Is a Virtual Library?
Surely, the word “library” needs no explanation, although it can encompass a diversity of items, such as books, maps, sound or video recordings, and the like. Its chief attribute is that it is physical. The word “virtual” is defined by Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary as “being in essence, but not in fact.” Therefore, it would seem that a virtual library is one which is in essence a library but not in fact a library. This contradiction is, very often, the basis of confusion when school librarians discuss “virtual libraries.”
Several definitions of a virtual library can be found via a Google search on the web. A virtual library can be:
• A library that has no physical existence, being constructed solely in electronic form.
• Access to electronic information in a variety of remote locations through a local online catalog or other gateway, such as the Internet.
• A search aid that combines Internet technology with traditional library methods of cataloging and assessing data.
• A directory that contains collections of resources that librarians or other information specialists have carefully chosen and organized in a logical way.
• An annotated, frequently updated subject guide to online resources (documents, databases, mailing lists, catalogs of links).
For the purposes of this chapter, we use the second definition—“Access to electronic information in a variety of remote locations through a local online catalog or other gateway, such as the Internet”—expanding the definition somewhat to include resources that may exist on-site or off-site utilizing Internet technology.
Do Virtual Libraries Currently Exist?
The answer is an emphatic YES! In the real world, every time someone logs on to the World Wide Web, that person is making use of virtual libraries, be it reading an article in the New York Times Online, perusing information at Weather.com, or placing an order at ShopRite. There are also other, more “conventional” virtual libraries.
The U.S. Library of Congress and the New York Public Library (NYPL), for example, have digitized huge areas of their book collections. The Elizabethtown College website (www.etown.edu) lists twenty-six virtual libraries that are searchable system-wide. The diverse list ranges from the European Commission Libraries, to the Karlsruhe (Germany) University Virtual Catalog, to the Military Education and Research Library Network, to the United Nations System Shared Cataloguing and Public Access System, to mention a few. Some major libraries listed include the National Library of Australia, the British Library, the University of Texas Libraries (which has links to online books in English and other languages), and INFOMINE (University of California) listings of databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, electronic discussion lists, online library card catalogs, as well as articles and directories of researchers. These listings are updated on a regular basis, making them more current than print versions.
How Does a Virtual School Library Affect Existing Collections and Librarians?
A virtual library can both enhance and supplement existing school library collections. For example, a small library may have just a few books on pre-Columbian art. Through the use of the Internet and other electronic resources, additional materials on pre-Columbian art can be made available to students, thus supplementing the existing collection. Taking it a step further, the library can make available electronic media on other art styles, thereby enhancing its collection of art resources. “In no institution does the expectation of electronic miracles make better sense than in libraries. Where, if not in these great repositories of information, positioned as they are smack-dab in the middle of the information age, on the very crossroads of all the information highways, should electronics be more useful?”(von Hoffman 1996, 130).
Longtime library employees accustomed to the traditional research methods utilizing hard-copy reference materials may feel threatened by the incursion of the Internet and other electronic resources into a library. They may think that their jobs will become unnecessary as more and more library users bypass them to acquire the information they seek. Real-world experience tends to be the opposite.
In his 1996 article on electronic libraries, von Hoffman referenced George Needham’s (formerly of the Public Library Association) words that “without the staff to help people use the machines, the equipment will be ‘little more than Pentium paperweights’” (130). The article went on to warn about not only the affordability of replacing hardware year to year but also being able to afford the staff needed to assist patrons with its use. Von Hoffman quoted William D. Walker, senior vice president of the Research Libraries of the NYPL: “If people are using things like the World Wide Web, we need one staff member out on the floor for every twenty workstations in use. But if people are working with statistical data packages, they need a very different level of staff person” (130). These statements, made when Google was only just beginning, remain true today. While the hardware and technology have changed, the need for librarians to assist patrons in their use has, if anything, increased with changes in technology.
Libraries must continue to consider the problems posed by future changes in technology. Educated guesses can be made about what these changes will be, but there is absolutely no certainty about what will turn out to be useful, economical, and popular. Consider, for example, the battle between the Betamax and the VHS video-recording systems a number of decades ago. Betamax was a superior recording system, but the buying public chose the less expensive, somewhat inferior VHS system because of the availability of inexpensive, prerecorded VHS videotapes.
Another advantage of virtual libraries, especially when speaking about school libraries, lies in the greater utilization of space. What once took miles of shelving can now be accessed through a laptop computer. Even if the library maintains its database on CDs, the space saving is phenomenal. For example, the entire National Geographic Magazine from 1888 through 1999—including articles, photographs, and advertisements—can be stored in nine inches of shelving space. Other standard reference books, for example, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bartlett’s Quotations, World Book Encyclopedia (multimedia version that includes video and sound), Grolier’s Encyclopedia, and Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary are available on single CDs. With today’s online access and cloud storage, even space for CDs and DVDs is becoming less important.
How User-Friendly Are Virtual School Libraries?
Today’s crop of students has grown up surrounded by computer technology; they are the so-called digital natives (Prensky 2001). Most primary school students are more familiar with the working of the World Wide Web than with the arcane method of searching through three-by-five index cards in a long oak drawer. Most websites are well designed and easily navigated. The plethora of search engines makes finding information about the most abstruse subject a simple and rapid matter of clicking away. Dr. Lawrence H. Summers (2011), President Emeritus of Harvard University, commented during his keynote address to the New York Times Schools for Tomorrow conference that he had seen a fifteen-month-old use one with some success. Doug Levin (2011), Executive Director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, opined that “students themselves already use the technology to play games or connect with friends on Facebook.”
If students themselves are already using the technology, what level of training is required for them and for staff? In most cases, little or no training is required for students. It would be the singular student of any age who would not know how to use a mouse or a keyboard. Staff, on the other hand, is entirely a different matter. Generally speaking, educators and library staff tend to be less experienced in computer literacy. They have grown up without the digital devices of today and may feel uncomfortable—even threatened—by computer technology; they are the so-called digital immigrants (Prensky 2001). In-house training and attendance at seminars and off-site classes (often conducted at regional libraries and community colleges) as well as one-on-one peer instruction are all viable avenues to elevate staff knowledge to appropriate levels.
Is a Virtual Library Simply Another Informational Tool?
A videotape is an informational tool; a VCR is a device to access the videotape (the informational tool). A virtual library is a device to access digital information, either through a digital medium or via the World Wide Web. Of itself, it is nothing, just as a library building, of itself, is not knowledge. However, the knowledge that is available through a virtual library is astounding, limitless, and unsurpassed by conventional libraries. The virtual library also is capable of being updated instantaneously, unlike conventional libraries that may lag years behind in purchasing new editions of reference books. In 2003, a survey of library books by a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) member at a primary school in coastal New Jersey discovered a science book that stated: “While the possibility of a human landing on the moon is technically possible, it is unlikely that it will happen in this century.” This was the most current science book available in that library.
As mentioned earlier, more and more of today’s students—primary, secondary, and college level—are incredibly computer literate. They have grown up with computer technology and consider it as commonplace as Gen Xers would have considered VCRs. Many colleges, in fact, provide freshmen with laptops as part of the basic school package, along with books, pencils, paper, and lunch passes. In fact, today’s students would be stymied by the traditional methods of research: shifting through card files, pulling out mountains of books, making notations on yellow pads, and pulling it all together on a typewriter. The philosophy of research has changed dramatically with the advent of the World Wide Web and the proliferation of inexpensive computers. Libraries and staff that attempt to maintain the status quo will be left behind.
To this end, school librarians and library staff must accept that the computer in its various configurations (laptops, e-readers, iPads, smart phones, etc.)—and random learning, as opposed to structured learning—is a valid research tool, and not just as a passing fancy of the younger generation. Many library and media centers have accepted technology as a valid learning tool for a generation raised on television and computers, and they have seen dramatic increases in resource usage.
School librarians who are willing to invest the time and energy in learning new technological skills can see a dramatic increase in students’ learning skills and performance levels. The East Mooresville (North Carolina) Intermediate School utilizes MacBooks in its fifth grade math class to enable students to work their way through advanced assignments. As Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Grade School District, in a personal conversation with the author several years ago, put it, “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction—preparing students for their future, not our past.” The district’s graduation rate was 91 percent in 2011, up from 80 percent in 2008. On state tests in reading, math, and science, an average of 88 percent of students across grades and subjects met proficiency standards, compared with 75 percent three years ago. Attendance is up, dropouts are down. Mooresville ranks 100th out of 115 districts in North Carolina in terms of dollars spent per student, but it is now third in test scores and second in graduation rates (Schwarz 2012).
Are There Limitations to the Technology?
While thankfully the attitude is losing ground, there are still pockets of educators who fear a reliance on computer usage: “What if the electricity fails? Nobody can use the computer.” Of course, if there were a major power outage, the libraries would have to close and students would not be able to use books anyway. In addition, inexpensive battery backups are available that enable users to complete their online research without losing the information obtained. Given both of these points, such an argument is clearly baseless.
There are schools, however, that do not use technology; one such school is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, which eschews the use of any technology in its 160 locations. The Waldorf teaching philosophy is focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. It is based on the belief that computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction, and attention spans. (Interestingly, this Los Altos, California, school includes students whose parents are officers and employees of eBay, Google, Apple, Yahoo!, and Hewlett-Packard.) The classrooms’ low-tech equipment includes blackboards, colored chalk, reference books, and number-2 pencils. Fractions are taught by cutting into food, which is later consumed by the students. Do the children learn any better? The Waldorf School admits it is difficult to compare since, as a private school, they do not administer standardized tests in elementary grades (Richtel 2011).
Socioeconomic Factors
Computers are everywhere, from the desktop to the smart phone. It would be difficult to find an educational environment—not to mention a place in the world at large—where computer terminals did not exist. And many of today’s students, as previously mentioned, have a high degree of computer competency, much of it innate. Unfortunately, socioeconomic factors can negatively impact students from poorer environments who may not have similar competency with using digital equipment in a scholastic environment, although anecdotal evidence tends to indicate that the usage of some forms of computers (e.g., iPads, cell phones, and smart phones) is becoming less constrained by economics. Walking through parks, streets, malls, and schools located in a variety of environments, one will see a large number of young people with cell phones.
While it may be that some cost analyses have been conducted, anecdotal evidence indicates that the multiuser aspect of computer terminals, servers, and other digital media dramatically reduces the per-user cost of research and reference materials. As an example, several thousand schools can access materials in the U.S. Library of Congress via the web; this means that those schools do not need to purchase a hard copy of a book for their stacks. Money not spent on books can be used elsewhere in the media center to enhance access to virtual library resources.
In the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District (Monmouth County, New Jersey), Nooks are replacing books. The district worked with Barnes & Noble to acquire fifty-four Nooks at a cost of $99 each. According to Zach Gross, the media specialist at the Matawan Regional High School, “compared with the cost of buying actual books, we are saving money in the long run. This reduces the number of books that will be lost or damaged. We won’t have to worry about replacing books from wear” (Antonucci 2012, 3). Furthermore, according to Gross, they “no longer buy reference books since students have unlimited resources to that information. [Pointing to the reference section] . . . that whole area is eventually going to be replaced with digital” (Antonucci 2012, 3). Classical books required by students are available digitally and students are encouraged to use their personal devices (cell phones, iPads, and iPods) to download materials as part of the district’s “Bring Your Own Device” initiative, allowing students to use their cell phones, personal laptops, and other devices during classroom instruction (Antonucci 2012).
Limited Access to Resources
Unfortunately, there is the widespread belief that one can call up all of Western civilization’s writings on the computer screen, but nothing could be further from the truth. Of the millions of books on library shelves throughout the world, only a relative handful can be summoned onto the computer screen. For example, the Library of Congress has nearly 100 million items in its catalogs, but, according to the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov), only “several million” are available digitally. Furthermore, contemporary publishers are not eager to produce digital formats for the various e-readers due to a fear of lost sales. There is much contention between publishers and libraries over this issue. Publishers are also reluctant to invest in the various e-book formats or to provide audiobooks for all titles.
Transformation: Models and Examples
Libraries are now struggling to fit electronic modules into an edifice layout that never anticipated anything other than physical collections. How, then, are modern libraries to accommodate the explosion of contemporary electronic devices and protocols that are required, indeed demanded, by today’s technologically oriented student?
The physical structure of the library will have to be transformed from a warehouse of books and media into a communications command post. Flexible space will have to be provided for various activities, ranging from small group projects to individual students working in a multimedia lab or audiovisual studio. In order to empower students to communicate through a variety of modes and media, the library must have the technological capabilities necessary.
Redesigning Space and Services
There are exciting examples of how school libraries can be restructured to focus on clients, accommodate technology, provide for information skills training of clients, be cost-effective, allow for printed collections that are still growing despite shrinking expansion rates, accommodate staff whose primary activity is service to users, and support the social role the library has always played.
One example from 1999 is the University of Queensland (Australia), which designed a library with over 700 PCs (with 400 of these available for public access) serving 25,000 students and 4,800 staff and researchers (Schmidt, Croud, and Turnbull 2000). The Queensland Library used as its slogan “We link people with information.” This, then, was the focus of the redesign: working in partnership with teaching departments; supporting and adding value to teaching, learning, research, and community services; and responding to current needs while anticipating and preparing for future needs (Schmidt and Wilson 1998).
Today’s school libraries require on-screen computer access to resources with visual images that are stored locally or remotely. Readers like to sit or lie on the floor, with many preferring “noisy” spaces. In higher education, the learning environment emphasizes learner-centered and problem-based approaches to teaching, lifelong learning, and flexible delivery of programs. The student is now a customer with needs and wants. A successful school library or media center must use marketing approaches that emphasis the customer. In other words, the physical space and the school librarian are navigators for a client using a computer to access electronic resources. The library is a window on the world.
In redesigning the existing layout, the Queensland staff developed several flowcharts of possible activities of library users as well as an analysis of seating. Students appeared to be staying away in droves from the neatly arranged carrels, preferring to sprawl at tables and spaces closer to the collections. The media center had to be marketed as an attractive place to study, with a variety of comfortable seating arrangements for both individuals and groups; it also needed to provide a social meeting area, dial-up user access, space for library staff and client meetings, and appropriate amenities for staff.
All of the services to be provided by the library were identified, and the nature, character, clientele, and relationships with other services were described and delineated. Visits were made to other service organizations, including banks, Internet cafés, telecommunication service providers, and music/hi-fi stores, to “unfreeze” current library design perceptions and present new ideas for incorporation in the new library model. Should the new library be more like a supermarket or a shopping mall? What could be learned from service providers that had already responded flexibly to client needs?
Early discussions focused on the creation of an abstract diagram that would represent the ideal model without reference to the physical constraints of existing buildings. This was done to avoid the existing physical layouts driving the agenda rather than the client (i.e., student) needs.
It became obvious that all students do not study in the same way. Inherent in the design was a variety of study spaces reflecting the diverse needs of the students. The following were identified:
• Group study
• Noisy study
• Quiet study
• Individual study rooms
• Comfortable reading areas
• Study for people with disabilities
• Advanced study services
• Electronic study, both beginner and advanced
• Study with coffee
• Study with music
The outcome of the previous research resulted in a library that includes a “hub” where assistance is provided, training rooms, workstations, a display area for new materials, copying facilities, and a self-service checkout. Students can easily access the print collections as well as the virtual collections, either housed within the facility or off-site (off-site, of course, refers to any virtual collections anywhere in the world), and there is an information assistance desk where students can get specialized help.
A more recent example of the changing nature of post–secondary school libraries is the College of New Jersey, which recently opened its $35-million library that reflects the changing nature of college libraries. “A library is not just a warehouse for storing books. A library is a place you go to be in a library,” says Tara Pavlovsky, the library dean (Heyboer 2005). Taking a cue from coffee shops and bookstores that attract students in droves, the library has plush armchairs and ottomans, big windows, soft colors, and a coffee bar. It seems more like a large bookstore than a college library.
Finding the balance between virtual and print is a delicate art. An example of a virtual library that accommodates an extensive existing print collection is the Middletown Township (New Jersey) Public Library. It is a state-of-the-art library integrating conventional and virtual collections. The main branch includes forty workstations: eight are dedicated to the library’s catalog, sixteen are for adult users, four are in the Teen Room, and twelve are in the Children’s Room. Card holders can access the library’s catalog, request additions to the library’s collection, renew books or electronic media, and reserve books or media without ever setting foot in the building. Self-checkout of books and media is accomplished via a touch terminal utilizing RFID (radio frequency identification) coding. This system also generates automatic phone calls when materials have not been returned on time. One might conjecture that this would result in fewer people visiting the physical library, but, in actuality, according to the library’s annual reports, circulation has been increasing each year.
The Middletown Township Public Library reopened approximately a year ago after an extensive remodeling and expansion program, including the incorporation of many of the features described in the Queensland project. The new library has received many compliments on its appearance, functionality, and user-friendliness. The bottom line is a 77 percent increase in circulation and a dramatic increase in patronage. In fact, the library broke with its tradition and added Sunday hours to meet the needs of its users.
Many public libraries are taking a more virtual approach as technology becomes available. Audiobooks can be borrowed from the library without using CDs or audiotapes, taking car trips, or incurring late fines. The popularity of e-readers has led to a surge in demand for e-books. Libraries are offering access 24/7 and considering the needs of those too busy or too far to travel to a physical space. Vendors such as OverDrive, OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), and NetLibrary were in more than 1,000 libraries across the country in 2005 (Hill 2005), with this number increasing exponentially each year. The previously mentioned Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District and the Mooresville School District are pilot programs that are being viewed as possible role models for digital school integration. Major obstacles to incorporating these models into existing school districts are the need to make very painful staff and technological changes to free up financial resources.
Planning for Partnerships and Collaboration
When given the opportunity to develop space and services, it is important that school libraries look to emulate what is being done in the local colleges and communities, as with the earlier examples. Along with considering these spaces as models, school librarians should be looking at them for possible partnerships. There are several examples of public and school library collaboration listed on the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) website (www.ala.org/alsc/schoolplcoop#campaigns). These examples include library card campaigns, increasing registration through the schools, and sometimes targeting specific classes, such as kindergarten and first grade. Assignment alerts can be set up to inform the public librarians of specific school assignments, helping those librarians assist the students. There are also examples of school librarians visiting the public libraries and public librarians going to the schools.
There have been innovative examples of conventional-virtual library integration, such as the QandANJ program, a network of experienced New Jersey librarians offering free, live, interactive search assistance 24/7, which was terminated in December 2011 due to lack of funding. With forty-four member libraries, QandANJ was supported in whole or in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the New Jersey State Library (an affiliate of Thomas Edison State College), managed by the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, and staffed by member libraries in the New Jersey Library Network. It is unfortunate that due to state budget cuts, along with this New Jersey example, other similar services from different states have also ceased. However, this cooperation between multiple library service points continues to happen in Florida through its Ask a Librarian website (www.askalibrarian.org). It is hoped that these services will continue and that others may be reinstated in the future.
There are many examples of public libraries targeting young readers that can be used as models for school libraries. Recognizing the need to encourage youngsters to become familiar with, and comfortable within, a library setting, many municipal libraries are forming partnerships with local schools to present reading programs. One national program is “Read to a Dog” (Reading Education Assistance Dogs program; www.therapyanimals.org/R.E.A.D.html). This program allows new readers to read aloud to a trained therapy dog. The Middletown Township Public Library has a monthly program at two of its branches. The high volume of attendance has required the library to take reservations for each session and limit participation to ten-minute modules.
While many acknowledge the importance of collaboration, actual implementation is not always an easy process. School librarians need to be aware of the opportunities and take advantage of them when they are available. As funding in both school and public libraries continues to dwindle, it would be beneficial for both to work toward sharing resources. While many of the examples listed on the ALSC website can be used as models, it is important that school librarians address some of the questions discussed by Tasha Squires (2009) in her book Library Partnerships. These questions involve finding ways to approach other libraries, developing long-term relationships, establishing connections and sharing resources, and, of course, securing the ever important funding.
Using Social Media to Educate
In the early days of cell phones, their use was condemned by educators and they were banished from classrooms. Despite this, Facebook, Twitter, online blogs, and YouTube have become a constant habit in the lives of students as well as adults. Today, rather than shunning the once-perceived obstacle to students’ attention, educators across New Jersey are embracing social media as a way of engaging young people. A survey of college and higher education instructors indicated that 80 percent of nearly 2,000 faculty members polled used social media in the classroom (Oglesby 2012). The study also reported that 30 percent used social media to make material available to students outside of class. More and more teachers are using YouTube and video-streaming websites to illustrate lessons and blogs for student discussion.
In the General Management Program at the Paris business school, Essec, entering students are provided with an iPad, Facebook is used to foster a sense of community among the students, and Twitter is used to allow large groups of students to interact with lecturers. Videoconferencing is an avenue to unite students and lecturers scattered around the globe. Internally, the school relies heavily on Google for Gmail, Google+ for social networking, and Google docs for teaching materials (Schuetze 2011).
Rutgers University in New Jersey created digital extension of classrooms with blog-hosted discussions and class supplements in the form of streaming video. The use of digital communication has enabled both students and teachers to break down the boundaries of time, borders, culture, and generations.
Students use Facebook or Twitter to complete school assignments, seek assistance from instructors or peers, and check peer leadership for group discussions of projects. Many secondary and high schools now allow the use of cell phones between periods, at lunchtime, and at the request of teachers. Many teachers, as well as students, have found quick access to the Internet to be helpful. As one principal stated, “We have all these minicomputers attached to kids’ hips.” And a smart phone is truly a portable computer (Oglesby 2012).
Many instructors have adopted the service known as eClicker that allows students to text-message quiz answers directly to the instructors, thereby eliminating the feedback time required to grade papers. According to the description on the iTunes website (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eclicker-client/id329200145?mt=8), eClicker is a personal response system that allows teachers to poll their class during a lesson. It provides teachers with the real-time feedback they need to be sure their messages are being received. Features include a Wi-Fi-based classroom response system for up to sixty-four clients; student participation with any Internet-enabled device; ability to edit questions on a computer or iOS device; option to add or draw images with questions; and sharing of sets with other teachers via Bluetooth. A teacher can also poll questions one at a time or back-to-back and review historical polling data and e-mail reports. Others will blog assignments for later access by students.
At least one corporation, Pearson Learning Solutions, is looking for ways to meld social media with its products and give students online identities for web class work. According to the website (www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com), “Pearson promotes the use of technology as an educational resource in the classroom, at home, and on-the-go, and offers educational technology solutions that allow innovative technological vision to become a reality for the betterment of the learning environment at-large.”
One New Jersey school district used social media to coordinate communication on a joint school project between two high schools. Students in the Morris County (New Jersey) East Hanover School District used social media to share their needs for a bench with the shop students at East Hanover Middle School. The students used Skype to oversee the construction (Oglesby 2012). Perhaps the most appealing aspect of social media is its cost. As one instructor said, “It’s all free. It’s all accessible” (Corbett 2012).
Smart phones and iPads are the composition notebooks of the twenty-first century, albeit the new versions come in many skins to personalize the equipment, as opposed to the standard black-and-white splatter pattern. Norma Blake, retiring New Jersey State Librarian, is looking at a pilot program to bring iPad dispensing machines to local libraries (Corbett 2012). This would be a major step forward from the sale of floppies and thumb drives that currently exists in many libraries. Many libraries have already migrated to the latest digital technology imported from Japan: QR (quick response) codes. These little squares of black-and-white boxes that can be read by smart phones immediately connect the user to the library’s website, where surfing can be initiated. The Middletown Township Public Library, discussed earlier, launched just such a service in May 2012. Users are able to not only access the library’s website portal but also search, reserve, and renew materials.
The School Librarian in Today’s Learning Environment
As American society has transformed itself from the Industrial Age to today’s Information Age, school librarians have had to redefine their roles within the framework of the school’s instructional realm (Mehlinger 1996). Traditional library skills have not transmuted into information resources skills. Let us look at a generic school librarian job description that can be found online (http://careers.stateuniversity.com):
Elementary school librarians teach basic library skills, often in regularly scheduled classes in the library. They may teach students how to distinguish among various kinds of books, such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and biography, and how to use the classification systems for finding books and other materials. They encourage use of the library for information and recreation, while making it an interesting and important part of the school day. To interest students in reading, librarians may conduct story hours for the younger students and arrange special programs for those in the higher grades.
Most students begin to learn research techniques in junior and senior high school, so secondary school librarians usually hold orientation sessions for individual classes to explain the use of card catalogs, computer databases, reference books, indexes to periodicals, and audiovisual materials. They help individual students by suggesting specific sources or ways of finding information. Sometimes librarians set up exhibits designed to make students aware of library holdings, often coordinating the exhibits with historical events or holidays.
While much of this job description is applicable in a general way to today’s world, some specifics are no longer relevant to today’s student (e.g., using the Dewey Decimal System to find materials and how to use a card catalog). Instead, the contemporary librarian must be extremely computer literate with a level of expertise that, at the very least, matches that of the students who live in daily contact with smart phones, laptops, and iPads. The librarian must be able to navigate the superfluity of search engines (e.g., Google, Ask.com, and Bing), advise the student on the exactness of the reference, and caution the student on the dangers of plagiarism. The librarian must function as a mentor to the student in refining a search parameter to locate the precise material required. The librarian must also be intimately acquainted with the many free reference resources available online that complement the physical acquisitions housed in the library. The librarian must also be a hardware mechanic for such times as when a printer will not print (sometimes with such a simple fix as adding paper to the machine) and a software guru for those times when “The computer does not want to do anything!”
How students learn is changing, and the library must change with it. Long gone are the silent alleyways stacked with leather-bound books; the “silence” signs; the elderly woman wearing a cameo, half-glasses suspended from her neck by a small chain, with a tight bun of graying hair and a perpetual scowl on her face; and the concept that the library is a hallowed hall bordering on the sacred. Today’s library is bright, open, and even noisy, as students collaborate on projects, running back and forth between work carrels and computer terminals. In the near future, the rooms may be total devoid of books and magazines as all resources become available digitally. As mentioned earlier, the four-foot-wide Encyclopaedia Britannica stack has been replaced by either a quarter-centimeter-thick shiny disc or a simple keystroke. Changes in a school library come about in a variety of ways. As the library moves from a facility that provides information to one that creates a center for learning, library policies have to be reexamined. A library schedule must be flexible enough to allow students access to information when the need arises from the curriculum. To accomplish this, the librarian must be a consultant to teachers on unit planning as well as equipment usage (Clark 1991). In the lead author’s personal experience, the latter issue has been a serious matter.
During the past two decades, there have been many attempts to train teachers in the use of computers. Unfortunately, most of the training has focused on the use of computers as an administrative tool rather than as a teaching tool. Recent studies have indicated that a large percentage of teachers have learned to handle administrative tasks (attendance, grade reporting, e-mailing)) on the computer but have not learned to use the computer as an adjunct to their teaching modalities.
How are these teachers to be taught to use computers in a pedagogical setting? Who are the best teachers of teachers? This question was raised by Merle Marsh, EdD, in an article on teacher development, particularly in the use of technologies in the classroom. According to the article, which has now been archived, “The answer most given is almost universal: other teachers.” She continued: “It makes sense. Other teachers know. They are aware of the demands on time and talent. . . . Teachers recognize those who are exceptional teachers and copy them in their own way. They model what successful teachers are doing and reshape the methods to fit their unique style. . . . Nowhere is this more obvious than in learning how to use technologies and how to integrate them into the curriculum” (Marsh 2008). In other words, librarians gather skills from other teachers that they use to fortify their own methods.
Marsh (2008) makes the valid point that most schools, unlike the commercial world, do not have the luxury of hiring a staff of professionally trained computer experts to set everything up, train everyone who needs to learn how to use the technologies, keep everything running, and provide individualized help when needed. Even if they did, most of the teachers’ learning would come from other teachers because computer engineers are not experts in education and the art of teaching children.
Most educators appear eager to integrate computers into their curricula. Unfortunately, computer usage has stagnated in the areas of administrative tasks simply because no one has shown the teachers how to use computers to teach.
Making Computers Earn Their Living
There are examples of librarians using innovative and creative ways to help educators realize the full potential of available technology. Ranging from discussion of a complex multiday workshop to something as simple as replacing batteries, Marsh (2008) described how librarians and educators are working to overcome technological inertia. School librarians have developed nonthreatening and fun programs to encourage teacher use of the Internet, with teachers responding positively to the entertaining element of the program.
For many educators, according to Alejandro Franco (2006), utilizing computers for teaching can be a threatening experience, particularly in a virtual environment, because “interaction in virtual education is given mostly in [writing] (and we know that frequently it is a great difficulty for some teachers to write). Also, for many, to face the new course could be the problem, when he/she is already accustomed to use an easy pedagogy in which the same class is repeated semester after semester without having to make the effort of researching, of improving, of enlarging the cognitive spectrum.” Franco further asserted that the educator must “transform the traditional pedagogy toward an electronic pedagogy in which the professor becomes a facilitator of the student’s learning process and an active pedagogy supporter” (emphasis added).
Unfortunately, school administrators commonly exacerbate the situation with their purchasing procedures. Too often, school districts frequently buy half a product when investing in computers. The infrastructure is installed without a compelling curriculum value supporting it. Consequently, teachers who have not yet embraced the new technologies and see no value to the hardware sprouting up on desks become technology-reluctant. Teachers expect a significant difference in outcomes and have little tolerance for change unless there is “compelling evidence” that the investment will have big dividends.
Imaging Computers as Resource and Learning Tool
To acclimate teachers in the school to the use of computers as both resource and learning tool, the author developed a nonthreatening, fun, learner-friendly environment that created skills that could quickly be integrated into the teaching process. (This project was subsequently included in the lead author’s thesis, titled “No Teacher Left Behind.”) A common denominator that was both alluring and motivational to most teachers was a love of travel. To build on this premise, a program brochure was designed that combined exotic Caribbean travel with an opportunity to experience the process of random learning that is an integral part of computer surfing. The goal for each teacher was to design a personal Caribbean vacation devoid of children and students. A practical and meaningful reward was provided: a travel agency donated gift certificates that could be used in purchasing the resulting getaway. To further galvanize the imagination of the participants, the training area was decorated with full-size vacation posters provided by the travel agency.
Each participant had hands-on experience using search engines, refining search phrase parameters, evaluating website descriptions for appropriateness, employing website page navigation skills, downloading and archiving relevant data, and evaluating the efficiency and user-friendliness of websites. As part of the process, the educators gained personal experience differentiating between random learning and structured learning. The evaluation of the program included observation by the media specialist and a feedback questionnaire.
There were several surprises regarding the expertise levels of the participants. With some, the level of expertise was much lower than had been anticipated. Two participants did not know how to turn on the computer, one expressed surprise that the data on the computer screen could be saved to other media, and one asked, “What’s a flippy [sic]?” Those participants who were more knowledgeable teamed up with those who were not, an unintended but positive result.
The follow-up questionnaire revealed the high level of information the participants had acquired and the comfort zone they now had as a result of the collaboration in the workshop. As one participant enthused, “I learned more in this one workshop than I did in many others. We were all in the same boat and I didn’t feel like I was the dummy in the class.”
Teaching Information and Technology Skills
A restructuring of reference services will also become a part of the changing library program. The demands of technologies with traditional services will not work. It is a huge benefit to students when teachers work jointly with a professional who is trained to research, analyze, and retrieve information (i.e., the library media specialist). As the original information specialist, a school librarian must look at curricula, assignments, and learning in terms of the information resources, processes, and technologies required for student success. School librarians have been pioneers in teaching information skills and integrating technology skills into the information problem-solving process. One of the most popular approaches to integrated information and technology skills is the Big6 (Big6.com) approach, developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz. The Big6 is a process model of how people of all ages solve an information problem. Eisenberg and Berkowitz found that successful information problem-solving encompasses six stages, with two substages under each, known as the Big6 Skills:
1. Task Definition
1.1 Define the information problem
1.2 Identify information needed
2. Information Seeking Strategies
2.1 Determine all possible sources
2.2 Select the best sources
3. Location and Access
3.1 Locate sources (intellectually and physically)
3.2 Find information within sources
4. Use of Information
4.1 Engage (e.g., read, hear, view, touch)
4.2 Extract relevant information
5. Synthesis
5.1 Organize from multiple sources
5.2 Present the information
6. Evaluation
6.1 Judge the product (effectiveness)
6.2 Judge the process (efficiency) (“What Is the Big6?” 2014)
School librarians need to do a better job of clearly articulating their roles in preparing students for the information-rich and technology-rich workplace of the future. It is essential for school librarians to commit themselves to the four central principles that define their roles as information specialists and educators helping students to achieve optimum use of information literacy:
Principle One: The library is not a place; rather, the library is everywhere. Beyond the school environment, students will need to make library skills part of their daily lives. Information problem-solving skills help students on a daily basis.
Principle Two: Library and information professionals should be flexible. Their roles include teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator.
Principle Three: Ensure that students are effective users of ideas and information. All members of the school community need to understand that the library media specialist is uniquely qualified, valuable, and able to provide essential information literacy instruction and valuable information services.
Principle Four: Information is everywhere, essential, and central.
As to the effects the new role of the school librarian will have on the school library media center, implementing this new role will present a variety of challenges that will have to be solved in order for a school library media center to function effectively in an information-intensive society. The roles of the school librarian and the school library will continually change, and thereby create new challenges, as the images of information shift due to advancing technologies.
The Role of Reference for Today’s School Librarian
So, with the elimination of print materials and their supplanting by digital media, what is the role of the reference librarian? As Susan J. Beck (2015) stated in chapter 3 of this book, “the very core of reference services is the notion that librarians help users find the information they need. The librarian remains the intermediary between users and the information they seek” (27). Today, though, the school librarian is not thumbing through a stack of three-by-five cards in an oak drawer. Instead, the librarian’s fingers dance across a keyboard, seeking the right combination of search words to assist the inquiring patron. And assistance is indisputably needed. Why? Let us explore the concept espoused by some that with all the information available at our fingertips on the World Wide Web, assistance, particularly that of a well-educated, paid individual (the reference librarian), is no longer required.
Upon receiving a research assignment from an instructor, today’s typical student will turn to the World Wide Web for information. It is simply easier to key in a search word or phrase than to pick up a hefty reference tome in a library and attempt to navigate the index. In fact, in the not-too-distant future, those hefty reference volumes may become obsolete. Consider that on April 14, 2012, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. announced that it was discontinuing its print version and was going to sell only a digital version online—thus ends an era that began in1768 (Kearney 2012).
However, the way in which a search word or phrase is entered can have a tremendous effect on the search results. Unfortunately, today’s students most often do not have any training in how to pare down a search phrase for the most relevant results, resulting in frustration or that old fallback—copy and paste—without any attempt at understanding.
Let us examine, hypothetically, what might happen if a middle or high school student is given a social studies assignment. For the sake of this discussion, let us assume the project is to determine the sociological impact of Native Americans teaching early Puritan settlers to grow corn. Typically, a web browser will default to Google or Bing as the search engine.
Using corn as a search word, Google provides 35,800,000 links. Bing provides 277,000,000 links. The student might then try to refine the search by using a phrase, raising corn, Google responds with 24,000,000 links, whereas Bing provides a measly 19,800,000. A more au courant student might refine the panoptic search by keying in a more specific phrase, Indians raising corn, hoping to reduce the exhaustive number of links. Google now responds with 26,900,000 links (including those on Indian corn and how to make popcorn), while Bing provides 9,310,000—certainly an improvement.
At this point, with the guidance of a computer-savvy librarian, the student might take the plunge with a pared-down search phrase, Native Americans teaching Pilgrims to raise corn. Surely, this will compress the research field tremendously. Google reduces the number of links by a whopping 96 percent, down to a mere 1,570,000. Bing, on the other hand, reduces the number by only 92 percent, with a resulting 23,500,000 links.
Part of training students to search the web for the correct answer is to instruct them to use the “specific question” as the query. This will, in most cases, result in the appropriate answer becoming available in the first few links. (The lead author’s own media center’s website and blog posts a monthly “Question of the Month.” At the end of the year, a random drawing of correct replies results in the student receiving a $100 savings bond.) The basic assumption on the part of most researchers viewing the links is that the most relevant ones will appear on the first page or two.
In the Google results, the third link listed on the first page is the question What did the Indian’s [sic] teach the Pilgrim’s [sic]? Surely, this is the answer to the student’s quest. (Hopefully, the misuse of the apostrophe is simply a typing mistake.) Clicking on the link brings the viewer to the WikiAnswers website. Herein, with all its errors, is the statement:
The Indian’s [sic] taught the Pilgrim’s [sic] to grow corn and other crops. They taught them the way of the cuntiferous brown man. The most famous Indian of all, Squanto taught the Pilgrim’s [sic] how to use toilet paper as well as how to make a proper peace pipe.
At this point, any student worth his salt will throw up his hands in despair (or double over in unrestrained laughter), shut down the computer, and seek the assistance of the reference librarian! (Frighteningly, this link appeared prominently in two other search engines.) A more inquiring student may attempt to learn the definition of “cuntiferous.” A further exploration of the web might connect the student to the Urban Dictionary, which has a rather titillating definition—one that definitely should not appear in the final report.
Again, to cite Susan Beck (2015) in chapter 3 of this book, the reference librarian is no longer the information gatekeeper; rather, the reference librarian is an educator, as well as a handyman who is the master of creating PDFs, the webmaster who can update wikis, and the mechanic who can make a truculent printer spit out copies for a frustrated patron. If, as Beck suggests, school librarians need to turn their focus away from building a solid reference collection and toward a digital reference and virtual library, then there must be some understanding of what that constitutes.
Are virtual libraries the wave of the future? Yes and no. Virtual libraries are here, today, in schools, homes, and anywhere a modem can be connected. Virtual libraries are already an integral part of our professional and private lives and have been for quite some time. The professional who does not keep abreast of technological advances will drown in the informational tsunami.
Many Ivy League universities currently provide freshmen with laptops as an integral tool of the learning experience. The practice is migrating beyond the high schools down to the middle school level. In the Long Branch, New Jersey, middle school system, 950 students in grades six through eight in January 2012 were issued Samsung Galaxy tablets. Although the devices are connected to the Internet at all times, student access is limited to using seventy educational applications. During the first four months of usage, no tablets were lost by students, according to school superintendent Michael Salvatore, who also claims that students have become more engaged in learning. The district plans eventually to issue tablets to all students in grades three through twelve (“N.J. Middle School” 2012). In practice, instead of students traveling to the library or media center for research, the library or media center will magically appear on their laps wherever and whenever needed. Thus, the school library and media center joins the ranks of other resources with 24/7 availability.
However, the students must be taught the techniques of researching, analyzing, and retrieving pertinent information. This is particularly crucial in the primary and secondary educational systems, where learning and researching skills are acquired. This, then, is one of the new roles of the media specialist.
The school librarian needs to be integrated into the entire curriculum-design process and be viewed by administrators, educators, and students as a valuable resource person. The role of the school librarian will no longer be that of a hand pointing toward a stack of books but, rather, of a mentor guiding all library users toward the appropriate source of virtual information.
The trained school librarian is also critical in the physical design of a library media center, calling into play all the various needs of different types of learners and making the library center a true center for the dissemination of information. For example, in the elementary schools, areas need to be set aside for storytelling, events, guest speakers, and visual presentations. On the middle and high school levels, in addition to the usual resource areas, space needs to be allocated for individual and group projects, media presentations, and quiet study. The school librarian must also keep abreast of the latest websites and other virtual resources available online in order to guide users to the most up-to-date sites. Unfortunately, many librarians of long standing are poorly equipped to provide such a diverse role. Hence, the educational system and the students will suffer.
Furthermore, the most pressing problem for libraries is not enabling its users to connect to the Internet; it is instead the fact that eighty million books (virtually all the books and periodicals published from the middle of the nineteenth century to just a few years ago) are printed on paper with a high acid content that turns brown and brittle before deteriorating completely. For example, of the twelve million books in the New York Public Library, 20 to 25 percent are in various stages of disintegration (von Hoffman 1996). If it were possible to digitize all the books and other materials in all the world’s libraries, this disintegration would not be a concern, but that is not going to happen, because the cost of digitizing would soar into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Decisions have to be made as to what will, or will not, be digitized. The rest may very well be lost.
Even rushing into digitization is risky because formats change and, even today, information that was digitized many years ago cannot be read by contemporary computers. Look at the panic that ensued prior to the year 2000, when companies realized that software that had been running for years in antiquated computer languages had to be modified and the software specialists who knew the languages had all retired.
For the immediate future, virtual libraries will coexist with traditional physical libraries. Some users will prefer to curl up with a printed volume in an overstuffed chair, while other users will prefer to curl up with a laptop in an overstuffed chair. School librarians should embrace the new technology with prudence while maintaining a traditional model. Simply put, both options should be equally viable and available.
Gazing into our digital crystal ball twenty-five years into the future, the devices that are state-of-the-art today will be ensconced in museums. We cannot even imagine what electronic devices will then be in commonplace usage by high school students. However, it is fairly safe to assume that the school library/media center will consist primarily of digital recapture devices and the old-fashioned hard-copy volume will be a thing of the past. Based on past history, the evolution, nay, the revolution in school libraries and media centers will continue on an ever-increasing pace, similar to a snowball rolling down a steep hill. And so it coexists with education.
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