Research Finding:
Leadership, compatible policies, professional
development, a positive professional culture, new
and sustained funding and outside support, all
matter in implementing improved and integrated
school library programs.
Comment
The national Library Power project, a major initiative
resulting in $65 million for 700 schools in 19 school
districts, working with public education foundations,
provided full-time teacher-librarians, flexible scheduling,
renovated space, new print and electronic collections
and professional development for teachers, teacher-librarians
and principals.
Among the results:
- more collaborative work environments and instructional
programs focusing on interdisciplinarity, inquiry
and problem-based learning;
- improved collections, resulting from increased
funds, invited greater teacher interest, and these
collections better reflected school curriculum;
- refurbished facilities allowing school libraries
to accommodate more users and different kinds of
activities; more cheerful and welcoming facilities
encouraged more visits by teachers and students;
- implementation of flexible scheduling led to more
frequent visits to the library;
- greater instructional collaboration with shared
responsibility for teaching;
- professional development focused on how to integrate
library and other information resources into teaching
and learning;
- changes led to more engaging and educationally
rich learning activities for students.
Faithful adoption of Library Powers core practices,
along with widespread acceptance of these practices,
can lead to permanent change; similarly, as similar
policies are implemented elsewhere institutionalization
of these practices is more likely.
Systemic change is hampered, however, by competing
demands, the varying capacity of schools and school
districts to improve teaching and learning through
collaboration and mutual trust and respect, and existing
disparities in available resources.
Sources
Findings from the evaluation of the national Library
Power program, an initiative of the DeWitt Wallace-Readers
Digest Fund. Conducted by the University of Wisconsin
at Madison School of Library and Information Studies
and School of Education. Principal investigators: Douglas
Zweizig and Dianne McAfee Hopkins with Norman Webb
and Gary Wehlage. Executive summary prepared by Anne
Wheelock. 25 pp. http://www.wallacefunds.org
