School LIbraries

Websites for Learning
Digital Storytelling is an Open Thinking Wiki with some good resources for teaching about stories.
LibraryGames.com  is committed to making the Library fun and Librarian's lives easier by creating entertaining educational library games, library videos, and Cds for school Media Centers and Public Libraries. 
Zotero is a free easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.
ICyte enables you to highlight and save text on any webpage, allowing you to recall the most relevant
information.
Brain Games contains scientifically designed games to help you imporve memory and attention.

Articles to Read
The Impact of the School Library Media Centers on Academic Achievement  from the ERIC Digest
Proficient Readers Need Good School Libraries by Gaby Chapman from Education Week
School Libraries key in Teaching Information Skills by staff of ESchoolNews.com

Thoughts From Yrisarri
A local televsion news commentary program recently featured a panel sharing thoughts about different aspects of funding state and city programs.  During the discussion one panelist pointed out that library funding needed to be on the table.  His reasoning was that libraries are “antiquated institutions” in today’s world. If you go to a school or public library you will find that they are busy places.  So why do so many people believe the library is an antiquated institution? 

Perhaps it is a misunderstanding of the multifaceted roles of libraries and librarians.  One must view this institution through a wider lens that focuses on the needs of all members of a society rather than individual needs.  As a school librarian my roles have included purchasing all types of media, organizing that media, circulating the resources, serving as the school media specialist, integrating technology into the services, teaching  information retrieval, reading great books to children, finding good resources for teachers, assisting in literacy programs, designing facilities, serving on committees, and more.  What I did in my job depended upon the vision of the school board, administration and teachers about the purpose of school libraries and librarians.  In my view the best schools demanded that the library and librarian be at the center of the school both physically and intellectually. 

An important component of today’s lbrary is technology.  Narrow visions of the library can keep it from developing the technology infrastructure needed to deliver effective services.  Early in the technological revolution money was cut from the library budget to buy computers.  By cutting the budget without disucssion, I felt the library’s role in the digital revolution was being minimized.  That I believe is at the heart of the vision of the “antiquated" library. 

Many today believe they can find whatever information they need on the internet making the library irrelevant.  What these people do not know that librarians know is that only a small fraction of total information is available. Everyone agrees that you get what you pay for and that knowledge is power.  So why do people believe that the power of knowledge is free?  The most current, complete and accurate information costs money.  That is what libraries have been about, gathering that expensive knowledge and making it available to everyone no matter what media is being used to share the information. 

Historically the school librarian has been at the center of curriculum, using the library budget to acquire materials and services to suport teachers and students in their work. School library programs are being overlooked in the current round of educational reform presses forward.   Some schools do without librarians using assistants to check out books to the students. The next step is to get rid of school libraries all together.  After all they are “antiquated institutions”. 

Excellent schools have excellent libraries where students love books and know how to find the best information. Technology is an integral part of a library used to find books and other information offered by the library.  In these schools the librarian is a resource using the library to provide programs and services which assist teachers and students in their pursuits. By the way, these schools with excellent “antiquated institutions” also have high test scores.