Linking Libraries &
Academic Achievement
Historical Background
In April of 1986, the Virginia Department of Education released the Standards of Learning Objectives for Library and Information Use. Developed by academic, public, and private school library media specialists from across the state, the document established a scope and sequence for teaching information retrieval skills and showing their alignment with the existing content area Standards of Learning (SOL). Since that time, no changes have been made to the document.
In 1988, the American Library Association and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology released the first edition of Information Power. It outlined a mission and the responsibilities of the school library media program. The mission of the school library program was “to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information”. (Information Power, 1988, p1) It also identified the school library media specialist role as an information specialist, a teacher, and an instructional consultant. These guidelines redefined the school library from a passive repository of information to an active and vital participant in the learning process. School library programs underwent dramatic changes to respond to the new identity.
Ten years later, a second edition of Information Power was published. It too brought changes to the way the school library related to instruction. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning redefined the library into three major areas: teaching and learning, information access and delivery, and program administration. Numerous sweeping changes came as a result. One of the most promising was the identification of national standards for information literacy for all students. The nine standards provided a framework for school libraries to ensure that students and teachers had the skills necessary to succeed in a world where information and the ways of obtaining information change with each passing day.
While it was exciting, it was also challenging. Those outside the library field were unaware of the changes and had little background to understand the necessity for the changes. The library media specialist spent much time and effort explaining how the ‘new’ library would be a positive force in educating students.
As the Virginia standards of learning were being written, little mention of the role of the school library was incorporated and yet library media specialists worked very hard to support, supplement, and in some cases, actually teach the objectives. The SOL brought changes to the ways that students came to the library. Opportunities for library media specialists and teachers to work together declined. The much sought after collaboration between the classroom teacher and the library media specialist became harder to arrange.
Library media specialists across the state became very creative in developing strategies for communicating the role of the library program to both teachers and administrators. Some library media specialists felt hampered by a lack of revised SOL for the library. Others felt that incorporating Information Literacy standards was sufficient. There has been much discussion over how to best resolve the need for guidance from the state level on the role of the library media specialist in the school’s instructional program.
Many school divisions have responded by developing a matrix, which correlates the Information Literacy standards, the Virginia SOL, and local requirements. Links to some of those matrixes can be found on the Virginia Educational Media Association (VEMA) web site. But many school divisions are struggling and seek assistance in making sure that their library programs are reaching the needs of students and contributing to academic success for all students.
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