And Furthermore

Canada's School Libraries in Crisis

A new report by Dr. Ken Haycock asserts Canada's school libraries are at a critical turning point, facing a major crisis due to years of under-funding. Dr. Haycock, publisher and executive editor of Teacher Librarian and professor in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at The University of British Columbia, was commissioned to study the state of Canada's school libraries by the Association of Canadian Publishers. The report, The Crisis in Canada's School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment, is available online at http://www.publishers.ca/pages/HaycockACP2%5fv2rev%20FINAL.pdf. The study was written with the support of a review committee from the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries (CCSL). The review committee consisted of members from the Association of Canadian Publishers, the Canadian Children's Book Centre, the Ontario Library Association, People for Education and the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada.

The study calls for a massive injection of funds for school libraries, to make up for the years of severe cuts that have been imposed by cash-strapped provincial governments.

According to the report, "Canada's school libraries are not at their best; far from it. Across the country, teacher-librarians are losing their jobs or being reassigned. Collections are becoming depleted owing to budget cuts. Some principals believe that in the age of the Internet and the classroom workstation, the school library is an artifact." Noting that many other countries are recognizing the importance of school libraries and restoring funding, Haycock's report draws together the empirical evidence showing the positive and measurable impact teacher-librarians and a well-funded school library program can have on student performance levels.

Kent State Awarded $2 Million for Collaboration Project

Kent State University has received $2 million in federal funds for a new library education project.

US Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, announced the project funding. "I am pleased to have been able to include federal funding for Kent State University to demonstrate how school librarians and classroom teachers can work together to enrich the curriculum of students. I am hopeful that the demonstration of this collaborative work will be used as a model to enhance the learning environment," Regula explained.

The institute will provide leadership in developing coordinated collaboration among K-12 teachers and teacher-librarians who are concerned with advancing library and information literacy in the school curriculum.

Report Assesses Grade 4 Reading Skills

A major new international literacy study is now available online. Released by the National Center for Education Statistics, International comparisons in fourth-grade reading literacy: Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2001 describes the reading literacy of Grade 4 students in 35 countries. The report provides information on a variety of reading topics and compares average scores across the 35 countries on reading scales, as well as achievement broken out by sex. Within the US, comparisons by race/ethnicity, by public and private schools, and by poverty levels of the school are given. The full report can be downloaded as a PDF file from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003073.

Among the findings: US students were ahead of their counterparts in 23 of the 34 other participating countries. The report also confirms a trend teachers and parents often note anecdotally: girls outperformed boys in all 35 countries.

Not yet available in print, the report also defines reading literacy for Grade 4, presents information on reading and instruction in the classroom and explores the reading habits of Grade 4 students outside of school.

New School Library Award

The International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) announces a new award for teacher-librarians, educators and/or researchers that recognizes significant contributions to school librarianship. The $1,000 award will be made for the first time in 2004 to an individual or team nominated by their professional associations and peers.

Sponsored by Softlink International (Australia), this award will take into consideration the significance of the nominee's achievement in relation to resource context, evidence of commitment to school librarianship, impact on student learning and contribution to professional development of others. Preference will be given to members of IASL. The award will be determined by an international awards panel.

Information about membership and the Softlink Excellence award is available from the IASL Secretariat, via mail: Box 34069, Department 962, Seattle, WA 98124-1069; telephone: 604-925-0266; fax: 604-925-0566; e-mail: iasl@rockland.com; or online at www.iasl-slo.org.

AASL 2003 Awards Recipients

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has announced the 2003 awards recipients.

The AASL Collaborative School Library Media Award of $2,500 was awarded to teacher-librarian Leslie Preddy of Perry Meridian Middle School, Indianapolis, IN, along with teachers Howard Ely, Cathy Littleton, Jenny Moore and Stephanie Quinlan. The Collaborative School Library Media Award, sponsored by the Sagebrush Corporation, recognizes and encourages collaboration and partnerships between teacher-librarians and teachers in meeting goals outlined in Information power: Building partnerships for learning through joint planning of a program, unit or event in support of the curriculum and using school library resources.

The AASL/Highsmith Research Grant has been awarded to Bonnie Grimble of Carmel High School in Carmel, IN, for her proposed study, Teachers' Perspectives and Influence on Use of Electronic Resources in the High School Media Center. The grant, sponsored by Highsmith Co., Inc., was established in 1993. Winners receive up to $5,000 to conduct innovative research aimed at measuring and evaluating the impact of school library resource programs on learning and education.

The ABC-CLIO Leadership Grant of up to $1,750 is given to school library associations that are AASL affiliates for planning and implementing leadership programs at the state, regional or local levels. The 2003 grant, donated by ABC-CLIO Schools, has been awarded to the Minnesota Educational Media Organization.

Barbara E. De Spain, principal of Lois Lenski Elementary School in Centennial, CO, is the recipient of the Distinguished School Administrator Award, sponsored by SIRS. An award of $2,000 is given to a school administrator who has made worthy contributions to the operations of an exemplary school library resource center and to advancing the role of the school library resource center in the educational program.

The Frances Henne Award has been awarded to Teresa Diaz of Johnston High School in Austin, TX. The award, sponsored by Greenwood Publishing Group, is awarded to a teacher-librarian with five or fewer years in the field, to attend an American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference or AASL National Conference for the first time.

The Information Technology Pathfinder Award, sponsored by Follett Software, was awarded in the secondary category to Sarah McElrath of the Lakeshore Middle School in Grand Haven, MI. The $1,250 award recognizes teacher-librarians demonstrating vision and leadership through the use of information technology to build lifelong learners. The elementary category was not awarded this year.

The National School Library Media Program of the Year Award is sponsored by Follett Library Resources. Winners receive a crystal obelisk and $10,000 in each of the three categories. The award recognizes large and small school districts and a single school for exemplary school library resource programs that are fully integrated into the school's curriculum. The 2003 award has been awarded to Millard Public School District in Omaha, NE, for the Large School District category. Winner in the Small School District category was Liberty Public School District in Liberty, MO, and Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood, CO, won in the Single School category. More information about this year's award recipients is available on the AASL Web site.

Teen Read Week Focuses on Poetry

What do music lyrics, writing, poetry slams, and open mic nights have in common? They encourage teens to read poetry for the fun of it! This year's Teen Read Week celebrates poetry, October 19-25, 2003. Hundreds of libraries, schools and bookstores are encouraging teens to "read for the fun of it" as they celebrate this year's poetry-centric Teen Read Week theme, SLAMMIN' @ your library.

Teen Read Week is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of ALA. More resources can be found at the association's Teen Read Week web site: www.ala.org/teenread.

Some of the ways school libraries can encourage teens to celebrate Teen Read Week:

• Encourage teens to read and write poetry.

• Offer a book discussion group.

• Invite teens to orally interpret poetic song lyrics.

• Suggest teens keep a poetry book in their backpack at all times. Tell them to read it while waiting for the bus, an appointment or friends to pick them up.

• Add a (or add another) poetry book or novel written in poetic form to your collection.

• Encourage teens to read what they want to read, just for the fun of it.

Children's Book Week Celebrates Freedom

Reading is a right! Free to Read, this year's theme for the 84th observance of The Children's Book Council's Children's Book Week, encourages children, and the adults who care for them, to exercise their right to read right by spending some time with a book each day. Children's Book Week 2003 is November 17-23. Teacher-librarians can find resources to help schools celebrate Children's Book Week at the CBC web site, www.cbcbooks.org/html/book%5fweek.html.

Since 1919, educators, librarians, booksellers and families have celebrated Children's Book Week during the week before Thanksgiving. Book Week events are held in schools, libraries, bookstores, clubs, private homes--any place where there are children and books.

US Kids' Book Production Tops 10,000 in 2002

Book production in the United States jumped six percent in 2002, with 150,000 new titles and editions released. Production of books for children jumped to its highest level ever, with more than 10,000 titles published.

The statistics were compiled by R.R. Bowker, using data from its Books in Print® database. Overall, general adult fiction continued to be the strongest category, again topping 17,000 new titles and editions in 2002. The large trade publishers released significantly fewer books in the adult fiction and travel categories, many more business books, and about the same number of juvenile and young adult titles. University presses, not surprisingly, published more books in the history, sociology and economics categories, but also published more business and poetry books.

Prices in all categories increased, with the average suggested retail price of a children's hardcover book in 2002 at $15.93.

Other interesting statistics in Bowker's report:

10,305 new publishers came on the scene in 2002. Like the large trade houses, adult fiction was the most popular category, accounting for 15% percent of new titles from these publishers. Other strong categories were religious and inspirational, poetry and books for children.

Publishers declared 131,611 books out-of-print or out-of-stock indefinitely in 2002, an increase of 6% percent over 2001.

Metasearch Engine Offers Deep Web Access

London-based search engine Turbol0 (http://turbo10.com) has unveiled technology connecting to over 1,000 topic-specific engines on the Internet.

Originally presented at the 12th International World Wide Web Conference in Budapest, this technology is the first fully automated system that creates and maintains connections to online databases en masse. The current list of more than 1000 engines can be viewed at http://turbo10.com/cgibin/showdeepnet.cgi. The list is updated every five minutes as more engines are added.

Details of this new technology are discussed in a technical paper titled "The mechanics of a deep net metasearch engine." It is available online at http://turbo10.com/papers/deepnet.pdf.

New Report Compares Education in G-8 Nations

The National Center for Education Statistics has released a new report on education in the G-8 countries, comparing the US education system to those in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russia Federation and the United Kingdom.

The report looks at in five areas: (1) the context of education; (2) preprimary and primary education; (3) secondary education; (4) higher education; and (5) education and the labor force. Among the findings:

The United States was one of only three G8 countries (along with Germany and the UK) whose school-age population grew in absolute number between 1992 and 1999.

In 1999, the proportion of adults who completed at least an upper secondary education was higher in the US than in the six other countries presented.

In 1999, enrollment rates of children ages 3 to 5 in preprimary education were lower in the United States than in France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

In 2000, American 15 year olds had lower average scores than their Canadian counterparts on the PISA reading literacy scale, but no difference was detected compared to the performance of 15 year olds in France, Italy, Germany, Japan or the UK.

Drawing on the most current information available about education, Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G8 Countries: 2002 is available for free downloading as a 141-page PDF document, at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003026.

Our Columnists

Marlene Asselin: Associate professor, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver. marlene.asselin@ubc.ca

Barbara Braxton: Teacher-librarian, Palmerston District Primary School, Palmerston, Australian Capital Territory. barbara@austarmetro.com.au

Rosemary Chance: Assistant professor School of Library and Information Science, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. rosemary.chance@usm.edu

Anne Clyde: Professor, Faculty of Social Science, The University of Iceland, Reykjavik. anne@hi.is

Ruth Cox: Assistant professor, School of Education, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston. cox@cl.uh.edu

Susan Faust: Teacher-librarian, Katherine Delmar Burke School, San Francisco. susan.f@kdbs.org

Reid Goldsborough: Author of Straight talk about the information superhighway. reidgold@netaxs.com http://members.home.net/reidgold

Holly Gunn: Teacher-librarian, Sackville High School, Sackville, NS. hgunn@accesscable.net

Teri Lesesne: Assistant professor, Department of Library Science, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. lis_tsl@shsu.edu

Kate Houston Mitchoff: School Corps Librarian, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR. kateho@yahoo.com

Ann Riedling: Associate Professor St. Leo University, Director, St. Petersburg Campus, Seminole, FL. ariedling@iglou.com

Joanne Troutner: Director of Media/Technology, Tippecanoe School Corp, and owner, Creative Computer Enterprises, Lafayette, IN. troutner@mindspring.com www.jtroutner.com/

Helen Wiley: Teacher-librarian, Katherine Delmar Burke School, San Francisco. helen@kdbs.org

Robert Wilson: Director/Head Teacher, Moccasin Community Day School, Groveland, CA. coltrane@lodelink.com

Section: THE PIPELINE
Once More with Feeling: What Does Information Literacy Look Like in the Google World?

ACCORDING to the Association of Teacher-Librarians in Canada (now called the Canadian Association of School Libraries), students, to become lifelong learners, must be able to do the following:

* Recognize the need for information to solve problems and develop ideas.

* Pose important questions.

* Use a variety of information gathering strategies and research processes.

* Locate relevant and appropriate information.

* Access information for quality, authority, accuracy and authenticity.

* Use the practical and conceptual tools of information technology.

* Understand form and format of information, location and access methods, including how information is situated and produced.

* Format and publish in text and multimedia, adapting to emerging technologies.

--From Information Studies, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Curriculum for Schools and School Library Information Centres

Seems simple enough--these are pretty clear graduation outcomes. But what does it really mean in grade 1? Grade 3? Grade 9? I personally like and admire the work done in my province and provincial school libraries association, where we code our expectations of our learners and help them build their information literacy skills in a planned and effective manner. Each stage of life and school comes with its own set of new skills requirements to achieve success across the curriculum. This curriculum recognizes the need for and importance of these types of learning opportunities:

* Formal and informal programs to encourage the transfer of information literacy skills and knowledge to real-life situations

* An information problem-solving process, as well as specific information application skills

* A research process to develop higher-order critical and creative thinking skills

* Expertise in the use of the tools and applications of the Information Age, from traditional print to digital information technologies

* The development of student independence in using information for lifelong learning

* The use of information-based decision-making and decision-making to enhance life at school, at work, and at home

* The collaborative role of parents, teachers, and teacher-librarians in promoting independent thinking and information problem-solving

* The development of safe, ethical and responsible practices in acquiring, using, and communicating information

* The integration of a wide range of activities and resources to provide a lifetime of reading and learning

--From Information Studies, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Curriculum for Schools and School Library Information Centres

A report from the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries shows that students who attend schools with well-funded, properly stocked libraries that offer library programs managed by qualified staff have higher achievement, improved literacy, and greater success at the post-secondary level.

The study, entitled "The Crisis in Canada's School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Reinvestment," was written by Ken Haycock, professor and former director at the graduate School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. According to Haycock, "The evidence is there for all to see. That's why governments in the U.S., Europe, and Asia are aggressively investing in their school libraries. What's disturbing is that too many policymakers are ignoring the findings of literally decades of research that shows why school libraries and qualified teacher-librarians are essential components in the academic programming of any school."

The wonderful research and Web sites of such school library and reading luminaries as Keith Curry Lance, Ken Haycock, Ross Todd, David Loertscher, Stephen Krashen, and Ray Doiron are all connected here and continue to track the value of school library programs and collections. You can read and download the report at http://www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition/Report03.pdf. You will also find useful links at the School Library Information Portal [http://www.cla.ca/slip/] hosted by the Canadian Library Association. Another useful site is the Ontario Library Association's School Libraries Toolkit [http://www.accessola.com/school%5flib/], along with one provided by AASL at http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/toolkits/aasladvocacy.htm.

The Ontario curriculum shows detailed outcomes for reasoning, organizing, communicating, and applying information literacy skills by grade level and ties these to the tools and resources for each level. While we are all aware of the range of skills and abilities in each grade level, these guidelines are incredibly valuable in focusing our attention on what deliverables we want to see in our partnerships between teachers and school libraries and, indeed, between schools and public libraries. These partnerships are even more valuable in placing technology and electronic resources in the appropriate context and perspective in the K-12 curricula.

Public Library Partnerships

There are specific school curriculum markers that can serve as the skeletal framework for a successful school/public library partnership--especially if your school doesn't have a full-time teacher-librarian or enough library staff or volunteers who link the library program to learning needs and overall curriculum objectives. Although it's sad when resources are restricted, we can't just throw our hands in the air and give up. Schools need the ability to serve the full width and depth of student abilities, and the library--any type of library, actually--can be the point where our overachieving and underachieving learners can blossom.

Quite a few librarians in Canada have built programs that linked public and school libraries. Some have assigned every librarian a specific grade to contact in their branch's district--for instance, identify and contact every grade 3 teacher. They are focused on a specific literacy goal: grade 1 for love of story time; grade 3 for independent reading; grade 6 for research resources for their first five-paragraph essay; grade 9 for research resources, print and electronic for their first major paper; grade 11/12 for advanced research skills database training. It's a simple scaffolded approach that builds skills over time and ensures a balance of resources--print, books, journals, Web, databases, CD-ROM, and film.

Others have started with hospital maternity wards and offered baskets of books and library cards to new mothers to get them involved early on. At Toronto Public Library they once went very BIG. They got the Toronto Blue Jays' 55,000-seat SkyDome facility and brought in famous Canadian authors, topped with a reading by none other than J. K. Rowling, and invited all school-age kids. Giving 55,000 people a good impression of the library can't hurt at all! The Toronto-Dominion Bank sponsors a nationwide summer reading program that is promoted in the schools before vacation time. CanWest Global, a national television and media company, sponsors CanSpell and other reading and literacy activities that are cross promoted in schools and public libraries. We are not limited by anything other than our own creativity and ability to take a risk and dream big.

The public library, sometimes through consortia or statewide purchases, often has electronic resources that are underused by students. If you haven't visited your public library and talked to the librarian lately, perhaps it's time for a chat. Invest an hour in this someday. If you can't get away, most libraries are open at least some nights or weekends and librarians can be reached by telephone. Perhaps the best thing you could do this month is to assign your students this homework task: Obtain a public library borrower card. (Warn your local library first so they'll be ready for the onslaught!) Next, show the students how to access the public library's Web site to identify books or other items like videos, CD-ROMs, and cassettes that might help them with their projects. (Play with it yourself if you haven't already; there's a wealth of content there!) Then, show them the resources they can use in the library or through the Web with their new cards and that a library card is can be one of the smartest cards they'll ever own!

And if your community isn't funding its public library well and the library is consequently providing services on a shoestring, write a letter. Children and their families deserve better from their communities. Communities with great library programs are great communities. If we don't build these relationships now, we continue to risk having Google and the other search engines control our kids.

I mentioned above that there is an Ontario curriculum for information literacy from K-12. Here are the citations.

Information Studies, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Curriculum for Schools and School Library Information Centres. Edited by Tim Gauntley, Rose Dotten, and Liz Kerr. Ontario Library Association, 1999. 110 p. ISBN 0-88969-040-5 $14.00 CDN

There is also a supplement that comes with its own CD-ROM: Coded Expectations: A Companion to Information Studies, Kindergarten to Grade 12, by Angela de Prima. This companion volume is $17.50 CDN. ISBN 0-88969-046-4. Highlights are available at: http://www.accessola.com/action/positions/info%5fstudies/.

Both can be easily ordered in hardcopy:

Ontario Library Association
100 Lombard Street, Suite 303
Toronto, ON M5C 1M3
416-363-3388 or 1-866-873-9867
FAX: 416-941-9581 or 1-800-387-1181
info@accessola.com

There are important roles for both public and school libraries to play. Each complements the other and provides a steppingstone on the path to a life enhanced by reading and information. You're teaching your learners one of the most important life skills that can possibly be taught. And, even more, you're helping to bridge the digital divide--both the economic one and the one that comes from neglect of teaching information skills. You have the opportunity to give the gift that lasts a lifetime. Googling isn't enough! Keep up the good work.

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By Stephen Abram

Stephen Abram, M.L.S., is 2004/5 president of the Canadian Library Association and is vice president of innovation for Sirsi Corp. He would love to hear from you at stephen.abram@sirsi.com.

Section: STATE CAPITALS
Study Shows Rise in Test Scores Tied to School Library Resources

Students in schools with appropriate and sufficient library collections and qualified library personnel tend to perform better on standardized tests, especially in reading, according to studies of school library programs in Alaska, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.

Making the school library an integral learning center and encouraging teachers and librarians to collaborate on lesson plans and classroom assignments could help raise student achievement, the report suggests.

"The bottom line across the three states is that once again, we've shown a positive and statistically significant correlation between the size of the school library and library media staff and test scores," said Keith Curry Lance, the director of the Library Service Center of the Colorado State Library, which conducted the studies due out next month.

The results mirror those found in the center's 1993 study on school libraries and student achievement in Colorado.

Mr. Lance and his colleagues reviewed surveys from hundreds of schools in each of the states to gauge staffing levels, how often students and teachers have access to library resources and librarians, whether school policies promote usage, and the technology available in the libraries.

They then compared those responses to state test results, community demographics, and such school characteristics as teacher-pupil ratios and teacher qualifications. The researchers took into account other possible factors influencing achievement on tests and were able to isolate an added advantage for those with good library programs.

The reports conclude that test scores increase as school librarians spend more time collaborating with and providing training to teachers, providing input into curricula, and managing information technology for the school.

The full results will be reported in next month's School Library Journal.

Jump in Test Scores

In Colorado, where a representative sample of 200 of 1,178 elementary and middle schools responded, the study found that state test scores for students in elementary schools with updated libraries were up to 14 percent higher than for students at schools with older collections.

Among all the states--in which nearly 850 schools were surveyed altogether--scores on state tests improved by 10 points to 15 points in schools with strong library programs and enough qualified staff members.

Officials in all three states hope the results will help convince school administrators that strong libraries are an important investment.

"This is something our schools can use as ammunition," said Lois Petersen, the school library coordinator for the Alaska State Library. "When someone comes in and asks if we can do without the library, [the librarians] have some research that proves how important it is."

Added Linda Carvell, the president of the Pennsylvania association for school librarians: "Linking heightened scores with library services and information literacy gives some status to our profession in the education community."

Like many states, Alaska and Pennsylvania do not require that schools hire library personnel. But advocates have been pushing for mandates for staffing and stocking school libraries.

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By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Section: teacher-librarian's perspective
the power of high quality school library programs

The International Federation of Library Association's (IFLA) Manifesto states: "The school library provides information and ideas that ore fundamental to functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge-based society: The school library equips students with lifelong learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens" (2008).

Research clearly supports the role of the teacher-librarian in ensuring this happens. As early as 1992, researchers identified an increase in student achievement with high quality library media programs (1993). Keith Curry Lance et al defines a high quality media program as one that is adequately staffed, stocked, and funded; whose staff are actively involved leaders in their school's teaching and learning enterprise, whose staff have collegial, collaborative relationships with classroom teachers; and one that embraces networked information technology. They conclude that, "The school library is one of the few factors whose contribution to academic achievement has been documented empirically, and it is a contribution that cannot be explained away by other powerful influences on student performance" (2004). Similar research has been replicated in dozen of States, in Canada (2003,2006) and throughout the world (IASL).

The Research Foundation Paper, School Libraries Work! (2008), highlights position statements from diverse groups that have conducted research to show the measurable impact school libraries and teacher-librarians have on student achievement. Included is this quote from C. Beth Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., Chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS, June, 2007). "From our perspective, a critical part of the comprehensive and renewed strategy to ensure that students learn to read and are effective users of information and ideas is the requirement that every school have a school library and that school libraries be staffed by highly qualified, state certified, school library media specialists" (p.2). This article, under the chapter heading "19 States and 1 Province Can't be Wrong," summarizes the research showing the impact of school libraries and student success.

A recent document, Exemplary School Libraries in Ontario (Klinger, 2009), not only corroborates these findings but also looks at the systematic support that is needed to maintain and promote exemplary school libraries. Without this support in place from all levels of administration the study acknowledges that teacher-librarians will leave these positions: "The ad hoc approach to the role of school libraries in education from the three levels of administration (school, board and provincial) results in hard won expertise and knowledge vanishing from the educational system" (p.28).

Further research that focuses on literacy for the 21st Century emphasizes the need for quality library programs, ones that establish the teacher-librarian as a leader in integrating the various forms of text, both print and electronic, that exist today. The 2009 Horizon Report, a qualitative research project that concentrates on uses of emerging technologies in teaching, learning, research, and creative expression, highlights the importance of information literacy. Representatives from an international group of over 300 learning-focused organizations from all disciplines, acknowledge in their report that information technologies affect how people work, play, gain information, and collaborate. The authors contend that those who use technology to make connections globally will advance while those who do not will find themselves on the sidelines (Johnson, et al 2009). Participatory knowledge is at the center of the online world where wikis, blogs, and user-generated web sites rule. Students are not only information consumers but have also become collaborative information producers, emphasizing the importance of being able to critically examine information. Our students not only need the technical skills to be involved in online collaboration but they also require the communication and social skills to be effective contributors.

Donald Leu from the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut proposes that students require additional strategies for reading information online. The assumption that good print readers will be able to transfer their reading strengths to online information is incorrect. Leu suggests that there are different skills at work when one reads online and in fact, poor print readers often excel when using online resources. It could be that the smaller chunks of information that appear on the Internet are more manageable to the less skilled reader or that online help tools and graphics provide additional clues that assist the reader. The important fact is that there are new literacies that must be learned to be a successful user of the Internet. Perhaps the most important ability is flexibility as students are not mastering a finite set of skills but rather learning how to learn. Dr. Leu says "…" learning to learn is at the core of the new literacies. It is not just that we want students to know how to read and write; we want them to know how to continuously learn new skills and strategies required by the new technologies of literacy that will regularly emerge" (2002).

According to Leu, the components of online reading are: comprehension, question, locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicate. These components are similar to the models teacher-librarians use when collaborating with teachers to develop units of study for their students. As students communicate their knowledge in different ways they become not only information consumers but also information producers which intensifies the need for them to be able to critically evaluate information sources.

The Horizon Report acknowledges emerging technologies, key trends, and critical challenges that significantly impact on teaching, learning, creativity, and the greatest challenge identified as the growing need for further instruction in key new skills such as information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy. Mitchell Resnick of the Media Laboratory at MIT, describes literacy as the ability to express meaning to oneself and others. He acknowledges that new technologies give kids the capacity to communicate in new ways-including ways that do not entail words. He feels "words will not vanish from the literacy domain--but literacy will increasingly be words-with-other-things" (Shore, 2008).

'"Kids are using sound and images so they have a world of ideas to put together that are not necessarily language-oriented," said Donna E. Alvermann, a professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia. "Books aren't out of the picture, but they're only one way of experiencing information in the world today"' (Rich, 2008). As recognized in the Horizon Report, visual literacy will become an increasingly important skill in decoding, encoding, and determining credibility and authenticity of data.

To be literate in our time requires students to: be critical thinkers; know how to make sense of various media; analyze how it can be perceived by different audiences; evaluate it in terms of other background knowledge; and create then clearly communicate their ideas to others. Canadian statistics show that over 84.3% of the population uses the Internet with over 90% of those users accessing email at least weekly (Internet Usage World Stats, 2008). According to the Nielsen ratings, 72.5% of the United States population is an Internet user (Internet User World Stats, 2008). An excellent report on the Google Generation, Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future (Nicholas, et al 2007), suggests that more than ever students require information literacy and at a higher level if they are to benefit from being part of an information culure. The role of the teacher-librarian is to ensure that our students understand the processes and the skills in acquiring new knowledge. We recognize that students are now both consumers and producers of information and utilize a variety of online sources for synthesis as well as for production. We understand the necessity of providing authentic learning and to inspire literacy in learners of all ages. It would seem that when requirements for success in our society rests on information literate citizens, to cut the very jobs that promote information literacy, would be ill-advised.

REFERENCES

Haycock, K. (2003). The Crisis in Canada's School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-investment. CA: Association of Canadian Publishers.

Rich, M. (2008). Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? The New York Times. pp. 1, 14, 15. Retrieved on date from http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/r-u-reading.html.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (n.d.). "School Libraries and Resource Centers Section." Retrieved October 19, 2008 from www.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/manifest.htm.

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http://ctell.uconn.edu/canter/canter%5fvideo. cfm?movie=1a_new_technologies.mov

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By Michele Farquharson

Michele Farquharson is a teacher-librarian at Kerrisdale Elementary School in Vancouver, BC, Michele recently received the Follett International Teacher Librarian of the Year Award, which is presented in association with the Canadian Association for School Libraries and honors a school-based teacher-librarian who has made an outstanding contribution to school librarianship within Canada. She may be reached at mlf@shaw.ca.