School Library Research in the Real WorldâWhat Does it Really Take? ... requires students to actively engage in a situation in order to find its solution (Young, ...... Rowling's Harry Potter books. ...... Zealand_School_library_survey_report.pdf ...
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANSHIP CONFERENCE 2017 PROCEEDINGS Dr. Lesley Farmer, Editor
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TABLE OF CONTENTS page Best Conference Paper: Preparing Teacher Librarians to Support STEM Education. Melissa P. Johnston 1 Effect of Bibliotherapy on Unruly Behaviour of Young People in Correctional Homes in Lagos State Nigeria. Sophia Adeyeye and Fadekemi Oyewusi 12 Nazarbayev Intellectual School Libraries: The Development of Functional Literacy and Reading Skills. Aida Agadil, Olga Salamakhina, Gulmariyam Tubekbayeva 21 Repositioning School Libraries towards Attainment of Learning without Borders. Emmanuel U. Anyanwu, Emmanuel A. Oduagwu, Oyemike Victor Benson, Charles Obichere 26 How Junior High School Students Spend Time in a Japanese School Library during Their Lunch Breaks: A Focus on the Role of Bookshelves. Chizuko Arai 32 Rewiring Empathy: The Value of Multicultural Literature in the Classroom. Heather Conrad 65 Florida’s School Library Programs and Achievements: What Can Be Adopted in the Brazilian Context. Adriana Bogliolo Sirihal Duarte 72 School Library: How to Break the Walls. Adriana Bogliolo Sirihal Duarte, Raquel Miranda Vilela Paiva 85 Promises, Promises? Or Restoration and Renaissance? Fifteen Brutal Years for School Libraries in British Columbia. Moira Ekdahl 95 Efforts and Changes Around School Libraries in Sweden Today. Fredrik Ernerot 109 Education for Teacher Librarians in Germany. Nancy Everhart 116 Theory Building for the Profession of Teacher Librarianship: An Application of Meta-Ethnography. Nancy Everhart, Melissa P. Johnston 123 “The Library Will Buy You a Book Day”: A Novel Approach to Promoting Recreational Reading. Robert Hilliker 131 Professional Development via Facebook Group: Perception of School Librarians. Zakir Hossain 142 Creating, Completing and Critiquing Our First MOOC. Amy Icke 158 Building a Successful Reading Culture through the School Library: A Case Study of a Singapore Secondary School. Loh Chin Ee, Mary Ellis, Agnes Alcantara Paculdar, Wan Zhong Hao, Ny Yuiyun 168 Education for Teacher-Librarianship: Anywhere, Any Time. IASL School Library Education SIG 183 Doctoral Studies: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (and Then Some)! IASL School Library Research SIG 185 Building A Wall Of Digital Safety: A Passport For Learning Without Borders. Virgilio G. Medina, Jr., Ross J. Todd 189 Portuguese School Libraries Best Practices Crossing Borders. Isabel Mendinhos 206 Libraries on the Move: By Land, By Sea, and By Air. Jennifer Moore, Aaron Elkins, Helen Boelens 213 Distilling the Information: Teach Explicit Note Taking to Help Students Learn. Karen Morgenstern 222 School Library Researchers in the Digital Age: Understanding Teaching, Research and Service in the Academy. Jennifer L. Branch-Mueller 224 The Open Source School Library Research Database: Learning without Borders. Jennifer L. Branch-Mueller, Wei Wei, Pauline Nicholas 237 Teacher-Librarians and ePortfolios: A Perfect Match. Pauline Nicholas and Jennifer Branch-Mueller 245 Tradition in School Library. Tena-Vionea Pozaric, Mihaela Banek Zorica, Nevena Skrbic Alempijevic 255 Challenges and Issues That Are Faced by the Sri Lankan School Library Staff (2000-2016 period). Prasanna Ranaweera 261 School Library Research in the Real World—What Does it Really Take? Joette Stefl-Mabry, Michael S. Radlick 266 Towards a Common Terminology in School Librarianship. Diljit Singh 286 An Analysis of the Jamaican Grades 1-6 Curriculum for the Development of a Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Cross-Curriculum. Paulette Stewart 291 School Librarians in Action: A Comparative Study of School Library Programs in Croatia and Hong Kong. Annie Tam, Samson Choi, Anica Tkalcevic, Zvjezdana Dukic, Joy Xiaobing Zheng 308
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Best IASL Conference 2017 Paper: Preparing Teacher Librarians to Support STEM Education Melissa P. Johnston, Ph.D. University of West Georgia, USA
ABSTRACT A current focus in schools in the United States is STEM education, which prepares students for successful employment and post-secondary studies that require unique and more-technically advanced skills through teaching and learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This approach is grounded in problem solving, discovery, and exploratory learning, which requires students to actively engage in a situation in order to find its solution. Students engage in STEM learning in many different ways, with technology and digital resources playing an important role. The prominence of technology in STEM education provides leadership opportunities for teacher librarians. Yet, teacher librarians must be prepared to lead in the integration of technology to support STEM education. This report presents identified needs of teacher librarians in regards to supporting STEM education and discusses implications for better preparing pre-service teacher librarians to lead in order to address the needs of a new generation of learners.
Keywords: STEM, Technology, Teacher Librarians, Leadership, Learning INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH PURPOSE STEM education prepares students for successful employment and post-secondary studies that require unique and more-technically advanced skills through teaching and learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). STEM has been defined as an “interdisciplinary approach to learning where academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons as students apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise enabling the development of STEM literacy and with it the ability to compete in the new economy” (Tsupros, Kohler, & Hallinen, 2009, p. 6). Educating students in the STEM areas not only prepares them for successful employment and post-secondary studies, but also for life, by teaching how to think critically and solve problems through a collaborative, hands-on, problem-solving, and project-based approach to education. Despite the national initiatives focusing on STEM, students in the U.S. continue to rank lower in science, in general, and literacy in both math and science compared to their counterparts in other countries. American students rank 17th out of 33 in science literacy and 25th out of 33 in math literacy among students in developed countries according to the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2015), leading to continued concerns that U.S. schools are not preparing students to enter STEM fields (e.g., Desilver, 2017; Heim, 2016; National Academy of Engineering & National Research Council, 2014; Randazzo, 2017). STEM education is grounded in problem solving, discovery, and exploratory learning, which requires students to actively engage in a situation in order to find its solution (Young, 2013). Students engage in STEM learning in many different ways, with technology and media playing an important role, as students learn concepts most effectively when exposed to interactive resources like digital videos, audio and graphics, scientific data sets, virtual manipulatives, and simulations (e.g., Mardis, 2007; Mardis & Payo, 2007; Perrault, 2007; Subramaniam, Ahn, Fleischmann, & Druin, 2012; Subramaniam & Edwards, 2014; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Young, 2013). Students need exposure to current and emerging technologies appropriate for STEM learning, but also instruction on how to interact with and
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utilize digital tools to “communicate, solve problems, and access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and to acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century” (American Association of School Librarians, 2009). Teacher librarians with advanced digital information abilities, along with expertise in inquiry learning can engage students and support teachers by providing access to digital resources, encouraging students in authentic inquiry practices, and providing real-world collaborative learning opportunities to promote STEM learning. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore and document the needs of teacher librarians in regards to supporting STEM education efforts in their schools, specifically through the utilization and integration of digital tools and resources, to address the research question: What are the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by teacher librarians in order to support STEM learning? This investigation specifically seeks to identify the current knowledge and abilities of teacher librarians in regards to supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content areas and the gaps in knowledge and skills in order to serve as the basis for curriculum development for teacher librarians preparation programs, as well as creating professional development/continuing education opportunities for practicing teacher librarians.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Few studies to date have examined the topic of teacher librarians and STEM education; those that have, find that teacher librarians can play an important role in supporting students and teachers (Hoffman & Mardis, 2008; Mardis, 2014; Rawson, Anderson, & Huges-Hassel, 2014; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Subramaniam et al., 2012; Subramaniam & Edwards, 2014). The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) defines five roles for teacher librarians, including that of information specialist, which has been found to demonstrate the most potential for supporting STEM education efforts (Hoffman & Mardis, 2008; Mardis, 2007; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Subramaniam et al., 2012). As an information specialist, the teacher librarian is charged with “introduce[ing] and model[ing] emerging technologies, as well as strategies for finding, assessing, and using information,” in order to ensure that learners are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the digital society of the 21 st century (AASL, 2009, p. 17). As information specialists, teacher librarians can serve as leaders in the integration of technology for STEM teaching and learning.
The Role of the Teacher Librarian Supporting STEM Education research illustrates that utilizing technology effectively in the classroom can improve students’ critical thinking skills, improve standardized test scores, provide numerous innovative educational opportunities, increase student motivation, and enhance the overall learning experience for students (e.g., Donovan, Green, & Hartley, 2010; Fu, 2013; Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2015; Levin & Schrum, 2013; Delgado, Wardlow, McKnight, & O’Malley, 2015). Yet, research finds that teachers continue to have difficulty locating appropriate digital content and are uncomfortable using digital content (Project Tomorrow, 2014, 2015). Teacher librarians, as information specialist, can find resources to support STEM content areas for teachers to utilize in their instruction (Hoffman & Mardis, 2008; McIlvain, 2010; Mardis, 2014; Perrault, 2007; Rawson, 2014; Subramaniam, 2015; Subramaniam et al., 2013). Digital resources and tools enrich student learning by enabling them to comprehend, visualize, and explain difficult concepts, which are otherwise difficult to portray inside the classroom, and by providing authentic learning and analytical experiences, such as demonstrations, simulations, experiments and observations of real world events, which were once limited to scientists. [9,18] Digital video is one such resource that can be utilized to support learning and it is commonly the teacher librarian who recommends videos to teachers (Albertson & Johnston, 2016; Mardis, 2007, 2014; McIlvain, 2010). The increased sense of urgency around how to effectively use digital tools and content to be able to impact student learning paired with teacher’s continued struggles and discomfort with using digital content, positions teacher librarians to train and model for teachers how to effectively use technology and media for STEM learning (Johnston, 2012; Mardis, 2014; Pandora, 2009; Subramaniam et al., 2013).
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Teacher librarians can also interact with and engage all students in effectively utilizing digital resources, such as simulations, digital videos, and online gaming, that will develop scientific problem solving thinking (McIlvain, 2010; Perrault, 2010; Project Tomorrow, 2015; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Subramaniam et al., 2012). The top subject areas in which students use video to support learning are science and math (Henriques, 2016; Johnson et al., 2015). Teacher librarians can build a rich multimedia collection and teach students about utilizing a variety of digital tools, such as databases, online digital libraries, and apps, to locate information and to organize their findings through curriculum and interest based projects (Mardis, 2014; Mardis & Payo, 2007; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Young, 2013). Teacher librarians can help teachers and students locate data from online databases to answer questions, collect evidence to support arguments, and develop data literacy practices especially related to science and engineering (Fontichiaro, 2016; Henriques, 2016). Digital resources have opened up a participatory world where students can connect to a global world of information and learn; it is teacher librarians that can teach students ethical and responsible behaviors to become global literate citizens (Subramaniam et al., 2012). As Subramaniam et al. (2012) found, “school library program is the ideal place to connect young people, media, and technology to engage students in STEM” and by leveraging expertise in integrating, utilizing, and managing digital information, teacher librarians can engage students in K-12 libraries to facilitate inquiry and digital literacies in STEM areas (p. 163). “School libraries emerge as an ideal hybrid space to bridge the formal classroom with the broader world” by making connections between the digital resources and concepts and their application to the world outside of the classroom or library (Subramaniam et al., 2012, p. 163). Yet, despite these opportunities for teacher librarians to become actively involved in STEM education, research suggests that teacher librarians are not embracing them Subramaniam et al, 2012; Subramaniam et al., 2013). Shultz-Jones and Ledbetter (2009) find that even though information literacy and science literacy goals correspond, collaboration does not often take place, attributing this to science and math teachers’ concerns regarding the teacher librarian's credibility and a lack of awareness of how the teacher librarian can positively affect student achievement. The same holds true for math teachers, who discount the teacher librarians and the needed expertise in mathematics to serve as an instructional partner (Subramaniam & Edwards, 2014). Another reported barrier is the teacher librarians themselves. Previous research finds that teacher librarians do not feel confident in their content knowledge of STEM areas (Mardis, 2007; Perrault, 2007; Rawson, 2014; Rawson, Anderson, Hughes-Hassel, 2015; Subramaniam et al., 2012; Subramaniam et al., 2013). Some attribute this to the fact that many teacher librarians come from a humanities background and lack the content knowledge in the STEM areas and are therefore hesitant to collaborate with teachers in these areas (Mardis, 2007; Perrault, 2007; Schultz-Jones, 2010; Shultz-Jones & Ledbetter, 2009; Young, 2013). Additionally, teacher librarians state they have not been adequately prepared in school library preparation programs to support and collaborate in the STEM areas, and then in practice there is a lack of professional reading and professional development opportunities in these areas. This lack of familiarity with the STEM areas and content standards can also lead to an inadequate collection of resources – both print and nonprint to support STEM education (Hoffman & Mardis, 2008; Schultz-Jones, 2010; Shultz-Jones & Ledbetter, 2009; Young, 2013). This deficit in the knowledge, skills, and abilities that teacher librarians need to support STEM has led to feelings of inadequacy with STEM content areas and digital tools, resulting in hesitation to work with students and teachers in these areas, therefore leading to leading to inadequate services for the STEM needs of students and teachers. A teacher librarian equipped with advanced digital information skills coupled with applied STEM capabilities can engage students and teachers by facilitating meaningful use of digital resources and providing real-world collaborative learning opportunities to promote and support STEM learning.
RESEARCH DESIGN A needs assessment is a “systematic approach to studying the state of knowledge, ability, interest, or attitude of a defined audience or group involving a particular subject” (McCawley, 2009, p. 3) In this research the defined group is teacher librarians in rural areas of the southeastern U.S. and the topic is the
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state of their knowledge, ability, interest, or attitude in supporting STEM learning in their school library program. This type of assessment is conducted in order to allow the target audience to verify its own level of knowledge and skill, as well as its perceptions on the gaps and possible solutions (McCawley, 2009). This research followed the needs assessment process as defined by McCawley (2009): determine objectives, define the target audience, and collect the data; and utilized the methods of key informant interview and observation for data collection.
Determining Objectives The first step in conducting a needs assessment is to determine the objectives of the study. The objectives of this study were taken from the overarching research question: 1) determine the knowledge, skills, and abilities that teacher librarians working in STEM schools felt were needed in order to support STEM education efforts; and 2) learn if teacher librarians perceived if they had been adequately prepared for this role; and if not, where do they perceive the gaps. It is important in a needs assessment to not limit information gathered to just existing knowledge or skills, but to investigate what the audience already knows or believes about the topic, what other efforts they may have taken to address deficiencies, and the audience’s opinions and perceived solutions (McCawley, 2009).
Defining the Target Audience Needs assessments research documents the current situation for a target audience, therefore, the second step in conducting a needs assessment is to thoroughly define the target audience, or those who should provide the data (McCawley, 2009). The target audience for this study is teacher librarians working in schools that are designated as a “STEM school.” For the purposes of this research a STEM school is one that has been certified by their state department of education or local area ruling school body as a STEM school, or has some type of “official” designation as a STEM school, academy, or magnet school. To further define the target audience, a geographical criterion was imposed, as the rural southeastern U.S. Rural school districts are behind and face challenges, particularly when compared to urban/suburban schools in the advancement of STEM. These challenges include tight budgets, inflexible curricula, lack of technology, struggles with recruiting and retaining great teachers in shortage areas like STEM, and a lack of professional development opportunities for teachers. Therefore, teacher librarians working in rural areas in the southeast U.S. were selected as the target audience. The rural and culturally diverse populations found in these areas comprise some of the lowest socioeconomic indices in the country, so there is a critical need for support in STEM areas that a teacher librarian can provide.
Collecting the Data The next step in the needs assessment process is to gather appropriate and sufficient data that provides concrete evidence that can be used to determine which of the possible means-to-the-ends are most effective and efficient for achieving the desired results (Gilchrist & Williams, 1999). It was determined that the most appropriate methods to employ for this research were key informant interviews and observation. The needs assessment process is not a linear one, it is iterative with loops, with what you learn from your observations informing what you ask in the interview, and what you learn in the interview leading you to see things differently in your observations (McCawley, 2009).
Key Informant Interview Key informant interview is a qualitative research method in which the researcher conducts indepth interviews with a select group of individuals who are likely to provide needed information, ideas, and insights on the particular subject of study (Gilchrist & Williams, 1999; Kaplan, 2013; Tremblay, 2003). In-depth interviews are conducted with a small number of key informants, usually 15-35, and focus on a topic that the interviewees have first-hand knowledge. The interview is usually conducted using an interview guide that list topics or issues to be covered during the interview rather than specific questions. The interviewer frames the actual questions during the course of the interview. This semistructured interview with a key informant should have an informal tone, like a conversation. The interviewer probes to elicit more information from the informant throughout the interview. The primary
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goal is to obtain qualitative description of perceptions or experiences, rather than measuring aspects of the experience (Gilchrist & Williams, 1999; Kumar, 1989; Tremblay, 2003). Key informants are individuals who meet specific selection of criteria based on their personal experiences and knowledge, in the case of this research the key informants were defined in the targeted group, as those teacher librarians currently working in schools designated as STEM schools in the rural southeastern United States. Key informants were purposively selected because they are knowledgeable and/or have experience with the topic under study, in this case the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to support STEM learning, and can provide significant contributions to the inquiry (Kaplan, 2013; Kumar, 1989; Tremblay, 2003). State Department of Education websites were searched and utilized to locate schools designated as “STEM schools.” The researcher then conducted internet searches to find the websites of each school to determine location, then locate the school library page to first see if they had a teacher librarian (not all did), and to look at the programming going on in the library. In staying with the suggested size of 15-35 informants, the researcher selected 35 teacher librarians to email to see if they would be willing to be interviewed about their efforts to support STEM learning in their schools. Twenty-six teacher librarians responded positively and agreed to be interviewed. It is important to establish a rapport with the key informants in order to obtain in-depth information about practices and perceptions (Kaplan, 2013; Kuamr, 1989; Tremblay, 2003. The researcher began this rapport with email communication with an informal tone and explaining the project. The researcher traveled to each school to conduct interviews over a three-month time period. An interview guide was utilized with interview topics to be covered during the interview rather than specific questions, the researcher asked questions according to the situation to “seek insights, ask follow-up questions, explore different points made during the course of conversation and identify distinctions in perspectives” (Kaplan, 2013, p. 1). All questions were asked informally in a conversational tone, usually while walking around the school library rather than a formally sit-down interview. More issues or topics were covered during the interview than identified in the interview guide, because as the key informants talked about their experiences or giving views and recommendations, the researcher asked more probing questions to seek more details and clarification. This type of interview provides flexibility to explore new ideas and issues that are relevant to the study’s purpose (Kaplan, 2013; Kumar, 1989; Tremblay, 2003). After obtaining permission, all interviews were recorded with a digital audio recorder and the researcher also took extensive notes throughout the interview.
Observation Method Observation was chosen as complimentary to the interviews with the key informant teacher librarians due to the important part that the environment and use of space in the school library plays in supporting STEM learning (Schultz-Jones, 2010; Schultz-Jones & Ledbetter, 2009; Subramaniam et al., 2012; Young, 2013). The needs assessment process is iterative and informal direct observations led to more questions for the informants during the interview. Observation allowed for notes of how space was being used, the activities going on in the school library, the collection, and of special programming to support STEM. The researcher made detailed notes of the setting and activities taking place in the library and most informants gave detailed tours and descriptions of how their spaces were being used and special programming going on such as STEM centers, makerspaces, robotics tables, and Lego walls; all these descriptions were recorded. Photos were also taken of each school library and ways that STEM learning was supported. Observation is also used as a way to increase the validity of the study, as observations help the researcher have a better understanding of the context and phenomenon under study. The audio interviews were transcribed each night after the researcher conducted the interview. A file was created for each interview that included the audio recording, transcripts of the recording, observation notes, and photographs taken.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
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Analysis in needs assessment research is about looking for trends and patterns (McCawley, 2009). Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. Themes that emerge “capture something important about the data in relation to the research questions” are important to the description of the phenomenon under study (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006; Kaplan, 2013; Vaughn & Clark, 2006). Therefore, thematic analysis of the interview transcripts, direct observation notes, and photographs was conducted. Since this is exploratory research, an inductive approach was taken in that the themes emerge from the frequent, dominant, or significant themes inherent in data (Vaughn & Clark, 2006). The data collected from the interviews and notes was transcribed by the principal investigator, during this process the initial thoughts and ideas were noted down as this is considered an essential stage in analysis (Vaughn & Clark, 2006). The transcribed data was then read and re-read several times and, in addition, the recordings were listened to several times to ensure the accuracy of the transcription. This process of “repeated reading” and the use of the recordings to listen to the data, results in data immersion and refers to the researcher's closeness with the data (Vaughn & Clark, 2006). Then the interview transcripts, direct observation notes, and photographs were uploaded into NVivo and sorted into folders based on the site where they were gathered. Word frequency queries were run and all data sources and all data were coded by word. The researcher conducted analysis to identify and synthesize recurring themes emerging from the data based on prevalence, which was counted in terms of the number of occurrence across all of the data sources collected from all the sites and the core meanings evident in the data that were relevant to the research objectives. The visual representation features in NVivo were utilized to sort the coded data in to overarching themes and then each piece of coded data was examined to ensure that the theme captures the meaning and aspects of the coded data. Sub-nodes were made according to these themes to capture additional data specific to these themes as well.
FINDINGS The thematic analysis process that was applied to the transcripts elicited patterns or themes that were evident in the data. These themes are viewed as essential in determining the needs of all the participants. The major overarching themes emerged as: Knowledge, Technology, Resources, and Space. This report will focus on the theme of Technology as it relates to the purpose of the research, to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by school librarians in order to support STEM learning.
Technology Technology was the most frequently mentioned topic by participants when discussing how they support STEM education in their schools. Concepts that emerged as sub-themes as needs were determined as: the knowledge of how to effectively integrate technology to support STEM; the ability to stay up-todate on emerging technologies, and the skills to teach students how to access and utilize digital information.
Knowledge on How to Effectively Integrate Technology for Teaching & Learning in the STEM Areas While an important aspect of teacher librarians supporting STEM content areas is the purchasing of a variety of technology and digital resources, participants spoke more about how to integrate the resources into the teaching and learning process. Participants expressed that sometimes they felt they did not have enough knowledge on how to integrate the resources effectively in the STEM areas. “There is so much technology that can be utilized for supporting the STEM nowadays ranging from digital microscopes to virtual reality simulations, but you need a sound understanding of how to best use these resources for learning. I think this is an area I could have learned more about in library school.” Other participants expressed this deficit in their preparation programs as well stating “I feel like there was a lot of ‘look at all these great resources you can find online,’ but not enough learning the principles of integrating them to support learning.” One area of STEM that was frequently mentioned by participants was computational thinking, an important foundational component of STEM education. Participants spoke of a lack of knowledge from
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their preparation programs in this area and how they had taken it upon themselves to learn. One participant expressed “I had no idea what computational thinking was, much less how to teach it.” Nearly all participants mentioned teaching coding in some way or form to students in their schools. Knowing how to code requires computational thinking skills and an understanding of how to troubleshoot, problem solve, and think critically; when a young person learns to code they gain STEM skills (Braun & Visser, 2017). “I decided to begin a coding club for students during lunchtime as a way I could support the STEM goals of my school. It wasn’t easy because I first had to teach myself, but there are a ton of great resources out there.” This finding overlaps with the Knowledge theme in that teacher librarians need some background knowledge of the STEM content areas and what STEM education in general entails in order to effectively integrate technology to support teaching and learning in these areas. Participants also frequently spoke about the expectation that they train teachers on technology. One teacher librarian expressed that “my district continually purchases equipment and other resources, like ipads for each school. But they never provide any training.” The role of professional developer is one that the teacher librarian can enact and therefore support teachers. All but two participants mentioned the importance of providing training for teachers on technology for use to support STEM. Many STEM concepts can be hard for students to grasp just by reading about them, but the effective integration of interactive technologies like digital videos, audio and graphics, scientific data sets, virtual manipulatives, and simulations can bring concepts alive (Mardis & Payo, 2007; Subramaniam & Edwards, 2014; Subramaniam et al., 2012; Subramaniam et al., 2013; Young, 2013). Yet teachers still struggle with integrating technology effectively for instruction. Participants expressed that there was the expectation from their administrators that they assist with this. “My principal sees that I should be more than just a provider of these great resources for teacher – that I should be able to train the teachers on how to use them too.”
The Ability to Stay Current on Emergent Technologies A common thread through the various responses of the participants was their implicit and explicit references to their concern to stay current on emerging technology. The interview responses demonstrate participants’ beliefs that it is the responsibility of the teacher librarian to stay on the cutting edge of emerging technologies so they can introduce them to students and teachers. One participant expressed this saying that “it is like a full-time job just to stay up-to-date – it seems like every day there is some new digital resource.” Another participant stated that while you are in your preparation programs it is easy to stay current with information from courses and from other classmates, yet “when I got out into practice I felt like I was falling behind - it was hard to keep up.” Other teacher librarians shared ways that they do strive to stay current: reading journals, webpages/blogs, social media (Twitter was mentioned by every participant), going to conferences, and attending trainings. The participants also spoke of learning from other teacher librarians through informal channels, but also through professional organizations. This echoes previous research which found professional organizations as an enabler for teacher librarians acting as leaders in technology integration (Johnston, 2012).
Skills to Teach Students About Digital Information School librarians are responsible for developing “information skills that will enable [students] to use technology as an important tool for learning” (AASL, 2009, p. 13). Technology has become a crucial element of teaching and learning, especially when it comes to preparing students that are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the technological society of the 21st century and beyond. Education research illustrates that utilizing technology effectively in the classroom can improve students’ critical thinking skills, improve standardized test scores, provide numerous innovative educational opportunities, increase student motivation, and enhance the overall learning experience for students. In modeling and partnering with teachers, school librarians can guide instructional design and offer expertise on the integration of emergent technologies to create engaging and relevant learning experiences for students (AASL, 2009; Johnston, 2012). As information specialists and educators, teacher librarians can engage students and support teachers by providing access to and instruction for utilizing digital resources, encourage students in authentic inquiry practices, and provide real-world collaborative learning opportunities to promote STEM learning. Participants expressed their efforts to teach students
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through partnering with teachers. “I work with teachers whenever possible to develop inquiry based lessons that we can connect to science.” Inquiry based learning was mentioned frequently by participants, which was expected since the Standards for the 21st Century Learner for K-12 school libraries in the United States are based on inquiry learning (AASL, 2009). There was a strong focus on teaching students how to locate and use information they find online, through databases and other online resources. “I have increased my subscriptions to online databases, especially those with a science focus, and I have expanded my teaching about the databases through all grade levels – even down to first grade.” And in speaking about how they teach these skills, participants stated “I try to incorporate teaching databases into authentic research lessons and projects with each grade level.” Teacher librarians need the skills to teach students about digital information – locating it, accessing it, evaluating it, and utilizing it.
IMPLICATIONS The overall findings signify a need for teacher librarian preparation programs to adapt to better prepare students for the expectations of today’s teacher librarians, especially for the role of information specialist. Teacher librarians need to be able to support technology integration efforts in all curricular areas, but especially STEM where technology and media play such an important part in the teaching and learning of these subjects. Professors in preparation programs must stay up-to-date with the field, national initiatives that impact the profession, and design coursework that reflects this in order to best prepare future teachers librarians to meet demands and expectations. Teachers continue to find locating appropriate resources to utilize for instruction challenging and still struggle with effective integration (Johnston, 2012; Project Tomorrow, 2014, 2015). Teacher librarians need coursework that instills leadership skills, but also that teaches effective integration of technology for teaching and learning. This type of coursework must include learning the skills necessary to teach students how to locate, access, evaluate, and utilizing digital information within an inquiry based learning framework. Teacher librarian preparation programs must prepare students to go into practice with strategies on how to stay up-to-date on emerging technologies. Preparation programs can teach students how to connect with other teacher librarians in the field and create a group of supportive colleagues or a community of practice. Students can also be introduced to various professional organizations where they can meet other teacher librarians and experience professional growth opportunities through conferences, workshops, blogs, and journals. Introducing students to various ways to stay current, such as social media and how to develop strategies for effectively utilizing these various outlets should be a part of every teacher librarian preparation program. Yet, it is also important to teach students to move beyond just their own comfort zone of school librarianship to expand their learning from other areas, for example using social media to follow STEM educators for the most current technologies for use in these areas. The prominence of technology in STEM education provides leadership opportunities for teacher librarians. Yet, teacher librarians need coursework that instills leadership skills and teaches effective integration of technology for teaching and learning. This type of coursework will help them better serve to support teachers in their STEM teaching efforts and in teaching students the skills they need to interact with and utilize digital Information.
CONCLUSION This study, as previous research, finds that the information specialist role of the teacher librarian demonstrates the most potential for supporting STEM education (Hoffman & MArdis, 2008; Mardis, 2007; Subramaniam et al., 2012; Subramaniam et al., 2013). As an information specialist, the teacher librarian is charged with “introduce[ing] and model[ing] emerging technologies, as well as strategies for finding, assessing, and using information,” in order to ensure that learners are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the digital society of the 21 st century (AASL, 2009, p. 17). Yet, this study builds on the previous research to identify the specific needs of teacher librarians in fulfilling this information specialist role. Findings contribute to the exploratory purpose of this study to identify needs of teacher librarians in regards to supporting STEM education. Implications demonstrate the need for
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teacher librarian preparation programs to adapt in order to better prepare pre-service teacher librarians to lead through the integration of technology in STEM areas in order to address the needs of a new generation of learners.
REFERENCES Albertson, D., & Johnston, M. P. (2016). Individual differences of science teachers and interactive video retrieval. The Electronic Library, 34(1), 42-57. American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Empowering learners: Guidelines for school library programs. Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Braun, L., & Visser, M. (2017). Ready to code: Connecting youth to CS opportunities through libraries report. Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/ sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/pp/Ready_To_Code_ Report_FINAL.pdf Delgado, A. J., Wardlow, L., McKnight, K., & O’Malley, K. (2015). Educational technology: A review of the integration, resources, and effectiveness of technology in K-12 classrooms. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 14, 397-416. Retrieved from http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol14/JITEv14ResearchP397- 416Delgado1829.pdf Desilver, D. (2017). U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/ Donovan, L., Green, T., & Hartley, K. (2010). An examination of one-to-one computing in the middle school: Does increased access bring about increased student engagement? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 42(4), 423–441. Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80-92. Fontichiaro, K. (2016). Why data literacy matters. Knowledge Quest, 44(5), 21-27. Fu, J. S. (2013). ICT in education: A critical literature review and its implications. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT, 9(1), 112-125. Gilchrist, V. A., Williams, R. L. (1999). Key informant interviews. In B. F. Crabtree and W. L. Miller (Eds.), Doing Qualitative Research (pp. 71-88). California: Sage. Guzey, S. S., & Roehrig, G. H. (2009). Teaching science with technology: Case studies of science teachers’ development of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 25-45. Henriques, L. (2016). Science teachers – In what ways have you partnered with your school librarian? Retrieved from http://www.classroomscience.org/science-teachers-in-what-ways-have-youpartnered-with-your-school-librarian Heim, J. (2016). On the world stage, U.S. students fall behind. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/on-the-world-stage-us-students-fall-behind/2016/ Hew, K. F., & Brush, T. (2007). Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: Current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research. Educational Technology and Development, 55(3), 223-252. Hoffman, E. S., & Mardis, M. A. (2008). The status of technology, science and mathematics in U.S. middle school media centers: A national survey. In Proceedings of the International Association of School Librarianship 37th Annual Conference, Chicago, IL. Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada V., & Freemna, A. (2015). NMC horizon report: 2015 K-12 edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. Johnston, M. P. (2012). School librarians as technology integration leaders: Enablers and barriers to leadership enactment. School Library Research, 15(1). Retrieved from www.ala.org/aasl/slr Kaplan, C. (2013). The key informant interview. The Research Review, 3(1). Retrieved from http://www.ctfalliance.org/research_savvypractitioner.htm#select
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Kaufman, R., Rojas, A. M., & Mayer, H. (1993). Needs assessment: A user's guide. New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications, Inc. Kumar, K. (1989). Conducting key informant interviews in developing countries. Agency for International Development. Center for Development Information and Evaluation. Washington, D.C: A.I.D. Retrieved from www.alnap.org/pool/files/conducting-key-informant-interviewskumar.pdf Levin, B., & Schrum, L. (2013). Using systems thinking to leverage technology for school improvement: Lessons learned from award-winning secondary schools/districts. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(1), 29–51. Mardis, M. A. (2007). School libraries and science achievement: A view from Michigan's middle schools. School Library Media Research, 10. Retrieved from www.ala.org/aasl/slr Mardis, M. A. (2014). Ready for STEM? A leading commercial multimedia database as a source for media-rich science, technology, engineering, and mathematics assets K-12 library collections. Library Resources & Technical Services, 58(4), 250-264. Retrieved from https://journals.ala.org/lrts/ Mardis, M. A., & Payo, R. (2007). Making the school library sticky: Digital libraries build teacher-librarians’ strategic implementation content knowledge in science. Teacher Librarian, 34(5), 814. McCawley, P. F. (2009). Methods for conducting educational needs assessment: Guidelines for cooperative extension system professionals. Retrieved from http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/ edcomm/pdf/BUL/BUL0870.pdf McIlvain, E. (2010). NSDL as a teacher empower point. Knowledge Quest, 39(2), 54-63. National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. (2014). STEM integration in K-12 education: Status, prospects, and an agenda for research. Committee on Committee on STEM Integration. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2015). Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results: USA. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ Pandora, C. (2009). STEM - How libraries provide STEM information. Ohio Media Spectrum, 61(1). Perrault, A. M. (2007). An exploratory study of biology teachers’ online information seeking practices. School Library Media Research, 10, 1- 26. Perrault, A. M. (2010). Making science learning available and accessible to all learners: Leveraging digital library resources. Knowledge Quest, 39(2), 64-68. Project Tomorrow. (2015). From print to pixel: The roles of videos, games, animations and simulations within K-12 education. Results from the 2015 Speak Up Survey. Retrieved from http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU15AnnualReport.html Project Tomorrow. (2014). The new digital playbook: Understanding the spectrum of students’ activities and aspiration. Retrieved from http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/ SU13DigitalLearningPlaybook_StudentReport.html Randazzo, M. (2017). Students shouldn’t live in STEM deserts. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-05-10/the-us-mustaddress-disparities-in-access-to-stem-education Rawson, C., Anderson, J., & Hughes-Hassel, S. (2015). Preparing pre-service school librarians for science-focused collaboration with pre-service elementary teachers: The design and Impact of a crossclass assignment. School Library Research, 18. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/slr/ Schultz-Jones, B. (2010). School librarians, teachers and optimal STEM learning environments,” Knowledge Quest, 39(2), 12-18. Schultz-Jones, B. & Ledbetter, C. E. (2009). Building relationships in the school social network: Science teachers and school library media specialists report key dimensions. School Libraries Worldwide, 15(2), 23-48. Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Fleischmann, K. R., & Druin, A. (2012). Reimagining the role of school libraries in STEM education: Creating hybrid spaces for exploration. Library Quarterly, 82(2), 161–182.
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Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Waugh, A., Taylor, N. G., Druin, A., Fleischmann, K. R., & Walsh, G. (2013). The role of school librarians in enhancing science learning. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 47(1), 1-14. Subramaniam, M., & Edwards, A. R. (2014). The collaboration conundrum between school librarians and mathematics teachers,” International Journal of Libraries and Information Services (LIBRI), 64(2), 185–209. Tremblay, M. A. The key informant technique: A non-ethnographic application. In R. G. Burgess (Ed.), Field research: A sourcebook and field manual (pp. 151-163). New York, NY: Routledge. Tsupros, N., Kohler, R., & Hallinen, J. (2009). STEM education: A project to identify the missing components. Pennsylvania, PA: Carnegie Mellon. USAID Center for Development Information and Education. (1996). Performance monitoring and evaluation tips: Conducting key informant interviews. 1996. Retrieved from http://dmeforpeace.org/sites/default/files/USAID_Performance%20Monitoring%20and%2 0Evaluation%20TIPS%20conducting%20Key%20Informant%20Interviews.pdf Vaughn, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. Young, T. E. (2013). 24/7 STEMulation: Reinventing discovery. Library Media Connection, 31 (6), 20–22.
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Effect of Bibliotherapy on Unruly Behaviour of Young People in Correctional Homes in Lagos State Nigeria Sophia Adeyeye and Fadekemi Oyewusi Ph.D. University of Ibadan, Nigeria
ABSTRACT Bibliotherapy (use of books) is employed in this study with the intention to control the behaviour of young girls resident in a correctional home. This is relevant to the work of school librarians because they can help to find appropriate books that would influence positively the behaviour of young people in correctional homes. Thirty-six female participants took part in the bibliotherapy sessions that made use of Focus Group Discussion (FGD). These girls were separated into two categories - child offenders (17 girls) and out of parental control (19 girls). The study employed the use of a Nigerian authored story book which was read to them during the FGD for 10 weeks. The study found that after reading and discussion of themes in the book, the participants had more understanding of what good behaviour entailed. They became remorseful and sober which was evident during the discussions.
Keywords: Bibliotherapy, Nigeria, Correctional Homes, Book Discussion INTRODUCTION There has been growing concern in the Nigeria society regarding the increase in the unruly behaviour of young people (Adegoke, 2015). This informs stakeholders (librarians, scholars, parents/guardian, policy makers, teachers and others) resolve to continually discuss the worrisome dimension of unruly behaviour and its consequences on young people and the society at large. According to the last population census held in Nigeria in 2006, the population was 140,431,490 out of which age group 0-19 are 73,635,716 a fraction that is slightly high. These young people are faced with a number of challenges that could affect their abilities to live a healthy and normal life. Preliminary investigations revealed that unruly behaviour that young people in Nigeria are involved in include being in possession of hard drugs, use of these drugs, cultism, bullying, truancy, rape, prostitution, examination malpractices and theft. All these wild behaviour are not only detrimental to physical and emotional wellness of the young people, it could also put the society into some problems (Muhammed, Salami, Adekeye, Ayinla and Adeoye, 2009). The involvement of these young people in unruly behaviour may likely make them behave in an unacceptable manner. Bibliotherapy is a prescribed reading of books to ease a psychological illness. According to McCaffrey (2016), Bibliotherapy is commonly studied in psychology through focus group and it relies on controlled aspects and, more often than not, prescribed non-fiction self-help books that were created by a psychologist. However, personal testimonies of readers can show a powerful impact too, even though the results may not be from a controlled environment. This implies that books can help children and young people relate to and understand intricate feelings they may be going through. Bibliotherapy is an important programme that could be potentially developed into young people’s activities in school libraries. The school librarian is assuming the role of a counselor (Oyewusi, 2016) where children and young people can be counseled through the recommendation of appropriate books that can assist them in removing their emotional burdens. Bibliotherapy is using books and reading of appropriate books to correct and treat the person involved. It is systematic selection of reading materials which can be fiction or nonfiction books. It involves reading books like self help books, story books and poems in order to make young people feel better in themselves and about themselves in order to be able to cope with problems relevant to their situations and developmental needs at appropriate time. Bibliotherapy is of two types, the clinical bibliotherapy and developmental bibliotherapy (Ajayi, 2014). For the purpose of this study,
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developmental bibliotherapy was used. The developmental bibliotherapy is any planned use of books carried out with the aim to influence the personal growth and development. It is particularly relevant to the work of school libraries and school librarians. Developmental bibliotherapy is practiced by school librarians to facilitate and help children and young people cope with issues or situations that could affect or has affected their behaviours. Careful selection of story books based on issues that the young people are going through is very paramount to having a good session/ therapy. The client will then be able to go through all the stages of bibliotherapy (identification, catharsis, insight and universalisation). According to Muhammed (2010) and McCulliss (2012), the future of any nation is largely determined by the well being and quality of its young people. Young people with emotional and behavioural problem are likely to be destructive, misbehave and have problem with coping with socially acceptable behaviour. Young people who have behaved unruly are more likely to commit crime which would take them to correctional homes. These sets of young people can still be helped through the proper use of intervention programmes like bibliotherapy. Thus, reading of prescribed and relevant books can bring back what has been lost in them and make these young people who have been incarcerated in correctional homes into better persons in the society. Bibliotherapy helps the juvenile in correctional homes in discovering, sharing and comparing issues in their lives and that of the character(s) in the book. Most pupils are not aware that they can go to the library in order to get supportive literature that will help them with their problems and lead them to new knowledge, support, insight, and possible solutions (Baruchson-Arbib, 2010). She reiterated further that young people may not see the librarian as an appropriate person to go to for this kind of help; in addition, librarians hesitate to take on anything of a therapeutic nature, and rightly do so. Hence the need for the librarians in this study to take the bibliotherapy process to young people that has been classified as having unruly (wild and uncontrollable) behaviour and confined to correctional homes. The home used in this study have educational facilities with some form of library attached to them and had a focus group discussion using books as a form of correctional tool was used. Correctional homes are institutions established for reformation and rehabilitation of persons assigned to it. Correctional homes in Nigeria for young people are referred to as remand homes under the Child and Young Persons Law (Ajayi, 1997; Child and Young Persons Law of Lagos State, 2003; Alemika and Chukwuma 2005;). Correctional homes in Nigeria serves as detention sites for young people who has violated the young people and young person’s law or the criminal code (young people in conflict with the law), young people in need of care and protection and beyond parental control. The homes were established with the purpose of reformation, rehabilitation and re integration of such remanded young people back to the society. These set of young people were remanded because of their involvement in unruly behaviour, there is need to properly rehabilitate them so that the purpose of remanding them in correctional homes will not be defeated. Rehabilitation is a necessary resource that is provided to young people (Darbouze, 2010). Therefore, young people in correctional homes are counseled, educated, rehabilitate, reformed using different interventions in order to empower them to develop skills that could help them to go through life and keep them out of trouble (Bella, Atilola and Omigbodun, 2010). There are different intervention programmes that could be used to help in rehabilitating the remanded young people. According to Ojo (2012), there are several ways of helping young people in coping with issues that face them. For the societal peace and tranquility, there is need to introduce and implement an intervention programme which will be of help to the young people by helping to change them into better persons and re integrate them back to the society. One of the several options available is bibliotherapy.
Role of School Libraries in Changing Behaviours among Young People School Librarians and libraries can help young people with reading activities to empower and emancipate them from actions that are detrimental both to them and the society. Through reading, young people could enter into the life and experiences of others and this could have implication on their knowledge, scope of experiment, enjoyment and long lasting solution to what they are passing through. A well written story book or novel has other uses aside from educational purpose; it could provide
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information that is new to the reader, meet recreational and entertainment needs and also help to gain insight into the issues that the young people are dealing with. Reading of books have been an instrument of change, development and helps in effective decision making (Akinola, 2014). During reading, users of books are able to compare and contrast behaviour/characters in the book and this will help the reader with inferring some form of reasoning. The role of the librarian as leader of bibliotherapy group meetings is an effective one in situations involving inmates in correctional institutions. In addition to motivating reading interests and helping to escape for a time from his problems, bibliotherapy groups have other important goals such as socialization and communication (Hannigan, 1962 ). In Nigeria, the most convenient place for young people to have access to books is the library, preliminary observations has revealed that the economic recession in the country would not allow many young people the opportunity to buy personal books for themselves in the face of other pressing needs like food, clothing and shelter. But, a major question to ask is whether the libraries themselves are equipped. Literature (Adegoke, 2015) has shown that several school libraries in Nigeria are not equipped with timely and adequate resources. School libraries are one of the sources for providing reading resources and a gateway to knowledge. It is a repository of books and other resources that could help young people shape their thoughts and influence their actions. However, we observed that most correctional homes in Nigeria do not have functional libraries where young people could go to read for pleasure. Some of them have a semblance of a library but not a library as defined in the IFLA 2015 School Library Guidelines. The IFLA School Library guidelines (2015) reveals that a school library provides a range of learning opportunities for individuals, small groups, and large groups with a focus on intellectual content, information literacy, and cultural and social development. According to IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto (1999), the school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge-based society. Unruly young people need the school library to help with their cultural and social development by transforming them into responsible citizens. This is because they are housed in correctional homes and the IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto (1999) also reiterated that specific services and materials must be provided for those who are unable to use mainstream library services and materials. Young people in correctional homes will enjoy the benefits of access to the schools which can assist transform them the following ways: School librarians motivate students to discover the world through reading. This is because they help students to locate books and information on the topics of their interest. School library services with good resources will help young people explore the world around them through print and electronic media (Oyewusi, 2016). According to Igbokwe, Obidike and Ezeji (2012), good library services should include availability of rich and good resources in stimulating environment that will help in attaining the correctional objectives of reformation and rehabilitation of the young people in the correctional homes. A functional library would not only provide textbooks for curriculum needs of the young people, but also provide books that will enhance skills that could help the young people in the future. The school library equips students with life-long learning skills and develops the imagination enabling them to live as responsible citizens. It plays this role by selecting, acquiring and providing access to appropriate sources of information (Mahajan, 2010). Appropriately shared stories provide opportunities for young people to gain insight and learn healthier ways to face difficulties. Young people’s literature is a therapeutic tool for facilitating emotional growth and healing. Stories provide a catalyst for change, providing young people with other perspectives and options for thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Okwilagwe and Mubonyi, 2011). School librarian has the responsibility to bring books and young people together for therapeutic reasons in bibliotherapy. According to Hannigan (1962), bibliotherapy can serve group therapy by expertly providing material for discussion and also by reinforcing and complementing the discussion through appropriate reading lists. The librarian, in turn, acts as an analyzer of the discussion material and provides the medicament, so to speak, for the use of the group therapists. According to her, the school librarian with his knowledge of
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books and the psychiatrist with his knowledge of people generally and of his patients particularly, make an excellent team. In carrying out the function of bibliotherapy the librarian recommends and provides reading material through (a) readers’ advisory service, (b) individual and/or group therapy, and (c) special library activities correlated with patients’ interests (Hannigan, 1962) Readers’ Advisory Service: The librarian stimulates and develops reading interest by recommending and providing reading materials through discussions with young people who come to the library. The librarian assists patients with book selection, and makes suggestions based on their requests, needs, reading habits, physical condition, and educational, social and occupational and language background. Individual and Group Therapy: The objective of individual and group therapy is to lessen the mental and emotional strain and to motivate the patient toward normal living through professional guidance in the use of library materials. Special Activities: The librarian aids the patients’ physical and mental recovery and adjustment by creating and stimulating their initiative, self-reliance, and confidence through projects leading to the use of library material. Hobby and vocational displays, nature study groups, library activities for special occasions, etc., correlated with the vocational, recreational, and cultural background of the patients, are organized and developed by the librarian to encourage the use of the library in connection with these projects. It is therefore, imperative for libraries and librarians to render specialised services to targeted groups or disadvantaged group like young people in correctional homes. This is because books read in these specialised libraries can affect a young person’s feelings and actions. Correctional homes with library services like other institutions of the society could help in reformation and re integration of the incarcerated young people back into the society just as it will also help the young people in correctional homes to imbibe reading habit. STATEMENT OF THE STUDY Young people in correctional homes need urgent attention in the area of unruly behaviour. It is one of the major reasons why they are being incarcerated in correctional homes. When these juvenile are not properly remediated, it can led to more criminals being released into the society. This could create more serious problem for the society at large. The reformatory roles of correctional homes in the country have been neglected over a long period of time with several homes without reading facilities provided for the young people. This could lead to involvement in more disobedient behaviour among inmates. All this are likely to have negative effect on security and gradually cumulate into youth restiveness and insurgency like Boko Haram as seen in the northern of the country. METHODOLOGY Purposive sampling procedure was used to select participants for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The participants are delinquent young people in Girls Correctional Home in Idi-Araba, Lagos State. Total population of girls in the correctional home is 70 girls. They belonged to four categories: 16 young girls in need of care and protection, 19 girls who are beyond control, 17 girls who are child offenders and 19 girls who needed shelter. The participants in the focus group discussion included 36 girls in two groups who are in the categories of child offenders (17 girls) and out of parental control categories (19 girls). The main purpose of the focus group discussion is to provide the bibliotherapy procedure and discussion using the book "My storybook on values for the African child" by Omoegun (2014). FGD also helped in soliciting in-depth information on the solutions to the issues facing the young girls in the correctional home using the story from the book as a baseline for bibliotherapy treatment.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 17
The project was focused on young people in correctional homes in Lagos state, Nigeria. These young people exhibited unruly behaviour like pretty theft, drug and substance abuse, prostitution, truancy, armed robbery, arson, man slaughter and so on. These sets of young people were alleged to have committed the listed offences and they were taken into the protection care of the homes. Firstly, the researchers held a joint meeting with the correctional homes management and teachers to help in creating an atmosphere for reading and understanding.
Procedure during FGD The story book "My Storybook on Values for the African Child" by Omoegun (2014) was distributed to all the girls for independent reading for one week which was followed by eight weeks of group discussions and activities while the tenth week was used as a wrap up session. The bibliotherapy process lasted for ten weeks; it was observed that the girls got into the correctional homes after they were involved with unruly behaviour ranging from pretty theft, drug and substance abuse, prostitution, truancy, armed robbery, arson, manslaughter and so on. The procedure followed during this study is as follows: Session One: Introduction by the researcher for the purpose of gathering; The book was introduced and Books were given to the young girls for independent reading. Session Two: Guided reading from the story book which was based on the theme "Cooperation". Session Three: This included activities (questions and discussion) on the theme "Cooperation". Session Four: Guided reading from the story book with the theme " Honesty". Session Five: Questions and discussions on theme "honesty". Session Six: Guided reading from the story book on the theme "Responsibility". Session Seven: Questions and discussions activities on theme "Responsibility". Session Eight: Guided reading from the story book on the theme "Tolerance". Session Nine: Questions and discussions activities on theme "Tolerance". Session Ten: Wrap up session which included appreciation of participants. After systematic reading and getting involved in the activities that follows which reading, it was observed that majority of the young people in the child offenders and out of parental control categories wished they were not involved in the unruly behaviour that brought them to the correctional home and promised to be of good conduct whenever they are released to the society. The materials used for the Focus Group Discussion included: • Notepads and Pencils • Focus Group Script • Tape Recorder from the mobile phone (picture session was not allowed in the home) • Ethical Consent Forms was received from Lagos State Ministry of Women, Youth, Social Welfare and Development in charge of the home. • Clock for Start on-time and end on-time. • Refreshments to make the young people feel comfortable Focus Group Discussion
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The stories in the book are designed to motivate young people and get them involved in thinking positively about themselves, others and the world around them in relevant ways. The stories include themes that could help young people to develop personal, social, peaceful, cooperative and emotional values. The stories in this book are also based on core living values. Each story ends with some activities that were used during the FGD to make the participants reflect, imagine, communicate, create, write, artistically express and play with values. Theme 1 : Cooperation In the book, cooperation was discussed in the story to show that cooperation is necessary in the community, at home, school etc to have a better living community. Five responses from the participants during the interactions after reading the book would be reported verbatim as follows: 1. How can you show cooperation in your class and home? Respondent One: By talking with one another from time to time; Respondent Two: Listening to other people views; Respondent Three: Keeping to lay down rules and regulations and respecting people in authority; Respondent Four: Reporting those that are disobedient to people in authority Respondent Five: Respecting other people view 2. What can you do to get others to cooperate with you? Respondent One: Allowing them to speak out their minds Respondent Two: By not being proud or full of myself Respondent Three: Allowing other people to participate in activities Respondent Four: I should be willing to learn from others Respondent Five: Allowing others to express themselves Theme Two: Honesty In the book honesty was shown in the story when one of the characters, a poor man helped the king to recover his stolen golden cup from one of the king's servant that stole it. He was rewarded and other bad characters were sent to the prison. The young people were led to discuss honesty by discussing the following questions. Activities 1: Tell me some things about yourself Respondent One: I am a 14 years old girl. I got caught while trying to break into a shop and was in possession of a harmful and dangerous weapon. This is not my first time. I don't have reasons to steal. My daddy is well read and tried everything within his means to bring me up properly but I was influenced by bad friends. I am ashamed and will not steal again Respondent Two: My parents were divorced and my step mother was maltreating me. I ran away from home to the motor park, where I got involved in bad actions. I came into the correctional home when I was 14 years old and I am now 17 years. Respondent Three: I am a 16 years old girl. I was raped when I was 6 years by an unknown person while waiting for my parents in our rented one room apartment. Since then I got annoyed and angry with everybody around me. I became disobedient to annoy people around me especially my parents because I feel they didn't protect me enough. I got here because I stabbed another girl. Respondent Four: I am a 15 years old girl and I ran away from home to Lagos State because my mother is a prostitute. I slept under the bridge and learnt so many vices from there. I was taught to smoke hemp and other harmful drugs. I got to the correctional home when I got caught with dangerous weapon and illicit drugs by government officials. Respondent Five: I am 14 years old girl and all attempts by my parents to keep me in school failed. I skipped school and classes. My mother later took me to a boarding house. I escaped and after three months of searching, she brought me here as a child out of parental control. Activity 2: Were you honest with the information you gave about yourself Respondent One: Yes Respondent Two: Yes Respondent Three: Yes
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Respondent Four: Yes Respondent Five: Yes Theme Three: Responsibility The following discussion ensued when the question was asked on responsibility. Activity 1: What are you to do as a responsible child every day? Respondent One: Help with house chores and take responsibility for my actions. Respondent Two: Learn to accept my mistake and face the consequences. Respondent Three: Love my fellow human being and obey people in authority. Respondent Four : Respect the law of the land and people in position of authority. Respondent Five: Be punctual in school and not to skip classes. Activity 2: Who do you blame when you make a mistake and why? Respondent One: Myself, because I'm learning to take responsibility for my actions. Respondent Two: People around me. No particular reason I feel I should just blame them. Respondent Three: My mother because she is supposes to take care of me. Respondent Four: Myself. I'm fully responsible for my action. Respondent Five: My friends. They influenced my behaviour. Theme Four: Tolerance The book discussed tolerance by revealing that one of the characters in the story did not tolerate the other person which led to her destruction. Few of the young people's responses are as follows: Activities 1: Write three things you can do to show tolerance Respondent One: Letting go of wrong doings by other people, not nagging and allowing others to express their views. Respondent Two: Show love to others, be patient and don't feel superior to others. Respondent Three: Listen attentively to others, adapt to situation around you and don't have negative views about others. Respondent Four: Being patient with other people around. Respondent Five: Don't hold on to other people's mistake, don't get irritated easily and allow other people's view on issues. Activity 2 : How you can work with the girl or boy who nobody else wants to work with in your class? Respondent One: Allow him or her to air their views. Respondent Two: Show love. Respondent Three: Be patient with him or her. Respondent Four: Allow him or her to prove himself or herself. Respondent Five: Respect individual decisions. The researchers noticed that while the stories were being read the young people were anxious, but during the discussion period it was also discovered that the participants maintained eye contact with the researchers. This was not the case at the beginning; they later assumed a sober look and some of them cried. The story had an emotional effect on them.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The following conclusion could be drawn from the interactions during discussion with the young people in the correctional homes. Through system reading, the girls were able to see that they are not alone and that several other young people were also passing through or have passed through whatever they are experiencing. Those issues can also be overcome like the characters in the story book read during bibliotherapy. The bibliotherapy intervention by the researchers (librarians) has created awareness that reading story books can help them to learn from the experience of other young people. Young people were able to make informed decisions to guide them in behaving in healthy way that is not harmful and take responsibility for their actions. The use of bibliotherapy as intervention to help unruly young people in correctional homes has proved that libraries in correctional homes in Nigeria can help create space and place that will meet the needs of these young people emotionally. It has
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demonstrated that an effective library within the correctional home could help the young people to refocus and create a safe environment. The primary function of the librarian on the therapy team, as in other areas of library service, is based upon cognizance of the needs of the community and of individual reader and upon knowledge of books available to meet those needs. Therefore, school libraries should be an important institution in the implementation of bibliotherapy, and the task of a school librarian in this process should be to help each individual child to find "his book". Department of Library Studies in universities should introduce courses in their curriculum (where absent) that will help produce librarians who are “interested and competent” in this important field. This is because school librarians need to know the purposes and objectives of having constant bibliotherapy sessions with students in need of such interventions so that they don't end up committing crimes that would led them to correctional homes.
REFERENCES Adegoke, N. (2015). Factors responsible for juvenile delinquency in Nigeria. A case study of selected primary schools in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria. Research on Humanities and Social Science, 5(5). Retrieved April 29, 2016 from http://www.iiste.org Ajayi, N. A. (1997). Bibliotherapy in health care delivery in Nigeria. Journal of Physical Education and Research, 3, 442-446 Akinola, A. N. (2014). Bibliotherapy as an Alternative Approach to Young people’s emotional Disorders : Creative Reflections. 5 :1281-1285. Retrieved May 17, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2014.514146 Alemika, E. E. O., & Chukwuma, I. C. (2005). Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria: Philosophy and Practise. CLEEN Publisher. Ikeja. Baruchson-Arbib, S., (2000). Bibliotherapy in school libraries; An Israeli experiment. School Libraries Worldwide, 6(2), 102-110. Bella, T.T., Atilola, O., & Omigbodun O. O. (June, 2010). Young people within the juvenile justice system in Nigeria: Psychopathology and Psychosocial needs. Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medical, 8(1). Child and Young Persons Law of Lagos State. (2003). Lagos: Ministry of Justice, 2(3, part 5), 33.2: Darbouze, K. (2010). Rehabiltative methods and the effect on juvenile delinquents. College Park, Maryland: University of Maryland. Igbokwe, J.C., Obidike, N.A. & Ezeji, E.C. (2012). Influence of electronic media on reading ability of school children. Library Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved December 23, 2016, from http://unllib.unl.edu/lpp International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines (2nd rev. ed.). The Hague, Netherland: IFLA. IFLA/ UNESCO. (1999). School Library Manifesto. The Hague, Netherland: IFLA. Lehmam, V. (2005). Prison Library: A vital line to Education, Rehabilitation and Recreation. Education Libraries, 24(1), 5–10. Mahajan, P. (2010) School Libraries in India: Present-day Scenario. Library Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved March 3, 2017 from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/mahajan5.htm McCaffrey, K. (2016). Bibliotherapy: how public libraries can support their communities' mental health. Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management. Retrieved March 3, 2017 from http://dx.doi.org/10.5931/djim.v12i1.6452 McCulliss, D. (2012). Bibliotherapy: Historical and research perspectives. The interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education, 25(1), 23-38. Muahammed, A., Salawu B, Adekeye D, Ayinla S and Adeoye, V.N. (2009).The nexus between family instability and youth crime: Evidence from Nigeria. International Journal of Human Development and information system, 2(2), 41-53. Ojo, D.O. Maltias. (2012). A sociological review of issues on juvenile delinquency. The Journal of International Social Research, 5(21), 468-482.
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Okwilagwe, O.A. and Mubonyin, M.V. (2011). The role of bibliotherapy in value system formation by undergraduates in the university of Ibadan, Nigeria. US–China Education Review. (A2) 240- 250 Omoegun, M. (2014) My storybook on values for the African child. Lagos, Nigeria: Litramed Oyewusi, F. O. (2016). Understanding School Library Media Concepts. Ibadan, Nigeria: Stirling-Holden Publishers. Hannigan, M. (1962). The librarian in bibliotherapy: Pharmacist or bibliotherapist? Library Trends, 11(2), 184-198.
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Nazarbayev Intellectual School Libraries: The Development of Functional Literacy and Reading Skills Aida Agadil Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, Kazakhstan Olga Salamakhina Nazarbayev Intellectual school of Physics and Mathematics in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan Gulmariyam Tubekbayeva Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Chemistry and Biology in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan
ABSTRACT Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) are a testing site for piloting innovations in teaching and learning in Kazakhstan’s formal education system. Fostering the development of multicultural, strongminded students is a key component of an NIS school, and the library certainly plays an important role in the formation and development of students. This article presents the practical knowledge of NIS librarians which was gained through such practices as the use of applied gaming methods to promote reading, the development of information and functional literacy, the development of research skills and the development of functional literacy. School library activities should not have limitations; the school library is a center for reading, creativity and intellectual development. By using new methods, constantly improving and maintaining a friendly atmosphere, the school library will be able to maintain its relevance for students. Additionally, the school librarian will act as a guide for students as they explore the worlds of reading, imagination and academic achievements.
Keywords: Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev Intellectual School, NIS, Functional Literacy, Reading, Methods, Teacher-Librarian, Library Activities, School Library Role, Reading Projects, Reading Promotion, Research Skills FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY TO INFORMATION MEDIA CENTER The modern school library is the informational and intellectual center of the school, a platform which allows for a more comprehensive approach to educating students and a world of creativity which aids students in their manifestation as an individual. Within the framework of the state program "20 Intellectual Schools", Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools and their respective libraries were founded in the Republic of Kazakhstan. “The Intellectual Schools were designed as an experimental platform for the development, monitoring, research, analysis, introduction and implementation of modern models of educational programs. These programs are divided into levels, from: elementary school (including pre-school education and training), primary school to high school. To then introduce the modern forms of governance in education, and to develop academic freedom and autonomy for the implementation of innovative educational programs and research projects, on January 19, 2011, by the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan and through recognition of Nazarbayev University, the "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools" and "Nazarbayev Fund" was adopted into practice.”
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The given status implies a right for the schools to approve their own educational curricula, establish requirements for entrance exams, monitor ongoing student progress, and work toward interim and final certification as well as other goals. The principle of academic freedom accelerates the development and successful implementation of new programs for the modernization of secondary education.” (Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, n.d.). The libraries of NIS schools face the difficult task of moving away from established stereotypes and raising the purpose and function of the library to a modern, international level. The main goals of the libraries are to create an enabling environment for the development of intellectual potential and research skills of students, implement new information technologies, integrate informational literacy and academic studies, provide professional development for NIS librarians, and conform to an international model for school libraries.
According to the State Program for the Development of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020, a program, which aims to form intellectually, physically and spiritually, developed citizens and satisfy the country’s educational needs through effective schooling, one of the indicators of success for this process is the formation of functional literacy of students.
THE FORMATION OF FUNCTIONAL LITERACY AND READING SKILLS IN STUDENTS Increasing reading literacy is one of the urgent tasks not only for Kazakhstan, but also for the entire world community, as evidenced by the results of a study of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) which compared 15-year-old students from all over the world. In 2009, according to the reading test results from 65 countries, Kazakh students took 62 place. To address this problem, various methods are used in the libraries of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, including: “Keyword Hexagon,” article summaries, graphical organizers, "Darkened poetry" and more. These methods were learned at advanced training courses given by universities in the United States of America, Singapore and Finland as well as through participation in the international conferences of IFLA and IASL. Additionally,
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seminars and workshops were annually held at NIS schools by inviting international library experts from South Korea, Malaysia, and Russia. These courses allowed for NIS libraries to gain different perspectives through the experiences of international librarians and to develop their own potential as school librarians. Upon completion of such trainings, teacher-librarians of Nazarbayev Intellectual schools actively share and present the gained knowledge throughout the country. In order to improve public school libraries and help them to implement new methods of developing reading skills and functional literacy, during the period from 2013-2017, 225 training seminars were conducted for 3,585 librarians of Kazakhstan's public schools. To promote reading in the school library, active play methods of working with the book are very relevant: "Find the Title of the Book," "Guess the book,” “Books Conquer the World,” "Book Bingo,” "Book Dingo” and "Book Search" are some of the activities used. By participating in such activities, students receive a sense of satisfaction and motivation as well as a freedom to express themselves. In order to popularize books and encourage students to read, different types of library activities are held, such as: “BiblioSumerki,” “Catch Reading for Lunch,” “Library without Borders,” “Book Slam,” “Teacher-Doubler,” “Sweet Quiz,” and “1,2,3" among others. Such activities provide an opportunity for teacher-librarians to study the psychological characteristics of students, develop their communication skills and identify any creative inclinations they may have.
Actions and Projects to Attract Students to Reading Across the libraries of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools there are reading projects, including: "Booksrossing," "100 Books Recommended for Students of NIS Schools," DEAR, READx, “Reading time,” "Book Surprise" and more. The main goals and objectives of the projects are to: develop reading skills and the literacy of students, form skills for functional reading, develop critical thinking and promote books. In 2012, the Nazarbaev Intellectual Schools Network launched the "Bookcrossing" reading action for the first time. This is an annual social event where books are given to the libraries of rural schools and orphanages. The project takes place on the eve of the Day of the First President on December 1 st, and on Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan, December 16th, in all NIS schools. During the period from 2013-2016, the total number of transferred books was 24,412 copies. Each year, the "Bookcrossing" becomes more popular, acquires relevance and importance, and continues to spread to more public and rural schools across every region of the republic. This project has had a positive effect on attracting the public to reading. In the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools one of the most successful and long-lasting programs to promote reading, the "Book Start" project, has begun. The project, which originated in England in 1992, has been implemented in such countries as Belgium, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Japan and South Korea. The purpose of the "Book Start" project is to involve parents in developing children's interest in books and reading and establish close relationships between parents and toddlers by reading illustrated books.
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Both the "Bookcrossing" and "Book Start" projects are charitable initiatives, wherein students and teachers of Intellectual schools give personal books to another member of the school community. As such, planning and preparation for these projects takes effort and a significant amount of time. Librarians organize the collection of books, the advertising of projects and the monitoring of shared opinions from the school community. Representatives of the school’s self-government, which includes students and their supervisors, are of great assistance in these projects. One of the forms and methods of the book promotion and reading support is the “Reading Time” project. This is a daily, 20-minute break, during which all students and school staff stop what they are doing and read books. Reading Time is a great way to work out the habit of reading for students, making reading books a daily necessity. The daily practice of the “Reading Time” project takes place in all of the Intellectual Schools at different times, with each school choosing the best time according to their needs and schedule. During this time, all staff and students postpone any activity and read for 20 minutes, and so many schools opted for a long break. Through the implementation of “Reading Time,” students realized that they could read the books that they did not have time to read at other times, which encouraged personal choices for students and staff alike. A particularly interesting project, which received great success upon introduction to Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, was the READx Project. The READx project is an inspiring presentation about discoveries in reading. Once a month, in the assembly hall a large audience gathers in which all students and school staff are invited to listen to the speeches of 5 READx participants. Anyone who is part of the school community can be a speaker for the project; for example, a teacher, a student, a parent or an administrator, as long as they are ready to share their opinion of the book they have read. The READx project encourages students to read books, broadens their reading interests, creates the attractive image of a reading teenager in the eyes of their peers, successfully supports reading lifelong reading habits and develops public speaking skills. The civil education of the younger generation is one of the most important tasks for an NIS school. Throughout the network of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, the MEMORO project has started to run. The project, which was founded in Italy, operates in 17 countries, including: Spain, Catalonia, Germany, Japan, France, the USA and South Korea. The MEMORO NIS project is an opportunity for the younger generation to become acquainted with the history of their country. Through each separate story, there is a general picture about the life for the older generation. The "Collectors of Memories" are NIS students who shoot videos and get a chance to meet with the people of older generation. Creating the video of memories then becomes a vehicle for mutual understanding and communication between generations. As for the project "100 Books Recommended for Students of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools," wellknown literary works in Kazakh and Russian as well as foreign classics and masterpieces of world literature are compiled in list form for students. The project is aimed at supporting trilingual learning, studying history and fostering tolerance for other cultures through reading literature in foreign languages. Promotion of the project during the academic year is carried out through a variety of activities, fore example: creative and literary evenings, reading clubs, exhibitions, games, quizzes, school theaters and video reviews. At the end of the school year, according to the results of all the activities held, the most active readers are awarded with the
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"Reading Diplomas." The implementation of such projects is now spreading to other pilot and innovative schools. To develop a culture of reading, leisure activities are promoted for NIS students such as reading clubs, creative clubs, and family reading clubs. The involvement of parents in the work of reading clubs has become a challenge for school librarians. Initially, family reading clubs were created for the primary schools, at which each invited parent read and discussed the book with students. This practice had a warm reception from the children and it encouraged them to invite their parents to reading clubs with greater frequency. Each student wanted to see his or her parent as the next adult to read a book for the enjoyment of the class. Following the great success of the project at the primary level, parents became frequent guests in reading clubs for secondary and high school students. Involving students in the clubs allows them to organize their leisure time at a new level, to promote their self-realization and to inspire creativity. A Nazarbayev Intellectual School library is not only a part of the educational process and directs leisure reading, but is also the resource base and information center of the school. In order to keep members of the school community informed, organize and maintain professional contacts, share the work of the library and reach a large audience of users, the libraries of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools have created Web sites as well as social networking pages like Facebook and VKontakte. The use of interactive technologies in the work of the school library increases the effectiveness of the pedagogical activity of the school librarian. Librarians, using the Web 2.0 services, create incredibly beautiful and bright virtual exhibitions of books on various topics Currently, Intellectual School libraries are informational and cultural centers actively involved in the life of schools, by organizing information as well training and leisure activities for all types of library users. Through the involvement of students, parents and teachers, the libraries have earned a reputation for being an accessible and approachable center of learning within the NIS schools. The support and guidance of reading is a strategically important element of the educational process, a tool for increasing intellectual potential as well as creative and social development in students. In this century of new information technologies, when significant changes in education are sure to come, the work of the teacher-librarians of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools is aimed at forming reading skills, functional literacy, research skills and critical thinking. This will be done through various forms and methods, to form a moral, intellectual, and literate multicultural citizen who is also a patriot of their country and ready for lifelong learning.
REFERENCES Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. (n.d.). http://www.nis.edu.kz/en/about/history
History.
Retrieved
May,
2017
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Repositioning School Libraries towards Attainment of Learning without Borders Emmanuel U. Anyanwu, Ph.D. Emmanuel A. Oduagwu Oyemike Victor Benson Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria Charles Obichere, Ph.D. Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria
ABSTRACT The internet has revolutionized the global world system. Every aspect of the globe is under the influence of information and communication technologies. The educational sector is experiencing a paradigm shift towards a borderless economy and school libraries occupy a central place in the actualization of sustainable education. The paper highlights the need to reposition school librarianship to ensure actualization of learning without borders, the significance of school libraries in learning without borders agenda. Repositioning of school libraries requires addressing personnel issues, ICT-related issues, funding, extensive lobbying and advocacy, partnership with NGOs and stakeholders in educational sector, recruitment of qualified library staff and re-training of existing school library staff to meet global realities.
Keywords: Advocacy, ICTs, School Librarianship, Personnel INTRODUCTION School library is an independent organ that provides all the resources for the child’s proper educational growth (Attama, 2004). IFLA school library guideline (2015) defines school library as a schools physical and digital learning space where reading, inquiry, research, thinking, imagination and creativity are central to students’ information-to-knowledge journey and to their personal social and cultural growth. This physical and digital place is known by several terms (e.g school media centre, centre for documentation and information and library learning commons, but school library is the term most commonly used and applied to the facility and functions. School library is also known as media resource centre, media centre, learning resource centre, multimedia centre, school media centre among others. Irrespective of the variety of names, a school library is information resources centre found in primary, secondary and teacher training colleges. It is an information centre established in the school environment and it is expected to provide information services for teaching and learning in the schools. The school library not only provides information materials but also provides guidance and a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning. Harrods Librarians Glossary (2005) sees a school library as an organized collection placed in a school for the use of teachers or pupils but usually for pupils. It may comprise of books and other materials, electronic resources and personal computers and be in the care of professional librarians, teacher, or teacher librarian. The school library act as a galvanizing force that leads to the provision of quality education. It is an inexhaustible information resource where teachers, pupils can go unrestricted to have access to information they need (George, 2011). Freeman (1975) summed up the goal of the school media centre as service offering members of the community, learning experiences that will lead them towards a fuller and more rewarding life.
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In the 21st century, attention is focused on the student and what the student can learn. Education is learner-centred and school libraries enhance this trend to help educators to achieve their objectives. The standard for learners requires school libraries to help the learners use skills, and resources and tool to: Inquire, think critically and gain knowledge; Draw conclusion, make informed decision, apply knowledge to new situations and create new knowledge; Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of democratic society; Pursue personal and aesthetic growth (Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 2010). School library in the new millennium has become information centre because of its method of packaging information through the use of ICT (Daniel, 2000). In recent times, the school library is a media resource centre where the book and non-book materials are provided. Emphasis is now placed on the provision and dissemination of information through new media (application of information and communication technology). The school library, not only stores information but is also concerned to a large extent with the provision of space for learning and environment for teaching and learning. The school library is a learning laboratory that plays the role of bringing teachers and students together to explore the wealth of knowledge made available in the library. The traditional school library only collects and stores books but the modern school library makes effective use of the new media and ensures that the vast resources available in school libraries are utilized effectively by both students and teachers. As a laboratory, teaching and learning takes place within the confines of the library. The emphasis is on modern philosophy of education that is learner-centred. It emphasizes individualized instruction and the use of multimedia in teaching and learning. Elaturoti (1990) lent credence to the present educational system, when he stated that modern philosophy of education recognizes an educated individual as one who knows how to learn, to think and to use ideas as opposed to one who has memorized facts. This implies that instructional methods within the curriculum of any educational system that is guided by this philosophy will of necessity stress individual learning and independent study, and students having access to multimedia to meet their individual needs.nAccording to Salawu (2008) learning without borders involves international or global integration of the society. It provides a learning environment that makes a student to participate and contribute towards development of the world. Learning without borders is about internationalizing learning. It is the conscious integration of global awareness in student learning. In the process of learning without borders or internationalizing learning, the students are expected to identify, describe and explain global and intercultural conditions and interdependencies. The students engage in critical thinking that embraces analysis and interpretation of global and cultural issues. The students are also expected to learn effective communication with members of other cultures especially in a fast changing and globalised society. Our world is being changed dramatically by the surge in technology and communication and the world is changing, and there is evidence that we are entering a “post-international environment” (Davy, 2011). In the same vein, libraries are continually being influence by the changes of technological development and school libraries are no exception. Globalization and technological advances also affect the ways in which education is provided (Australian school library Association, 2013). As noted by Sauers (n.d.), there are many borders when it comes to traditional library services, whether that border is caused by forcing the user to come into a building in order to have their question answered or if it’s that large pieces of wood we call a reference desk creating barrier between the librarian and the user, borders are all around us. However, with new and emerging technologies, the dynamics of how information is accessed and utilized has changed (ASLA, 2013). Nevertheless, in the midst of the technological transformation cutting across the globe, it is pertinent that school librarianship must be repositioned to align with trends of contemporary society. This paper therefore is aimed at exploring how school libraries can be repositioned to ensure that learning without borders is actualized. It will highlight the role of school libraries in learning without borders, strategies for repositioning school libraries towards achieving
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learning without borders and the challenges of learning without borders in Nigeria and other developing countries.
THE ROLE OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN LEARNING WITHOUT BORDERS The role of school library in the 21 st century is succinctly captured by Rosa and Storey, 2016) as: i) Offering a full range of print and electronic resources that provide equal learning opportunities for all students regardless of the socio-economic or the educational level of the community; ii) ensuring that 21st century information literacy skills, dispositions, responsibilities and assessments are integrated throughout all curriculum; iii) serving the schools student, staff and other members of the learning community. IFLA School Library Guideline (2015) identified the following roles of school libraries within a school include the following: o Resource-based capabilities: This is the ability and disposition related to seeking, accessing and evaluating information and the use of information and communication technology to access information. o Thinking based capabilities which is the ability of critical analysis o Knowledge-based capabilities: This is the ability related to research and enquiry o Reading and literacy: This is ability related to enjoyment of reading and reading for pleasure. o Personal and interpersonal capabilities: This involves the abilities related to social and critical participation in resource-based enquiry and learning about oneself and others. o Learning management capabilities entails abilities and depositions that enable students to prepare for, plan and successfully undertake a curriculum based inquiry unit. A school librarian plays a leadership role in developing these capabilities. The roles of school libraries stated above enhance the capabilities of globalization of learning without borders. The roles of the school library is aimed at enhancing information literacy capabilities of the students, stimulate reading habit, curiosity, creativity orientation towards learning, explore diverse topics, creation, representation and sharing of knowledge, technology, and access to cultural, professional and educational events. The school library provides space for physical and digital access to resolves and support students, teachers and the learning community. A school library is important to education and learning because it helps students to have knowledge to contribute towards the development of the society and the world. There is a paradigm shift from the arm chair librarian to information professional who provides information services to the clientele in different locations at the same time (Adebowale, 2010).
STRATEGIES FOR REPOSITIONING SCHOOL LIBRARIES TOWARDS ACHIEVING LEARNING WITHOUT BORDERS Repositioning of school libraries requires addressing the following pertinent issues, especially with references to developing countries. i. Personnel issues: addressing personnel issue in school librarianship is of paramount importance to ensure learning without borders is achieved. Competent personnel should be recruited in school libraries. Competency is not just in theoretical and practical-based librarianship knowledge but must be combined with ICT library skills which are key driver of the digital economy. For school libraries to effectively interact with other institutions and information agencies there is need for such libraries to be managed by ICT- compliant libraries. ii. Extensive lobbying and advocacy: managers of school libraries should be ready to adopt and apply intensive lobbying and advocacy as means to attract government attention as well as donor agencies. Positioning school libraries towards borderless learning cannot be realistic, if school library managers do not lobby and advocate for school library funding. It is important that school librarians that are good strategist should be engaged to lobby and advocate for school libraries as this will help to attract government attention and other donor agencies.
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iii. Partnership with non-government agencies and stakeholders in educational sector: Library managers in school librarianship should endeavor to partner with NGOs and stakeholders in educational sector as it will help in attracting support from these NGOs and stakeholders. iv. Retraining of existing school library staff: the school library association of different nations should organized workshops, forums and conferences as platforms for training school librarians in the areas of ICTs application to the provision of school library services as means of meeting global realities. v. Promote access to new content: school libraries can promote access to new content as means of ensuring that learning without borders is actualized. Social media such as Twitter, Google, Youtube, wikis and flickers can be maximally deployed in school librarianship as it has capacity to promote learning without borders. In this case, student, pupils and teachers can easily have access to new content without being in the library physically. vi. Through embedded librarians programme: according to Matara, Coffey & Kushkowski (2010), the increasing availability of online access means that information resources are no longer confined within library walls and librarians need to rethink how their constituent’s information needs are being met. In other words, with embedded librarians programme implemented in school librarianship, it would help to ensure that school libraries go beyond the traditional library operations and migrate in the new physical and virtual library services. It thus implies a paradigm shift from the traditional library service to a more innovative and creative virtual library services where physical barriers are eliminated. vii. Collaboration with other agencies /ICT Services providers: in other to actualize the goal of repositioning school libraries towards learning without borders, collaboration among information providing agencies and ICT services providers is a necessity. As noted by Yates (n.d.), collaboration is a key to enhanced library role in learner engagement which also falls within learning without borders.
THE CHALLENGES OF LEARNING WITHOUT BORDERS IN NIGERIA AND OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 1. Lack of skills: The school librarian lacks the skills to select, acquire and disseminate information materials that will equip the students for globalization. There is no staff development because of economic recession and poor leadership. It is important to note that most schools do not have librarians. 2. Lack of infrastructural facilities: learning without borders cannot work without utilization of information and communication technology by teachers, students and the school librarian. In Nigeria the bandwidth is very low and the electricity power generated is less than 2,500 megawatts, the facilities already put in place are deteriorating because of economic down turn. Kalu (2017) believes that because of Nigeria’s inability to engage in productive ventures that we may not go out of recession very soon. 3. Lack of interest in the development of school libraries: The government in Nigeria and other developing countries do not give adequate attention to the development of school libraries. School library does virtually not exist in most schools. These schools that have books keep them in boxes. There is no serious legislation directed to the development of school libraries in Nigeria. 4. Funding: In Nigeria, most of the school libraries are owned by the various states of the federation, in fact there is no revenue allocation for the development of school libraries. Even when Nigeria was buoyant, there has never been any serious effort towards the development of school libraries. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) only provides funds for tertiary institutions in Nigeria. 5. Conformity with global standards copyright and use of information material in the ICT era. The various schools are not involves in acquisition of library materials through online services, so they are not aware of guidelines required in acquisition. The laws available in Nigeria like LRCN laws, National Library of Nigeria law are not implemented with the result. 6. Lack of exchange programmes and detailed curriculum: The developing countries lack the resources to attend exchange programmes to improve the knowledge of the students. The curriculum of schools is not detailed so as to include progarmmes that will expose students to globalization. 7. Lack of ICT equipment and well equipped libraries: The few school libraries available are just book stores.
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CONCLUSION School libraries is a pivot on which effective learning at the early stage of a child life resolves, modern infrastructural facilities needs curriculum that reflects 21 st century need and school librarians that a possess ICT skills and competencies should be harnessed for achieving learning without walls.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON REPOSITIONING SCHOOL LIBRARIES FOR LEARNING WITHOUT BORDERS The role of school libraries in implementation of learning without borders or globalization cannot be over emphasized. It has become necessary to develop and teach skills that will help students, teachers and librarians to have access to information resources. The teachers and students need knowledge of information literacy skills to enable them have access to vast knowledge and information materials that will enable them fit into any society and contribute their quota to the development of the world. The school librarian requires skills that will facilitate utilization of information and communication technology in the selection, acquisition, storage and dissemination of information resources that will encourage globalization. The government in developing countries should use the tax payers money to provide infrastructural facilities that will facilitate access to current information and effective learning. The bandwidth should be increased and the megawatts for electricity should be increased. Poor power supply is damaging the few facilities available for learning in libraries. The national assembly in Nigeria should make laws that will facilitate provision of infrastructural facilities and the law needs to be implemented and defaulters should be punished accordingly. Funds should be provided for facilities and provision of current information materials in school library that will help in teaching and learning in schools. The government should make a law that empowers Universal Basic Education Board, to make revenue allocation, for developing of school libraries. There is need to implement the law and the government officials who divert public funds should be punished as a deterrent to others. The librarians and other information providers should conform to global laws guiding use of information resources to enable them have access to vast library materials for learning. The Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) should be alive to its responsibility of ensuring that librarians are qualified and have the capability of providing services to users. The curriculum in developing countries should be reviewed. There is need to incorporate critical thinking skills, ICT skills and culture of other societies to facilitate learning without borders. There is need for exchange programmes. The students need to engage in exchange programmes that will enable them know what is happening in other societies.
REFERENCES Adebowale, T. O. (2010). The role of the school librarian in the digital age Owena Journal of Library and Information Science, 3(2), 127-128. Attama, R. O. (2014) Repositioning the school library in support of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Nigeria. The Nigerian Library Links, 11(2), 58-60. Australian School Library Association (2013). Future learning and school libraries. ASLA, Canberra, Act. Daniel, C. I. (2000). Information agenda for school libraries in new millennium. Paper presented at the Annual National Conference AGM of Nigerian Library Association held at Chelsea Hotel Abuja, June 25-30. Davy, I. (2011). Learners without borders: curriculum for global citizenship. 13 Position Paper. International Baccalaureate Organization. Elaturoti, D. F. (1990). Developing school library media resources centre. Ibadan: Onibonoje. Freeman, P. (1975) Pathfinder: an operational guide for school libraries. New York: Harper and Row.
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George, A. (2011). The school library in a mega city setting: The case of Lagos State. Gateway Library Journal, 14(1), 76-86. Harrods Librarians Glossary. (2015). Edited by Ray Prytherch with edition England: Ashgate and Gower. IFLA. (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines. (2nd rev. ed.). The Hague, Netherlands: International Federation of Library Associations. Matara, T., Coffey, D. & Kushkowski, J. D. (2010). Beyond library walls: embedded librarians in academic departments. http:/lib.dr.iastate.edu/refinst-pubs/32. Rosa, K. and Storey, T. (2016) American libraries in 2016: creating the future by connecting, collaborating and building community. IFLA Journal, 42(2), 88-89. Salawu, B. A. (2008). Globalization challenges and opportunities for Nigerian Libraries. Libraries without borders: Globalization of library and information services. Paper Presented at the 46 th National Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Library Association held at Arewa House Conference Centre Kaduna from 1 – 6 June. Abuja: Nigerian Library Association and HEBN Publishers. Sauers, M. (n.d.). Library 2.0: creating a borderless library. Urbana-Campaign, IL: University of Illinois. Yates, F. (n.d.). Beyond library space and place: creating a culture of community engagement through library partnership, Indiana Libraries, 33(2), 53-56.
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How Junior High School Students Spend Time in a Japanese School Library during Their Lunch Breaks: A Focus on the Role of Bookshelves Chizuko Arai The University of Tokyo
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate, through fieldwork, a school library as a gathering place for Japanese middle school students. We predicted that students would browse alone, silently. The research used cases studies based on a micro-ethnography method taken from observation data. Data were analyzed from three points of view, informal, public, and gathering, which was referred to as “the third place.” Oldenburg (1989), on which the study was based, focused on the role of bookshelves. We determine that bookshelves provide students with the public place open to all. Second, we suggest that bookshelves serve students as an informal place to spend time alone. Finally, while some students enjoy conversations with friends while among the shelves, others avoid interaction by using the shelves as barriers. Therefore, the bookshelves are not always a gathering place for a students.
Keywords: School library, Library as Place, Bookshelves, Junior High School Student, Field Research INTRODUCTION Oldenburg’s ‘Third Place’ Some have suggested that we use “library as [a] place” (Wiegand, 2003) in reference to Oldernburg’s (1989) “third place” for public libraries in America. Oldenburg assumed the home to be one’s first place, working location as his or her second place, and informal public gathering places as the third places. In short, third places are designed as places for people to spend their time, not only physically but also socially and psychologically. Recently, several studies have focused on school libraries as a “third place.” For example, Estill (2006) analyzed the behaviors, relationships, and interactions between students and librarians at the high school featured in a TV series that Baffy the Vampire Slayer was shown from 1997 to 2000 in america. She concluded that school libraries are not warehouses of books, but rather are informal place that achieve a suitable fit between a sanctuary that serves as a community for students and a site to host activities to create community. Although Estill was not studying a real school library from a TV drama, it could be taken as a herald of the case studies presented here. Kuno (2011) interviewed Japanese high school students about the main activities they engage in at third places. Then, she analyzed ordinary classrooms that are public places controlled and functioning as sites of evaluation by teachers. Contrary, Kuno suggested that school libraries are a private place where certain peer groups can open up and talk to each other. However, since school libraries are open to all students, they remain a public place that any student can visit without a specific purpose of use or need, so long as they obey the rules. At the same time, every student may freely choose where he or she browses, which books they take an interest in, and how they read books in connection with the role of bookshelves, including interactions with other students in the library. For the above-mentioned reasons, it is possible to see a school library as a third place in the spirit of Oldenburg’s work and in contrast to ordinary or special classrooms that have the purpose of serving as places for lessons, as an infirmary, as a counseling room, or as a place for private meetings. In short, it is
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necessary to reconsider school libraries not merely as facilities to use, but also as places for students to spend their time while at school.
The Role of Bookshelves in School Libraries A school library can be seen as a third place, not only to create physical places for students to gather, but also to provide a social and psychological place where students get engrossed in books (Masuko, 1999). In particular, bookshelves play two roles in influencing students, in relation to the books’ arrangement and as space partitions (Masuko, 2011). In other words, the former provide students with a place that enables free browsing, while the later serves students as a place to spend their time. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the role that bookshelves play among middle school students.
The Issues of a School Library and Its Status as a Third Place There are three research issues related to school libraries as a third place focusing on the role of bookshelves. First, we must reconsider libraries as public places, not as parts of existing school facilities, so that we may consider students’ behaviors while they freely browse the bookshelves. This is because browsing popular books that are of private interest to students is a different behavior from searching for books for studying. Since this study is focused on third places, we paid attention to students’ behaviors while browsing freely. Second, in connection with the first consideration, it was necessary to examine a school library as an informal place. Sturm (2008) suggests that libraries might be seen as “secret spaces” that provide students with a sense of hiding, avoiding, or getting engrossed in books, in order to defuse the inevitable tensions of school. Hence, we investigated how students use the bookshelves in this way. Finally, based on the above, we needed to understand bookshelves as gathering places where students interact. Surely, since a school library is a public place open to every student in a school, many students visit it to for a variety of purposes. However, Cesari (2014) has identified that we must monitor the interactions between students, including those that take place in “difficult- to-monitor areas” of school libraries, in order to ensure their proper development. In response to this argument, the present study examines adolescents’ interactions among bookshelves. As the above indicates, the purpose of this study is to reconsider a school library as a third place and to focus on the role of bookshelves by clarifying how junior high school students spend their time in school libraries. The research described here can also provide help with efforts to understand adolescents’ uses of school libraries. METHOD Fieldwork was conducted at a junior high school in an urban area of Honshu’s Kanto district. It spanned eight days in September and October 2016. We chose this study duration based on our prediction that students who are in periods of physical and psychological growth use the school library to adjust themselves to typical school life after a long summer vacation. A total of 130 students (in grades 7–12) visited the school library; they and a teacher librarian (TL) cooperated in this study. The school is this study is a combined junior and senior high school. Among those studied here, 80 were middle schoolers (grades 7–9), as indicated by their uniforms.
Data Collection This study observed students’ behaviors on eight days at the school library. For seven of these days, observations were made during the lunch break; the other day’s observation took place in the afternoon. The library was recorded using two to four video recorders, which were set on the diagonal inside the library, in order to capture the situation. Field notes complemented these videos, to aid in the understanding of students’ visual lines and the library’s atmosphere at the time. In addition, we conducted
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an interview with the TL before and after each observation, for about 30 minutes, to confirm how focused the students normally were.
Data Analysis This study evaluated the public, informal, and gathering elements of the three natures of third places as the framework for analysis. Then, based on these different views, we analyzed how students spend their time in a school library, based on observation data focused on the role of bookshelves. Since it is possible for a student to choose to browse between bookshelves alone, to allow him or her to pass time freely without any utterances or interactions, we adopted a micro-ethnography method (Minoura, 2011; Sibayama, 2008). This method allows researchers to understand daily students’ lives and to describe the observed cases comprehensively. We secured permission for the participant observation after several discussions with the TL. Further, video recording was accepted, to protect students’ privacy. Finally, all names used in this study are pseudonyms.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Context of the Field We can describe the school library, mainly focuses on its bookshelves, as follows. The library is in the first basement level, just below the school’s main entrance. It consists of several spaces/areas that serve as learning rooms, in addition to a reading room and a circulation counter. In particular, the bookshelves across from the circulation counter are the most popular with the students, as these feature collections of works by famous authors and popular series, such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. These shelves are referred to as the “popular bookshelves.” The popular bookshelves are set to the wall and located near four large-size reading tables, with four chairs each. There is a large bookshelf that is positioned at right angle to the popular bookshelves divides the doorway and the reading space. There are also 30 reading spaces/carrels for personal use. A full-time TL who has worked at the school for more than 20 years staffs the library, but there is no school librarian (SL).
The Role of Bookshelves as a Public Place We chose to observe an eighth grade boy, Kiyoshi, for the following reasons. Kiyoshi visited the library six out of seven times during the observation period. In addition, the TL told me that he came to the library as soon as the lunch break began almost every day. Further, Kiyoshi browsed the same bookshelves each day, those with the popular books. In short, we wondered if selecting and using the popular bookshelves frequently had special meaning for Kiyoshi. The following observation occurred at one of the high-traffic areas in the library a little after 1 PM, when four junior high school students and the TL had a meeting at the large reading table near the bookshelves.
Case 1: Is the Public Place for the Students? At first, Kiyoshi went straight to the popular bookshelves (1-C). However, as the popular bookshelves also attract other students besides Kiyoshi, who uses them on a daily basis (1-A), it can also be said that these shelves are familiar to many students. In addition, there was another reason for their popularity. The popular bookshelves are close to the door and in front of the circulation counter (1-B), which makes them not only easy for students to access, but also conveniently located for checking out new books. In that sense, the bookshelves played an important role for a student like Kiyoshi, who spends his time alone in the public place, and many other students.
The Role of Bookshelves as an Informal Place As shown in Case 1, although we focused on the popular bookshelves, additional considerations were given to a large shelf for journals or newspapers, which is positioned at a right angle near the doorway. This large shelf plays a role in separating the noisy doorway, filled with students coming and going, from students who wish to browse and read books calmly. In short, it is a limited place, like a cozy corner, in the school library, despite being located right in front of the circulation desk.
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In many cases, Kiyoshi visited alone early in his during lunch break and read books silently. Then, we wondered if Kiyoshi visited the library not only to read books, but also to spend time on his own. The following example highlights this.
Case 2: Is It an Informal Place for Students? We observed that Kiyoshi moved a chair, blocking off the passage (2-A), and crouched down in front of the bookshelves (2-B). So, Kiyoshi seemed to see the area not only as one where he could ensure a place to spend his time, but also prevent other students from coming to the popular bookshelves. He may or may not have done this of consciously. In addition, in a corner where surrounded bookshelves, as Kiyoshi sat on the chair with his back to the circulation counter (2-C), his field of vision was open to the bookshelves only (2-D). In short, Kiyoshi monopolized the place on the shelves where the popular books were collected and spent his time reading alone, despite this being a public place open to every student. This shows that the bookshelves played a role in providing him, a student, with an informal place. The above could not be seen as a use of a library as a gathering place. In the following section, we examine how students interact with each other, focused on the bookshelves, which created a corner in front of the circulation counter.
The Role of Bookshelves as a Gathering Place There were some students observed having a nice gossip with books in their hand, while others spent their time alone in the library. Some researched books on a PC, or asked the TL about the books they were looking for. Akira, who appears in this section, is one of the boys we observed. Akira is in the same grade as Kiyoshi, for they also have worked together as library staffs, they knew each other’s face. Though it is possible that the two students interacted, the case described below is based on our observation data. Case 3 happened while Akira was looking for the book he wanted to read.
Case 3: Is It a Gathering Place for the Students? At first, we observed that Akira was going to go the bookshelves that house the collected popular books (3-A). However, he hesitated and abandoned his plan to go to those shelves (3-B). Then, Akira took a book from another bookshelf and left the library (3-D). As mentioned above, the popular bookshelves play a role in providing all students with both public and informal places. Nevertheless, Akira avoided the popular bookshelves where Kiyoshi was (3-C). We noticed that Akira avoided all interaction with Kiyoshi. There was little chance that Kiyoshi noticed Akira’s gaze focused on the role of the bookshelves in the library (3-E). This is because Kiyoshi remained sitting with his feet toward the popular shelves, sending proximal cues implying his desire to avoid interaction with others who might want to use the popular bookshelves. Based on the above, we can see that the bookshelves also play a role in helping students to avoid interactions and visual lines with each other, while also providing all students with a gathering place to share time with friends. Additionally, as these cases show, the placement of the bookshelves was arranged not to create a blind area. While Cesari (2014) argues that “the library’s circulation desk should be centrally located with clear visibility to all areas, allowing for close monitoring of student behavior”, it is indicated that even the bookshelves in easy-to-monitor areas may create not only public and informal places but also places like “secret spaces” (Sturm, 2008) where students could spent time alone and avoid interactions with others.
CONCLUSION At first, the bookshelves that house the popular books collection served the role of not only being controlled by the TL, as it was arranged in front of the circulation desk, but also allowing all students to easily access and look at it, given it proximity to the doorway. In short, the bookshelves provided students with a public place that was open to everyone in the school library.
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Second, related to the individual interests or purposes for reading and borrowing any kind of book, the shelves also play a role in providing student with an informal place to spend time alone. Additionally, the browsing behavior among the bookshelves allowed students to narrow their visual field and to avoid other students’ eyes. Therefore, the bookshelves played a hand in providing students with a more informal place where he or she could browse or spend time alone, despite being in a public place where every student could visit. Finally, the bookshelves provided students with a gathering place to enjoy conversations and interactions with friends, serving as both public and informal places. Despite the above, if a student wanted to, he or she could use the space or the corner created by the bookshelves to spend time alone and avoid interactions with others, suggesting that bookshelves do not always play the role of a gathering place. When we evaluated a school library from the viewpoints of public, informal, and gathering spaces, we found that it particularly it needed to be examined carefully in terms of the gatherings taking place. While it is certain that a school library is a public place that enables students to gather, we must reconsider the idea that a school library works as Oldenburg’s third place, since it is not always a gathering place, as this research has shown, The bookshelves also helped students to avoid interactions and each other’s visual lines. In conclusion, this study raises several issues. In particular, as the research was focused on only one schoolboy and his interaction with an acquaintance, it is necessary to examine a variety of behaviors and genders. NOTE: Provided that the study was corrected and improved master’s thesis by the author after it was submitted and accepted for Graduate school of Education, The University of Tokyo in January, 2017.
REFERENCES Cesari, Lindsay. (2014). Arranging a library to support adolescent development. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), 45-49. Estill, Adriana. (2006). The library as place; history, community and culture. In Bushman, John E., & Leekie, Gloria (eds.), Going to hell: Placing the library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (pp. 235250). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Kazuhiko, Masiko. (1999). Library/architecture/open access/bookshelf. Tokyo, Japan: Maruzen. Kazuhiko, Masiko. (2011). The design of library space: The storage of knowledge in a digital society. Tokyo, Japan: Maruzen. Kazuko, Kuno. (2011). The school library as ‘the third place’. Tosyokannkai, 63(4), 296-313. Makoto, Sibayama. (2008). The ethnography guide book for young children: From basis to practical use in techniques. Tokyo, Japan: Shin-yo-sha. Oldenburg, Ray. (1989). The great good place: Cafés, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of community. New York, NY: Marlowe & Company. Rowling, J. K. (1997-2007). Harry Potter series. London, England: Bloomsbury. Sturm, Brian. (2008). Imaginary “geographies” of childhood. Knowledge Quest, 36(4), 46-53. Wiegand, Wayne. (2003). To reposition a research agenda: What American studies can teach the LIS community about the librarian in life of the user. The Library Quarterly, l73(4), 369-382. Yasuko, Minoura. (2010). The techniques and practice for fieldworks: Micro-ethnography guide book. Kyoto, Japan: Minervashobo.
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Resource-Type Descriptions For School Library Resources: Australian and New Zealand school library staff prefer userfriendly classifications to RDA and GMD vocabularies Ben Chadwick, Ph.D. Education Services Australia, Australia
ABSTRACT Descriptions of resource type assist students to discover resources. Under AACR2, bibliographic records contained the general material designation as a "first stop" in identifying typeness. Under RDA three controlled vocabularies describe content, media and carrier type. These went some way to address criticisms of GMD, however the language of the RDA terms is criticised as being unintuitive to users, and dispersing the description over three facets presents its own problems. In this context, libraries struggle to decide how to represent typeness to their end-users (Ou & Saxon, 2014). The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) provides high quality, consistent MARC records to schools internationally, including over 93% of Australian schools. SCIS ceased cataloguing of GMD in 2017 after four years of cataloguing records containing both GMD and RDA values. In 2016, SCIS surveyed 1212 Australian and New Zealand school library staff as a first stage in researching an alternative vocabulary incorporating user-friendly type (UFT) terminology. Results indicate that school library staff preferred UFTs to GMD and RDA terms and, where applicable, preferred terms where resource format is qualified in parentheses.
Keywords: Resource Type, GMD, RDA, Descriptive Metadata, School Libraries INTRODUCTION "What types of resources do you have in your school library?" Typeness is an intuitive and ubiquitous quality of bibliographic resources, used to assist in finding, identifying, selecting, and locating resources. However, library records often describe typeness through a range of controlled and uncontrolled vocabularies, some of which do not offer intuitive and user-friendly descriptions appropriate to the school library (eg Hider, 2009; Panchyshyn, 2014). The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) (http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/home.html) creates bibliographic data for educational and literacy resources used in schools, and offers a subscription service providing access to its database of almost 1.5 million records. Subscribers, including almost 94% of Australian schools, import SCIS’s MARC-21 records into their local library systems. In 2017 SCIS is undertaking a full revision of its online services, part of which includes exploring best-practices for discoverability of resources according to their various types. In early 2016, SCIS conducted a survey of Australian and New Zealand school libraries, aimed at better understanding the kinds of resources held in modern schools and school libraries, and how they are described and organised. This paper presents initial analyses of that survey data aimed at examining the terminology respondents feel best describes some contemporary resource types for their end-users. In the modern school library, just as in the modern classroom, teachers and learners have access to a wide variety of resources, from print and audio-visual to the ever expanding array of digital formats, including websites, apps, digital video, interactive learning and reference resources, e-books, eaudiobooks and e-textboooks (Oddone, 2011; O'Connell , Bales, & Mitchell, 2015; Domingo & Gargante, 2016). In 2016, SCIS subscribers accessed records for a wide variety of resources besides hard-copy books, including digital video, e-books, websites, DVDs, kits, activity cards and flash cards, digital databases, mobile apps, audiobooks (online and CD), hardcopy games, music notation, posters and charts, music CDs, maps, and toys (Chadwick, 2017). Records for digital resources constituted 12.3% percent of downloads. The Australian Library Industry Associations (ALIA) projects that by 2020 Australian
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libraries will hold a 80:20 ratio of hardcopy to e-books (ALIA, 2015), and a 2016 estimate suggests that rates are on a steady increase, with approximately 33% of schools having purchased an e-book in the prior year (Softlink, 2016). Whilst the question posed at the head of this section is instinctively straightforward, describing the typeness of these kinds of resources presents technical challenges. Carlyle (1999) stated that “ideally, information retrieval systems will reflect users’ perceptions and expectations, so that the information presented to them is understandable, and responds effectively to their needs” (p. 185). In her analysis of user's conceptualisation of library resource groupings, Carlyle found that while physical format was most prominent, respondents also utilised audience, content, pictorial elements, usage/purpose, and language in their classification judgements. In Hider's 2009 study of user's classifications of resource type, the multifaceted nature of user's understanding of typeness was also apparent: typeness included the format and content of the resource, but extended beyond these to incorporate properties such as mode of issuance, purpose, subject, audience, and extent. In bibliographic metadata, controlled vocabularies tend to break typeness down along some of these dimensions. For example, in the online environment the Dublin Core metadata schema (http://dubincore.org) offers elements such as format and type, with recommended controlled vocabularies including the MIME Internet Media Types (http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types) and DCMI Type Vocabulary (http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-type-vocabulary/). Within the MARC-21 records of the library community, typeness is represented in multiple elements, using both uncontrolled values and a range of controlled vocabularies (Ou & Saxon, 2014). In MARC control fields (http://loc.gov/marc/bibliographic), such as the Leader, 008 and 007, type is represented as controlled values for properties including content (such as in Leader positions 06, and 008 positions 24 to 27 for books), issuance (Leader positions 07), form and format (such as 007 position 00 to 01, and 008 position 23) and, for some resource types, target audience (008 position 22). When the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloguing standard succeeded the AngloAmerican Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition (AACR2), the repeatable MARC variable fields 336, 337 and 338 were introduced to represent the type properties of content, media, and carrier, respectively. These fields are populated by values from their respective RDA controlled vocabularies (http://rdatoolkit.org). Hider (2009) notes that media type and carrier type sit within a hierarchy, with the various carrier formats organised within the intermediating device defined by media type. For example, a video disc (carrier) requires a video device (media) whereas an audio disc (carrier) requires an audio device (media). Green and Fallgren (2007) recognised that whilst content type appears to be orthogonal to media and carrier type, they are in fact enmeshed because some content types are, and can only be, expressed via certain media formats. For example, a three-dimensional moving image is not expressed via audio media, and spoken word is not expressed via microform. Under AACR2, the General Material Designation (GMD) was a single value placed in the MARC 245 Title Statement “to indicate, in general terms and at an early point in the description, the class of materials to which the item belongs” (Guerrini, 2004). The GMD value was drawn from a brief, flat controlled vocabulary to help the user distinguish items in the same catalogue according to their differing modes of expression (Guerrini, 2004). These values did not systematically represent typeness along dimensions such as content and format, though they strongly reflected the physical carrier of the item and incorporated properties such as intellectual/artistic content and form of expression (Guerrini, 2004). Use of the GMD, MARC control fields and RDA vocabularies in bibliographic records is not consistent over time and will rarely be consistent within collections, and values from one vocabulary can not be easily mapped to another (Panchyshyn, 2014). AACR2 records contain both MARC control fields and the GMD, RDA records contain the MARC control fields and RDA type fields, and hybrid records may contain each of these (Ou & Saxon, 2014). Considerations around the deprecation of MARC raises the possibility of records containing only the RDA fields, possibly with combinations of as-yet unspecified vocabularies. Even within these ‘generations’ of records, different type encodings will be applied with differing degrees of consistency.
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Despite these various ambiguities and representations, typeness as a construct plays a prominent role in the user tasks of finding, identifying, selecting, and locating resources. Many collections are organised by type (Carlyle, 1999), including aspects of format (such as the print, audio-visual, and online collections), content (music CDs versus audiobook CDs; reference material versus general fiction and non-fiction), audience (children’s and young adult fiction; teacher resources), and issuance (periodicals, collections of series, and monographs). For the user, type is an early and immediate indication of where an item may be physically located or whether it can be accessed from the computer they are on. Typeness is ubiquitous in online catalogue interfaces. Figure 1 displays how type is represented in major Australian and international systems to limit both basic and advanced searches, as a search index per se, and as a facet to limit results. It is such a prominent dimension that it is often the primary feature organising search (eg see the tabs in WorldCat’s basic search in Figure 1A) and result sets (see the ‘Bento Box’ style of Trove’s result sets, organised by type http://trove.nla.gov.au/). In Niu, Zhang, and Chen's (2014) study of usage of the VuFind and Primo systems in an academic library, a resource type was specified in 11.8% of searches on Primo. Format was the most used facet in VuFind and the second most used in Primo, however the most used facet, "Show Only", included representations of typeness including Online resources. Typeness is also prominent in the search behavior of library staff. On the SCIS catalogue, type was the most prominent dimension on which basic searches were limited (13% of searches), followed by year of publication at only 2% of searches and place of publication (0.3%). In advanced search, dimensions of type were also the most prominent search limits with 19% of searches limited by format and 5% by content type (Chadwick, 2017). Typeness is central to some of the core selection decisions faced by end-users. For example, it indicates the equipment requirements of the resource which, depending on equipment availability, may influence a user's decision to utilise the resource. It also informs user decisions around resource utilisation on the basis of modality preferences or capabilities -- some users may prefer using audio to written text whilst others may be precluded from using written text. Typeness also plays a role in the identification process, enabling users to distinguish two records representing the same work by the differing formats in which they are manifested. As mentioned above, this was the intended purpose of the General Material Designation (GMD) under AACR2.
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Figure 1 Resource Type represented in WorldCat's (A) basic search and (D) advance search filter, (B) the State Library of Victoria's basic search filter, (C) RMIT’s advanced search, (E) and Trove's faceting The GMD’s decommissioning under RDA was due to the widely held opinion that its controlled values were imprecise and unhelpful to users – an issue that became pronounced with the proliferation of electronic formats (Ou & Saxon, 2014). The GMD values irreconcilably conflated format and content for some resource types (Hider, 2009), which was especially problematic for digital resources such as an MP3 musical recording, which could be represented as “Electronic Resource” or “Sound recording.” Whilst the multidimensional approach of the RDA fields is intended to address these shortcomings of the GMD, the multiple repeatable facets of RDA present their own problems (Ou & Saxon, 2014). Hider (2009) noted that “two facets [of RDA content and carrier] are not very intuitive for many end users” (p. 113), possibly reflecting the fact that such dimensions are dictated by cataloguing standards and OPAC displays rather than user’s inherent conceptualisations. Hider (2009b) concludes that description based on just content or carrier “would fall a long way short of optimal, and even both lists, in combination, would fall considerably short” (p. 558). Whether and how to display these fields is not clear to libraries or systems. As of Ou & Saxon’s 2014 survey of 53 academic, law, public and special libraries, 62% did not display any of the RDA fields, 26% displayed all three, four displayed 336 and 338 but not 337, and one each displayed 336 and 338 only. Ten of the respondents added RDA fields to their AACR2 records, and at least three added GMD to their RDA records. Panchyshyn (2014) recognised the importance of providing consistent display of type descriptions across AACR2, hybrid, and RDA records, and explored a “quick and inexpensive solution that would allow [OhioLINK] libraries to compensate for the loss of the GMD” (p. 495). The solution he considered was to display an icon representing Leader position 06 and the text of the RDA 338 (carrier), with only the icon displaying in the absence of RDA type data.
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Some have expressed concerns about the adequacy of the RDA vocabularies as a means of serving the GMD purpose of describing “in general terms and at an early point in the description, the class of materials to which the item belongs”. Panchyshyn (2014) stated that during Kent State University’s involvement in RDA testing it became apparent that removal of GMD was problematic for staff and potentially patrons, and that the controlled values of the RDA type fields were not easily comprehended by users. Cronin (2011) stated that staff at the University Of Chicago also questioned the utility of the RDA type fields, with cataloguer concerns about whether the RDA labels were intuitive for users. McCutcheon’s (2012) reference librarians found the terms unintuitive – especially the media types. Arguably, it is unreasonable to expect users to understand that an unmediated resource with a volume carrier and text content is in fact a book. But working with raw values from these vocabularies is not the only option. As Hider & Huthwaite (2006) state, the intention of RDA is to provide guidance on representation of bibliographic data, not its presentation on the OPAC. Green and Fallgren (2007) note that whilst “an intuitive expression is key for helping users achieve identification and filtering goals” this can be achieved by “mapping natural language expressions to (combinations of) less intuitive attribute values” (p.90). SCIS commenced use of the RDA type fields in 2013 but continued to provide the GMD until early 2017 to support user display in certain library systems in popular use in Australian and New Zealand schools. As SCIS moves to a new online platform it is considering use of a seperate vocabulary consisting of user-friendly type (UFT) descriptors. SCIS subscribers use its database to find, select, and identify records for resources (but not to locate items), and a UFT vocabulary could be used to facilitate each of these tasks. Vocabulary values could be mapped from existing values in MARC records, thereby achieving Panchyshyn’s (2014) objective of providing consistent type description over AACR2, RDA and hybrid records. Given questions over the intuitiveness of type descriptors in GMD and RDA, the purpose of this paper is to explore possible labels for such a UFT vocabulary. For a small set of digital/electronic resources, school library staff were asked to rate at least one UFT label in contrast with the GMD and RDA labels for the same resource type. Supplementing an ambiguous or uni-dimensional type description with parenthetic qualifiers may improve clarity and increase user friendliness (Guerrini, 2004; Hider, 2009b). The ANSI/NISO (2005) Z39.19 standard recommends use of parenthetical qualifiers to disambiguate homographs, though recommends against their use if an appropriate compound term is available (eg Digital music versus Music (Digital)). In the current study, the acceptability of parenthetical qualifiers in labels was also evaluated, and whether it is generally more acceptable to qualify the content or carrier/format of the resource. Finally, following from research such as Hider (2009), Ou and Saxon (2014) and Panchyshyn (2014), the current study was interested in whether participants demonstrated any preference for representing type via RDA content (MARC 336), RDA carrier (MARC 338), or a combination of the two.
Research questions The current paper examined four specific questions relating to the description of resource type for nine categories of electronic/digital resources: 1. Do school library staff prefer the UFT labels over those offered by GMD or RDA? 2. Do they demonstrate preferences around use of qualifiers in those items containing UFT options with both qualified and unqualified versions? 3. In those items containing UFT options with qualified versions, do respondents demonstrate a preference for content-based labels qualified by format, or format-based labels qualified by content? 4. Finally, do respondents demonstrate preferences for RDA content, RDA carrier, or a combination of both? For each of these questions, secondary interest was also given to whether subgroups of respondents differed in their preferences, as defined by their role in the library and the size, sector and level of their school.
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METHOD The SCIS School Library Resourcing survey was conducted on the surveymonkey.com platform between 26 April and 31 May 2016. The survey was promoted through social media, on the SCIS website, and via an email campaign to SCIS subscribers. An AU$250 book voucher was offered as a prize to one respondent. Raw data contained identifying information in order to assign the prize. That data was also used to remove multiple responses from the same school before being deleted from the dataset. The full survey contained 38 items. The current study is primarily concerned with Questions seven to fifteen, though the first six questions are reported for the purpose of describing the respondents (see Appendix A). Initial questions enquired about the respondent’s role in the school (Q1), school enrolment (Q2), school level (Q3), school sector (Q4), school location (Q5), and library staffing (Q6). Questions seven to fifteen provided a description of a resource type, but avoided use of common labels for that type of item. They also provided an image to indicate the item type. Respondents were asked to select one option indicating which they believe best describes the item for their students. For each item, options were derived from the GMD vocabulary, RDA content type, RDA carrier type, and both RDA content and carrier type combined, and one or more UFT values. Were applicable, more than one UFT option was provided to evaluate preferences for different labels and regarding use of parenthetic qualifiers versus no qualifier. For items with a qualified UFT, options were offered in which the qualifier described content type and in which qualifiers described format. These questions were mandatory and the ordering of options was set to vary randomly. The different items and the various options provided for each are displayed in Tables Table 8 to Table 16.
Respondents An initial response was received from 1434 respondents. Data was removed if respondents did not complete the full survey. If more than one response came from the same school library (as indicated by IP address and details provided by respondents) only one response was retained, firstly from teacher librarians, then librarians, followed by library technicians, then by any other person working in the library. Responses were removed if the option “Other” was selected for school sector, level or location (Questions 3 to 5). The final dataset consisted of 1212 respondents.
Analysis All analyses were performed in SPSS Version 24 (IBM, 2016). For each analysis, a within-subject analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests was conducted to test for a main effect. Marginal means for each analysis are displayed in Table 3. Where more than one category was being compared, these were followed up by post-hoc pairwise Bonferroni adjusted comparisons to identify where differences lay. Next, for the most endorsed category, a series of between-group ANOVAs were performed to examine differential responses between the respondent categories of school level, school sector, respondent role, and school size. School size was dichotomised as large (over 800 enrolments) and small (under 801). For respondent role, the less prevalent (see below) categories of Parent or volunteer, IT Staff, Principal/Assistant Principal, and Teacher were classified as ‘Other’. Again, specific differences between more than two categories were examined with post-hoc pairwise Bonferroni adjusted comparisons.
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Catholic
Government
Independent
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
Combined
Primary
Secondar
Type of school
Figure 2. Respondent's school sector and level Finally, a series of Chi-square analyses were conducted to identify differential preferences on a per-question basis.
Table 1 Reported staff size of respondent's library Library Staff
Frequency
Percent
Cumulative Percent
1
345
28.46%
28.46%
2
467
38.53%
66.99%
3
303
25%
91.99%
4
54
4.45%
96.45%
5.
28
2.31%
98.76%
6
15
1.23%
100%
Total
1212
100%
RESULTS Respondents Responses were received from all Australian states and territories – predominantly New South Wales (23.8%), Victoria (22.5%), and Queensland (14.6%), followed by Western Australia (12.3%) and South Australia (7.7%). This distribution is roughly representative of population and school distribution across the country. Respondents from New Zealand accounted for 15.8% of the sample.
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Table 2 Example of how responses to five items were scored in analyses one to four Response 7
8
9
10
11
Electronic Resource
Musical Recording
MP3 (Music)
Audiobook (CD)
Y
Y
Analysis
Category
DVD
1
UFT
Y
RDA
2
3
4
Y
GMD
Y
Qualified
-
-
Value
0.6 0.2 0.2
Y
Y
0.66
Unqualified
Y
-
-
0.33
Format
-
-
-
Content
-
-
-
Y
Content
-
-
Y
-
-
1
Carrier
-
-
-
-
0
Both
-
-
-
-
0
Y
0.5 0.5
Responses were predominantly from primary schools (57.5%), followed by secondary (25.6%) and combined schools (16.9%). Government schools were the highest responders (65.4%), followed by Catholic (18.5%) and Independent schools (16.1%). As seen in Figure 2, the largest sub-group of respondents was Government primary schools (37.4% of total responses), followed by Government secondary (15.9%) and Independent combined (11.1%) schools. Thirty-two percent of respondents were Teacher Librarians, followed by administrative/support staff (21.9%), library technicians (20.2%) and librarians (19.2%). Other roles accounted for only 7% or responses. Fifteen percent of responses came from schools with fewer than 200 enrolments. The largest proportion of responses (35.6%) came from schools with 401 to 800 enrolments, and only 8.7% had more than 1200 enrolments.
Table 3 Marginal means for Analyses One to Four Analysis 1
2
3
UFT
4
Responses .679
Unqualified
.308
Qualified
.692 by content
.389
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by format
.611
GMD
.145
RDA
.176 Carrier
.587
Content
.040
Both
.373
The reported number of full time equivalent roles in the library can be seen in Table 1. Only 8% of respondents had more than three staff, and almost one third reported having a single staff member.
Analysis 1: UFT, RDA and GMD To assess preferences for vocabulary, responses were classified as either UFT, RDA, or GMD. An example of the scoring methodology can be found in Table 2. A per-person score for each vocabulary was obtained by calculating their response to each as a proportion of all items they responded to (in the example, for UFT 3/5=0.6). The interpretation of this score is the respondent’s proportional endorsement of the category (in the example, the respondent demonstrated 60% endorsement of the UFT values). A within-subjects ANOVA comparing user’s proportional ratings of UFT, GMD and RDA terms found a significant main effect, F(2,2422)=4160.614,p 800 enrolments)
.586
Teacher librarian
.585
Librarian
.600
Library technician
.589
Admin/Support
.563
Other
.626
Total
.587
In question seven the overwhelming majority of respondents favoured the UFT option “DVD” (Chi-sq (4) =4268.49, p
