Open and Accessible: The Relationship Between Closures and Circulation in School Library Media Centers

A hallmark of school library media best practice is for the library media center to be open and accessible to patron use before, during, and after the school day and throughout the entire school year. Anecdotal evidence and informal discussion among school library media specialists indicate that library media facilities are sometimes used for activities unrelated to the mission of the school library media program in the school. These activities may close the library media center to regular patron use for all or part of the school day. This study surveyed school library media specialists in two states and examined the reasons that school library media centers are closed as well as the effect of the closure on circulation. Results indicate that the three most commonly reported reasons for closure of the school library media center were preparation for the end of the school year, book fairs, and standardized testing. The only predictor of school library media center closures was the poverty level of the school. No effect was found on the number of materials circulated

Anatomy of Advocacy: A Case Study of the White House Petition

Little research has been conducted examining advocacy efforts in the school library field despite the fact that program advocate is a prominent role for school librarians. One element of advocacy is the engagement in political initiatives that may affect school library programs. This case study investigates the effectiveness of one advocacy effort in response to a call for support of a national petition in support of school libraries. Data were collected, and factors underlying this advocacy campaign were analyzed. This report is a case study analysis of a time-constrained advocacy initiative, including the number of participants, demographic factors in relationship to participation, and the interaction of participants on an e-mail discussion list. With the emergent focus on lobbying for the reauthorization of ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), this study has import for the design and development of successful advocacy efforts now and in the future

The Access Gap: Poverty and Characteristics of School Library Media Centers

Stephen Krashen believes that schools can counter the effects of poverty in at least one area: access to books. However, little research has been done to determine whether students living in poverty have access to school library services comparable to those attending schools with low concentrations of students living in poverty. We examined the school library access gap namely, the differences in school library characteristics (staffing, books added to collection, schedule, and number of days closed) in schools with various concentrations of students living in poverty. Alarmingly, we found that the students in most need—those attending schools with the highest concentrations of students living in poverty—had the fewest school library resources to draw on. Findings suggest that if we hope to close achievement gaps between high and low socioeconomic groups, we must attend to the access gap in school libraries in high- and low-poverty schools. © 2011 by The University of Chicago

Dispositions in the Twenty First Century School Library Profession

Within the school library profession there is an emerging focus on dispositions, defined as a tendency to exhibit frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a pattern of behavior that is directed to a broad goal (Katz, 1993). Directed focus groups of practicing school librarians were asked to articulate their vision for school libraries of the future. Data from these groups informed development of six dispositional continua to guide both school library education and school librarianship in the 21st century. This study clarifies the dispositions needed by school librarians in the future

Culturally Relevant Booktalking: Using a Mixed Reality Simulation With Preservice School Librarians

The role of school librarians is often overlooked in advancing a respect for cultural diversity among youth, yet librarians are in key positions to champion for social justice reform in educational settings. In this qualitative study, we examine preservice school librarians\u27 experiences with booktalking multicultural literature in a mixed reality simulation environment, as a vehicle to introduce social justice issues. Our purpose was to explore the booktalking experience as a means of developing preservice librarians\u27 understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy, a stance concerned with developing cultural competence and critical consciousness. Our findings revealed that preservice librarians gained different levels of understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy yet, the experience provided them with an opportunity for engaging in critical reflection regarding personal bias and systemic racism in schools and literature

Voices from the Ivory Tower

Perspectives on the move from being a school librarian to teaching and researching with those preparing to enter the field are provided. Personal perspectives of a doctoral student, an assistant professor, an associate professor, and a full professor are provided

Creating a Foundation for the Causal Relationship Between Libraries and Learning: A Proposed Application of Nursing and Public Health Research Methods

Thomas Cook, a renowned causal research expert and professor of sociology, psychology, education, and social policy at Northwestern University (USA), called for school library researchers to parallel causality determination efforts in health-related fields. In this paper, we respond to Dr. Cook’s challenge with a proposed research design centered on Mixed Research Synthesis (MRS) as part of process validated by the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation’s Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development. MRS studies, often used in nursing and public health research to develop causal theories, enable researchers to develop evidence summaries; identify and adjudicate rival and companion theories, and determine the active ingredients and weak links in the implementation chain of interventions, programs, and policies. MRS is the essential first step in a possible ongoing multi-phased research agenda designed to progress from theory building to theory testing to causal determination. In addition to building on and extending school librarianship’s heritage in replicated correlational research and strong affective value, the researchers’ proposed MRS implementation will test the usefulness of a technique that has never been used in school settings and will provide a useful entry point for researchers concerned with other types of libraries

Meeting the ISTE Challenge in the Field: An Overview of the First Six Distinguished Achievement Award Winning Programs

The 2002 National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Distinguished Achievement Awards, sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), were awarded to six teacher education programs across the United States. The awards recognize institutions that exemplify successful integration of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS[solid dot]T) into teacher education programs. Institutions across the country completed an extensive application process to be selected one of the first six recipients of the ISTE Distinguished Achievement award. This process included online documentation that demonstrated the program\u27s implementation of the NETS[solid dot]T models and practices. This article provides a means of uniting various programs and program developers (teacher educators and instructional technologists) by looking at the most common obstacles they face in the pursuit of appropriate infusion of technology into teacher education programs and workable solutions for overcoming those obstacles

Computational Modeling of Single-Cell Migration::The Leading Role of Extracellular Matrix Fibers

Cell migration is vitally important in a wide variety of biological contexts ranging from embryonic development and wound healing to malignant diseases such as cancer. It is a very complex process that is controlled by intracellular signaling pathways as well as the cell's microenvironment. Due to its importance and complexity, it has been studied for many years in the biomedical sciences, and in the last 30 years it also received an increasing amount of interest from theoretical scientists and mathematical modelers. Here we propose a force-based, individual-based modeling framework that links single-cell migration with matrix fibers and cell-matrix interactions through contact guidance and matrix remodelling. With this approach, we can highlight the effect of the cell's environment on its migration. We investigate the influence of matrix stiffness, matrix architecture, and cell speed on migration using quantitative measures that allow us to compare the results to experiments