It was recently reported that the school set up in Mosta, limits of Ta’ Żokrija, has all the latest technology in place, and that there are 4,500 books in the school library.
Ingredients needed to form the vision: professional and full-time librarians, and an information literacy programme- Claudio Laferla
However, since the school has 750 students being taught 12 subjects, there should be at least 9,000 books, so that each student can have at least one book each per subject. Also, does the library have a Melitensia section?
The political parties should have a proper vision for our school libraries. But the question is: What type of vision? What does the vision need to encompass in view of our school libraries?
The following three ingredients are needed to form the vision for a school library: (1) professional librarians; (2) full-time librarians; and (3) an information literacy programme.
A librarian’s main subject is ‘information literacy’, and we need to address this concept in our schools. Students need to be trained on how to conduct research. A new set of skills need to be taught. We need to train students in ‘information literacy’.
For a person to be described as information literate s/he must be able to recognise when information is needed and be able to locate, evaluate and use effectively the information needed.
I firmly believe that improvement of school libraries has to include the above-mentioned ingredients. Empirical research shows that there is still need for libraries in school education.
Without doubt, today’s library requirements – and consequently, those of the librarian – have evolved. Today’s librarian has to be skilled in both print and the digital resources, have internet searching techniques, be able to acquire information from a variety of sources, know current teen and IT trends, be skilled in IT, and so on.
Since the information paradigm has changed, our vision for and of school libraries cannot remain antiquated.
Both teachers and librarians have their place in schools. Teachers have their own subjects while librarians have the ‘information paradigm’ as their subject. It is the librarian who has the necessary skills in acquiring, presenting and the evaluating information.
How can we expect students to present professional work at Sixth Form or university level if during the 11 years of primary and secondary schooling they have not been trained in how to handle and present information, whether in print or digitally?
Other questions regarding internet arise. According to a National Statistics Office report issued in 2005, 68.6 per cent of Year 4 and 6 students access the internet. But who teaches them to navigate, or is it parents who have to solve this problem (whether they are skilled or not)?
Without doubt, librarians are professionals. They have studied for four years – the same as teachers – and so they need to be warranted – just like teachers. The librarian is an educator by profession and a colleague of teachers.
He is not a ‘baby-sitter’… either of books or of children! He is an information professional working daily with diverse information in its different formats.
Full-time school librarians are a must in our educational system. Providing a holistic education means providing duly-qualified school librarians.
How can a teacher give 100 per cent if he or she is divided between teaching a taught subject and managing the library, or is not sufficiently qualified for the job? The person in charge of the library cannot be appointed just because she or he loves reading or books.
It is high time that we develop a new nomenclature system and salary scales like those for teachers.
We need to allow the librarians to use their professional knowledge to create a programme whereby students are taught various skills. Information literacy embraces all the different skills needed for a person to become an information-literate citizen.
In fact, one cannot consider information literacy simply for education purposes but it has a much wider connotation, namely, in every aspect of society. An ‘information literate society’ precedes an ‘information society’ and presupposes a ‘knowledge society’.
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the UK Association of Teachers and Lecturers, commenting on teens’ lack of skills, once said: “Employers continuously say they want young people who can think on their feet, are good at research, innovative, and good at team working – but too many students are still leaving school without these skills.”
Note the phrase “good at research”. This is precisely what an ‘information literate’ student will become if, systematically, in our schools we have the three ingredients mentioned earlier.
‘Information literacy’ means equipping students with the necessary skills and the know-how on when to use them. An information literate person is never at a loss when new content or new Web 2.0 tools emerge.
One of the issues currently being introduced in our schools is the concept of e-learning.
Linda Banwell, director of the Information Management Research Institute at Northumbria University, UK, commenting on e-Learning in 2004, wrote that “e-learning has become… part of the wider lifelong learning agenda, bringing in work in public libraries and the cultural sector as well as higher and further education”.
That e-learning is linked with lifelong learning is no surprise. Both have materialised from an increase in information and the development of IT. Consequently, this entails having a new set of skills in order to be able to learn.
The librarian is best placed for this scenario. We cannot rush into implementing certain teaching/learning aspects without having the right skills.
Technology alone and basic IT skills are not enough to make a person either able to navigate in the information paradigm (to e-learn) or become ‘information literate’.
I believe a holistic education entails having a proper vision for school libraries, manned by full-time, warranted professional librarians who are able to take the school library to the next level. Technology is only part of the total equation in education.
The teacher cannot develop work independently from the librarian and vice-versa. I hope that the government works towards to give our students a truly holistic education.
This article reflects the author’s opinion, not that of the University.
Mr Laferla is a librarian and a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta.