Re: [LM_NET] Hit: "No one reads (uses books) anymore" - Response to school librarians

[Lisa Hunt <lisa3moon@YAHOO.COM>]

This hit is terrific, Thanks Lyn.  I will keep these notes and expand my own 
knowledge.  
   
  I must say though this seems to be yet another common battle we experience.  Due 
to recent changes in my work environment (administrative policies) I find myself 
seeing my job with new eyes.  I am told I am a wonderful librarian, a true asset to 
our faculty, and demonstrate my love for students' learning.  However, the library 
program and myself are not treated as an asset.  Funding is a bigger problem that 
ever, guests are never invited to tour, I myself am not asked to contribute on 
academic committees.  I just don't have the energy for that fight anymore.
   
  HERE IS MY NEW TACTIC:  I am a wealth of knowledge and experience, and I truly 
believe and love what I have to share.  Librarians are necessary.  I am always 
ready to serve when needed.  That need presents itself in many ways each and every 
day, and I am always ready to respond.  I teach in a timely manner.
   
  Do I have a seamless program that meets annual goals and needs?  Do I have an 
ongoing collaboration with teachers in my building?  Are my students learning the 
value of information and reading?
   
  I can answer those questions with a hardy YES!!  However, I do this by meeting 
immediate needs.  I may collaborate often with a 3rd grade teacher, but no others 
in her grade.  OK.  I may teach (and students use) databases this year, but the 
teacher doesn't have time next year.  OK.  I might teach class lessons to use the 
OPAC to 4 grade levels this year, but next year no go.  OK.
   
  I couldn't change the climate.  I changed me.  I felt badly before because sooooo 
many things went undone or unnoticed.  Now, I feel good because I see my usefulness 
everyday.  The surprising thing is that I don't tell teachers or students "No."  It 
just works out that way.  They ask and I am able to deliver.  Also, I don't work as 
hard.  I think that is because I'm not spending energy that goes no where.  Now, 
everything I do is needed and purposeful.
   
  I believe we, too, have a difficult job in education.  I have found a way to work 
around many of the "bad" feelings that used to bother me.  I truly believe I 
provide better service even though I understand the library is rarely at the top of 
the list.  It is probably 2nd or 3rd because people are happy when they are here; 
and that is because the librarian is happy.  Thanks for listening.  And thanks 
again to Lyn for opening this information about what we do.

Lyn Grund <lcgrund@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  I got lots of feedback and support and requests for info. Thank you all for
your contributions. I still don't have exactly what I was looking for, but
I'm not saying that as a criticism at all because I did do some searching on
my own and couldn't find it either. I can come up with lots of well-thought
out articles about why we should use a variety of formats and how to promote
the use of print materials but no hard facts and figures about book sales,
reading, etc. I will continue to look for this information, but in the
meantime, here are the suggestions that I received:
----------------------------------

My rant--but mostly about the use--or non-use of databases! Sorry for the
length.

This is a farly small high school library of about 750 students about 10
miles north of Syracuse, New York. My collection is also current, relevant
and attractive looking. We have about 13,000 books. Strangely enough only
a couple of the English teachers use the library. I have never understood
that. I only pull books if the teachers requests it because more than one
section will be using them. I try to persuade the teacher that the students
need to be able to look in the OPAC and then locate the book themselves.
Sometimes I'm successful.

I, too have been fighting the same battles for years! I have done
everything I can think of to educate my teachers and students as to the
value of books--for research and pleasure reading. I think I've made it
with pleasure reading--that is consistantly the largest circulation group.

Some of the teachers now require at least one book (as she says, a book that
you can pick up and look at) and at least one database resource. This is an
improvement--a small step, but an improvement.

I was asked to change the name of our databases because it was thought that
the word database scared the teachers away! They are now called Electronic
Library Resources. I have conducted workshops in their use --the teachers
who did come exclaimed about how wonderful these resources were--it was the
best workshop they'd ever attended etc etc. The one English teacher who
came said that her entire department should have been there etc etc.--but
they never came.

We didn't even offer the workshop this year because the response was so
small.

I have written articles for our little local newspaperabout the use of
library books and other resources. I have written very short informational
articles that were included in the school's newsletter that goes to each
household in the district.

I put flyers in the teachers' mailboxes with the directions for using the
databases from home as well as school.

I hand out the same flyer to students when/if their teachers bring their
classes into the library to start their reseach--unless the teacher doesn't
let me know what they're doing even after I ask and offer my help.

The flyers are readily available to anyone.

The same flyer is on the library WEB page as well as on my own page.

I have had the 9th graders come to the library for a how-to-do-research
lesson. This has been very successful in the past. The stats for the
databases and the circ for non-fiction increase afterwards for several
months, so I know the kids are using the databases--and reserach books. I
show them how to use the card catalog (OPAC) and the databases that we have
available. I have inserted all kinds of subjects into the records so the
books can be located from many directions--and hopefully used. I tell them
about the problems with Goggle, Yahoo and other search engines. Sometimes I
show them the velcro site and ask them to evaluate it. Sometimes I simply
tell them about it and others. I demonstrate each database and then have
them do a search on a subject of my choosing. I have them tell me which
database they would use to do a project on their particular topic I correct
these papers by duplicating their searches--each correct answer is worth X
points. This is EXTREMELY time consuming. I give them two marks--one for
just doing the project and one for the correctness of their searches. This
was an excellent exercise for me because it showed me how the databases
change from day to day as more material is added--so if my answer doesn't
exactly match theirs, they still get the credit. Unfortunately, this year,
I could not persuade most of the SS teachers to bring their classes to the
library for this lesson. I couldn't even get the English department to
bring their classes for my Freshman Orientation. The excuse was that they
were too "busy" and the principal backed them up! He really is very
supportive of the library, but I guess he's more supportive of the English
department. Most of the English department teachers feel they know all
there is about the library (even it they don't) and don't need or want my
help--if and when they come to the library to do research.

I have pretty much run out of ideas.

I don't have any information on facts/figures/studies for you--just my own
complaints.



----------------------------------------



ONE reason high school teachers think kids don't read is that they don't
have time to! One of my kids never stopped reading and kinda blew off high
school, but the other really bought into the get-into-elite-college mode and
took a lot of AP classes, played sports year round, played in the band and
orchestra, etc. and hardly had time to read the assigned books, let alone
anything else. She read all
the Harry Potter books after graduating from college; she didn't have time
before.



------------------------------------------

I must have been deleting too fast -- I missed your original questions.
However, if I understand correctly, you have teachers using your library for
class research and not bothering with books or subscription databases.

In our high school library any teacher wishing to use the library comes to
consult with one of two librarians. We set up almost all research projects
with books the first day research. Databases are usually the second day,
and on the third and subsequent days we either hit more databases or mention
evaluating web site if they are going on the internet. Teachers wishing to
only use us as a computer lab are told we are NOT A LAB, and they should
sign up in one of the many labs in the building. Our computers are for
teaching information literacy skills just-in-time, with the students putting
them to use immediately on their assignments.

We tell the teachers that is our rotation. Students are free to google on
their own time, however, the school and the district has invested heavily
into quality resources, and we must start with, and use, them. Alice Yucht
once wrote a wonderful piece on how she dealt with a teacher not wanting to
use her carefully selected resources. Of course, it's not in front of me
now, but she wrote a brief note to the teacher -- copying in the appropriate
administrators -- explaining that she had pulled books, and set up
information on the computers and provided students with instruction sheets.
Thus she would not be taking any research time away from the students (the
teacher's complaint), however, she did insist the student begin with the
resources bought and paid for by the district (her complaint that the
students could just google everything). Of course, the administrator came
for a visit that day to see if the teacher was having the class use the
resources. Fortunately we have not had to resort to that extreme. Most
teachers are eager to use what we provide. But, Alice's piece is always in
the back of my mind if I have to justify starting where we do.

We tell the students they must start with the most reputable resources
first. Then, when they have gained some knowledge on their topic they are
better able to determine if web pages they find are accurate, bias,
up-to-date, or at all good for their assignment.

Interestingly, I have been to talks with college librarians twice in the
past month and learned that many, many college professors do NOT ALLOW
students to use sources from the web. Students are required to use just
print resources, including databases. Students are NOT ALLOWED to use
wikipedia as a source. You might check with your local colleges to see what
they are doing. One of the laments of college librarians is students come
to college thinking you can google all the research for any college paper.
At least by the time our students reach the upper grades of high school they
need some of the restrictions they will be facing in college.

What your teachers may fail to understand that as adults we can discern the
good from the bad when finding information -- students are used to surfing
the net for their own interest and enjoyment. As college grads, we are
successful at the discipline of research -- most students have not yet
attained that level of maturity, they don't care about these assignments.
And, somewhere along the line we have learned about Boolean searching,
keywords, narrowing a topic with a thesaurus full of alternative key words,
and other evaluation techniques to help us find quality information online
-- our students believe everything they see and read. If your situation
cannot be changed to put the quality stuff in the hands of the students from
the beginning, can you at least offer students evaluative procedures as well
as searching techniques so they can become the best Google searchers out
there?

I realize this does not give you studies or statistics. (Isn't there a
statistic out there about how little of the world's knowledge is online?) I
am sorry if this does not address your needs. I thought possibly what we do
might help you tackle some of the problems without the facts and figures to
back you up. I apologize if I did not get your question right.

-------------------------------



Lyn my circ statistics for the last several year are up in the 30%+ range
each year Most kids in my building are carrying around a library book or two
( from here or the public library) or books they have bought temselves! If
the book is dead it hasn't caught on here yet -- course we are smaller and
rural :} seriously , what about the kids who can't access from home. We are
becoming a nation of have and have nots in the information field. I have
worked hard especially with my younger teachers-- older one get it- to show
kids the databases most often when they have to go their first they stay
there. I've convince most all but one teacher ( course he comes in at 8 and
want to bring his kids in for a very complicate assignment that I can't find
book or online resource for-- give the kids an hour to google it and is
done! so that is probably a lost cause.

-------------------------------------



After years of trying, I bypassed the teachers and went to the students.
Our school list lesson plans on our web-site. When I see a big project
coming up, I make an announcement over the PA that the library will be open
at a certain time for students working on this project. Students have
always shown up and worked well. This year two teachers have come in and
said they appreciated me working with their students.

---------------------------------------



Hope this helps some.
I started a blog last summer (but have not had the urge since to add to it)
called Internet Library Research (
http://internetlibraryresearch.edublogs.org/ ). However the first article I
wrote for it "Select and Organize Internet Information for Better Retrieval
and Use" in a way speaks to some of the issues you are concerned with.

For me, besides the quality of information question addressed in the blog
article, one of the principal reasons why I believe books and other printed
information sources are still indispensable is that only a fraction of the
information students need has made its way to the Internet.

In his article (found online!), "Do We Need Academic Libraries?" (
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/doweneedacademic.htm ),
Larry Hardesty asks and answers the following question: "Can an electronic
access to information resources be provided that is equivalent to
traditional campus-based print materials? For some courses, the answer may
be yes, just as for some courses traditional print materials are not needed.
However, for most major fields of study at even the undergraduate level the
answer is still no. Academic librarians recognize that currently available
digital resources have serious limitations in supporting an entire
curriculum. Relatively few of the millions of journals and books that fill
our academic libraries have been retrospectively converted into digital
formats and there is no evidence that a significant percentage will be in
the foreseeable future. In addition, there has been little evidence of any
abatement in the current publication rate o!
f print materials, and most remain unavailable digitally."

I believe that Mr. Hardesty's observations also hold true for K-12
libraries. It's a matter of economics and marketing. Publishers make money
from publishing information. To date they have favored print publishing.
While it's true that digitized information is very cheap to reproduce and
distribute, still students don't need to tie-up an $800 school computer to
access information from a book. This may change in the future, of course,
but for now teachers do a big disservice to students by accepting
exclusively Internet provided information as opposed to print references.
They, and their students, aren't being modern or progressive. They are
just being lazy.

--------------------------------------------------------



I have had the exact opposite response to my video booktalks! So many
readers have thanked me for helping them find good books to read.
Please feel free to share my website with your teachers and let them
know that many many kids read all the time!
http://www.bookwink.com



-------------------------------------------------------



I recently read an interview with James Neal, University Librarian and
Vice President for Information Services, Columbia University in The
Record, a Columbia publication. His answers to these two questions
aren't exactly what you seem to be looking for, but they are a great
justification for us and the first does address books.

Are you buying fewer books?
"Unlike other research and academic libraries, we have
maintained a very aggressive book acquisition program at Columbia.
During 2004-2005, Columbia ranked number one among the 123 North
American research libraries in funds spent on electronic content, while
at the same time we added 220,000 print volumes to the collection. We
are committed to distinctive collections of great depth and breadth."

So libraries aren't on the way out?
"Far from it. In the 1990s we were not confident in our future
relevance and impact. But now, thanks to the extraordinary complexity
of the information environment and the availability of powerful new
tools, librarians are more necessary than ever. We have entered the
golden age of the research library."

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        Lisa Hunt
  School Library Media Specialist, elementary
  National Board Certified Teacher
  Moore, OK
  lisa3moon@yahoo.com 





 
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