School Libraries and Student Learning: A Guide for School Leaders

reviewed by Jose Montelongo — October 31, 2016

Title: School Libraries and Student Learning: A Guide for School Leaders
Author(s): Rebecca J. Morris 
Publisher: Harvard Education Press, Cambridge
ISBN: 1612508367, Pages: 232, Year: 2015
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School Libraries and Student Learning: A Guide for School Leaders, by Rebecca J. Morris, is a book written especially for school leaders. It presents a vision of today’s school librarians that challenges the outdated perception of them as clerks who keep the library in order, check out books, and tell students to be quiet. Through engaging vignettes, Morris illustrates the many roles qualified school librarians play as teachers, information specialists, technology experts, grant writers, and administrators in the context of the latest technological advances.

In Chapter One, Morris introduces a three-bridge analogy to capture the different types of support librarians provide their schools and communities. The roles outlined in the analogy are correlated with those found in quality libraries. The first bridge concerns the role of the librarian as educator and information specialist who teaches students essential information literacy skills they can use across different content areas and grade levels (e.g., evaluation of resources and self-assessment).

The second bridge revolves around the school librarian’s proficiency with technology. According to Morris, the school librarian who is technically savvy fosters the development of transliteracy, the ability to view and engage with information across a variety of topics, formats, and endeavors. This helps match students with the appropriate tools necessary for conducting research and presenting their findings.

The third bridge examines the librarian in the role of an administrator who oversees the policies of the library, its print and digital collections, and its physical and online presence. In this capacity, librarians strive to teach library patrons about the ethical uses of information and intellectual property. They also try to build a collection that is responsive and accessible to students, teachers, and the community at large.

The next chapter discusses some of the revolutionary physical changes taking place in today’s innovative school libraries and their effects on the role of the librarian. Makerspaces and learning commons are two of the visionary ways in which libraries are physically changing. Makerspaces provide students with access to materials and tools allowing them to work on projects that require sketching out ideas and experimenting with different materials (Maker Media, 2016). In contrast, learning commons are places where students, teachers, and the community at large gather to study and collaborate on projects. Tables and chairs can be moved freely and there is access to whiteboards and technology equipment. In both makerspaces and learning commons, the librarian’s role is to teach information literacy skills and help students access the materials they need in the formats most appropriate for presenting their results and learning.

Chapter Three discusses the importance of making the library an integral part of the school’s literacy programs. When the library is fully integrated with school-wide literacy initiatives, librarians co-plan and co-teach with school faculty members and often lead professional development on literacy, transliteracy, and inquiry. This concept is not new; librarians have often taken the lead in the literacy field. For example, a librarian has created language databases and shared them with the school’s faculty members so that they can easily design lessons for Latino English learners (Montelongo, 2010; Montelongo, Hernández, & Herter, 2014).

Chapter Four provides an excellent introduction to inquiry learning and how librarians can play an important role in teaching students how to conduct inquiry research. Morris defines inquiry learning as “an approach to learning that involves students finding and using a variety of sources of information and ideas to increase their understanding of a specific area of the curriculum" (p. 87).

Librarians can play an important role in the inquiry process by modeling inquiry questions for their students. Questions such as, How should I formulate my search query to find articles that will help me answer my research question? or What media tool should I use to present my research findings? are among the questions that can be used across grade levels and content areas (American Association of School Librarians, 2009).

School librarians are rarely associated with student assessment. However, in Chapter Five, Morris presents important ways librarians can assess student performance and the library’s programs and collections. In a librarian-teacher collaboration, a librarian can assess students’ information literacy and research skills, while a content area teacher concentrates on students’ understanding of content area knowledge.

In Chapter Six, Morris describes several ways the library and community can communicate and interact with one another to make the school library (and the school itself) more responsive and sensitive to students’ cultures and backgrounds. Morris points out that, “[c]ommunicating with parents and caregivers about school libraries can provide school personnel with valuable perspectives on children’s cultural backgrounds, their reading needs and habits, behavioral and emotional concerns, and interests” (p. 127).

A school library can extend its influence to the home through its web page, especially when it contains online reference sources and other websites that will help students with their homework and school projects. For example, I have designed web pages for teaching the summarization of expository text that can be accessed by students with internet connectivity (Montelongo, 2013).

Chapter Seven introduces several ideas school leaders can use to maximize the effectiveness of their libraries. One is to survey the opinions of students, teachers, and the librarian about the things they like and dislike about the school library. Another is for principals and librarians to engage in dialogue about possible library schedules that will maximize access and use, while also eliminating barriers that impede librarian-teacher collaborations. There are also suggestions for negotiating a fair evaluation of the librarian’s performance.

Chapter Eight revisits the bridges outlined in the first chapter and re-affirms the importance of the librarian to school success. At a time when public views of school libraries are often outdated and negative, Morris provides advanced ideas for educational leaders and librarians to make the case that library programs are beneficial to students and the school itself. The book ends with a valuable checklist for school leaders to gauge the strengths of their libraries that can assess matters like the professionalism of the librarian and quality of the collection.

School Libraries and Student Learning is a must-read for school administrators, school librarians, and the public at large because it articulates an innovative conception of the positive influence libraries can exert on academic achievement in today’s schools. At a time when educational curriculum is restricted to what is measured by standardized tests, school librarians can collaborate with their teaching brethren to infuse knowledge, creativity, and leadership throughout the K–12 curriculum.

References

American Association of School Librarians (2009). Standards for the 21st-century learner in action. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Maker Media (2016). What’s a MakerSpace? MakerSpace. Retrieved from www.makerspace.com

Montelongo, J. A. (2010). Library instruction and Spanish-English cognate recognition. Teacher Librarian 38(2), 32–36.

Montelongo, J. A. (2013). Teaching the summarization of expository text through library instruction. Library Media Connection 32(3), 38-39.

Montelongo, J. A., Hernández, A. C., & Herter, R. J. (2014). English-Spanish Cognates and the Pura Belpré Children's Award Books: Reading the word and the world. Multicultural Perspectives 16(3), 170–177.