Access to a Staffed School Library and the Transition to College

Access to a Staffed School Library and the Transition to College

Introduction  

In late 2015, Chicago Public School students made national headlines when they took it upon themselves to stand up for their educational rights. Sara Sayigh, a CPS librarian for the past 13 years, was being laid off.  The students of the DuSable campus would join the growing numbers of CPS student who attended a school without a library, a librarian, or both. When word got out concerning Ms. Sayigh’s removal, students spoke out.  Or, rather, they read out.  On December 13, 2015, hundreds of student at the DuSable campus walked out of class. They went to the hallway, sat down, and quietly read. This powerful show of solidarity made the national news as headlines decried the situation, complete with its undertones of systemic racism, classism, and inequality. Only three librarians served the 45 majority black campuses; with Sayigh’s removal, there would only be two, while 75% of the schools with certified librarians were predominantly white (Strauss). Yet, in virtually every reporting of the situation at DuSable, journalists and commenters alike wondered: why were the students so outraged about the removal of, of all things, a school librarian? She was, after all, just a librarian.

            The students clearly understood something that has been shown hundreds of times over the past forty years. In fact, virtually every study agrees: there is a strong connection between schools having certified librarians and student academic success.  Further, there is extensive data to show a connection between having a funded library and academic success.  The question remains, is there a connection between having a library staffed by a certified librarian and student matriculation into and success at college?

Dual Role of School Libraries

            The school library plays an important role in K-12 academic life.  Between providing access to books and other reading materials, both in print and digitally, and ensuring access to and evaluation of digital media, libraries are at the academic center of schools. This is true from kindergarten through high school, and extends into the collegiate world. The presence of a library is one of the unifying factors across the educational spectrum. Focusing on the K-12 academic world, the library plays two important roles. Research is clear that the library and the library media specialist who runs it have a powerful impact on literacy, specifically foundational literacy and digital/information literacy.

Foundational Literacy

            School libraries staffed by a certified library media specialist play a crucial role in supporting foundational literacy. There are five foundational literacy skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (MacPhee). In addition to classroom instruction and pull-out enrichment, having a robust library program supports the development of all of these foundational skills. “Over the past two decades, dozens of studies based on single-year, snapshot data have documented that higher test scores tend to be associated with stronger school library programs led by professional librarians” (Lance).  This is due, in part, to the fact that libraries serve as a way to get books into the hands of students.

            Providing books for children is an essential aspect of developing foundational literacy.  Students who have access to books on a regular basis have improved reading scores and literacy levels. In fact, the “only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home” (McQuillan).  Poverty is a factor that affects education nationwide, and in the area of foundational literacy, libraries can provide an important mechanism to combating inequality.  “The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print” (Newman). Further, “having books in the home is twice as important to literacy level as the father’s education level” (Evans).

However, ensuring an adequate supply of readily available books for children can be costly, so the library serves as an ideal vehicle. Scholastic reports that when looking for books to read for fun, 67% of children ages 6 to17 find them at libraries, with no other source even coming close (School Libraries Work 8).  While the public library can be an excellent source of books, the school library is typically more convenient for students. Having a staffed, funded library within the school setting provides student access to a specialized collection of books selected for their needs, reading level, and interests. This library is open during school hours and eliminates the need for transportation and residency documentation--which can be missing or difficult to locate. The school library serves as an instrument to bring equal access to students.   

            A library alone--a room full of books--is not enough.  For a school library to be an effective instrument for foundational literacy, it must be staffed by a certified librarian.  The research consistently shows that “there is a positive correlation between student achievement on standardized tests and school libraries…Students’ higher test scores correlate with. . .[t]he size of the school library staff. . .[and] [f]ull-time/certified school librarians” (Todd).  Volunteers and paraprofessionals are important in the school library, but they are not trained to perform the important functions of collection development: selecting, processing, evaluating, and weeding books and materials. According to the Junior Library Guild, 29% of a librarian’s time is spent on these essential tasks (“Why JLG Works”). When a certified librarian selects the items for the school library, it ensures that the collection is diverse, meets the needs of students, meets the curricular direction of the school, is current, and contains information that is accurate.

Digital/Information Literacy

            An ever increasing aspect of the educational mission of the certified school librarian is that of instructing students and staff in digital and information literacy. Digital/information literacy involves not only finding information but also interacting with it to build knowledge and using it ethically.  The multiple literacies model --which includes digital, visual, and technological--is essential to student understanding of today’s complex, fast-paced, ever-changing informational world. Such knowledge leads students to being able to navigate a complicated digital landscape, evaluate information critically, and make sense of misinformation. Teaching and supporting this process is central to the job of the school librarian (Todd 5). In fact, in many districts, library media specialists serve as the primary source of instruction and academic support for staff. According to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), “the school librarian provides leadership and instruction to both students and staff on how to use information technologies constructively, ethically, and safely” (“Role of the School”).

Scholastic, in its most recent School Libraries Work publication indicated that “[a]t least 70% of school librarians provide information literacy instruction including . . . [a]ccessing information efficiently and effectively, [u]sing information ethically, [e]valuating the quality of websites, [u]sing information technology responsibly, and [f]inding, evaluating, and selecting appropriate sources” (School Libraries Work 3). These crucial aspects of conducting research are essential to success in today’s educational landscape, and the school librarian takes a leadership role in teaching and fostering these skills.  When schools have no certified librarian on staff, students lose a valuable source of instruction, but teachers do as well.  Often it is the school librarian who has the most current knowledge on digital research, database usage, citation, and copyright; as such, the librarian serves as an educational source for staff.  

This role of the certified school librarian as one who facilitates and instructs on methods of researching, understanding, and ethically using information is central to students’ abilities to conduct research. There is a mistaken belief in the concept of the “digital native”, students today who are naturally good at conducting research in the digital information landscape since they have grown up at a time when digital technology has always been a part of their lives.  This concept is deeply flawed and has been proven incorrect through countless studies. Conducting research is actually “exacerbated in digital environments. Challenges are often deep-seated frustrations tied to finding resources students know exist, somehow, somewhere, but are unable to access” (Head). According to School Libraries Work, students have difficulty navigating the complex and evolving world of digital information in a research context.  “75% have no idea how to locate articles and resources they need for their research. 60% don’t verify the accuracy or reliability of the information they find. 44% do not know how to integrate knowledge from different sources” (School Libraries Work 2). These difficulties in conducting research are irrespective of access to technology or socio-economic status. Studies have shown that “[n]o matter where students are enrolled, no matter what information resources they may have at their disposal, and no matter how much time they have…..Research seems to be far more difficult to conduct in the digital age than it did in previous times” (Head). This inability to conduct each part of the research cycle shows the great need for instruction in these areas. In today’s K-12 education system, the school library media specialist often is the educator tasked with training both students and staff in these areas.

College Information Literacy Skills

            The role of the librarian then is one that has a long range impact on students’ education.  Since the school library and librarian influence both foundational literacy needed for every class and digital/information literacy skills required for research, it is essential that students receive library instruction and the benefits of access to a school library prior to going to college. A 2001 study found that the way “students used their high school library predicted their use of college library facilities” (Kovalik 4).

In addition to the essential research role of academic libraries, exposure to school libraries can minimize library anxiety. Library anxiety leads “students [to] feel too intimidated or confused to use their college library or ask questions” (Burhanna 512). If students have experience in and familiarity with the library setting, libraries as an institution, and librarians as a helpful resource, they are more likely to use the library and seek help from a librarian, ask questions, feel welcome in the library, and see it as an important resource for learning.  Those who feel library anxiety are more likely to simply ask a friend for help (Kovalik 3).

            Additionally, studies have shown that students who used libraries and were willing to seek help from reference librarians were able to use the library and librarians as sense-makers. Librarians are able to solve students’ need for information, especially those that are time sensitive (Head 10). Students who have gone through their educational experience with a librarian as an integral part of the school landscape see them as the valuable resource they are. Those students who have not had such an educational system and are underprepared are more likely to see themselves as incapable of constructing knowledge and not seeing how a librarian can be a useful mediator in the pursuit of information (Patterson 352).
Problems: Library Anxiety and Research Frustration

            The issue of library anxiety has a measurable impact on success in college.  Those who have not had consistent interactions with librarians as a source of information in education are less likely to seek help from them in college.  Additionally, they are more likely to experience research frustration.  Researchers found that for college students, “conducting research, whether for course assignments or everyday life problems, [came] with its own set of challenges that [were] usually exacerbated in digital environments,. . .tied to finding resources students [knew] exist[ed], somehow, somewhere, but [were] unable to access” (Head 4). With research as a central component of almost all college and university programs, the ability to successfully conduct research--complete with the ability to search for, evaluate, and ethically use information--is essential.  For students to successfully transition into the college setting, they must be able to seek help from librarians in finding and evaluating information within the increasingly complex academic library system.

            In order to compensate for students’ lack of library and research knowledge, the model most colleges have adopted is one of using the academic librarian for one-shot instructional classes offered after an orientation.  This, however, is not enough; studies have shown that “[t]o be effective, experience with information literacy strategies needs to be part of the entire educational experience. School librarians and school library programs are key educational components” (Smalley 197). It is not that new college students are unprepared to receive single-session library instruction. Researchers found that “students from high schools with library media teachers [were] more familiar with basic library use concepts, fundamental ideas about how information is organized and made accessible, and how to use online catalogs to advantage than [were] students from high schools without librarians” (197).  Librarians had spent years created a framework for high school students to build upon in college. Without that scaffolding, students lacked the context to be able to benefit from library instruction.

High School Libraries as a Factor in Collegiate Success

            A majority of students in their first year of college encounter academic challenges for which they are unprepared (Hazard 45). If these students came to colleges and universities with strong foundational and information/digital literacy skills, they would be more prepared for the rigors of collegiate life.  When evaluating high schools’ abilities to prepare students for college, researchers examine the quality of a high school’s infrastructure which includes 11 aspects including the presence of a library (Wolniack 457).  In fact, research has shown that for high school environments to be conducive to academic success at the postsecondary level, teaching performance had less of an effect on college academic performance for most students than enhanced school resources--with libraries and library facilities primary (467). “College students whose high schools include librarians and library instruction programs bring more understanding about information research to their college experiences [than those without such programs]” (Smalley 197).

Implications for High-Poverty Schools

Funded libraries staffed with certified librarians have a clear and measurable effect on building skills that are necessary for success at college, namely foundational and digital/information literacy related to conducting research. These skills are essential to postsecondary academic proficiency for any student, but especially for those already at risk, principally those from lower socio-economic status.
            The most effective method of increasing foundational literacy is to ensure that student have adequate and consistent access to books.  However, studies have shown that “61% of low-income families have no books in the home for children” (Binkley). Since school libraries are one of the primary sources for pleasure reading materials, it is crucial that they be well funded and fully staffed in high-poverty areas. This is often not the case. “[C]hildren from middle-income neighborhoods [are] likely to be deluged with a wide variety of reading materials. However, children from poor neighborhoods would have to aggressively and persistently seek them out” (Neuman 15). For these students, the school library is even more important as a way to provide essential reading material and literacy support. However, cutting school libraries and librarians is often seen as a convenient method for balancing tight school budgets. Because of this, students in poverty are likely to be “disadvantaged by an access gap--having restricted access to school libraries or access to school libraries that are under-resourced” (Pribesh 144).  

As was the case in Chicago Public Schools, it is rarely the wealthy white-majority school that loses the librarian or shutters the library. Instead, those students who already have adequate access to books in the home are often those who ready access have fully funded and staffed school libraries, well trained librarians, and computers for research. Additionally, “those children likely to benefit most from school libraries [are] offered the poorest services, resources, and access on fewer days of the week” (Neuman 22).
Recommendations

            For schools to be committed in preparing their graduates for the rigors of college work, they must not only ensure that the K-12 educational spectrum maintains a funded library staffed by a certified librarian at every grade level, but also ensure that the librarian has the support of the administration and school to collaborate with teachers and ensure proper instruction in information literacy.  Schools must be committed to creating a culture that both fosters a lifelong love of reading and supports foundational literacy through reading and access to books. Further, schools needs to be supportive of collaboration with teachers across the curriculum, and information literacy must not only be integrated with every course but also held up as a district-wide priority. School must not be satisfied with the status quo. The unfortunate reality is that school librarians on their own cannot affect the change needed in a school system (Varlejs). There must be buy-in from teachers and support from administrators, both in terms of funding and scheduling.  According to the AASL, the success of any school library program, in the end, “depends on the quality and number of personnel. . ..A certified school librarian, supported by technical and clerical staff, is crucial to an effective school library program. Every student, teacher, and administrator in every school building at every grade level should have access to a fully staffed library throughout the school day” (“Role of the School”).  

A school library brings parity to the educational system. Certified school librarians lead programs that have long-term effects on all students through increased foundational literacy skills and improved digital/information literacy skills that are crucial to conducting research throughout high school and into college.  Given the wide disparities in educational outcomes for student in high-poverty districts, it is even more important to keep the libraries in such districts open, funded, and staffed.

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