Volume 40 Nº 1: March 2004

How effective are effective school libraries?: Students' perspectives from Ohio

Ross J Todd

Introduction

Considerable attention has been given in recent years in the school library profession to concepts of practice: effective practice, best practice, and evidence-based practice. These are important, inter-related concepts that revolve around providing the best opportunities for people to engage in diverse information sources in order to develop new understandings and knowledge, to learn, and to develop the information scaffolds they will need to be consumers of information and decision makers throughout their lives. This paper seeks to elaborate these concepts through a large scale statewide study Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries undertaken in 2002-2003, undertaken by Dr Ross Todd and Dr Carol Kuhlthau (2004). It is not within the scope of this paper to present all aspects and all findings of this study; rather, it seeks to highlight students' perspectives of what constitutes an effective school library.

What constitutes effective practice has long been articulated in numerous role statements, position statements and policy documents provided by professional associations and educational authorities. Typically effective practice centres around articulating infrastructure, personnel, services and processes, and environmental dimensions which are deemed essential to providing best practice. In addition, effective practice is increasingly being embodied in a range of outcomes-based standards for learners, such as AASL's Information Literacy Standards, which specifies standards, as well as indicators and performance levels of these standards. Evidence-based practice revolves around the key question: What differences do my library and its learning initiatives make to student learning? That is, what are the differences, the tangible learning benefits, defined and expressed in ways that lead a school community to say: 'we need more of this!'? Evidence-based practice focuses on the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about best performance of the day by day role. It is about using research evidence, coupled with professional expertise and reasoning, to implement services and interventions that are effective, and bring on desired outcomes.

With an increasing focus on standards-based education, accountability, performance excellence and school improvement, there is considerable impetus for the school library profession to demonstrate that its services contribute to learning goals and can be demonstrated through student-centred outcomes, that there is some causal relationship between dimensions of effective practice and optimum learning outcomes. While this agenda has moved forward in recent years, it is by no means a new agenda. Some of the early student-centered research, learning advocacy and evidence-based practice stems from Mary Virginia Gaver (who founded library studies at Rutgers University) who published Every Child Needs a School Library in 1958.

The work of Lance and colleagues through a number of statewide studies (Lance, 2001) have contributed to this. These studies have sought to establish empirically the relationship of school library provision to student achievement as measured by reading scores on statewide standardized tests. Dimensions that make a positive impact on reading scores include: professionally trained teacher-librarians, support of the principals and teachers, availability of support staff who can free teacher-librarians from routine tasks to undertake reading and instructional initiatives with information literacy, and access to networked information technology. Students whose teacher-librarian plays an instructional role tend to achieve higher average test scores. Students at schools with better-funded school libraries also tend to achieve higher average reading scores.

Numerous other research analyses (for example, Haycock, 2003; and Lonsdale, 2003) establish that learning outcomes through the school library can be charted in terms of: information processes and skills, mastery of networked information technology, reading, knowledge outcomes such as mastery of content, development of personal perspectives and viewpoints, independent learning strategies, changed attitudes and values, and gains in self concept and personal agency. These outcomes are typically arrived at through the provision of meaningful, authentic learning activities which enable learners to construct new knowledge understandings. The large scale study Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries documented here represents an attempt to explore the relationship between effective school libraries and learning outcomes beyond an examination of standardized test scores. In other words, it sought to understand the multidimensional way in which effective school libraries impact on student learning outcomes. Unlike the significant statewide studies to date, this study sought to collect data from the students themselves, rather than data through school staff input.

Background of the study

The research study Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries was undertaken by the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) from October 2002 to December 2003. It was funded by the State Library of Ohio through a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The study explicitly sought to examine the multi-dimensional dynamics of student learning that go beyond student achievement in standardized test scores, and how these dynamics are enabled through an effective school library. This focus in part was shaped by the current politico-educational climate in the USA, with emphasis on 'No Child Left Behind' legislation, enacted in 2002, to improve the performance of America's elementary and secondary schools while at the same time ensuring that no child is trapped in a failing school. This legislation requires States to implement statewide accountability systems covering all public schools and students, and annual statewide progress objectives ensuring that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years. Assessment results and State progress objectives must be broken out by poverty, race, ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency to ensure that no group is left behind. (http://www.ed.gov/nclb/ overview/intro/execsumm.html).

In planning the particular focus and approach to data collection, the project team, (managed by OELMA and the Leadership for School Libraries, a collaboration of the Ohio Department of Education, the State Library of Ohio, OELMA and INFOhio-the state's K-12 information network) also sought to focus on evidence-based practice. In identifying the multidimensional ways in which effective school libraries impact on learning outcomes, it sought to use this evidence to provide statewide data on best practices of effective school libraries, and promising practices in school librarianship; to provide a framework for dialogue among parent communities and school management teams to further encourage continuous improvement in effective library services; and to identify professional development opportunities for continuing to develop effective school library services.

Research methodology

The central construct underpinning the study is 'helps'. 'Helps' is a key concept in the information seeking and utilisation literature which focuses on the interactions between people, the various forms of data, information, knowledge and wisdom that fall under the rubric of 'information' and the diverse contexts in which they interact. Dervin, a noted communications scholar at Ohio State University, explicates human sense-making as a triangle of situation-gap-help/use. She argues that situations arise where our understanding of many things we face is incomplete or blocked. Our internal sense has run out, and in order to move on, we need to create new sense. We begin to ask questions and formulate ideas (identifying the gaps), and seek out and gather information formally or informally which provides answers which help us to make sense. Sense making thus is a constructive process of bridging gaps or discontinuities through information seeking and use, and the helps is what is done for or given in order to make possible and beneficial in relation to need (Dervin, 1992).

In seeking to understand the 'helps' of an effective school library and to measure the extent of these perceived helps, thirty-nine schools across Ohio were selected on the basis of providing an 'effective school library program' to participate in this study. The criteria for selection centered on meeting a series of national and international guidelines for effective school libraries based on 5 central criteria:

Criteria 1: (School Goals and Leadership)
Effective school library media programs support the mission and continuous improvement plan of the school district

Criteria 2: (Curriculum)
Effective school library media programs support and enhance the curriculum and are an integral part of teaching and learning.

Criteria 3: (Information Literacy) (Including technological and media literacies)
Effective school library media programs provide information literacy skills instruction.

Criteria 4: (Reading)
Effective school library media programs promote and encourage reading for academic achievement and life-long learning.

Criteria 5: (Technology Resources)
Effective school library media programs provide, integrate, and utilize a technology rich environment to support teaching and learning.

In addition, each school selected had to meet these minimum requirements:

• The school building includes at least one of the K-12 grades.
  
  
• The building library program is managed by a full time, certified library media specialist.
  
  
• The school library media specialist and the library program are instrumental partners in a systematic information literacy instruction program taught within the school.
  
  
• A physical school library exists within the building.
  
  
• A 2002 Ohio School District Report Card rating with supporting data must be available.
  
  
• The school must have a building IRN registered with the Ohio Department of Education.

The detailed description, including indicators of these criteria are available at: http://www.oelma.org/StudentLearning/documents/SLCriteriaforSelection.pdf.

These criteria form the basis of Ohio Guidelines for Effective School Library Media Programs through the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Curriculum and Instruction. The documentation is available at http://www.ode.state.oh.us/Curriculum-Assessment/school_library/. These guidelines represent a standards-based education approach to school library programs in Ohio, aligned to academic content standards, assessments, resources, and professional development.

A key problem faced by the researchers was that no extensive quantitative or qualitative data exist in Ohio which would facilitate easy identification of 'effective school libraries', based on these criteria. Accordingly, several procedures were set up to effect this. First, a nine-member International Experts Panel that comprised distinguished scholars and professional leaders in school librarianship around the world were invited to provide critical review, assessment and feedback on the effectiveness criteria and their indicators. Second, schools were then invited to nominate (either self or other) for selection in the research study, and to provide substantive documentation in addressing the criteria. Third, employing a judgment sampling process, an Ohio Experts Panel was constituted to make the selection of participating schools. Judgment sampling is a common and widely accepted non-probability method of selecting the sample, particularly when extensive quantitative or objective data are not available to make the judgments. The Ohio Experts Panel consisted of eleven leaders from the school library and educational community in Ohio who were deemed to have in-depth knowledge of a range of school libraries across Ohio, and who could pool their knowledge of the local field with the documentation provided by the schools to make a considered and careful selection. Following analysis of all documentation, the Ohio Experts Panel met and deliberated for one full day to make the sample selection. The Panel also made recommendations to include additional schools not nominated, and these were followed up with an invitation to provide the appropriate documentation, which then was examined by the Panel.

Data were collected through two survey instruments available through a secure online server on the World Wide Web (based at Rutgers University) for each of the participating schools. The Impacts on Learning Survey was available for students from Grade 3 to Grade 12 to identify, from their perspective, how the library has 'helped' them in their learning. The survey consisted of forty-eight statements of 'helps', including Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning as elaborated in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (Chicago: ALA, 1998), and conclusions drawn in an extensive selection of school library research literature. In essence, the forty-eight statements of help took a broad conception of 'learning', seeking to identify some of the breadth and depth of how an effective school library program makes a difference to the lives of the students.

The study also provided an open-ended, critical incident question (based on Flanagan 1956) to enable students to articulate specific instances of 'helps' and their outcomes, in their own voice. This free writing question asked: Now, remember one time when the school library really helped you. Write about the help that you got, and what you were able to do because of it. This question was included for two reasons. First, given the largely quantitative nature of the survey, the study wanted to provide opportunity for students to give witness, if possible, in their own way to the statements provided about the relationship between the school library and student achievement. Second, the concrete expressions of help served to identify perceptions of help and its outcomes not identified in the forty-eight statements. A second survey instrument, known as Perceptions of Learning Impacts Survey was made available to faculty in the selected schools - the school librarians, teachers, principals, assistant principals, superintendents, and information technology specialists. This survey used the same forty-eight statements provided to the students, with change in 'person'. This paper will focus explicitly on the quantitative student data. A full report of this study is available at the OELMA website, available at http://www.oelma.org/studentlearning.htm.

The forty-eight statements of help were grouped into seven conceptual categories (blocks).

These were:

1. How helpful the school library is with getting information you need
2. How helpful the school library is with using the information to complete your school work
3. How helpful the school library is with your school work in general
4. How helpful the school library is with using computers in the library, at school, and at home
5. How helpful the school library is to you with your general reading interests
6. How helpful the school library is to you when you are not at school
7. General school aspects - these relate to Academic Achievement

For each statement in the survey, students were asked to reflect on the statement and click the box that matched best how much they thought the school library has helped them. The following scale was provided in the survey to guide students in working out their response:

If you do not know an answer, or if something does not apply to you, click the box 'Does not apply'.

Student demographics

The findings are based on a data set of 13 123 valid student responses (out of a total of 13 328 records received) from 39 public schools across Ohio (elementary, middle and high schools), including 10 316 valid statements in response to the critical incidence question. 6 294 boys (48 per cent of sample) and 6 702 girls (51.1 per cent of sample) participated in the study. The ages ranged from seven to twenty years, with an average age of 14.18 years. The students were primarily white (78.5 per cent), with smaller groups of African-Americans (5.5 per cent) and of mixed race (4.1 per cent). 62 per cent of the students came from schools with a State Report Card Performance Category of 'Excellent', 22.9 per cent from 'Effective' schools; 12.8 per cent from 'Continuous Improvement' schools, and 2.3 per cent from 'Academic Watch' schools. 80.9 per cent of the students came from urban/suburban districts, 9.8 per cent came from rural areas, 7 per cent from small cities, and 2.3 per cent from large cities.

Findings

Only 73 students out of 13 123 indicated that none of the 48 statements applied to them. This is 0.56 per cent of the total sample. In other words, 99.44 per cent of the sample (13 050 students) indicated that the school library and its services, including roles of school librarians, have helped them in some way, regardless of how much, with their learning in and out of school as it relates to the 48 statements. 25.54 per cent of the sample (3 352 students) said that the library has helped them, regardless of how much, with their learning on all 48 statements. This would indicate that the school library plays a major and obvious role in helping students with their learning in and out of school. An effective school library is clearly and unequivocally helpful to students in Ohio, and this seems intuitively obvious to students.

Table 1 shows the 48 statements, the measurement, and the percentage distribution of responses for all statements:
Table 1: Percentage distribution of responses for 48 'Helps' statements

Table 2 shows descriptive statistics and rank (1 = highest mean) for each of the sevent conceptual categories (Blocks):
Table 2: Mean scores for each block

Based on both the quantitative and qualitative data collected, the following commentary is provided to highlight key findings in each of the seven categories (blocks). A complete analysis of student qualitative comments is available at: http://www.oelma.org/studentlearning.htm

1. How helpful the school library is with getting information you need?

An effective school library plays a strong role in the process of finding and using information: steps students equate with doing library-based 'research' - a staged process of accessing, searching, locating, connecting with and engaging with information. (Only 3.2 per cent of sample indicated that this does not apply to them). The qualitative responses showed the school library, particularly the initiating intervention of the teacher-librarian, engages students in an information needs/questioning process that enables students to start their research, focus their searches, to get input on the scope of their projects, to identify information needs, to understand the nature of the task and provide resource pathways.

An effective school library facilitates students in finding appropriate resources across diverse formats (both print and electronic), and developing some of the information scaffolds necessary for students to do this on their own (such as using catalogs and accessing online databases). 95.1 per cent of students indicated help in this regard. Further, an effective school library plays an important role in the helping students determine the 'quality' of information, particularly with the availability of information, misinformation and disinformation on the Internet. 92.8 per cent of students indicated help in this aspect. Students' statements identify and value the role of teacher-librarians' instruction (individual or class) in developing this capacity to judge quality, appropriate information.

By providing diverse resources and instruction in the use of multiple formats, an effective school library helps students access multiple viewpoints on an issue, phenomena or event, and to enable them to construct their own viewpoint. This embraces understanding different views, identifying different arguments/cases, and dealing with conflicting viewpoints. The outcome is not just provoking thinking about an issue, but developing a balanced view and formulating personal standpoints and positions. (Only 9.1 per cent of sample indicated that this does not apply to them.) The majority of the students appear to be willing to ask for help with their information needs and value the role of this assistance, both in terms of the affective as well as cognitive dimensions of their research tasks. They get encouragement, direction, self-assurance and resource help.

2. How helpful the school library is with using the information to complete your school work?

This block focuses on the cognitive and meta-cognitive dimensions of engaging with and using information. The data of this study show that an effective school library considerably helps students know how to use the different information sources, and the different purposes of these sources in the research process. This intervention is valued by the students, both in terms of managing projects to completion, and accessing quality information. Students in this study strongly support the statement that the school library helps them work out the main ideas in the information they find. For some students, the school library also plays a role in helping students get better at taking notes. While this item was ranked lower than other dimensions of help, this is perceived to be helpful in schools where this is actively taught as part of library classes as a research strategy. Similarly, students express benefit in learning how to analyze and synthesize information, to express ideas in their own words, and to develop responsibility with information use, taught as part of library classes as a research strategy.

An effective school library clearly helps in development of students as reflective thinkers with finding information, encouraging them to learn from their information search experiences. Only 7.6 per cent of the students indicated that this did not apply to them, with more than half of the students indicating that this was quite or most helpful to them. Students strongly endorsed that the school library has helped them know that research takes a lot of work, and appear to value the outcome of working hard - success in presentations, good grades on research projects, feeling satisfied with the finished product. Only 9 per cent of students said that this did not apply to them.

3. How helpful the school library is with your school work in general?

An effective school library clearly plays a strong role in helping students get the first facts for their topics. 92.05 per cent of the sample said that the school library helped them in this aspect of their school work. Getting started in the information gathering process, getting a foothold and getting focused on the topic requires developing a foundation of 'first facts', particularly when students begin a research task or project as novices in the particular knowledge domain.

While it might be stating the obvious that the information provision base of the library is its fundamental mandate, 94.27 per cent of the students indicated that the school library helped them to some extent through providing the information base out of which they construct their projects and assignments, and 90 per cent of the students indicated that the school library helps them when they do not understand some things. Almost half of the students indicated that this was quite or most helpful. This suggests that an effective school library goes beyond an information base, to that of one of enabling students to build their understanding, and to sort out misunderstandings or confusions that they might have. It is a knowledge space, not just an information place.

What is strong in the students' comments is the personal intervention of the teacher-librarian and providing an environment in the school library that encourages students to seek explanations or to ask for help when they do not understand aspects of their topics. This helps them to figure out if their own ideas are good or bad. The library, in providing access to a diverse range of opinions and viewpoints on topics, provides a critical point for students to test and work out the validity of their own ideas. 80.4 per cent said that the school library helped them in this regard. 84.9 per cent of the students said that the school library helps them, on the presentation of facts and viewpoints, to correct some of their erroneous ideas, or to change their opinion about things. An effective school library does play a role in moving students from being misinformed to being informed. It plays a strong role in the development of personal viewpoints through access to a diverse range of ideas, and fostering reflection on viewpoints and positions.

While an effective school library clearly contributes to the development of informed students, there is only weaker support for the school library enabling students to transfer this expertise to sharing their ideas in class discussions. This may be because the students are often only asked to submit written assignments and are not given the opportunity to share what they have learned in class discussion. It might also be because when completing the survey, the students did not see the connection between a school library providing them with the information to do their research and giving them a factual basis for discussing their topics.

4. How helpful the school library is with using computers in the library, at school, and at home?

It is very clear that an effective school library's provision of an information technology infrastructure, instruction in its use, and the provision of information technology tools to create and produce representations of their learning are highly valued by the students. This block of dimensions overall had the highest mean scores of the 7 blocks.

84.9 per cent of the students indicated that school library computers help them do their school work better. This dimension also had the second highest mean score in the data set (mean=2.8). The students' statements made over 3 000 references to computers, the Internet, online information, and the World Wide Web. Two key features stand out in the students' comments. First, students see a clear relationship between being able to access information through information technology, and achievement in research assignments and projects. Second, the instructional intervention of the school librarian in developing students as effective users of information technology to search for information, and the development of students as discerning evaluators of web information plays a role in achieving good grades.

An effective school library has contributed to students being more interested in computers. However, of all the statements relating to how helpful the school library was in relation to using computers in the library, (7 statements) at school and at home, this was ranked lowest in terms of the mean scores (mean=2.18). 94.3 per cent of the students said that computers have helped them find information inside and outside the library, with almost half of the sample (49 per cent) indicating that this dimension was most helpful. The mean score was 2.98. 89.6 per cent of the students indicate that the school library has helped them search the Internet better, with 33.2 per cent as most helpful. The students' comments indicate that the explicit and systematic teaching of internet searching and research strategies is a key mechanism in this help, both at an individual and class level. Perhaps more importantly, school library plays a critical role in enabling students to be more careful with finding internet information. Almost half of the students (47.5 per cent) said that this was quite or most helpful.

The availability of technical tools in the school library for enabling students to create information products clearly and strongly helps students to do their school work. Almost 40 per cent of the students indicated that this was most helpful, with 60 per cent indicating that this was quite or most helpful. Consistent with other technology-related statements, this helpfulness is not achieved by their mere availability, but through instruction in their effective and efficient use, which appears to be provided by some school libraries. Almost 85.8 per cent of the students indicated that the school library helps them feel better about using computers. As indicated in the students' comments, these feelings include becoming more comfortable, less stressed, less worried about using them. The students identify personal intervention of the school librarian working with them as an enabling mechanism.

5. How helpful the school library is to you with your general reading interests?

The findings support the notion that an effective school library is a vehicle for supporting wider reading interests. While the school library appears to provide some role in encouraging students to read more, however, it was ranked lower in the mean score rankings for each category. While 74.8 per cent of the students indicated that the library has helped them get better at reading, its mean score 1.75 was low. The school library, in fostering a love of reading and connecting students to books they enjoy reading, appears to contribute to students enjoying reading more. 76.7 per cent of the students said that the library helped them enjoy reading more. 74.9 per cent of the students said that the school library helped them with their writing. In terms of the mean scores of each statement (mean=1.73), this statement was ranked as the 8^th lowest. This help appears to be strongest when there is explicit and structured provision made for the development of writing skills - the teaching of information analysis and synthesis as part of information literacy initiatives, and library-based events in collaboration with classroom teachers which focus on development of writing skills.

While students' comments indicated that the school library had helped them with reading in many ways, they saw the school library as more helpful in terms of the curriculum resource, technical and instructional help to enable them to complete their immediate class needs. All of these require high levels of reading literacy, but library helps targeted directly to meeting curriculum content goals were seen to be more important to the students rather than activities targeted to fostering reading interests. It may be that students do not see the primary role of the school library as supporting their leisure activities or personal pursuits whereas they do clearly support it in terms of the information for their curriculum needs. There was some indication in the middle and high school students' comments that they are so busy with completing research imposed on them for their curriculum requirements that they actually have little time to engage in more pleasurable reading pursuits. Some students commented that the public library was the primary source for leisure reading materials, and that the school library's primary resource role related to curriculum content. The reading helps scores were highest in the elementary schools, and declined as students progressed through schooling.

6. How helpful the school library is to you when you are not at school?

The development of independent, lifelong learners has long been an advocacy point of teacher-librarians, focusing on learners who have skills and interest for engaging with information out of school, for personal interest and ideas discovery and solving school-based and personal problems they encounter where information is needed in the process. 78.7 per cent of students indicated that the school library helps them discover interesting topics other than their school work. The predominant interest outside of class work where the library helps students is sport. The grade-by-grade analysis shows sports ranked high in every grade (highest in all grades except Grades 3 and 4, where it was the second highest in both). Animals ranks high in the elementary school and declines in interest as grade level increases. A general interest in history in the lower grades gives way to a specific interest in current events and government in Grade 12. Focus on career choices emerges in Year 12 (colleges) and life concern issues (drugs). Boys appear to prefer action oriented topics such as sports, cars, animals, sciences, wars, and space, and girls place stronger emphasis on the arts and literature, as well as sports and animals. The wide range of topics identified, (3952 different topics were mentioned by the students, with 8325 students mentioning two topics, and 734 students mentioning only one) would indicate that the school libraries provide a diverse information base to serve a wide variety of personal interests outside of immediate curriculum needs.

82.5 per cent of the students said that the school library helps them study at home. While this was not perceived to be most helpful to the students (16.6 per cent), the qualitative responses give some picture of the dynamics of the help provided by the library as students work independently out of the school environment. The students indicate that the information handling skills taught in the school library - locating and accessing information, searching the web, getting quality information, constructing final products - are transferred to other settings, such as working at home. The skills appear to enable students to apply the skills and work independently. Their specific ability to find information when not at school has been enabled to some extent by the school library. The finding and locating skills taught in the school library are transferred to other settings, such as searching the Internet at home, and using the public library and university library. The skills appear to enable students to apply the skills and work independently with other formal information agencies. Some students do see the library as enabling them to be more effective problem solvers, though the support for this statement is weaker than others - 7th lowest mean score (mean=1.7). While there were a small number of statements that provided some rich examples of using the library to deal with life concerns, almost 40 per cent of the students indicated that this does not apply to them. There is some (comparatively weaker) evidence to indicate that an effective school library helps students in making decisions about progressing with their school work.

7. General aspects focusing on academic achievement

There is strong support for the notion that the school library contributes to students doing their school work better. Over half of the students (52.5 per cent) said that the school library was quite or most helpful in helping them get better grades in their projects and assignments. There were almost 3000 students' statements that expressed a clear, albeit simple relationship between what the library has done for them and getting a good grade. While students see a clear link between library help and grades in projects and assignments which directly involve interaction with the library, this link is not as strong in terms on grades on tests and quizzes. There is some solid evidence to suggest that the school library is synonymous with thinking about school work. Students' comments convey the idea that the library is a place for learning activism, where emphasis is given to empowering students to use their minds well, rather than merely being given the information without any mental activity. While there is evidence that the school library helps students feel more confident about doing their school work in general, this statement was ranked low overall.

Further conceptions of 'help'

In addition to the critical incident question giving concrete witness to the 'helps' identified in the 48 statements, it was hoped that this question would enable us to identify additional help constructs not provided in the 48 statements. On the basis of the analysis, nine additional Help constructs have been identified. These are:

1. The school library saves me time with doing my school work. Student comments related to this aspect conveyed a sense that immediate, local access to information collections, either print or electronic, saved time in getting their research tasks completed.

2. The school library enables me to complete my work on time. Just-in-time learning is evident. On-time completion is a significant matter for the students, and being assisted in meeting deadlines through a range of library services and interventions is seen as helpful.

3. The school library helps me by providing a study environment for me to work. Students identified that the provision of study space for quiet, individual, and at times reflective work is a valued part of the library.

4. The school library helps me take stress out of learning. Timely access to resources and the development of the information scaffolds for engaging with information through instruction enable students to deal with the stress and anxiety they face. The school library appears to play a role in just-in-time learning and as a coping mechanism.

5. The school library helps me know my strengths and weaknesses with information use. The development of meta-cognitive thinkers, showing an ability to step back and reflect on their experiences, understand their learning strengths and weaknesses, and learn by them is facilitated for some students.

6. The school library helps me think about the world around me. There is some qualitative evidence that suggests that the school library plays a part in the development of global citizens, young people who have a sense of what is going on in the world, thinking about the issues and forming personal opinions about them.

7. The school library helps me do my work more efficiently. There is evidence in the student comments that suggests that the library, particularly instruction focusing on doing research in systematic, staged and planned ways, helps students approach their work in a more organized and efficient way.

8. The school library provides me with a safe environment for ideas investigation. While there were comparatively fewer comments in relation to this construct, some students' comments raise an important notion about the library being a safe place where students can investigate perplexing and controversial issues discreetly, perhaps anonymously, or even come to think and reflect.

9. The library helps me set my goals and plan for things. The students' comments suggest that the school library plays a role in the development of a sense of personal agency. Sense of personal agency refers to a positive concept of oneself and ones abilities, a person who is capable and autonomous, who is able to set goals and work towards reaching them.

Other patterns in the data:

1. Girls consider school libraries more helpful than boys in terms of: getting information they need; using the information to complete their school work, and to do their school work in general; using computers in the library, at school, and at home; and in relation to their general reading interests. There is no significant gender difference between boys and girls in relation to how helpful the school library is to them when they are not at school, and in relation to general aspects of academic achievement.

2. The helps of the school library is strongest in the primary school, with a decrease shown in mean scores as students progress through schooling. The school library is an important place for primary students to develop as information literate students, and the professional role of a teacher-librarian is important here. Generally, while there are not significant differences between grades 3 and 4, between grades 5, 6, 7, and 8, and between grades 9, 10, 11 and 12, there are decreasing mean scores between these grade groups. Student comments indicate some possible reasons for this decrease. Most frequently cited is the increasing mastery of a range of information handling skills which enable them to work independently and to transfer skills learned to new learning tasks, and the ability to apply these skills beyond the school library to access information either through technology networks or other libraries.

Summary: A model of effective school libraries

Based on Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries, effective school libraries can be portrayed as dynamic agents of student learning and student achievement.

Effective school libraries are:

Resource agents: Providing up-to-date diverse resources to meet curriculum informational needs, and providing instructional interventions to guide students in their information choices through effective, appropriate and considered use of these resources. Access to and instruction in the effective use of information technology is an essential component.

Agents for information literacy development: Essential in engaging students in an active and meaningful search process contextualized by specific learning tasks, enabling them to explore, formulate and focus their searches, and providing a supportive environment (personal, physical and instructional) for them to be successful in their research.

Agents for knowledge construction: Developing information literacy scaffolds for engaging in information in meaningful ways enables students to construct and effectively demonstrate new knowledge and understanding. These scaffolds are developed through instructional intervention: systematic, explicit and contextualized instruction at class, group and individual levels targeted to a range of information literacy outcomes.

Agents for academic achievement: When the school library is a dynamic agent of learning, students do see that they get good grades, particularly on research projects and assignments. Critical to achieving this notion of agent for academic achievement is a school librarian who is both a credentialed and successful educator as well as a credentialed librarian.

Agents of independent reading and personal development: The school library plays a role in fostering independent reading, a role clearly stronger in the lower grade levels than in the higher levels. Reading materials targeted beyond informational curriculum needs - personal pursuits, pleasure/leisure reading, and reading for becoming citizens of a democratic world - provide the important foundation.

Technical agents: The school library's role in information technology goes well beyond that of the provision of information technology to access information; it plays an important role in the production of information products through the provision of up-to-date and wide ranging software for the manipulation and presentation across multiple medias. Correspondingly, the instructional intervention goes beyond teaching students how to make effective use of this software, but also troubleshooting technical problems, and providing for the development of technical problem solving competencies

Rescue agents: Just-in-Time learning is enabled by the library 'being there' at crisis points. Students appear to have many information crises - needing resources fast, needing resources in the nick of time, needing help with technology, needing technical solutions to failed technical pursuits, needing solutions to developing their information products.

Agents of individualized learning: The personal touch of a professional teacher-librarian matters a great deal. Personal engagement with students to initiate and enable learning and achievement is a critical component of an effective school library. Teacher-librarians who have a clearly defined role as an information-learning specialist and perform in this way play a vital role in enabling students to learn through information.

References

Dervin, B. (1992). From the mind's eye of the user: the sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. In: J. Glazier & R. Powell. Qualitative research in information management. Englewood, Co: Libraries Unlimited, 61-84.

Haycock, K. (2003). The crisis in Canada's school libraries: The case for reform and reinvestment. Toronto: Association of Canadian Publishers. Available at: http://www.peopleforeducation .com/librarycoalition/Report03.pdf

Lance, K. C. (2001). Proof of the power: Recent research on the impact of school library media programs on the academic achievement of U.S. public school students. ERIC Digest. EDO-IR-2001-05 October 2001. Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology.

Lonsdale, M. (2003). Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement: a Review of the Research Report for the Australian School Library Association. Melbourne: Australian Council of Educational Research. Available at: http://www.asla.org.au/research/index.htm

Todd, R. & Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Student learning through Ohio school libraries: Background, methodology and report of findings. Columbus, OH: OELMA. Additional information about this research study may be found at http://www.oelma.org/studentlearning.htm

Formerly of the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Ross Todd is currently Associate Professor and Director of Research, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.