AASL-AECT Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning
The American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technologies partnered in developing the AASL-AECT Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning serve as guidelines focusing on developing information literacy, independent learners, and social responsibility.
EdStandards.Org Computers, Libraries and Information Literacy Standards
EdStandards.org lists links to content standards for the government organizations of every US state.
Information Literacy Standards for K-12 Students
These nine standards provide the foundation for developing integrated cross-curricular information literacy programs in the to K-12 environs. These standards developed cooperatively by the American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and Technology are available online as well as in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (1998). The nine standards are further broken down into three groups to provide educators with focus the goals of their teaching and students’ learning: information literacy, independent learning, and social responsibility.
Mid-Continent Research and Education for Learning
Mid-Continent Research and Education for Learning is a group that creates standards and benchmarks for educators that may be utilized synergistically with the AASL/AECT’s Nine Information Literacy Standards. Myriad additional standards at local, state, and national levels may also be relevant.
Technological Literacy Standards
Educators’ Website for Information Technology
The Educators’ Website for Information Technology provides links to International, National, and State Information Technology (IT) skill standards. The main advantage of using this site is that here educators will be able to access links to all of the relevant IT standards for their school in one location.
National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)
National Educational Technology Standards(NETS) are a project of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) designed to provide guidance to educators using technology in the classroom. The website states, “The NETS Project will work to define standards for students, integrating curriculum technology, technology support, and standards for student assessment and evaluation of technology use.” NETS have been designed to function in a symbiotic relationship with the AASL-standards for information literacy.
Research
Scholastic’s School Libraries Work 2006
Scholastic’s 2006 Report School Libraries Work is a twenty-six page report summarizing the myriad recent research findings supporting the link between school libraries and student academic achievement. This report is one of the most current and comprehensive and reputable summarizations of the efficacy of an adequately staffed, technology and collection rich, collaboratively-based school library media center. It begins with the striking statement, “The school library is critical to every students’ learning experience and achievement” and proceeds to lay out the mounting evidence in support of this statement.
School Libraries Work incorporates and augments much of the information found in “Why Care About School Libraries?” The report begins evincing the impact of school libraries via a diagram that places student achievement at the center surrounded by the interconnected elements: the program, the place, the professional. School libraries will impact student achievement if the program features include collaborative relationships, integrated curriculum, and sufficient funding; if a certified professional is in charge of the programming and the place; and if the place is a place of opportunity for all students to find quality resources and achieve success.
Following this discussion, the report moves on to list the studies that have been done in 16 states as of 2006 that provide evidence for the positive effect of school libraries (Illinois (2005) and Indiana (2004) have been added to the 14 states listed in the original School Libraries Work document). Next, the report explicates the results of two studies in particular: Illinois and Ohio, states in which the study results were particularly lucid and convincing. The final section of School Libraries Work is dedicated to delineating resources for those wishing to seek further information regarding any of the studies.
US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS)
“Why Care About School Libraries?” March 22, 2005The two-page NCLIS report is a succinct resource for demonstrating the empirical research that supports school libraries’ effectiveness. It answers the question why should we care about school libraries by providing multiple reasons supported by evidence. The document states that school libraries: are critical for student achievement, have an important role in teaching, are leading the way for technology use in schools, and inspire literacy. Alternatively, the report asserts school libraries don’t matter without highly qualified school librarians.
National Center for Education Statistics Library Statistics Program
While the National Center for Education Statistics Library Statistics Program website does not provide the most current reports, it does offer a few worthwhile documents for gaining further understanding of the history, development, and current status of school libraries programs in the United States such as America’s Public School Libraries: 1953-2000 as well as Fifty Years of Supporting Children’s Learning: A History of Public School Libraries and Federal Legislation From 1953-2000 and School Library Media Centers: Selected Results From the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). Also, this is an excellent website to monitor new, high quality publications.
White House Conference on School Libraries June 04, 2002
The White House Conference on School Libraries provides a valuable vision for the future with which all educators should be familiar. The conference, opened and closed by First Lady Laura Bush, featured multiple experts in the field explicating the role school libraries need to have in today’s information society.
