Information Literacy Matters

Oh no. More bad news for school libraries.

This despite a great article I read just one month ago in the New York Times about a successful and innovative teacher-librarian (in the article they called her a "school librarian" and the job is often referred to as "school library media specialist" as well).

The NY Times article highlighted something that has been clear to librarians (and others) for many years: information literacy (i.e. what teacher-librarians teach) is a crucial skill that is too often neglected in basic education. Or, as one commenter put it, education should include four Rs: reading, writing, 'rithmetic, and research.

Here in Washington state, three moms from Spokane have taken it upon themselves to organize grassroots support for school libraries and information literacy instruction. They were moved to action when several school boards across the state (in particular Federal Way) decided to save money by eliminating teacher-librarian positions in their schools.

Why are our education leaders so quick to put library services on the chopping block? Well, the root of the problem is the cutting of school budgets in the first place (I could just as easily be arguing about the necessity of the arts in schools, which suffer right alongside libraries). When faced with shrinking budgets, administrators have no choice but to makes cuts, and if they don't understand the importance (the necessity!) of information literacy instruction (or arts, or sports...) they won't understand the impact their chosen cuts will have on students.

So, if we want to change things, our job is clear. We must make our leaders aware of the research (FYI, that link is a PDF) that shows how important libraries and teacher-librarians are to basic education and student success. We should strive to make it common knowledge that libraries are essential to education. Or, as my Grandma Billie (a public school employee for nearly 30 years) likes to say, "What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education."

A great method for teaching information literacy (and the method I was taught in graduate school) is the Big6 (though, ironically, for a website about info lit it's not designed very well). If you get a chance to look at the Big6 skills, you'll see that information literacy is not really about technology (though that's an important component). It's primarily a teachable method for tackling problems. It's a way to answer big questions through an organized and informed process. I'm tempted to say it's a way of life (or at least it should be).