Digital Library Services for Children: 13,000 students tell their story

1. Digital Library Services for Children:13,000 students tell their story Dr Ross J Todd Director of Research CISSL Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu www.cissl.scils.rutgers.edu www.scils.rutgers.edu/~rtodd Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries

2. Students on the WWWAccording to Apple Computers ... From the days when paper replaced slates in schools, our children have been flag bearers in the onward march of technology. Today they’re at the forefront of the computer revolution and taking it all in their stride ….

3. from print  digital from local  international from secure  uncertain from poverty  overload from service  empowerment The Information Environment

4. WHY DO WE HAVE DIGITAL LIBRARIES INFORMATION  KNOWLEDGE Developing knowledge and understanding

5. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge Now I am really confused!

6. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge No Wonder I am lost!

7. The Moon or a Studio in the Nevada Desert?http://www.primeline-america.com/moon-ldg/

8. Can we believe what we see? http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blphoto-wtc.htm

13. Key Questions • What is an effective library? • How do libraries help people?

14. How do effective school libraries help kids? 13123 students tell us! http://www.oelma.org/studentlearning.htm

16. “Student learning through Ohio School Libraries” • Key question: How do effective school libraries help students? • Provide statewide data on best practices in school libraries in the information / technology age • Encourage continuous improvement in school library services • Get school communities talking about the value of effective school libraries

17. “Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries” • Funded by State Library of Ohio ($80,000) • 39 “effective” school libraries chosen • Students from Grades 3 – 12 completed survey • Web-based data collection Data collected from 28th April to early June 2003 • 13,123 valid student responses • 879 teacher / administrator responses

18. Getting The Data • 2 InstrumentsImpacts on Learning Survey (Students) Perceptions of Learning Impacts (Faculty) • Students asked to rate 48 statements about how the school library helps them ☺☺☺☺ = most helpful (you think you got a great amount of help) ☺☺☺ = quite helpful (you think you got a good amount of help) ☺☺ = some help (the help you got was OK, so so) ☺ = a little help (you think you got just a bit of help) If you do not know an answer, or if something does not apply to you, click the box "Does not apply". • Write a small story about one instance of help they got from the school library

19. STORY: Critical Incident “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” 10,315 Stories

20. 7 Sets of “help”48 “helps” statements • how helpful the school library is with getting information you need • how helpful the school library is with using the information to complete your school work • How helpful the school library is with your school work in general (knowledge building, knowledge outcomes) • How helpful the school library is with using computers in the library, at school, and at home • How helpful the school library is to you with your general reading interests • How helpful the school library is to you when you are not at school (independent learning) • General school aspects –Academic Achievement

23. Sample Characteristics Boys 48.0% Girls 51.1% Ages 7 – 20 Grades 3 –5 17% Grades 6 – 9 45% Grades 10 – 12 38% White 78.5%, African-American 5% Urban/Suburban 81%, Rural 10 %

24. Comparison of Mean Scores

26. The School Library as a Digital Library: Dynamic Agent of Learning • Providing access to information resources: understanding navigation between databases, portals, individual sources (Lost in Cyberspace) • Providing access to multiple viewpoints from diverse contexts and in diverse formats (Access to multiple viewpoints) • Engaging students in an active process of building their own understanding and knowledge through use of technology. • Instructional intervention: Classes in information skills and creating knowledge, and developing technical skills with use of technology • Library as rescue agent for technical problems

27. INFORMATION LITERACY The intellectual scaffolds for effective engagement and utilisation of information in all its forms (electronic, print, popular culture) and for constructing sense, understanding and new knowledge. These are skills, attitudes, values; cognitive, behavioural, affective

28. INFORMATION SCAFFOLDS • Know all the steps of doing good research, being a good researcher and navigating both print and digital formats • Finding, locating, selecting, organizing and evaluating information – from print and digital environments • Technical skills of web searching and evaluating web information • Note taking, sorting ideas, structuring knowledge, presenting ideas and using technical tools to facilitate this • Ethical use of information: “manipulating” rather than “transporting”

29. INDEPENDENT LEARNING: “Self-Help” • “Helps” match Users’ needs: “I need to do this assignment in this kind of way and I need to get a good grade” • Access to resources: diversity of ideas, and finding ways around and through diversity of ideas • Access to pathways for locating diverse resources – search by perspective, viewpoint • Access to searching strategies • Access to tools to evaluate information • Access to tools to produce information products • Access to production “tips” eg Powerpoint: tips to creating a “good “ presentation • Access to “help” / “rescue” expertise

30. KEYS TO SUCCESS Mediation: “human intervention to assist information seeking and learning from information access and use. … A mediator implies a person who assists, guides, enables, and otherwise intervenes in another person’s information search process” (Kuhlthau, 2004, p 107). Intervention: centers on the way in which “mediators become involved in the constructive process of another person … in information seeking and use” (Kuhlthau, 204, p. 127).

31. Student Voices 1532 The school librarians don’t help me at all like they make me do all the stuff myself and wont tell me where the things are even when I already looked – they show me and make me learn how to find the stuff myself and its hard work!!!! You gotta use your brain, they say 1015 I I would have never have found the sources I needed for the paper if not for the school library, the public library, and the helpful people who staff those places. They even showed me steps to work through to do the research and complete it. They ran some classes specifically for us and they were very very very helpful 1075 Well one time was when we had to do a report on Animals and I had no clue how to find information about my animal. So Mrs. X helped me find the information on the computer. On the internet if its true or false – to learn that is very important at school.

32. The Students’ Voices 33 the school library helped to teach me about the internet. I learned how to surf faster and more proficient than I ever accomplished before hand. I learned about citing pages and what to look for when surfing to make the most of what little time I have to spare, which in the long run helps out with research projects and getting better grades for them. 1491 When we came in the library in the beginning of the year and had a little review lesson about the computers, that really helped me do my school work. Even though I already knew how to use the computers, it really made it even easier to do my word even better than before I had this class as I learned about good and bad web sites. A couple of weeks ago when I came in to get some science information, I was able to get my information very fast and easy.

33. Students’ Voices 8057 We have had some classes on using the computers in the library to search for information on the web and also using the CDs. This is extremely helpful to me as it ensures I have the best info to do my assessment projects and papers and get good grades on them which is important for my future 5572 One time when I was in the library and they helped me find information about Native Americans. I don’t have a computer at home, and feel bad because I’m not good at using them like some others. The library lady has taken the time to show me how to use them better and that makes me feel better too 7761 my brother thinks I am lousy at the computer and so I come to the library to find out how to use them better and faster and not feel bad about it

34. Students’ Voices 2116 When I had a paper for US History on the 1950's, the different search engines that we were able to access through the school library computers were very helpful. We were taught how to use them, and I was able to get lots of information to help make my paper the best that it could have been and do the paper more quickly. 8034 It helped me to finish an essay on genetics. I could search the web for a heap of information, and the librarian taught us how to be good information detectives in getting the good stuff rather than the rubbish

35. Students’ Voices 1236 The one time I remember when the school library helped me is when we learned about places you can go on the internet for information. They told us some sites to go to like the Infonet or infoOhio. They taught us that we can even do this at home too which I often do now. This is how the school library has helped me. 6582 Our library is phenomenal at culling online resources. We subscribe to many online collections of magazine and newspaper articles. In addition, the school library has opened up many possibilities available through online resources at the local public library, such as EBSCOhost or Proquest. These resources have been invaluable in many projects, when called upon to justify the credibility of an author or book.

36. The Students’ Voices 3442 It was when I was working on my research project for I think my eleventh grade English .The library teacher guided me through certain websites to find what I was looking for. Our classes have helped us find internet stuff easier. We learned about how the different search engines work and to know they work differently and it is not just putting words in and pressing buttons 3863 The library has helped me learn how to use the internet better and when my printer at home is broken, its nice to come to library and print the paper fast and easy. I would say I have used the library for research paper and essay which has helped a great deal by teaching the ways to do good research. 7447 The library has helped me most with the internet. The library has taught me how to limit my search and has shown me some neat websites.

37. Some Interesting Challenges for Digital Services 1. Girls consider school libraries more helpful than boys in most of the categories. Boys and Technology 2. Helps are strongest in the elementary school, with a decrease shown in mean scores as students progress through schooling. Starting early • African American students find the school library to be significantly more helpful when they are learning away from school, and in terms of the overall perceptions of achievement. No Child Left Behind 4. Rural schools clearly value the help provided by school libraries in relation to access to information technology through the school library in and beyond the school, as well as the instructional intervention in the development of technical literacy. Information anytime, anywhere

39. “It is hard to set in motion what is still, or to stop what is in motion” Cobham Brewer 1810–1897 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable