If you are a young adult librarian, have you ever considered how many of your clients may be looking to you for book purchasing recommendations? According to a recent Publishers Weekly poll of 12- to 17-year-olds nationwide… Librarians rank fourth after friends, teachers, and parents as the people they most credit with influencing their book-buying […]
Relationships between public libraries and school library media centers (LMCs) are somewhat difficult to observe and assess. Consequently, distinguishing between the effects of public libraries and school LMCs on children’s performance in school is problematic. Several recent issues of FAST FACTS have presented evidence of the contributions of LMCs alone and their collaboration with public […]
During the 1997-98 school year, access to the World Wide Web via library media centers in Colorado public schools was widespread, though there were important differences by school level and enrollment range. In the state’s high schools, web access was almost universal. Virtually all LMCs provided web access to library media staff, teachers, and other […]
In 1997, Colorado fourth graders were the state’s first public schoolchildren to be tested on reading via the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP). Average test scores for a stratified and weighted random sample of 74 (8%) of Colorado’s 908 elementary schools were combined with data about their library media programs to answer the following questions: […]
The National Center for Education Statistics recently released the long-awaited results of its latest survey on school library media programs, School Library Media Centers: 1993-94 (NCES 98-282). Though access to the resulting data file is severely restricted, some of the report’s summary tables by state permit some rudimentary impact assessment when combined with average state […]
In Spring 1998, 133 (85 percent) of the 156 public, academic, and special libraries participating in the CLC program responded to an evaluation survey. By sector, the response rates were: public, 99 out of 112 or 88 percent; academic, 23 out of 29 or 79 percent; and special, 11 out of 15 or 73 percent. […]
One of the few categories in which the North Central Association specifies quantitative requirements for middle and secondary schools is staffing. Among the categories of staffing included is library media. The requirements are, by almost any definition, extremely modest: a half-time library media specialist in schools with enrollments of 1,000 and less, and a full-time […]
A first look at 1998 data on school library media (LM) programs in Colorado reveals some encouraging trends about the role of technology in those programs. From 1994 to 1998, the percentage of LM programs making various technologies available to their clients—both teachers and students—increased dramatically. Highlights: Since 1994, Internet access for students almost quadrupled. […]
In 1997, Colorado fourth graders were the state’s first public schoolchildren to be tested on reading via the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP). Average test scores for a stratified and weighted random sample of 67 (seven percent) of Colorado’s 908 elementary schools were combined with data about their library media programs to answer the following […]
During 1997, the Colorado Library Marketing Council sponsored a series of workshops to develop the marketing and customer service skills of school library media specialists and to encourage them to adopt “internal locus of control”—i.e., to understand that the status of their positions can be attributed largely to factors under their own control. Recently, having […]
