Sunday, March 29, 2009



This graph represents the percentage of public school media centers with scheduled times when students can use the library independently by school level :1999- 2000.

The information is a bit dated, but the data is relevant to today's library programs. The government offers one year grants through the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program. You can find information about this grant at http://www.ed.gov/programs/lsl/index.html.

This program was developed to help with the NCLB legislation (No Child Left Behind Act). Librarians are a partner in education and should be seen as an instructional leader. Ways that a librarian can help are to provide instructional materials aligned to the curriculum and state standards, collaborating with teachers, working with parents, and having extended hours. Librarians need to show the teachers, administrators, and parents how integral their role is in student achievement. Students need to be introduced to reading for pleasure not just high stakes testing situations. The librarian is elemental in this shift of student thinking. By allowing students more independent time in the library, they will utilize this time and see the library as a comfortable reading space.

I used Google Images to find this graph. This graph can be located at the following web address: http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/achiever/2004/091504.html#3.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Database Searches

For my database competency, I searched for information on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its effect on public school libraries and librarians. NCLB has a profound affect on how teachers, students, parents, and administrators view the library. The library can have a positive impact on student success.

I used the building block search method on the Texas Woman's University (TWU) database LibLit. I searched for 1) NCLB and 2) librarian and 3) public school library. My search criteria resulted in 1 article.
St. Lifer, E. Is NCLB Really "The Da Vinci Code?. School Library Journal v.49 no. 12 (December 2003) p. 13.
For my second search, I chose the specific faction method on the TWU database WorldCat.
My first search for NCLB provided 859 hits. Public school library provided 24,585 hits and my search for librarian found 38,446 hits.
Hess, Frederick M.; Finn, Chester E. Leaving no child behind? options for kids in failing schools. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

The third search method was the successive fractions using the TWU database ERIC. I arranged the search facets in this order: 1) NCLB and 2) public school OR libr* and 3) libr*. This search provided 17 hits.

Georges, Fitzgerald. The No Child Left BehindAct of 2001:What Are the Implications for School Libraries. Library Media Connection; v23 n1 p28 Aug 2004 Accession Number: EJ717576.

My final search method was citation pearl growing using the TWU database ProjectMuse. I searched the author Meier, and full text-no child left behind, and schools. This search produced 69 hits. I chose one link from one of these articles: educational change-United States. This link provided 50 other links to view.
Apple, Michael W.
Rochester, J. Martin.
Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 2005, pp. 186-204 (Article)
DOI: 10.1353/pep.2005.0002
Subject Headings:
Hirsch, E.D. (Eric Donald), 1928-Education reform and content the long view
Educational evaluation~United States
Educational change~United States
Education~Curricula~United States