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Report on the Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement
4.2 Information and technology
Perhaps the most significant factor affecting the role of school libraries and school librarians in relation to student achievement is the explosion of information, particularly in relation to digital resources, that has taken place in recent years. Given the vast volumes of information available, the rapidly obsolete nature of much of this information, and the questionable quality of much that is available on the Internet, the role of the school librarian has arguably become even more important than in the past. Information Power (American Association of School Librarians 1998), which provides a set of national information literacy standards for library professionals in the United States, describes how the kind of service traditionally supplied by the school library 'has undergone a radical change in emphasis'. No longer does the library simply provide resources for students; today the library is concerned with creating 'a community of lifelong learners' with the skills to locate, use and evaluate information. Information literacy, the guidelines suggest, is fundamental to the school library program.
Todd (2001a) describes the new information environment as complex and fluid; connective and interactive; and no longer constrained by time and space. Fitzgibbbons (2000) suggests that computer-assisted instruction and computer-based information databases such as CD-ROM encyclopaedias have 'revitalized' the use of libraries. School libraries need to provide better access to these resources and to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary information literacy skills to be able to access and evaluate critically the information they locate. Lance (2000c) points out that the critical factor in relation to the new information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as CD-ROM, video and computer software, is neither the quantity of software programs nor the frequency of computer use but how the programs and computers are being used.
In recognition of the growing importance of information literacy skills that will enable individuals to navigate vast volumes of information, become informed and critical consumers able to participate in everyday transactions, continue their learning after the formal years of schooling have ended, and contribute to a 'knowledge economy', education authorities have sought to encourage the integration of information skills into the curriculum. The ACT Across Curriculum Perspective Statement for information literacy and information technology, for example, describes one of the student learning outcomes for information access as the ability 'to use a wide range of information strategies and processes to explore, enquire and solve problems'. One of the 'overarching learning outcomes' in the Western Australia Curriculum Framework for Kindergarten to Year 12 is that 'students recognise when and what information is needed, locate and obtain it from a range of sources and evaluate, use and share it with others'. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority gives as an example of a learning outcome that reflects the integration of information and technologies into the Health and Physical Education Curriculum: the preparation of 'a flyer containing text and graphics on how the use of a specific technology has affected the health of people living in a global environment'.
The changing broader context has inevitably had an impact on the nature of the work being done by teacher librarians and the role of libraries in student learning. In an age of vastly increased information production and ever more sophisticated technological means of accessing this information, and in a world in which intellectual capital has replaced physical capital as the prevailing currency in the 'knowledge society', the school librarian-through his/her expertise in 'searching and locating information on the Internet, incorporating digital information on CD-ROMs in the teaching and learning program, and creating support systems such as databases and setting up local area networks within the school community' (AEU 2000, p. 3)-has assumed a pivotal role in preparing students to become lifelong learners and astute evaluators of information.
Many of the documents looked at in the course of this review highlight the potentially important leadership role of the school librarian in ensuring that both students and teachers are information literate, although the field is too new for a substantial body of research into the nature of the impact of school librarians on the information skills acquisition of students and staff to exist.
Welch and Braybrook (2001) note that the advent of electronic access to information 'is transforming the concept of collection and the physical entity of the library itself' (p. 4). Such a paradigmatic shift in the profession, they suggest, needs 'a different approach to the measurement of worth and value of school libraries' (p. 4). One of the conclusions drawn from their survey was that the whole context of school libraries is changing and that 'the collection of data has to be allied to an educational outcome rather than just a benchmark or standard' (p. 4).