Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries, Part 2: Faculty Perceptions of Effective School Libraries

Headnote

This article focuses on the perceptions of school principals and teaching faculty in relation to the school library and the helps it provides to students. Set against a brief review of current literature, it examines data provided by 879 faculty in 39 elementary, middle, and high schools in Ohio as part of the Student Learning Through Ohio School Library research study. In a parallel survey to the Impacts on Learning Survey for students participating in this research, the Perceptions of Learning survey sought to gather faculty's perceptions of the helps provided by the school library to their students. This article presents a summary of the findings, provides a brief comparison with the student data, and addresses the concept of evidence of school library helps as observed by the teaching faculty.

Introduction

Support of the school principal and teaching faculty is considered an essential factor in effective school library programs. This support involves principals as decision-makers and controllers of budgets, including library budgets; staff allocation; school schedules and timetables; and policies related to instructional integration, information technology provision, and use, all of which shape and influence the school library program. The support also involves teachers as both resource users and instructional partners in the design, delivery, and assessment of information literacy instruction (Hartzell, 2002).

There is some evidence from school librarians that school faculty generally do not understand the nature and dimensions of the role of the school librarian and that school librarians perceive a lack of value, importance, and appreciation of their role and a negative perception of their image. The consequence of this is that they are unable to perform at the desired level (Hartzell, 2002; Lau, 2002; Todd, 2001). Lau identified that although principals lack knowledge about the role of school libraries and their ability to improve student learning, ownership of this lack is not merely in their hands: school librarians need to make themselves more visible by articulating and enabling their vision. This is echoed by Henri and Boyd (2002), who found that school librarians were not consciously using the heuristics of influential people, that is, likeability, expertise, sensitivity, a controlled ego, and focused energy and effort. In contrast to Lau's study are the findings of Henri, Hay, and Oberg (2002)....