Primary provision in the USA

At primary level in Britain, the school library is often poorly resourced, or even non-existent, and not all schools subscribe to local authority services. But they do things differently in the USA, as Sarah Smith found out.

The British government's renewed emphasis on the basics in education (such as the introduction of the literacy hour in 1998, and the numeracy hour in 1999) has increased demand for library services in schools. Yet, at the same time, funding for Schools Library Services (SLSs) is increasingly precarious, and this threatens the success of the literacy programmes themselves. Do other governments take a different approach to the provision of library services, and is there anything to be learnt from them? With the help of funding from a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, I went to the USA, a comparatively similar, multicultural country, to find out.

Precarious funding
Schools Library Services in England 1 have long been faced with uncertainty. They suffer because there is no compulsory national requirement for a minimum level of provision, and because they are a form of contracted-out service. This means that individual schools are not obliged to purchase the services of their local SLS, even if they have not made independent provision. Their funding used to come from different sources, depending on which local authority they came under. Many SLSs were part of the Libraries Department of their local authority, or were funded by the Education Directorate; others were directly responsible to the Education Directorate. Over the past few years there have been numerous changes to their sources of funding. A large number of SLSs operated a subscription service. In this scheme, a portion of central funding was delegated to schools, who could buy back into the service if they wanted. Other SLSs, however, continued to be supported entirely through central funding. In April, the system in England changed, and budgets were delegated directly to subscribing schools. SLSs are now entirely dependent on schools' subscriptions. For cash-strapped schools there is now a chance to opt out of using the local SLS. They may choose this option because there is in-house expertise, but it may be simply to save funds and dispense with a library altogether. Opting out threatens provision for those schools that do subscribe to the Schools Library Service, because it sets up a vicious circle: if the service is not financially viable, it may be withdrawn or cut back.

Uneven provision
At the local level, school libraries can be very poor. Primary schools are often under-resourced. Though there are many notable exceptions, often they do not serve the needs of children from their local community. Usually, a class teacher is assigned responsibility for the in-school library. There are sometimes volunteer staff (often parents) to help run the library. Few schools have library automation packages, and those that do use a variety of different systems. Many, especially those whose librarians are not professionally qualified, find choosing a system a daunting task.

The situation is somewhat better in secondary schools, which report a slight increase in the number of professional librarians employed. However, in a recent survey conducted by the LA and Sheffield Hallam University, even at the secondary level, 40 per cent of the schools covered by the survey had no full- or part-time librarian or teacher involved (see August Record).

The LA itself, has, of course, tried to fill the gap left by national policy-makers and has drawn up its own standards and guidelines. The information booklet Primary School Library Guidelines recommends that schools use one of the specialised computerised library management systems for school libraries. The booklet also includes a range of information on policy, staffing, budgets, selecting resources, and library reorganisation. Unfortunately, useful guides of this kind often fail to reach the schools that need them, because of individual local authorities' lack of a library policy.

Rising demand
In English schools the government's literacy programmes have increased demand for special fiction collections, 'guided reading' collections, genre collections, fairy and folk tales, author studies and poetry. This has increased the pressure on Schools Library Services at a time when their continued existence has been most under threat. It was the uncertainty of funding, the need to make more go further, and to promote the service and ensure client schools' loyalty, that prompted my fact-finding trip.

Choosing representative US cities
Following advice from Michael Dowling, International Relations Director at the American Library Association, I chose to visit Chicago (Illinois), Atlanta (Georgia), Montgomery (Maryland) and Fairfield (Connecticut). Chicago was a good example of a multicultural city with inner city areas. Its dominant cultures are Hispanic, African-American, and Euro-American. Atlanta was a mixture of African-American and Euro-American communities, with some smaller communities from the Caribbean and Africa. Atlanta County has uneven provision - the north is more prosperous - and it has a number of schools in semi-rural areas. Montgomery offered a mixture of Hispanic, Asian, African-American and Euro-American cultures. Fairfield was a comfortable, middle-class New England suburban district, with a mainly Euro-American community. How, in these different contexts, do American Schools Library Services operate? This article deals specifically with American SLSs, leaving the promotion of literacy programmes, and the active role of school libraries in these programmes, to a later article.

Media centres
School libraries in the USA are referred to as library media centres or simply media centres. Many have a media specialist who is a qualified teacher with at least some training in librarianship. In addition, there is at least one para-media specialist. These staff do not hold professional qualifications but have taken further education courses. This structure is in sharp contrast to most primary schools in England, where the existence of a school library, and even a part-time library assistant, is unusual. Further, the value of using staff who are trained as both teachers and librarians - to some degree - is yet to be explored in Britain.

American SLSs come under the jurisdiction of a district or county, and operate within a local government structure similar to that in the UK. School media centres receive federal and state funding as well as money from the private sector. The media centre is usually administered by the SLS. In contrast, most primary school libraries in England, Scotland and Wales are allocated funding by the individual school's governing body. The extent of funding and quality of service (including whether or not it has dedicated staff) are therefore discretionary, in accordance with the Local Management of Schools. (Even if the devolved funding for purchase of 'contracted-out' library services is 'ear-marked' for this purpose, there are considerable local variations as to which services the funds are used to purchase.)

Private sector collaboration
In America, there was early recognition of the value of supporting school libraries. In 1988, the Library Power programme was launched by the Dewitt Wallace-Readers' Digest Fund to 'restore and revitalise library services in public elementary and middle schools' with reference to low-income communities, and to target and inform 'other educators, the public and opinion leaders that school libraries have much to contribute to the educating of young people'. Grants from this fund have helped schools to upgrade their media centres by renovating library space, purchasing new books and upgrading print and electronic collections. They have also provided professional development programmes for librarians, teachers and principals to enable them to work together and make the best use of their new Library Power libraries.

As a condition of the fund's support, participating schools (those that met the fund's criteria) agreed to hire full-time librarians, and ensure that the library was open and accessible throughout the school day. They also undertook to encourage teachers and librarians, giving them sufficient time to take advantage of professional development programmes, and increase their spending on books, software and educational materials. The fund's programme is now implemented nationally, in collaboration with two partners - the American Library Association (ALA) and the Public Education Network. The programme is the largest private investment in school libraries in more than 30 years.

It is worth noting incidentally that the ALA has also developed and promoted information literacy standards for media centres. These standards guide educational activities in the media centres, by providing a framework for integrating information literacy skills across all content areas.

What happens at the local level?
In many districts and countries there's a Director of School Media Programmes and a Media Co-ordinator. The range of work covered by the Media Co-ordinator includes: managing budgets; information and advice outreach work; preparing guidelines on resource selection, library automation/IT selection; purchasing stock and setting up new libraries; in-service training sessions; reorganising school libraries; and collaborative work with the public library sector. Some of the work is done in conjunction with the Director. In the Libraries Department, Chicago Public Schools, there was a Director and Deputy Director and six regional librarians, each responsible for overseeing 189 schools. In the Airfield District of Connecticut, the Media Co-ordinator was responsible for just 21 schools and worked part time in one school media centre. Small to medium-sized areas are less likely to have a Director of School Media Programming.

As a general rule, media centres are funded by state mandates. There's very little federal funding. Funding for various projects is based on capitation. In states like Georgia, minimum standards for education are defined by the Quality Basic Education mandate (QBE), and media centre funding is one of the programmes. All funding for media centre programmes must be spent in the media centre. The amounts per child may vary from state to state, and Parent Teacher Associations can also contribute (as in the UK). The funds are managed by the schools, which develop their budgets. These are in turn approved by the school board and spent by the schools, the expenditure being monitored by the school board and the state. In many areas, partnerships with local businesses are encouraged to boost the funding available to schools.

All media centres in the cities I visited had automated cataloguing systems. This was a local government requirement and each city had a policy to ensure that all schools used the same package. On average there was a minimum of four computers per media centre. Most of the schools visited were elementary and middle schools, but high schools I went to often had more library computers. In many schools the automated cataloguing package was networked to all classroom computers so that the library catalogue could be accessed from the classroom. All media centres offered internet access and a range of multimedia resources, some of which, such as the periodicals database Kidsquest in Fulton County, could be accessed at home.

Media centres in the states I visited consisted not only of information, material and computers, but also a number of additional workrooms. Many had media production rooms where, with the media specialist, students produced a 10-minute daily news video programme that was networked to all classrooms. Other rooms stored the audiovisual equipment, additional IT, and resources such as videos, CD-Roms, talking books, puppets and puzzles. The workrooms also stored other educational activity packs, periodicals and the teachers' support collection. Finally, all media centres came equipped with the media specialists' own office. The arrangement varied from school to school, and sometimes rooms served a dual function, but most media centres included three to four workrooms.

IT Laboratories
Most schools had separate IT laboratories, although some were incorporated into the media centres. Many schools had IT technicians who provided teaching support and trouble-shooting. In Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), IT assistants were available only in schools where there were computers in all classrooms, in addition to a media centre and IT lab. Media specialists in 'under-equipped' schools were the first point of call for trouble-shooting elsewhere. In some schools it was the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) which paid for an IT teaching assistant.

In Fulton County, there was an education lottery, some of the proceeds of which went towards purchasing IT equipment for schools. In MCPS there was a commitment to 'Global Access IT' in schools. This meant the provision of an IT specialist, IT training sessions for all staff, and networking for all classes. PTAs and local businesses became involved in Global Access IT by providing help and expertise on 'Net Day' - a day given over to wiring and installing computers in schools. Out of 189 elementary schools, 88 remained to be wired up at the time of my visit.

The quality of book stock in media centres varied. It tended to be better where media specialists ran active and varied literacy programmes.

Central to all media programmes and perhaps the ethos behind media centres in many American schools today is the collaborative teaching approach. This approach, supported by extensive research, concludes that 'information literacy and technology skills are learned most effectively in a resource-based environment with the media specialist working in partnership with educators in all curricular areas, administrators and community resources'. Flexible scheduling of class visits to the centre is essential in this system, which promotes information literacy, increased intellectual flexibility, and all-round personal development.

So, the role of media centres in educational development within schools is recognised as an integral part of the education system. Educational growth cannot be achieved without a well-resourced library and a media specialist. The approach starts at elementary level and, for the rest of a student's life, the media centre performs and contributes to a student's educational growth.

As the UK gets to grips with training a more literate future generation, the government and educational experts would do well to recognise the importance of providing well-resourced libraries supported by qualifed professional staff. Without investment in these resources, achieving the objective is likely to take much longer.

Note
1 The situation across the UK as a whole is complex. There are statutory requirements for school library provision in Northern Ireland but none in England, Scotland and Wales. Only in England are budgets delegated to the schools themselves.

Julie Walker is Executive Director, American Association of School Librarians, Young Adult Library Services Association.

More information on American Schools Library Services from the American Library Association (www.ala.org). Guidelines are published in Information Power: building partnerships for learning.

© The Library Association
Last updated: 15 December 2000