Still Polishing the Diamond: School Library Research over the Last Decade.

Abstract

In 2003 Delia Neuman wrote “Research in School Library Media for the Next Decade: Polishing the Diamond.” One of the most influential pieces on school library research written in the last twenty years, the article provided a map for school library research by defining areas of concern and importance. Neuman developed questions grounded in the research and scholarship of the field at that time. These questions served as a charge for researchers to address in the next ten years. Neuman called on researchers to “polish the diamond and make it shine more brightly in its own right and sparkle more valuably in the larger field of education” (2003, 504). This study uses Neuman’s model of the diamond to examine school library research and scholarship from 2004 through 2014. Following Neuman’s guiding questions through a systematic review of the literature from the past ten years, this study finds that there is still much “polishing” to be done by school library researchers, and like Neuman, defines new “facets” that provide future direction to “move forward both the field’s research agenda and its effective practice” (Neuman 2003, 505).

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