Impact of school libraries on learning: critical review of evidence to inform the Scottish education community.

Abstract

The aim of the report is to identify and critically evaluate the available evidence of the impact of school libraries on learning, including attainment, skills and attitudes. The report, commissioned by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), is based on a critical review of UK and international evidence published since 2001 linking school libraries to educational achievement, attainment and learning in secondary education. The objectives were to: \n• Identify, evaluate and summarise evidence in relation to a number of key questions identified by SLIC; \n• Assess the applicability of the findings to the potential of Scottish school libraries to impact on Curriculum for Excellence; \n• Identify gaps in the evidence and suggest areas for further research in relation to Scottish school libraries. \nThe research was designed as an update of the previous review of the impact of school library services undertaken in 2001 by the same team (Williams, Wavell & Coles 2001). \nThe outcomes will inform SLIC strategies in support of school library provision in Scotland. The outcomes should also be of value to policy and decision makers in local authorities and individual schools in their future planning for school library provision, and to individual school librarians in their own strategic planning. The work was conducted between the months of May to October 2013 and the outcomes presented at the Scottish Learning Festival held in Glasgow in September 2013. \nThe findings reveal a considerable body of international evidence showing that school libraries impact on: \n Higher test or exam scores equating to academic attainment: this includes academic attainment in the form of higher standardised test scores in reading, language arts, history and maths, and better grades in curriculum assignments or exams; \n Successful curriculum or learning outcomes, including information literacy: this includes higher quality project work, the development and practice of information literacy, increased knowledge and reading development; and \n Positive attitudes towards learning: including increased motivation, improved attitude towards learning tasks, self-esteem, and wider reading for pleasure. \nExamination of Curriculum for Excellence documents, including experiences and outcomes for a sample of curriculum subject areas showed links with all three types of learning indicators. Not surprisingly, the closest links were found in cross-curricular Literacy Across Learning, and good links were found between the evidence of impact and the Guiding Principles and Four Capacities for Learning. In addition, the evidence clearly identifies the elements of the library which \ncontribute to the impact on learning: \n A qualified, full-time librarian, who is proactive and has managerial \nstatus; \n The availability of support staff to undertake routine tasks enabling \nthe librarian to initiate instructional, collaborative and promotional \nactivities as well as professional duties to support collection \ndevelopment; \n A library that supports physical and virtual access to resources in the \nlibrary, classrooms and at home, during school hours and beyond; \n An adequate physical and virtual collection that is current, diverse \nand supports the curriculum as well as appealing to students’ leisure \nneeds; \n Networked technology to support information access and use, and \nknowledge building and dissemination; \n Instruction that supports individual and curriculum needs of students \nand teachers, encompassing subject content, information literacy and \nvoluntary reading interests; \n Collaboration with teaching colleagues, senior management, librarian \ncolleagues and outside agencies, including central schools library \nservices, to ensure the most appropriate services are delivered in \nsupport of learning. \nThe majority of the available evidence was found to be from the United \nStates with some significant studies from Australia. Smaller studies at the \nschool level were more widespread. The UK is beginning to lay the \nfoundations for evidence building and a potential source of evidence in the \nform of shared practice was highlighted. The methodologies used to gather \ndata have been reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages outlined. \nThe major gaps in evidence and implications for further research were found \nto be: \n Limited published evidence from Scotland; \n A lack of evidence about the links or impact between school libraries \nand the community; \n The need for appropriate data to be collected to enable the variety of \nlibrary contributions to be correlated with national examination \nresults; \n The need to identify a way of collating and systematically reporting \nthe evidence found in shared practice or self-evaluation portfolio \ndocuments; \n The need to identify ways in which head teachers can be made aware \nof how a school library can contribute to student learning and their \nrole in recruiting appropriate staff and supporting their collaborative \nand instructional activities. \nInspired by the work of Keith Curry Lance, the findings of this review of \nevidence are summarised graphically below as a quick reference and \nadvocacy tool, showing the difference that a school library can make to the \nlearner.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.