At its June meeting the Council of the American Library Association
unanimously passed a resolution in support of school libraries and
librarians. The resolution was initiated by ALA Councilor Cyndi
Phillip, Library Media Specialist/Instructional Media Services
Department Head, Grand Haven (Michigan) Public Schools, and the
Immediate Past Chair of the American Association of School Librarians
(AASL) Affiliate Assembly. The full text of the resolution is included
below.
The full text of the ALA Council resolution concerning the Educational
Resources Information Center (ERIC) is also included below.
*****
ALA Resolution
School Libraries and Librarians are Critical to Educational Success
WHEREAS, Throughout the United States school librarians and library
support staff are being eliminated as a cost saving measure to school
districts that face diminishing funding; and
WHEREAS, Numerous research studies conducted in the states of Alaska,
Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, and Texas have shown a high correlation between exemplary
school library programs led by a certified school librarian and student
achievement on state standardized tests; and
WHEREAS, School librarians instruct students and provide the school
community on going experiences in accessing, evaluating, and utilizing
information sources; and
WHEREAS, NCREL's (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory)
enGuage document, 21st Century Skills: Digital Literacies for a Digital
Age, states these literacies include Reading Literacy, Technology
Literacy, and Information Literacy, which are skills taught and
supported by school library programs and personnel; and
WHEREAS, The No Child Left Behind legislation regarding "Reading First"
states that school districts provide "instruction based on
scientifically based reading research that includes the essential
components of reading instruction" will require a library professional
whose job it is to keep current with new materials for children and make
appropriate selections based on critical reviews by previewing for age
appropriateness and fitting the curriculum needs and interests of
students; and
WHEREAS, School librarians collaborate with teachers for optimal
instructional design to improve student achievement, now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That the American Library Association Council directs its
President and Executive Director to convey to Governors, State Boards of
Education, National Association of School Administrators, Chief State
School Officers, National Association of Independent Schools, National
Council of PTA, National Educational Association, American Federation of
Teachers, and National Association of School Boards of Education the
urgent need to support and maintain school library programs and
certified school librarians and encourage them to pass this concern
along to their state affiliates; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the ALA President and Executive Director encourage state
associations to influence state legislation requiring adequate funding
and appropriate staff of school libraries in schools at all levels; and,
be it further
RESOLVED, That the ALA Executive Director arrange a process to support
ALA members to advocate for school libraries and librarians.
Adopted by the
Council of the American Library Association
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Toronto, Canada
Keith Michael Fiels
Secretary to the ALA Council
*****
RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE EDUCATION RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER
(ERIC)
WHEREAS, Improving American education has been recognized as a national
priority by the Congress and successive administrations; and
WHEREAS, For more than 35 years the Education Resources Information
Center (ERIC) has provided extensive access to education-related
information to the world; and
WHEREAS, ERIC is an invaluable resource to parents, educators,
researchers, librarians, and policy makers interested in providing
quality education to our people both young and old; and
WHEREAS, Each year ERIC provides expert reference and referral service
in response to more than 150,000 telephone calls and e-mail messages;
and
WHEREAS, Each month more than 10 million people connect to
ERIC-provided web pages, making it the most popular federally sponsored
education program; and
WHEREAS, Successful implementation of the "No Child Left Behind Act"
and the "Education Sciences Reform Act" requires extensive use of the
full range of ERIC system resources; and
WHEREAS, On April 10, 2003, the Department of Education posted a draft
"Statement of Work" (SOW) that replaces the current subject-focused
clearinghouses with a centralized contractor, focuses on efficiency and
mechanized processing rather than quality and usability for ERIC
database production, limits the role of subject experts and thereby
threatens the scope and quality of both the database and existing public
outreach functions, and fails to mandate adequate archiving for
continuing access to ERIC resources; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the American Library Association (ALA) supports having
experts serve the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
Clearinghouses and urges the Department of Education to propose a
database construction method that continues to use this valuable network
of proven expertise; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA believes that the current Internet environment makes
expert assistance in information gathering more crucial than ever and
that the service orientation of the current ERIC system and its use of
high-level expertise to provide services is a core asset that provides
an important complement to the role of library reference services; and,
be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA supports full coverage of education journals in the
ERIC database and urges the Department of Education to continue to make
use of highly qualified experts to identify appropriate individual items
from other sources; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA supports the inclusive scope of the current ERIC
database as evidenced by the broad interpretation of their focus
employed by each of the current Clearinghouses, including the adjunct
ERIC Clearinghouses; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA commends the high quality of the indexing in the
current ERIC database and is concerned by provisions in the Draft
Statement of Work (SOW) that might reduce the quality and consistency by
using indexing and abstracting generated by authors, publishers, and
computers; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA urges that new ERIC contracts require the
maintenance of such user services as the digests, toll-free telephone
assistance, AskERIC, and extensive web pages offering multiple modes of
access to ERIC resources; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA urges that new ERIC contracts require the
maintenance of an independent archive of documents to assure their
long-term availability; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA asserts that the quality, scope, and consistency of
the ERIC database and the expertise and service orientation of the
clearinghouse network must be maintained to fulfill our national
commitment to education; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That ALA forwards this resolution to U.S. Department of
Education Secretary, Rod Paige; U.S. Department of Education, Institute
of Education Sciences Director, Grover J. Whitehurst; and the
appropriate Congressional committees.
Adopted by the
Council of the American Library Association
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Toronto, Canada
Keith Michael Fiels
Secretary of the ALA Council
*****
posted by:
Steven L. Hofmann
Manager, Digital Development
American Association of School Librarians
a division of the American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, Illinois 60611-2795
800-545-2433, ext. 4389
312-280-4389 direct
312-664-7459 fax
shofmann@ala.org
www.ala.org/aasl
We're going to Kansas City. Won't you join us?
AASL 11th National Conference & Exhibition
October 22-26, 2003 in Kansas City, Missouri
www.ala.org/aasl/kc
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