The Whole School Library Handbook

Citation

Turner, R. (2006), "The Whole School Library Handbook", New Library World, Vol. 107 No. 5/6, pp. 263-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800610665266

Every school is different, and every school library is a reflection of its own unique school culture. Producing guidelines for school libraries has been problematic because of differences between individual schools, between states and provinces within individual countries, and obviously between countries themselves. The guidelines either tend to be rather Utopian and theoretical best‐practice goals or specific to one group of schools in a local authority or other small groupings where there is some common governance.

This American Library Association (ALA) takes a very different approach to providing support for the librarian working in an individual school library, and it was one that other countries and professional organisations might consider looking more closely at. Rather than writing academic guidelines for best practice, Woolls and Loertscher have edited a series of articles which address the issues affecting the school library sector. The concept is based on the popular Whole Library Handbook produced by the ALA in 1988.

The work also provides the checklists, facts, contact details of relevant organisations, etc. that the practitioner would expect from a one‐stop resource, but there is also a very practical element in the contributions from experts in the field.

Of particular interest to those working or studying in the school library sector is the emphasis on this book as a tool for advocacy (a relatively recent concept in the United Kingdom) and strategies for increasing collaboration between school libraries and teaching staff (a long‐standing problem in the United Kingdom and many other countries!).

The editors are, respectively, the Director of the School of Library and Information Science and Professor in the School of Library and Information Society at San Jose State University. It is noteworthy that both are past presidents of the American Association of School Librarians and have been honoured with its Distinguished Service Medal, so there is a deep authority behind this work.

The book opens with a history of school librarianship, although this is primarily of the sector in the USA. This features a history of school libraries and library media centres, pioneers and leading figures in library services for young people, as well as 103 outstanding school librarians. Rather oddly, the history section is closed with a look at the School Library Journal's Spending Survey, which only looks over the last few years and, although acknowledged that this is due to lack of data, might have been better positioned in the “Funding” section.

The first major section of this work is on “Professionalism”, and the articles included cover a number of features of this subject. Included in the contributions are articles on school library organisations at national, state and local levels; international school organisations and how to be an international school librarian; the ALA Youth Division; advocacy suggestions; and an interesting article on the evolution of education for school librarians.

Each of the sections contains articles which are both instructional and challenging to the profession. In the opening section on “Professionalism” there is a thought‐provoking piece on whether the library profession is over‐organised.

The following section on “Materials” does not shy away from difficult issues, discussing racial identity, sex information, disability, prison and homosexuality – the latter co‐written by the late, lamented, Laurel Anne Clyde. There are also more mainstream contributions on collection management, children's reading, electronic resources, online selection tools, stock replacement, the value of graphic novels, and library theft. From my own observations of issues raised on the School Librarians' Networks in the UK on Yahoo! Groups, these are very much the subjects that practitioners are discussing and asking for help and advice on. Following on from this, there is an excellent attempt at putting the USA experience into an international context by looking at the International Federation of Library Associations' guidelines for school libraries.

A further hot topic within the school library sector is that of “Evaluation”, both resulting from the need to justify actions and also as a tool for advocacy. Articles in this section lucidly address academic achievement, accountability, internet skills rubrics, techniques for evaluation, student assessment and providing strong evidence – all topics that will be of practical interest to the school librarian. A few of the elements may only be of use where a teacher‐librarian is in post (in the UK this is unusual, the preference being for a qualified or Chartered Librarian). A “Credentials” section looks at the specific qualifications of USA library media specialists.

The section on “Technology” perhaps leaves some gaps and this subject is covered in other works to a much greater depth and more comprehensively. However, the articles that are here are certainly practical and discuss who should be running the District Technology Departments, evaluating information on the internet, weaknesses in just using the internet, designing your own website and school librarian networks internationally and in the USA.

The “Operations” section of this very readable book looks at space, design, digital libraries, inclusiveness, behaviour management and threats to health, safety and security. The latter may be perceived as largely a USA problem, but alas needs to be considered by all today.

The “Program” chapter has some wonderful articles on information literacy and one article by Gary Hartzell interestingly looks at this within the broader arena of advocacy.

The advocacy theme is picked up in more depth in the following collection of pieces on “Promotion”, which includes the useful AASL Advocacy Toolkit. Although there are great and inspirational writings here, it was at this stage that a weakness of using a collection of articles, which meant that there was not always comprehensive coverage, became apparent. If someone was looking for advice on, for example, public relations in general, a more structured set of guidelines for best practice might be more appropriate. This led to the conclusion that this book should be used in harmony with local or national guidelines on best practice to give life and practical experience to the theoretical or academic.

A natural progression from “Promotion” is to discuss “Funding”. This excellent section looks at managing the budget, how school libraries are funded, understanding budgeting procedures, fund‐raising, etc. An ensuing brief section looks at “Staff Development”, with articles on professional development for library media specialists and specifically for service delivery to students with disabilities. Again, this section might have been enhanced and incorporate other issues around continuing professional development.

An interesting final major collection of articles is grouped under the title of “Issues”. This catch‐all phrase includes articles on copyright, censorship, levels of qualification of library staff and their impact on attainment, the relationship with public libraries and the dubious inclusion of author guidelines for some of the leading journals for school librarians. The book is rounded off with an article on “Diversity” which just looks at improving computer‐use success for students of diverse backgrounds, and a “Librariana” collection of quotes from school librarians about collection development that could easily have been included on the chapter on “Materials”.

There is a decent index and appendix of school librarianship publishers which has an almost purely USA emphasis. A glossary at the start of the book helps with the sometimes bewildering (for the non‐USA reader) array of acronyms. The layout is well planned and the articles are well selected, although the pigeonholing of articles written in other publications is sometimes contrived and a little confusing.

In general this book will be of interest and value to almost anyone working in a school library media centre. As an ALA book it is obviously going to have a very heavy US emphasis in its examples and case studies. However, the issues addressed in this book are ones that are faced by library staff working in school libraries all over the world. The approach of having a selection of articles to cover the various elements of school librarianship is refreshing, and it certainly brings the subject to life and provides inspirational examples. However, for the practitioner looking for specific guidance on a particular problem or issue this would not be the best place to look. Guidelines for best practice vary in content and quality throughout the world and within individual countries, but all are hindered by the fact that each school library is unique. The Whole School Library Handbook is a brave attempt at getting over this issue, but I suspect that a more comprehensive solution would be some combination of the practical and the theoretical in which a structured guidance is enhanced by such examples from the real world, advice from experts and case studies of best practice.