The Wired School Library: Plug It In
Drs. Marilyn Miller and Marilyn Shontz -- School Library Journal, 10/1/1998
A majority of school libraries are now high-tech, according to a national SLJ study.
If it's a technology that spins, beeps, whirls, flickers -- or crashes regularly -- a majority of library media centers nationwide are probably using it. While the mad rush toward creating high-tech library media centers has slowed somewhat since 1994, the trend still has definite momentum.
Perhaps the rapid growth in library media center (LMC) technology between 1992 and 1994 couldn't be sustained. During that period, nearly a quarter of the nation's schools added an automated circulation system and an online catalog -- the technologies that define high-tech library media centers for our biennial survey of school library media center expenditures.
Our latest data, which covers 1995 and 1996, shows that an additional 11 percent of library media centers moved into the high-tech category, constituting a full 58 percent of the nation's library media centers.
Not surprisingly, our survey shows that there's a price tag attached to being wired. High-tech schools spend on average more than twice as much annually -- $4,617 -- on technology resources than non-high-tech schools.
Left in the Dust
The dash to automate library media centers varies according to grade level, school size, and region of the country. Junior high and middle school libraries, for instance, aren't keeping pace with other grade levels when it comes to technology -- only 22 percent qualify as high-tech. (See Table 2)
For reasons that are unclear, smaller schools appear to be making more progress in automating their catalogs and circulation systems than their larger counterparts.
Although not shown in a chart, we found that the majority -- 54 percent -- of high-tech schools enroll 300 to 699 students. Only 18 percent of larger schools -- those with 1,000 to 1,999 students -- qualify as high-tech. For the largest and smallest schools, the percentage drops sharply. Three percent of schools with more than 2,000 students and six percent with less than 300 are considered high-tech.
Wired in Many Ways
Our research found significant, even astounding, growth in the use of several technologies in high-tech library media centers. Here are some of the highlights from Table 4:
- The biggest leap came in Internet access, to 73 percent from 57 percent in 1994. Fifty-seven percent have access to the Web, and libraries classified as non-high-tech aren't far behind: 41 percent use the Web.
- A full 91 percent use CD-ROMs, up from 82 percent in 1994.
- More than three-quarters have local area networks (LANs), up from 61 percent in 1994.
The use of television is expanding noticeably, including TV for distance education. We asked about distance education for the first time and found that approximately 10 percent of the high-tech and 6 percent of the non-high-tech schools are using either one- or two-way audio/video transmission. It will be interesting to watch the growth of distance learning and how it impacts library media centers, especially as new schools are built and others remodeled to accommodate this sophisticated technology.
What has stayed the same since the early 1990s is the percentage of non?igh-tech schools?t least two-thirds?hat are working on plans for automated circulation systems and online catalogs.
Nor have the purposes for which library media specialists use computers, such as managing overdues or doing inventory, changed significantly since 1994. While not shown in a table, there has been some growth in using computers for cataloging (92 percent, up from 86 percent in 1994).
Show Me the Money
Where do high-tech library media centers get funding for technology? Since federal funding has nearly disappeared for library media centers, local funding is picking up the slack(See Table 5). High-tech library media centers get on average four to five times more local financial support for hardware, software, CD-ROMs, and Internet and online access than do their non-high-tech counterparts. That funding -- $4,100 -- is up by about 25 percent over 1994. It has remained relatively unchanged in non-high-tech schools.
Like many nonprofit organizations in need of funding today, high-tech library media centers are relying more and more on gifts and grant funding. We found that high-tech library media specialists far surpass their colleagues in non-high-tech schools in securing these outside funds. High-tech library media specialists are bringing in on average $2,000 in private funding compared to the $500 coming into non-high-tech libraries. Where do these funds go? Library media specialists are spending the lion's share on computer hardware. Total spending on hardware ranges from a high of $9,352 (mean) in high-tech schools to a low of $2118 (median) in non-high-tech schools.
While high-tech library media centers spend more on technology, they also report having the largest book collections, especially high-tech high schools, which have on average 13,100 volumes, compared to 9,000 in non-high-tech secondary schools(See Table 6).
Who's Running the Show?
As collections and services become more diverse, complicated, and expensive, who does the work of managing, teaching, and directing -- especially if staffing levels are slipping? That's what is happening at lower grade levels, regardless of technology level (See Table 7).
High-tech elementary libraries that were staffed by one full-time librarian in 1994 are now staffed on average by a .95 position. Still, that's higher than non-high-tech elementary schools, staffed by a .85 position.
There has also been a drop at the junior high/middle school level. School librarians in high-tech schools at this level have dropped from 1.5 positions in 1994 to 1.3 positions in 1996.
The exception to the slide is in high-tech high school libraries, where staffing has actually increased. Library media specialist positions have risen to 1.36 per school in 1996, from 1.29 in 1994. But that growth hasn't translated to non-high-tech libraries in high schools -- staffing there has dropped from 1.13 positions per school in 1994 to .91 in 1996.
Other staffing improvements have appeared in high-tech libraries that fall under the "other" category (schools, for example, with K-12, K-8, or grade 3-8 enrollments). These schools have increased staffing from 1.26 positions per school in 1994 to 1.31 in 1996.
Clerk positions are also at risk in both types of library media centers. In 1992, elementary high-tech libraries reported an average of a three-quarter-time clerk. By 1996, that position was cut to 0.63 time. High-tech high schools suffered the same fate, losing about a third of a clerk's position from 1992 to 1996.
Talk to Me
In high-tech school libraries, library media specialists put in more planning time -- both formal and informal -- with teachers than do their counterparts in non-high-tech libraries. As shown in Table 8, high school librarians in high-tech libraries spent on average 4.19 hours per week with teachers, the most of any library media specialists. Compare that to the average number of hours -- 2.90 per week -- spent on planning in non-high-tech schools.
While our survey found that high-tech library media centers generally outshone their non-high-tech counterparts in most areas, communication with principals was not one of them. (See Table 9). The number of school librarians having face-to-face, formal meetings with principals is still low in our estimation. Fifty-four percent of high-tech library media specialists and 62 percent of their non-high-tech colleagues meet formally at least once a month with their principals. While non-high-tech librarians surpass their high-tech colleagues here, it's possible that their high-tech colleagues still do better in attracting support for their library media programs because they use a greater variety of communication methods, including e-mail and annual reports.
The issue of meeting with principals is crucial to financial support of the library media program, as we pointed out in part II of our survey, "More Services, More Staff, More Money," May 1998, pp. 28?3.
Helping students learn is another reason why library media specialists need to be less willing to devote time to clerical tasks and more determined to be better communicators. The argument for why this needs to happen is explained in the new edition of the national guidelines for library media centers: Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (ALA, 1998). Otherwise, there's no guarantee that schools will make information literacy a priority -- or, for that matter, continue to fund library media programs.
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"Plug It In: The Wired School Library" is Part III of a three-part series of biennial statistical research articles created for School Library Journal. Part I, "Small Change: Expenditures for Resources in School Library Media Centers, FY 1995?6" appeared in the October 1997 SLJ (pp. 28?7) and on SLJ Online (www.slj.com/articles/articles/19971001_5643.asp). Readers will find the methodology explained on page 36. Part II, "More Services, More Staff, More Money: A Portrait of a High-Service Library Media Center" appeared in the May 1998 SLJ (pp. 28-33) and on SLJ Online (www.slj.com/articles/articles/19980501_6364.asp). The article you are reading looks at the availability of technology in 365 schools identified as high-tech and 135 schools identified as non-high-tech. Because the statistics presented in this report reflect small samples, conclusions drawn from the findings can be characterized only as indicative of trends in the population. Furthermore, only 10 percent of the respondents represented private schools so neither discrete data nor conclusions are presented about these schools. Readers should note that we typically use median figures because the mean is susceptible to skewing by a few schools that report very high numbers. Because of this, the median is a more desirable measure of central tendency. |
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