Congress recently reintroduced the SKILLS (Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries) Act, a bill that aims to get at least one library media specialist in every public school by the 2010-2011 school year. By doing so, it sent a strong message: that leaving students in an unstaffed room with computers, books and other media, without guidance on how to use that media, is unacceptable.
Even as schools across the country continue to cut their library staff and book budgets, more and more schools are adding computers to the classroom. Now that students have more access to the Web than ever before, how are they suppose to make sense of all the digital information they encounter on a daily basis?As findingDulcinea founder Mark Moran points out on his blog, founding Dulcinea, “As good as your kid may be on Facebook, she is not born with a digital M.L.S. These skills are learned, not instinctive, and the only way for students to learn them is for someone else to guide and teach them.”
This is where today’s school librarian comes in. Forget the “1950s bespectacled stereotype,” Moran writes. Today’s library media specialist is on the cutting edge of information literacy and poised to share expert digital research skills with students and teachers.
In support of educators looking for quality Web resources to share with colleagues and students, we launched Web Links, a collection of useful Web sites organized by school level and divided into student and teacher pages.
We also offer “10 Tips for Researching on the Web,” a list of quick suggestions that can help you find what you’re looking for faster, and help you make sure the source is reliable.
I agree with this article that we need more and more libraries. I hope Student will be greatly benfited from the libraries.
Posted by: life jackets | November 17, 2009 at 12:43 AM