Executive Summary

Forging a Future for Nova Scotia School Libraries

Background to the Study
Research Parameters
Research Methods
Results on Staffing
Results on School Library Collections
Results on Services in School Libraries
Results on Instruction in School Libraries
Summary of All Results of the Study
Dilemma Facing Nova Scotia Libraries
Strategic Directions and Specific Actions for NSTU
 

A research report prepared for the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and
The ad hoc Committee on Teacher-Librarian Services

Ray Doiron, Ph.D.
Faculty of Education
University of Prince Edward Island
 
Background to the Study
While many School Boards/Districts in Nova Scotia have employed library technicians to manage school libraries, fewer teachers have been filling these school library positions since the 1990’s. For some the move away from licensed teachers holding school library positions was interpreted as a necessary step to ensure some level of school library service since budget cuts were starting to have a dramatic influence across the school system. In addition, many administrators felt there was no need for a teacher in the school library position and that person should return to the classroom helping to lower class sizes while performing traditional teaching duties. As amalgamation of Boards/Districts took place and a shift in school library personnel started, the instructional role of a school library was eliminated; classroom teachers were given the responsibility to use the school library in their programs and to develop the research process, resource-based learning and information literacy. This left the teacher-librarian community reduced drastically in numbers and professionally demoralized.

Since that time, a small cohort of teacher-librarians and other educators interested in the teaching role of the school library have attempted to maintain the vision of integrated school library programs. They have been able to lobby their Union, Boards/Districts and officials in the Department of Education for a consideration of that decision. They have kept an active voice in professional development activities and they have worked with their own teachers to demonstrate the impact the loss of teacher-librarians is having. The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union responded to concerns about the loss of teacher-librarian services by forming the Ad Hoc Committee on Teacher-Librarian Services. This Committee felt there was need for research in this area and they did a call for proposals to conduct a research study. This report represents the results of that research project whose purpose was to examine the impact of the loss of teacher-librarians in Nova Scotia schools by collecting data on the status of personnel, programs, services and collections currently available in Nova Scotia school libraries.

The study was conducted by Dr. Ray Doiron from the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) and his Research Assistant, Carolyn Ledwell, Coordinator of the Education Resource Centre (ERC) at the Faculty of Education, UPEI. The study was conducted on behalf of the NSTU, but it operated independently from NSTU. We determined the goals of the study, the methods used, the analysis procedures and how the final report was developed. NSTU conducted its own independent Survey of Classroom Teachers and shared those results with the research team. The full results and recommendations are presented here to the NSTU to aid in their development of new or revised plans for supporting school libraries. Within the original research proposal was an agreement that the researcher had autonomy to publish and share results from the study with the wider educational community.

Research Parameters
This study set out to probe these four areas:

• school library personnel,
• school library instructional programs,
• school library services, and
• school library collections.

It was hoped that information from these four areas would give the NSTU benchmark data as a basis to do any future comparisons, to paint a clear picture of the situation that exists now, as well as providing current information to be used to plan future policies and initiatives. Such information should also be useful to School Boards/Districts and Department of Education decision-makers who always need clear, current information upon which to make future decisions. Individual schools will also find the results useful for comparing their situation to other schools in the Nova Scotia and then to make school-based plans for improvement of school library programs and services.

Research Questions
Using the focus areas from above, the study was guided by these research questions:

• What personnel are currently staffing school libraries in Nova Scotia?
• What school library services are currently available to students and teachers in Nova Scotia schools?
• What instructional programs are currently available to students and teachers in Nova Scotia’s school libraries?
• What is the status of school library collections currently available in Nova Scotia’s school libraries?
• What are the major issues facing school libraries in Nova Scotia and what are some of the ways the Nova Scotia Teachers Union could work to address them?

Research Methods
Research Procedures
Four research tools were used to collect data in the four research areas:

1. First of all, a general survey on school libraries was developed and made available electronically for participants to complete on-line. A secure website was mounted at the University of Prince Edward Island server for submitting answers to the survey (See http://www.upei.ca/librarysurvey.html). All participants were issued an individual password which gave them access to the On-Line Survey where they could enter their answers directly on-line. Seven Boards/Districts agreed to take part in the study and 110 schools took part including 68 principals and 77 school library personnel.
2. The second research tool was a series of 20, one-to-one interviews conducted with various personnel throughout the province. A list of 32 possible participants was identified and all were invited to take part in an interview. Twenty (20) permission forms were received and all 20 were interviewed. They included Department of Education and Board/District senior managers, consultants, frontline library technicians and librarians, as well as past and current school library leaders in the province.
3. The third data collection tool was a review of school library documents. Members of the ad hoc Committee on Teacher-Librarian Services provided a comprehensive set of current and historical documents on school librarianship in Nova Scotia, which were used to create a developmental view of school librarianship in the province. The documents included past reports on school libraries, any official government, district and NSTU and TLANS policies and documents impacting school libraries. As well, program offerings for pre-service teachers from provincial universities were examined for any evidence of the inclusion of school librarianship.
4. The Questionnaire on School Library Services was a fourth tool used for data collection. This Questionnaire probed classroom teachers’ experience with their school library personnel and the current status of school library services in their school. Participants determined if service has increased, decreased or stayed the same for questions on staffing, resources, services and instruction. NSTU circulated 2685 questionnaires through the NSTU School Representatives and 961 responses were collected and used for the data analysis for a 35.8% return rate.

Data Analysis
Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics resulting in numerical and visual summaries which were presented in 24 tables and 7 graphs. The research interviews and all written comments from the On-Line Survey and the Questionnaire on School Library Services were analyzed using the constant-comparative method for identifying recurring themes and threads of conversation. Quotes from the texts were identified as representative of those themes and then woven into the reporting of results.

Results on Staffing
The following summative statements outline the results on staffing in Nova Scotia school libraries.

• Most school libraries in the seven Boards/Districts which took part in the study are staffed with library-technicians with approximately 10% of positions held by professional librarians with a MLS, and the same number (10%) identified themselves as library assistants. There has been a clear increase in the number of these “Library support” positions from 198.7 in 1995 to 243.0 in 2001.
• The FTE (Full-time equivalent) allocation to these positions has increased in number as well. However, the ratio of FTE to Number of staff has remained quite consistent. This suggests that while the number of staff has increased, the number of actual work hours has remained the same.
• Less than 10% of classroom teachers reported an increase in the level of staffing in school libraries with over 80% indicating that the level of staffing has actually decreased or remained the same for their school. Classroom teachers have also seen the hours of operation in school libraries decrease substantially or stay at the same levels over the past three years.
• School library staff is well-qualified for the library technician positions with 75% reporting they have completed or are working on the library technician diploma. Ten (10) % reported having a Masters in Library Science (MLS).
• Many school library staff indicated they had qualifications well beyond the advertised requirements, with 25% reporting they had a combination of qualifications, such as some teacher training, teaching experience in another province and /or a Masters in Library Science on top of the library technician qualifications.
• School library staff allocation tends to increase from elementary to junior high to senior high school. Senior high schools were identified as the priority for staff and then the junior high schools. Elementary schools relied more on volunteers.
• Fully one-third of the school library personnel reported they had 3 years or less experience in a school library position, while over 40% had 11 or more years’ experience.
• Fourteen (14) % of the respondents indicated they were volunteers working in the school library position. One quarter of the volunteer school library personnel work between 1 and 6 hours a week, with 38% working 7-10 hours a week and 37% working over 11 hours week in the school library.
• Over half of the Principals indicated they did not use volunteers as school library staff, while 19% indicated they use 1-4 volunteers as school library staff and 23% indicated they use more than 4 volunteers as school library staff. This suggests that a significant number of school libraries are staffed with volunteers, at least part of the time.
• There was a wide range of official titles used to refer to the person holding the school library staff position. In casual terms, most referred to the position as “our librarian” with little attention to their qualifications.
• Interviews revealed that many library technicians feel the need for more professional development. They also feel their job may not match the actual job advertised, since the work becomes directed and often determined by the principal at the school level.
• The use of a school library has been reduced to a support service provisioning role with a staff of mostly library technicians operating without a focused educational perspective given any value.

Results on School Library Collections
The quality and state of school library collections was a major topic throughout the data gathering in this study. The respondents were not simply whining about not having enough; these were informed people talking seriously about the deteriorating state of school library collections in Nova Scotia schools. These statements summarize some of the results of the data analysis around budgets and school library collections.

• While 89% of Principals reported the School Board/District allocated a budget for the school library, only 32% said they set a budget at the school level. This meshed with reports during the telephone interviews where school library personnel reported the budget for the school library is not planned ahead of time, and they find it difficult to build a collection when they are unsure of how much funding they will have.
• While $6 per student is cited by several Boards/Districts under “global funding” policies, the frontline people reported serious discrepancies and inconsistencies in school library budgets, since principals make the school-level decision about where money will be spent. In addition, levels of funding have not increased for several years, and the value in real dollars for collections has actually decreased as factors of increased costs for materials and the need for diverse resources are factored in.
• While lack of funding for school library collections was a major issue, concerns were also raised about the lack of professional leadership in developing school library collections. No long range planning is done, school-based library staff often choose resources without a curriculum focus, and weeding and updating of collections is badly needed.
• A substantial group of classroom teachers felt there was an increase in resources available to them, but most stated things have remained much the same or actually decreased over the past few years. Many wrote in comments about the poor materials available to their students and about their students’ “lack of interest in using the school library”.
• Interviewees made many references to the fact that, while there may be lower budgets, an even worse situation is the poor choices school library staff is making when they do spend money. These support staff do not know the curriculum nor the reading interests and reading levels of the diverse populations in our schools.
• Senior administrators, Board/District library staff, and several front line people interviewed raised serious concerns about the lack of attention given to school libraries and about how the collections of resources in their school libraries were deteriorating each year.

Results on Services in School Libraries
The following points summarize the result on services in school libraries:

• The vast majority of school library staff reported they handle the clerical and management duties associated with the school library service. Duties such as re-shelving and tidying, managing the automated card catalogue and circulation system were the main tasks in this category.
• The predominant services that school library staff provides for students and teachers included signing materials in/out, helping students find things on the shelves, setting up displays and managing a library schedule.
• When it comes to collection management, almost all school library personnel reported they select and order materials for the collection and most consult with teachers regarding such purchases.
• School library staff were asked to indicate what percentage of their time was spent on clerical/management duties. One-third allocate up to 40% of their time to service/management duties while 50% allocate from 40-80% of their time on these tasks.
• Classroom teachers generally felt a serious decline in school library services to the point that they can no longer plan effectively for the use of school library services.
• Elementary classroom teachers linked their concerns about school library service to the poor levels of staffing and inadequate funding for school libraries. This feeling was also reflected in the written feedback provided by school library staff.
• Classroom teachers felt the loss of teacher-librarians who really know their curriculum and “reach out” more to the classroom than current staff.
• Classroom teachers reported erratic and inconsistent hours of service from their school library with some teachers starting to treat the library as “irrelevant” and “out of date” for their programs.
• In schools where adult volunteers are used as the school library staff person, they reported performing many of the service and management duties associated with paid and qualified library-technicians, library assistants and library clerks.

Results on Instruction in School Libraries
It is clear that the school library personnel who completed the On-Line Survey do actively engage in teaching activities associated with school library programs. The results showed that teaching information skills, how to take notes, how to write references and how to use access digital resources are examples of information literacy learning outcomes. While respondents to the On-Line Survey were adamant in their opinion that the work they do is not teaching, it seems hard to deny that instructional activities like the ones listed in the On-Line Survey are in fact, teaching.

Classroom teachers expressed strong opinions that there has seen a loss in being able to access any instructional support from personnel in their school libraries. They are told the school library staff person is a supplier of resources; someone to whom they can go to for materials for their teaching. In practice here too, classroom teachers say they are unable to teach information literacy, develop resource-based learning and teach the information/research process without help with the teaching from someone who knows the curriculum and also knows how to select and use resources which will help students achieve these learning outcomes.

The following statements further summarize the results of instruction in the school library:

• Over 50% of school library staff are actively engaged in a variety of instructional activities associated with using electronic resources effectively, evaluating information, plagiarism, copyright, citing references and recording bibliographies.
• Almost all school library personnel engage actively in promoting reading through a variety of incentive activities such as book talks, displays and author studies.
• School library staff indicated they allocate a substantial amount of their work time to instructional activities with one-third allocating up to 20% of their time, another third up to 40% of their time and the final third with over 40% of their time.
• Participants in the research interviews reported an inconsistent and erratic use of resource-based learning in its true sense and could give few examples of consistent development of information literacy by classroom teachers.
• The research interviewees also expressed strongly that we have lost valuable structures and support systems within the Department of Education, and at the Board levels, which have traditionally supported school library programs. “No one seems to be at the helm when it comes to school libraries.”
• In many cases, classroom teachers are reporting using more resources in their teaching, and teaching more research skills, but the participants in the research interviews reported these are not being developed consistently across the system or within the frameworks and directions of APEF documents.

Summary of All Results of the Study
An examination of all the results in the four research areas suggests the following:

School Library Services and Instructional Programs

1. School libraries are offering services – not instructional programs. The services offered vary depending on the qualifications of the staff the school library and the amount of FTE allotted. At the elementary level, in many cases that person is a volunteer. This means that the level of service for these students is erratic, inconsistent or non-existent.
2. The consequences are that there is no designed, developed or delivered instructional program. School libraries basically operate like public libraries, which supply materials to users and provide “instructional” support as people come through the door, but not in any developed or school-wide systematic plan for all students.
3. School libraries, as a viable educational force for literacy development and the teaching of lifelong learning skills, are disintegrating under several years of neglect and under funding. The Nova Scotia Department of Education makes little reference to any role a school library instructional program might have in the potential achievement of learning outcomes associated with information literacy, as articulated in APEF documents.
4. Little consistent infrastructure is in place to support school library services. School Library Committees are rarely established; technicians are seen as part of support services, and are not included in educational decision-making.
5. Leadership at the Department level and, in some cases at the Board/District levels, was consistently given as the second major factor undermining school libraries – after funding and staff cuts. This leadership was interpreted as lacking in the area of vision for the role school libraries play in student’s education and in the provisioning of consultative and program staffing to implement that vision.
6. Boards and the Department of Education are inconsistent in the appointment of consultants to spearhead the professional development and program growth of school libraries and few structures are in place to re-build school libraries.
7. There is no person with principal responsibility for school libraries provincially within the Department of Education. This role is subsumed under senior management duties in the English Programs Division. Thus, a coherent plan for professional development is missing, especially one arising from an articulated vision and set of standards
8. There is a pervasive perception that school libraries are irrelevant and low on decision-makers lists of educational priorities. If the situation is to improve, concerned individuals at all levels will have to be mobilized.
9. There is a pervasive lack of understanding of the instructional nature of the school library staff position. It appears Nova Scotia decision-makers chose to support the technical side of the work and leave the instructional side to classroom teachers. A question remains: Why would you want to deliver a library service to schools without a program?
   
   Staffing
    
10. Staff in school libraries are deeply committed to the value and role of school libraries, but they feel a tremendous need for financial support, leadership at their Board level, recognition of the “good job” they are doing under difficult circumstances and an increase in opportunities for professional development.
11. Each Board/District makes decisions regarding the expectations of the person hired to staff school libraries. Assigned duties and actual daily work are ultimately controlled or determined by the school principal.
12. Great divisions exist within the school library community itself with regard to the level of qualifications and the nature of the work that is done in school libraries. People are polarized between an either-or option - the technical/librarianship side of the job and the educational/instructional role of the school library- when the evidence shows we need both components to achieve stated learning outcomes.
13. Clarity and consistency in an understanding of the various job descriptions used for different types of school library work is needed at all levels of the school system.
14. Adult volunteers were found to be actually doing the work associated with paid and qualified library staff. In addition, little accountability for the work volunteers do was evident.
15. The issue of hiring over-qualified school library personnel also needs to be addressed. The person with a Masters degree, hired to do the work of a library technician, is underutilized and underpaid. Unfortunately, it also leads to unfair expectations of what library technicians could/should be doing.
    
    School Library Collections
     
16. Maintenance of facilities is reaching alarming levels as technicians are spread thinner and thinner in their job allocations, and as budgets are stretched or eliminated.
17. The quality and quantity of traditional school library resources available in the school library collection are in need of serious attention. Collections are described as severely out of date, worn and in need of extensive weeding and beyond a capacity to meet the curriculum and learning needs of students of teachers.

Dilemma Facing Nova Scotia School Libraries
After reviewing all of the data, several problem areas emerged that seem to tie together the conflicting issues around school libraries in Nova Scotia. There are no simple solutions to these problems, but until everyone involved recognizes the polarization that has taken place, no effort can be made to move forward and break what appears to be, at this point, an impasse.

Six dilemmas facing educators were outlined. They sum up the impact that the loss of teacher-librarians has had for children in Nova Scotia. More seriously, if not addressed quickly, they will cause irreparable damage to any future role for school libraries.

Dilemma One: Providing Service without a Program

In Nova Scotia school libraries are delivering a service without any instructional program. Educational leaders in the province must decide: Do we want to fund an expensive, school-housed resource for teaching and learning and attach no instructional function to it? Or do we want a library resource that each school uses and integrates into the learning environment of all its students?

Dilemma Two: Which is it? A Teaching Librarian or a Teacher-Librarian

There is inherent in the school library work, a teaching component. Educators must decide who does this teaching – a qualified teacher working as a teacher-librarian, or will professional librarians and even library technicians be given power to teach information literacy?

Dilemma Three: Accepting the Instructional and Professional Natures of School Librarianship

The work in school libraries demands management and organization of the facility, plus curriculum and instructional skills for program delivery. Educators need to recognize these dual professional and instructional roles inherent in school librarianship or the impasse on staffing will not be resolved.

Dilemma Four: Physical Verses Intellectual Access to Learning Resources

Passing out books and other resources only provides physical access to resources. Targeting those resources into meaningful learning experiences moves beyond physical access into intellectual access and learning.

Dilemma Five: School Library Collections – Running on Empty

Where will the children of Nova Scotia learn about the great contributions made by its own people and other Canadians to literature, art and learning, if their school library is non-existent or full of resources chosen from yard sales, book fairs, discount bins and discards from other collections? NSTU needs to lobby for more resource provisioning and to make sure issues of equity, currency, availability, relevance to Nova Scotia, and quantity of resources are all addressed.

Dilemma Six: Leadership for School Libraries

It is difficult to re-build school libraries when much of the infrastructure for change is non-existent. Leadership needs to be established at the provincial and School Board/District level so someone will take a renewed responsibility for school library programs and services.

Strategic Directions and Specific Actions for NSTU
Four major Strategic Directions are provided along with 22 recommended Actions for starting a new future for school libraries in Nova Scotia. Although they are framed within the context for NSTU action, they all require the involvement of all sectors of the school system.

Strategic Direction One

All levels of the educational system should establish and maintain visible administrative and program mechanisms for improving school library programs and services in Nova Scotia.

Action 1: Department of Education: Vision and Policy

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should lobby the Department of Education to develop and implement a policy statement for school library programs and service in Nova Scotia schools. The vision should include a statement of policy on school library programs and services, procedures for operating and managing school libraries, descriptions of staffing and their responsibilities, standards for staffing levels, facilities, collections, as well as a clear curriculum framework for teaching resource-based learning and information literacy learning outcomes in the APEF documents.

Action 2: Provincial School Library Coordinator

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should lobby the Department of Education to hire a full-time, permanent School Library Coordinator with these responsibilities:  1) to spearhead the development of policies and procedures as outlined in Action 1; 2) to provide leadership to Boards/Districts, internal Department of Education Consultants and all educators affected by school library programs and services; 3) to provide professional development for educators and support staff working in school libraries; 4) and to act as liaison with Provincial Library Services, Information Technology services and professional organizations on common school library issues.

Action 3: Department of Education School Library Standing Committee

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should lobby the Department of Education to create a School Library Standing Committee to work like other curriculum committees for the directing and developing of school library programs and services. The Committee should include these members: the Provincial School Library Coordinator as Chair, School Library Consultants from each Board/District, representatives of front line school library personnel, Provincial Library representative, Information Technology Services representative, as well as representatives from teacher education, library schools and library-technician programs.

Action 4: Department of Education: School Library Representative on Committees

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should encourage the Department of Education to appoint a school library representative to all curriculum committees. This person will provide expertise on the selection of resources and the effective, instructional use of the resources.

Action 5: School Board/District: School Library Consultants

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should lobby each School Board/District in Nova Scotia to appoint a School Library Consultant to work with the Department of Education Coordinator to provide school library leadership within the Board/District. The School Library Consultants will provide: 1) leadership to the Boards/Districts as they implement school library programs and services; 2) professional development for educators and support staff; 3) a liaison with Department of Education School Library Coordinator, School Library Standing Committee, Provincial Library Services, Information Technology services and professional organizations on common school library issues; and 4) leadership in developing school library policies, standards and curriculum initiatives for the Board/District and that reflect the Department of Education vision for school libraries.

Action 6: School Boards/ Districts: School Library Advisory Committee

Each School Board/District should establish a School Library Advisory Committee to work with the School Library Consultant to assess issues and concerns in school libraries, assist in resource selection, build a professional development strategy and provide input to the Board on school library programs and services.

Action 7: Principals/Schools: School Library Committee

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should lobby school principals to establish a School Library Committee at each school, with staff and parent representatives, to examine school library programs and services in their schools. The School Library Committee should establish a three-year plan for improving services, while ensuring all students receive instruction in expected information literacy outcomes.

Action 8: NSTU: Advisory Committee

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should establish an Advisory Committee to continue the work started by this research study, to provide direction for NSTU Provincial Executive and to help NSTU officers in establishing a Plan of Action to Achieve the Strategic Directions for School Libraries.

Action 9: NSTU: Dialogue on Staffing Issues

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should add to its current strategies for improving school libraries, a dialogue with other unions on the staffing issues raised in this study. Staffing issues should also be addressed in any dialogue with the Provincial Library system, and the professional schools of teacher education, librarianship and library technician.

Action 10: NSTU and TLANS

As a Division of Nova Scotia Teachers Union, the Teacher-Librarians’ Association of Nova Scotia (TLANS) can work with the NSTU, and with its network of contacts provincially and nationally, to develop a strategy to disseminate the results of this study and to build school-level and community awareness of the issues raised in this study.

Strategic Direction Two:

All students should have access to qualified staff providing school library services and instructional programs in information literacy.

Action 11: NSTU: Staffing for School Libraries

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should re-examine its current policies and statements on the staffing for school libraries to ensure there is a clear instructional role assigned to someone who will work with teachers to develop information literacy. The NSTU should decide who it believes will handle the instructional aspects of school library work. Should this be a teacher-librarian? Is it the sole responsibility of classroom teachers? Will NSTU members continue to let the teaching role seep away, only to be absorbed by non-teachers?

Action 12: NSTU: The Role of Teacher-Librarians

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should make teacher-librarian staffing issues a continued priority by taking a stand on what it believes is the role and value of teacher-librarians. The NSTU, in partnership with its teacher-librarian division, TLANS, should develop a Position Statement on Teacher-Librarians and School Library Programs in which their position on staffing and school library programs and services is clearly articulated. This Position Statement should form the basis of the NSTU and TLANS initiatives to improve school libraries.

Action 13: Department of Education: Teacher-Librarians in High Schools

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should urge the Department of Education and School Boards/Districts to take action to provide teacher-librarians in all senior high schools in Nova Scotia. It is essential that high school students have access to the instructional role played by teacher-librarians. Students can no longer graduate from high school without an equal chance to learn the basics of research and information literacy.

Action 14: NSTU: Use of Volunteers

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should examine closely the evidence that adult volunteers are performing the work typically assigned to paid staff. This issue should be addressed in concert with other affected unions, who share a common concern that paid skilled work is being done by volunteers. At the very least, the long-term use of volunteers, with no system of accountability for the work they are doing, should be stemmed.

Action 15: NSTU: Over-Qualified Hiring

In a similar way, the Nova Scotia Teachers Union should examine closely hiring practices where over-qualified people are hired as library-technicians or clerks. This issue should be addressed in concert with other affected unions as well. A careful watch over this tendency is warranted because it affects the level of work that the person in the position tends to deliver, and it adds confusion to the issue of who does the teaching associated with school library programs.

Action 16: School Boards/Districts

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should work with School Boards/Districts to develop clear job descriptions for all staff supplying school library services. Further, they should establish clear staffing mandates for the instructional aspects of school library programs. If a School Board/District is not going to support the hiring of teachers to develop school library programs and teach information literacy, then plans should be developed to support classroom teachers in developing this aspect of their classroom program.

Strategic Direction Three:

A major assessment of school library collections should be undertaken and new funding should be established to re-build adequate school library collections.

Action 17: Department of Education: Declining School Library Budgets

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should advise the Department of Education and the School Boards/Districts in Nova Scotia of its concerns about the declining school library budgets identified in this study. Policies need to be developed and enforced in each Board about increasing a set dollar amount per student, and then targeting that money solely for the purpose of purchasing resources for the school library.

Action 18: Department of Education: Assessing Current School Library Collections

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should advise the Department of Education and the School Boards/Districts in Nova Scotia about the need to assess the current condition of school library collections in the province, to weed out old, worn and dated materials. In addition, The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should urge School Boards/Districts, principals and their school-based School Library Committee of the importance of establishing school-based and district-wide plans for improving the school library collections in each school.

Action 19: Department of Education: Standards for Resource Selection

Standards for resource selection will be developed and applied in all school libraries to discourage impulse buying, purchasing what is conveniently at hand, and other habits where materials get into school libraries without meeting selection standards. Professional librarians have great expertise here, and their skills should be applied to improve school library collections provincially.

Strategic Direction Four:

A comprehensive professional development process should be established to provide educators with a renewed understanding of the educational role of school libraries.

Action 20: Faculties of Education: School Libraries in Preservice Education

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should take leadership in advising and encouraging pre-service programs at Nova Scotia Universities to include the role of school libraries and the need for information literacy in the B.Ed. programs currently in place for preparing new teachers. Also, contacts with library schools and programs for library-technicians should be made to examine any role given to the teaching of information skills in those training programs. 

Action 21: Faculties of Education: Training of Teacher-Librarians

The NSTU should advise and encourage Nova Scotia universities to offer courses to train new teacher-librarians.

Action 22: NSTU: Professional Development on the Role of School Libraries

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union should examine its current professional development strategy to ensure the role of school libraries and instruction in information literacy is a vital part of professional development initiatives for teachers. The Teacher-Librarians’ Association of Nova Scotia has played a vital role in developing professional activities on resource-based learning and information literacy for Nova Scotia educators. The NSTU should develop ways to enhance the role TLANS can play, and it should integrate their work into an overall strategy for professional development in the whole school library area.