0132—Education and Training—SCHOOL LIBRARY SERVICES

Dr Kaye to the Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for the Central Coast, and Minister Assisting the Minister for Finance—

1. Has recent research linked quality school library programs with improved student academic achievement?
2. What guidelines, targets, and strategic plans are in place for the development of school library resource centres, resource-based learning and information literacy programs in schools, in order to develop best practice and best student outcomes?
3. What specific in-service training is in place for school principals in the modern role of the professionally qualified teacher librarian in contributing to the school teaching and learning program?
4. What guidelines are available within the Department of Education and Training for principals to evaluate and guide the strategic development of their school library services and the development of whole school information literature communities?
5.  
1. Are the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (ALIA⁄ASLA, 2004) and the national standards for school libraries, Learning for the Future: Developing Information Services in Schools (ASLA⁄ALIA, 2001) used in professional development for principals?
2. If not, why not?
6.  
1. What steps can teachers take to improve the quality of their teaching through collaboration with the school teacher librarian?
2. Are in-services conducted for these teachers?
7.  
1. What attempts are being made to include information literacy in pre-service training for teachers, including the role of the teacher-librarian and cooperative planning and teaching?
2. What further steps will be taken?

Answer—

1. Yes. Examples of how this flows on to good practice in government schools are published in the Department of Education and Training's professional quarterly journal, Scan.
2. Schools are guided by such resources as the Library Policy, the Handbook for School Libraries, the Information Skills in the School support document, articles in Scan, the Raps and Book Raps program, support for students in the highly successful Premier's Reading Challenge and a new project, School Libraries Transforming Learning.
3. Support is provided through principal induction programs, advice on information literacy from teacher-librarians, Scan, OASIS Web Enquiry and workshops for school principals provided by the School Libraries and Information Literacy Unit in the Department's Curriculum K–12 Directorate.
4. The Library Policy, Handbook for School Libraries and the Information Skills in the School document provide frameworks for principals to evaluate and guide the development of their library services and their school as an information literate community. Principals are also guided by the expertise of their teacher-librarian, who is the school's library manager. Specific sections of the Department's Handbook for School Libraries provide advice on planning, developing and evaluating information services. Articles and research in Scan provide additional support. There is also a planning proforma available on the School Libraries and Information Literacy website which enables teacher-librarians to show how they support class units of work, integrate technology and use the information skills framework to support information literacy development. In addition, specific support is available for principals and teacher-librarians from the School Libraries and Information Literacy Unit.
5.  
1. The Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians and Learning for the Future are referenced in workshops, including those for principals, and in Scan articles.
2. N⁄A
6.  
1. All teachers can discuss ways they might collaborate on units of work with the teacher-librarian in their school and the benefits that can flow from such collaboration. In addition, there are articles in Scan which teachers can read about possible models of collaboration and ways that teacher-librarians can be available as mentors and 'teaching buddies'.
2. All teachers are welcome to attend the workshops provided by the School Libraries and Information Literacy Unit. Regions and professional networks are also invited to request workshop support.
7.  
1. Under the Institute of Teachers Act 2004 one of the functions of the NSW Institute of Teachers is the approval of programs offered by providers of initial teacher education.  In order to gain approval, one of the elements pre-service teacher education programs are required to meet is that they prepare teachers to integrate information and communication technologies within effective teaching and learning strategies. In terms of information literacy, teacher education programs need to ensure that graduate teachers have considered the issues of appropriate access to, and verification of, information gained from a variety of sources including the Internet; understood requirements that they and their students use electronic information appropriately including in relation to plagiarism, copyright, censorship and privacy; and demonstrated a capacity to critically evaluate, retrieve, manipulate and manage the information from sources such as the Internet, CD-ROMS, DVD-ROMS and other commercial programs. With respect to cooperative planning and teaching, under element six of the NSW Institute of Teachers' Professional Teaching Standards, graduate teachers must have the capacity to contribute to a professional community. This involves demonstrating knowledge of the importance of teamwork in an educational context, accepting constructive feedback to improve and refine teaching and learning practice and preparing for and contributing to discussion about the teaching profession and or⁄subject content.
2. While the Institute of Teachers has released a document on subject content requirements and mandatory additional requirements for initial teacher education programs, further work will be undertaken to consider specialist teachers including teacher-librarians.