Report Claims Canadian School Libraries Are Ill-Equipped

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2003/june2003/reportclaims.cfm

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Posted June 30, 2003.

Report Claims Canadian School Libraries Are Ill-Equipped

Canada’s national librarian Roch Carrier told attendees at a June 26 international conference on children’s literature at the National Library of Canada that “the state of school libraries is just miserable.” Citing budget cuts and understaffing, Carrier noted that he had seen problems firsthand, including “libraries in schools where they could not buy books for the last 10 years,” the Toronto Star reported June 26.

His comments are supported by a June report, The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment, published by the Association of Canadian Publishers and written by Ken Haycock, professor of library and information studies at the University of British Columbia.

The report recommends that provincial ministries of education “fund research investigating the effect of school libraries and teacher-librarians on student achievement, literacy, and culture” and dedicate funding for the enhancement of school-library collections. Haycock, who also attended the conference, said “we’re facing a situation of our schools potentially becoming information-rich, but knowledge-poor.”

“Libraries should be at the heart of the school,” Carrier said in his address. “It is where you go to get excited about what you’re learning in the classroom.”

Posted June 30, 2003.