Advocacy - Secondary School Case Study

Background

The school librarian (of a large oversubscribed suburban secondary school) attended an Advocacy conference organised by her local schools library service. The conference was targeted at school librarians and senior management. It aimed to raise the profile of school libraries and emphasise the impact that a good school library can have on pupils' learning. However the senior management at her school did not prioritise attendance at the conference. On her return the librarian lobbied her line manager, a deputy head, and asked if she could give a brief presentation to the senior management team.

Briefing Sheet

The librarian as part of her presentation produced a briefing sheet using quotes from a variety of sources that had been highlighted during the conference. For example:

• OFSTED advises inspectors to "make reference to the library and LRC at any point in the report where it has a significant impact (positive or negative) on pupils' standards of achievement," and to avoid comments that "unwittingly convey an impression that the library is peripheral."
  (Guidelines to Inspectors, 2001
  
  
• Raising standards
  "Libraries have greatest impact when teachers and librarians collaborate, particularly on collection development, in the planning of resources and instructional design, as well as provision by librarians of training for teachers."
  "The quality and variety of the collection is a significant factor in student learning and therefore adequate funding needs to be available."
  (Aberdeen Business School Information Management Research, 2001)
  
  
• Information skills
  "If independent learning and information skills are to become central to the curriculum, the survey suggests that most schools will need to move up a gear. Use of the library will need to be broader and more consistent across the curriculum, and make a more focused impact on standards and progress in learning. To achieve this the library needs to become a whole-school development priority, with a commitment to purposeful action and rigorous evaluation. This requires major commitment from senior management."
  (BASS Monitoring Report No.6: The Difference We're Making - Library Provision in Birmingham Secondary Schools, 2002)

Summary

The librarian summarised the content of the conference by emphasising that 3 factors determine the impact of the school library on learning and achievement:

i)    Collaboration / strategic planning.
ii)   Presence of librarian.
iii)  Collection of materials with both breadth and depth.

and that 2 processes are essential:

i)     Evaluation
ii)    Investment

Outcome

As a result of the presentation the librarian has managed to achieve the following:

i)    Her post has been regraded.
ii)   The bookfund has been doubled (for 1 year.)
iii)   A new library is now being planned.