Under TeleRead, libraries would need to spend less money on paper and ink and shelf-stocking–and have more money left over for books and librarians. No instant miracles. But that’s what would happen over the long run.
With e-books’ efficiencies in mind, we read with interest an item out of the University of Central Florida telling how K-12 students will fare better at schools with more books and better-staffed libraries. The findings apparently would apply outside Florida, too–to California, North Carolina, Massachusetts, no matter what the state. See links to a slew of studies from around the world, especially Impact of school libraries on student achievement: a review of the research, from an Australian researcher named Michele Lonsdale whose conclusions jibe with those from Florida.
Copyright millionaires vs. schoolchildren
Something for Bono defenders and Sen. and Mrs. Edwards–both education advocates–to ponder in both TeleRead and Bono contexts? And the same for John Kerry? Remember, Bono over the years will cost society billions to enrich a few.
Certainly the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will jack up the price of any TeleRead-style approach. The more books with hyperlong copyright terms, the fewer free e-books for kids and the rest of us. After all, TeleRead would need to pay out more money to heirs and conglomerates.
Abridged, here’s the UCF release showing in effect that the last thing we need it to put copyright heirs and the likes of Time Warner ahead of our local schools and libraries–or a well-stocked national digital library system:
Students at schools with well-staffed libraries that circulate the most books and have the most computers outperform their peers on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, according to research at the University of Central Florida.
FCAT scores, the state’s primary measure of student achievement, were 20 percent higher in 2000-01 in reading at high schools that employed at least one full-time professional librarian and the equivalent of one other full-time library employee, UCF education professor Donna Baumbach concluded in her “Making the Grade” report. FCAT scores also were highest at elementary and middle schools with well-staffed libraries.
Fifty-five percent of students passed the FCAT reading test at high schools with a full-time professional library media specialist and one or more employees who worked a combined 40 hours or more a week, compared with 37 percent at other high schools. Other factors influencing test scores include the size of a school’s library collection, the age of the materials and the availability of computers in the library.
Like studies in Colorado, Oregon, Texas, Iowa and New Mexico, the Florida research shows there is a strong correlation between available resources in a school’s library and student achievement…
One obstacle to motivating children to read can be the age of many books in Florida library collections, another issue addressed in the study.
Baumbach found that many school libraries are made up mostly of books that were published in 1980 or earlier. They could include geography books that show the Soviet Union, West Germany and East Germany in maps, or books on the space program that predate the Challenger explosion in 1986.
“Children don’t want to read books that are 40 years old and moldy,” Baumbach said. “They want to read good, contemporary books. If children can find books that they want to read, they’re more likely to become lifelong readers and to use libraries for the rest of their lives. We’re spending a lot of money teaching kids to read, but if they don’t have equitable access to good books and they don’t read, we’ve missed the whole point.”
According to the study, the average publication date for a book in a Florida school library is 1983. Parents can go to www.sunlink.ucf.edu and click on “SUNLINK Resources” and then “Age of Collection” to find out how recently materials in their children’s libraries were published.
Senator Edwards, can’t the needs of the schools and libraries prevail over Hollywood greed? Remember, Congress itself was so queasy about Bono–passed in 1998 at the strong urging of Disney and friends and other massive campaign contributors–that votes weren’t even recorded in the usual fashion. You weren’t in the Senate then. Time to tell how you would have wanted to vote?
The wag-the-dog factor: Did the Florida study take into consideration the fact that well-off schools could have better libraries just as a matter of course–to begin with? Well, I haven’t seen all the facts from the Florida study, which doesn’t present all the methodology online. but at least the Texas study, as I wrote earlier, “did compare the librarian-related info with other budget-influenced factors such as class size and suggested that the variances between schools with and without librarians were significant enough to be of interest.” One additional factor would be student motivation, which will vary among races and ethnics groups. Among thing things, motivation would reflects the aftermath of historical tragedities such as slavery, or the more positive aspects of the Asian-American experience. Regardless of the M factor, I believe that, yes, library funding can make a dramatic difference. I’d be most intereseted to see Senators Edwards or Kerry challenge this. Time for their copyright policies, then, to be pro-library and pro-school!
Update: In the Australian overview of research in various countries, I see a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of methodology in various studies.
Something else for the pols to consider: According to the 165-slide PDF of the study: “Fewer schools have collection
development policies than copyright policies.” That’s what happens when Hollywood counts more than education.
Books shockingly out of date: “About 50% of books in Florida school library media centers have publication dates before 1990,” the long PDF of the study also says. Yes, I know–some electronic resources would be around to provide up-to-date informaton. But really, are they substitutes for current books? Just how can the typical child, in such an enviroment, grow up with a full appreciation of novels and other books? Is this the kind of school to which Sen. Edwards or Sen. Kerry would like to send their children?
Book finance, public school style: The PDF says about the Florida schools says: “About 45% of a school library media budget comes from book fairs, candy sales, profits from a school store and/or PTAs, grants and gifts. Local and state budgets are simply not adequate.” Many other states are doing better than Florida. Still, this is yet additional proof that we need a national approach to help correct variations at the state and local levels, the kind of stuff I discussed in Copyright and K-12: Who pays in the network era?
(Via LISNews.)
