Digital divide and diversity in online school library profiles.
As new immigrants to Australia, my parents instinctively selected a primary school according to the quality of its library. Today's parents are more likely to 'meet' schools in cyberspace, than on foot. Thus the question arises of the online library profile, in particular, does it have any bearing on the quality of the school? Therefore the profiles of libraries on school websites were compared to school achievement in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).
The hypothesis is that a good virtual library presence is indicative of good VCE performance, just as good libraries are consistently associated with better academic outcomes (Lonsdale, 2003; Masters & Forster, 1997). Sixty websites were examined, the twenty highest scoring independent and state schools and state schools ranked from 204-228. As expected, considerable differences were found in VCE achievement between the three groups (Graph 1,calculations in Appendix B).
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| Graph 1 |
School websites were scored according to:
- a) referral to a library,
- b) visibility/prominence on the website and
- c) promotion.
The key for scoring can be found in Tables 1&2,Appendix A. Visibility was scored by counting the number of clicks required to arrive at library information and promotion scored by assessing the graphics and resources. Enticing sites with resources, programming, graphics and animation are exemplified below.
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| logged in view - permission of Mckinnon SC. |
Graph two shows that the highest ranking twenty state and independent schools, almost all referred to their libraries (columns a). Generally two or three clicks were required to locate the information (columns b), which consisted of a page of description or graphics (columns c). In contrast 30% of the lower ranked state schools made no reference to a library (column a), three clicks or a key word search was required to find information consisting of a few lines (columns b&c; data and calculations in Appendix B).
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| Graph 2. Libraries on school websites. |
The activity taught me about inequities in education, role of the library and the digital divide. I became very aware of the impact of an inviting website, as a reflection of the library. With regard to professional practise, I recognized the necessity of developing skills to create an appealing environment, online as much as offline. The best websites used a gamut of technologies, blogging, online resource curation, social networking, student reviews and tags, dynamic cartoons, games and tools. Although developing these Web 2.0 skills requires time, they can be self-taught and many tools are free (Holmquist, Joseph & Barwick, 2013).
The major conclusion from this study is that numerous secondary students are underserved by school libraries, impacting their VCE and career prospects. In Victoria, student disengagement is substantial (Cook, 2014; Mackenzie, Thielking & Chauvet-Allen, 2012). Professional practise should comprise support in terms of resources, technology, study environments, programming, youth advisory groups and partnering with other organisations (Gorman & Suellentrop, 2004).
References
Cook, H.(2014, May 12). Generation lost. Education crisis, school dropouts pose risk of 'social disaster.' The Age, 1.
Gorman, M. & Suellentrop, T. (2004). Outreach and Partnerships. In Connecting young adults and libraries (4th ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, pp.195-222.
Holmquist, J., Joseph, M. & Barwick, K. (2013). 23mobilethings Exploring the potential of mobile tools for delivering library services. Retrieved from
http://23mobilethings.net/wpress/the-things/
Lonsdale, M. (2003). Impact of school libraries on student achievement: a review of the research, Report for the Australian School Library Association, Australian Council for Educational Research. Retrieved from
http://www.asla.org.au/research/reading_literacy.htmMackenzie, D., Thielking, M. & Chauvet-Allen, C. ( 2012). The Geelong project. A Review of Victorian educational initiatives relating to youth homelessness. Retrieved from
http://homelessnessclearinghouse.govspace.gov.au/files/2012/04/NHRA-Swinburne-Report.pdf
Masters, G. & Forster, M. (1997). Mapping Literacy Achievement: Results of the 1996 National School English Literacy Survey. Retrieved from Australian Council of Educational Research website: http://research.acer.edu.au/monitoring_learning/1/
Scholastic Research and Results. (2008). School libraries work! Research foundation paper (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/s/slw3_2008.pdf
Softlink. (2013). 2013 Australian school library survey. Retrieved from http://www.softlinkint.com/2013-australian-school-library-survey-schools/
Whilst I would agree that there is certainly a correlation between schools with better results, and the presence of a good library website, I'm not quite convinced that one directly leads to another.
ReplyDeleteFrom your statistics, several independent schools have little or no online library presence, and still their results are better than 90% of the top 20 public schools.
There are so many other contributing factors to education, such as the quality of teaching, socio-economic factors on students' lives, classroom sizes, selective enrolment, range of subjects offered, and budget spent on resources.
Of course, that's not to say that many of these schools don't have a sufficient online library presence - many provide an online learning management system through a closed intranet, which you might not have been aware of from scanning the school's public website. Through these closed systems, teachers can communicate regularly with students and parents, share resources using wikis, and allow scope for online collaborative learning using social media. Particularly on this last point, it's important to keep these channels closed from outside the school community, as online safety and privacy are important issues when providing services to school students.
Hi Andrew,
DeleteThanks for your comments with regard to my blog about inequity in the school system and diversity of library profiles. I’ll try and address your points.
1. The blog article demonstrates a correlation between good library websites and good results but it cannot be concluded from this that one actually causes the other.
Yes absolutely, one is only associated with the other, it is not a causative relationship. I don’t claim that advertising the library on the school website will cause the school to do well. My argument is that a school that values its library and show-cases it on the website, is more likely to have a good learning culture, hence the correlation. (The prominent presence of the library on the website could be thought of as a sort of ‘smoking gun’ for a school with a good learning culture).
2. ‘Several independent schools have little or no online library presence’, yet do extremely well.
Only one independent school in the top 20 makes no mention of its library. This school does have a good primary and secondary library. They also have small classes and an extremely strong sense of community, which is cultivated all the way through the high school through social events and a culture of community service. As you say- libraries are not the only contributing factor to success in VCE, yet this school is an exception.
3. My blog did not look at the representation of the library on the school intranet.
I would be most interested in the ‘intranet’ view of the libraries, but did not have access to this. My guess though is that the online profile of the library on the public school website, would reflect, broadly at least, the intranet presence of the library.
Unfortunately the Australian government has not agreed to support recommendation three of the House of Representative Standing Committee on Education and Employment, that data about school libraries be publically available on the MySchool website (Australian Government, 2011, p.3). If this crucial data were available it would be possible to investigate the factors about libraries that help schools succeed. I feel sure the importance of libraries, shown by a great deal of research (some listed in my blog), would gain greater recognition. I would hope that this would counteract inequity and halt the continuing attrition of Australian school libraries (Australian School Library Association, 2010, p.6).
Australian Government. (2011). House of representative standing committee on education and employment. School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia report. - Australian Government response. Retrieved from http://slaq.org.au/sites/default/files/inquiryteacherlibrariansresponse%20(1).pdf
Australian School Library Association. (2010). Submission of the School Library Association Inc. to the House of Representatives Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian Schools. Zillmere, Qld.:Australian School Library Association Inc.
I am not sure that I library website is indicative of student performance although I can understand that there may appear to be a correlation between the two, however, I wonder how much of it is instead an indication of budget and expenditure. Independent Schools with higher fees have more money and therefore can afford to outsource their websites, therefore better designed and better accessed, and their libraries are better funded as well. Conversely, a low performing state school has a much lower budget and the online presence would most likely be done by staff. If the library staff are uncomfortable with their online skills that may mean a poor online showing for the library, but the library might still have a great variety of resources for the budget.
ReplyDeleteHi Meredith,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I take your point about the 'lower budget schools and lower achieving' schools not being able to afford such good websites. What I found disturbing was that these schools did have professional looking school websites, the websites just excluded the library (if there was one) or it was hard to find a mention of it.