Dreams and Dynamics. Selected Papers from the Annual Conference

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 399 930 IR 056 045

AUTHOR Hannesdottir, Sigrun Klara, Ed.; And Others TITLE Dreams and Dynamics. Selected Papers from the Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (22nd, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, September 27-30, 1993). INSTITUTION International Association of School Librarianship, Kalamazoo, Mich. REPORT NO ISSN-0257-3229 PUB DATE 93 NOTE 88p.; For individual papers, see IR 056 046-057. Conference held concurrently with 13th Biennial Conference of the Australian School Library Association. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Childrens Literature; *Conference Proceedings; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Futures (of Society); *Information Technology; Learning Resources Centers; *Librarians; Library Development; Library Education; *Library Role; Partnerships in Education; Public Libraries; *School Libraries; User Needs (Information) IDENTIFIERS International AssociaLi.... Schf)ol Librarianship; - Teacher Librarians

ABSTRACT The themes of the 22nd Annual International Association of School Librarianship conference were: "Building a Picture of Society in the Year 2000"; "Literature--Themes of the '90s Towards the Future"; "Education--Partnerships To Develop Life-Long Learners"; and "Technology into the 21st Century." The following papers were selected for publication by the editorial committee:(1) "Australia's Contribution to International School Librarianship" (Joe Hallein; and others);(2) "The Financial Value of the Teacher Librarian" (Fay Nicholson);(3) "Towards Achieving a Critical Thinking Society in Malaysia: A Challenge to School Libraries and Educational Systems" (Raja Abdullah Yaacob and Norma Abur Seman); (4) "Across the Curriculum: Across the World" (Blanche Woolls); (5) "Violence in Children's Literature Today" (Maureen Nimon);(6) "The Politics of Children's Literature" (Jean A. Webb);(7) "History, Dreams and Reality: Storytelling Programs in Malaysia" (Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad);(8) "Training School Librarians for the Nigerian School System: A New Perspective" (David F. Elaturoti);(9) "Managing Media Centers in Secondary Schools" (Jan A. Kruger); (10) "Library Training in the South Pacific from 1972-1993" (Melvyn D. Rainey); (11) "The Role of the Public Library in Supporting Education in the Natal Region" (Rookaya Bawa); and (12) "Computerizing the Chinese International School Libraries" (Marilyn McMahon). (SWC)

-,...**1;A::*************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. 01 Points of view or opinions stated in this 01 document do not necessarily represent 01 official OERI position or policy.

(2) 22nd Annual Conference

INTIT4RNATIONAL ASSOCIA _ION 07 SCHOOL LI"'RARIANSHIP

SELECT PAPERS

ST. PETER'S LOLL A,G1,4' ADELAIDI4], SOUTH AUSTRALIA

SHPTM R 27-30, 1993 1.0 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ISSN 0257-3229 Ken Haycock kr) 0 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." DREAMS and DYNAMICS

Selected Papers from the 22nd Annual Conference International Association of School Librarianship held concurrently with The XIII Biennial Conference of The Australian School Library Association

St. Peter's College Adelaide, South Australia

International Association of School Librarianship P.O. Box 19586 Kalamazoo, MI 49019-0586 USA

March 1993 ISSN 0257 3229 Any material copied for distribution from this publication must be credited to the International Association of School Librarianship with full bibliographic information. Contact the IASL Secretariat for permission if you propose to copy and/or distribute any portion of this publication. International Association of School Librarianship, P.O. Box 19586, Kalamazoo, MI 49019-0586, USA. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface IASL Conference Program ii Australia's Contribution to InternationalSchool Librarianship by Joe Ha Nicholson, Judy Phillips, and Barbara llein, Fay Posten-Anderson 1 The Financial Value of the Teacher Librarian by Fay Nicholson 6 Towards Achieving a Critical Thinking Society in Malaysia: AChallenge to School Libraries and Educational Systemsby Dr. Raja Abdullah Yaacob and Seman Norma Abur 10 Across the Curriculum: Across the World by Blanche Woo lls 24 Violence in Children's Literature Today by Maureen Nimon 29 The Politics of Children's Literature by Jean A. Webb 3 4 History, Dreams and Reality:Storytelling Programs in Malaysia by Mohd Sa ad Shard Mohd 40 Training School Librarians for theNigerian School System: A New Elaturoti Perspective by David F 50 Managing Media Centers in Secondary Schools by Jan A. Kruger 56 Library Training in the South Pacific from 1972-1993 by Melvyn d.Rainey 61 The Role of the Public Library inSupporting Education in the Natal Region Ba wa by Rookaya 70 Computerizing the Chinese International School Libraries by Marilyn McMahon 7 6 Preface

At each conference of the International Association of School Librarianship the president appoints an editorial committee to review all papers presented at the conference and select those that will be published as selected papers. Selection of papers is based upon the following criteria: Applies to the conference theme Integrates with other papers on the conference theme Presents information applicable to a large percentage of association members Is well written Presents new information or information new to association members Adheres to proposed length Unique information Represents a wide variety of countries. Papers are edited for clarity, grammar, and spelling by the committee members who forward their suggestions to the chair of the committee who is responsible for the final copy.

The Editors: Sigrun Klara Hannesdottir Blanche Woolls Donald C. Adcock, Chair

U IASL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Building a Picture of Society in the Year 2000

Australia's Contribution to International School Librarianship by Joe Hallein, Fay Nicholson, Judy Phillips and Barbara Posten-Anderson The Financial Value of the Teacher Librarian by Fay Nicholson Towards Achieving a Critical Thinking Society in Malaysia: A Challenge to School Libraries and Educational Systems by Dr. Raja Abdullah Yaacob and Norma Abu Semen Across the Curriculum: Across the World by Professor Blanche Woo lls

Literature. . .Themes of the 90's..Towards the Future

Multicultural and Multilingual Materials in the Primary School: Why, What, and How? by Richard F. Barter Diaries, Dreams and Dynamics: An Introduction to a Video Book Talk on Diaries to 10th Grade Students by Valerie J. Downes Violence in Children's Literature Today by Maureen Nimon History, Dreams and Reality: Storytelling Programmes in Malaysia by Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad The Politics of Children's Literature by Dr. Jean A. Webb History, Dreams, and Reality: Storytelling Programs in Malaysia by Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad Education. . .Partnerships to Develop Life-Long Learners

The Role of the Public Library in Supporting Education in the Natal Region by Rookaya Bawa

Libraries Go Public. . .Relations That Is by Marvene Dearman and Ann Nauman Training School Librarians for the Nigerian School System: A New Perspective by David F. Elaturoti

Managing Media Centres in Secondary Schools by John A. Kruger Library Training in the South Pacific from 1972-1993 by Melvyn D. Rainey

Technology .into the 21st Century

V-Lib in Chinese International School by Marilyn McMahon

iii Australia's Contribution to International School Librarianship

by Joe Ha llein, Fay Nicholson, Judy Phillips, and Barbara Posten-Anderson Australia has played a very active role in pro- Vanuatu project will be presented later in the moting and developing school librarianship on a paper. international basis. Most of our aid projects in Australian input to school library develop- school library development have been in the ment has also taken placae as part of major Asia/Pacific region but programs have been car- educational development projects om the region. ried out in other areas as well.The largest Some of these have been multi-lateral programs school library development project that has sponsored by agencies such as the World Bank been carried out by Australians is the UNESCO which provided funding for the Solomon Islands School Libraries in Oceania Project that was Primary Education Expansion Project from launched by UNESCO in 1978 and has con- 1983 to 1985. As part of this project provincial tinued for thirteen years. A number of visits educational resource centers were established were carried out to investigate the state of and basic ref-erence collections were supplied to school libraries in the southwest Pacific and to schools. Project consultant, Joe Hallein, also make recommendations to UNESCO for projects conducted training courses for primary school to help develop school library programs.Law- educators in the effective use of educational rence McGraw, Margaret Trask, Barbara Pos- resources. This project as well as other such as ten-Anderson, and Joe Hallein visited a number the STEP project in western Samoa also of South Pacific nations during the 1970s and established libraries in the teacher training 80s.Workshops for developing school library colleges and therefore exposed future teachers to education programs were conducted by the pro- the benefits of using a range of educational ject, and a group of Australian library educators resources in classroom teaching. prepared two courses for training teachers in Australia also contributes to school library the use of libraries, and for training school development in the Pacific region as part of its librarians. The courses, designed for both tradi- programs to support international efforts such tional class rooms and distance education, were as International Library Year. published by UNESCO in 1989. The Australian International Development A regional meeting of librarians and edu- Assistance Bureau has provided courses for cators from the Pacific region was held in Suva, educators from many countries on libraries and Jiji in November 1983.The purpose of this educational resources. Many of these are held UNESCO-funded meeting was to examine the at the Centre for Pacific Development and course material to see if it met the needs of the Training in Sydney. While many of these are region.Given the green light, it was then held for participants from the Pacific region introduced into teacher education programs some, such as the course on educational re- across the southwest Pacific. sources held in 1982, had eleven African, Asian, In order to ensure that each country had and Pacific countries. The course was run by qualified people to teach the course, UNESCO AIDAB in conjunction with staff from the School also sponsored a workshop in Sydney, Austra- of Library Information Studies at the then Kur- lia, in July-August, 1985 for sixteen librarians ingai CAE. The International Development Pro- and teacher educators from ten Pacific nations. gram of the Australian University System has Par-ticipants were given detailed notes on also been active in providing library devel- teachingspecificeducationalresources. opment assistance. While most of its programs Training pro-grams were also conducted for are designed to assist university libraries, it educators and librarians in western Samoa in has also provided assistance to library schools. 1986 and in Vanuatu in 1989 and 1990 with a Some of the library school projects such as those further course held in 1991.The Vanuatu held in conjunction with the University of Papua courses em-phasized easily accessible and New Guinea are designed to improve training inexpensive re-sources such as puppets, drama programs for teacher librarians. and movement, and book reports and Overseas school library practice placements discussion by teachers, as well as in-service for Australian school librarianship students training for librarians.More details of the have also proven to be valuable source of international school library development. Both the

1 University of Technology, Sydney andMonash by delegates from over twenty developing University, Gipps land Campus have taken stu- countries. dents to Vanuatu for school library practiceand IFLA as an association representing librar- this year the Monash students did a month-long ianship is accredited by various international program in Thailand. associations such as UNESCO. Combined pro- Australians have been active participants jects have been undertaken in school librarian- in international library organizationssuch as ship in many countries including Oceania. the International Federation of Library Associa- tions and Institutions (IFLA) and theInterna- The International Association of School tional Association of School Librarianship Librarianship (IASL). The International Association of School Contributions to these two associations are Librarianship (IASL) is based on a wide mem- made at two levels--officially through representa- bership of people interested in school libraries tion by professional associations, and bythe and librarianship and include school librarians, individuals through participation in committees, educators, publishers, institutions, and assoc- conferences, research projects, and contribu- iations.Elected officers and directors repre- tions to publications. senting regions of the world set association policy. The International Federation of Library The objective of IASL are: Associations and Institutions to encourage the development of school The International Federation of Library libraries and library programs through- Associations and Institutions is governed by an out all countries; elected board. Our National Librarian, Warren to promote the professional preparation Horton, is currently a member of theboard. and continuing education of school li- Input to the Association is largely madethrough brarians; the sections and round tables which represent to foster a sense of community among the specific interest groups of the profession. school librarians in: all parts of the One of the sections represents schoollibraries, world; and the current president is LucilleThomas to foster and extend relationships be- who is also president of IASL. Contributions to tween school librarians and other pro- school librarianship are also made through fessions connected with children and other sections and round tables such asthe youth; Research and Education Sections and the Con- to foster communication and research in tinuing Pro-fessional Education Round Table. A the field of school librarianship; current re-search project by Dr. SigrunHannes- to promote publication and dissem- dottir on guidelines for undertaking national ination of information about school surveys on schoollibrarianship is directly librarianship and materials for children relevant, and the Continuing Professional Edu- and youth; and cation Round Table pre-conference in Barcelona to initiate and coordinate activities in this year included areas of interest to school the field. librarianship. IASL is affiliated with IFLA and jointly IFLA holds a conference annually in a dif- organizes a book donation program with ferent country. In 1988 the conference was in UNESCO in developing countries. Sydney, Australia.This arrangement enables Many Australians have participated in participants to gain greater information on the annual IASL conferences in many parts of the host country and greater participation by people world and as one of the founding countries has from that country in international activities. been represented by a director since 1971. Many sections hold smaller conferencesand Each of these organizations has similar seminars in association with IFLA. This year aims for school librarianship. Each enables pro- the School Section in association with UNESCO fessional associations to contribute information held a five-day pre-conference seminar prior to and influence policy. IFLA represents profes- the IFLA conference in Barcelona.Individual sional librarians while IASL has a broader Australian teacher librarians have contributed membership base, but each provides oppor- papers to IFLA activities over many yearsand tunities for professional development for this year Fay Nicholson contributed as a individuals which is so essential in a changing resource person to thepre-conference attended environment.

2 Participation in international associations guidance, the merits of resource-based learning, enables Australians to learn from colleagues in and the need for children to acquire in-formation both developed and developing countries.It skills were generally new ideas for those also provides a means of sharing our knowledge interviewed. and experience from our base of well estab- As a result, there was a belief that before lished school libraries and professional educa- school libraries could develop at the primary tion for teacher librarians. school level, teachers must first learn to share more effectively the resources they have with UNESCO School Library Project in children.Also, those who were in charge of Vanuatu collections (primary schools) or libraries (secon- UNESCO and the Australian National dary schools) needed to learn to manage them Commission for UNESCO have been active in more effectively. promoting the development of library services in Recommendations from the 1989 review vis- the Asia-Pacific region, particularly at the school it formed the basis of further visits, demonstra- level.The UNESCO Pacific School Libraries tions, and workshops in 1989, 1990, and 1991. Program has included a range of activities both In 1989, consultants Joe Hallein and Barbara in Australia and in the Pacific.Since 1987, Poston-Anderson visited schools on the islands focus has centered on Vanuatu, a country which of Efate, Tanna, Santo, and Malekula. At the had expressed a special interest in participating primary schools, a specially prepared resource in the program. kit was shared and given to each school visited. At Vanuatu's invitation, a UNESCO spon- As the kit was demonstrated, the teachers sored review visit was undertaken with a view became more aware of the wide range of ways of developing a model that could serve as the in which reading and language development basis for a plan for future school library could be promoted in the classroom by means of developments in countries of the South Pacific. puppetry, sharing picture books, string stories, During this visit Primary Advisors, other group reading, and participative storytelling. At educational officials at the Ministry of Educ- selected junior and secondary schools, direct ation, and teachers and principals in a number liaison with those in charge of school libraries of schools were consulted. occurred. As a result, some informal training in A range of needs emerged from these school library management was possible. interviews. The selection of appropriate mater- In 1990, two separate workshops were pre- ials for school collections in both Anglo-phone sented in Vanuatu. The first was targeted at and Franco-phone schools was a main concern. Primary Advisors and, by their request, focused Gift books donated from various overseas organ- on resources and their use. The workshop dealt izations formed the basis of most primary with resource-based learning and making use of school collections. However, the supply of such resources in the environment (such as custom materials was infrequent and not always stories, string figures, and expertise in the com- viewed as relevant.Discussions on this issue munity).Resources already available within resulted in the development of the guidelines, the school were stressed such as the ELPAM Selection of Materials for Vanuatu. Up-to-date (English Language Pacific Area Materials) resources with a multi-cultural emphasis were which had recently been provided to each Anglo- highly regarded as were materials developed for phone school by AIDAB. The importance of those who were learning English or French as a developing information skills in students was second language. highlighted, and less traditional forms of learn- In 1987, there were no trained school librar- ing, such as drama and readers theatre, were ians in Vanuatu, and although there were li- explored. The aim was to provide the Primary braries at the junior and secondary schools, Advisors with background knowledge and re- there were none in primary schools with one ex- sources to run a similar workshop with teach- ception.Classroom collections or book rooms ers in their own region. were more usual in primary schools.When a The second workshop was developed for collection did exist, a teacher was put in charge. teachers with no previous library training who This role was in addition to normal teaching were in charge of secondary school libraries. duties and there was no guarantee that this Focus was on providing them with the basics of same teacher would have ongoing responsibility school library management. Selection, acquisi- for the collection. The concept of the library as tion, organization, circulation, and information the center of learning, the role of reading and resource use were key areas covered.

3 19 As a follow-up to these two workshops, the ing for a number of years, but the Vanuatu Min- consultants were invited back again in 1991. istry of Education provided their full support The Primary Advisors suggested the topic of through release of participants to attend work- "The Communicating Classroom." During this shop sessions and through evaluative feedback workshop, the Primary Advisors created a work- as to the appropriateness of sessions.There book and video tape to use with teachers to was time to build on the initial input and follow encourage them to help children take a more through on recommendations. As a result, in active role in their own learning. Sessions on in- Vanuatu there is now a recognition of the formation skills and organizing collections were importance of school library services. also included. The second workshop provided in-depth sessions in management areas for Literacy Programs for Public Libraries in those secondary teachers who were in charge of the Southwest Pacific--The Cook Islands school libraries. Public Library and School Library Today many of the recommendations made Services in the initial review visit in 1987 have been met In November 1990, Joe Hallein and Judy or are in the process of being met.Several Phillips visited The Cook Islands as part of a organizations, including UNESCO, have been Victorian International Literacy Year Grant to working together with the Vanuatu government try a booklet outlining literacy programs for li- in their aim of providing high quality primary braries.The booklet, designed for the use of and secondary education. Of particular public librarians in the Southwest Pacific, importance to school library development is the promoted a rationale for the inclusion of literacy fact that one of the Primary Advisors, Inwai programs through the public library. The book- Mete, was sponsored by AIDAB to travel to let has sections devoted to the need for literacy Australia where she received her library programs, the role of libraries in literacy, training. Now back in Vanuatu she continues suitable resources to use in literacy programs to follow through on many of the recommenda- and criteria for resource selection.It also tions, providing valuable local support for the includes a range of activities that can be used continued development of school libraries. with young people when implementing the pro- As a result of the experience in Vanuatu, gram the following three stage model for school library The booklet is designed to be issued as a development in other regions is suggested. hand-book for librarians to devleop literacy pro- First, in stage one, at the invitation of the coun- grams within their communities. The particular try concerned, a review visit is undertaken. The target for the booklet is young people who have purpose of the visit is to consult with those in- left shcool with only basic or ineffectual literacy volved in the provision of educational and li- skills. The program outlined in the booklet can brary services in order to understand and also be adapted for use with adults. assess the current status of school library devel- Many young people in the Southwest Pacific opment in the country. leave school after four to six years with only Stage two begins with the findings of the re- basic literacy skills which can be lost if they are view. On the basis of this assessment, plans not used in everyday life, hence the focus in the are jointly made for a school library develop- booklet on the practical applications of literacy ment program. In Vanuatu, for ex-ample, this and on survival skills.Public libraries can follow-up had two main em-phases. The first assist these young people in maintaining the was to provide input to Primary Advisors on literacy skills which have been acquired by de- how to help primary teachers best utilize veloping programs which are both interesting resources in their classrooms. The ultimate aim and informative and provide a link with school was to create an awareness of the need for literacy programs. The public libraries are well library ser-vices at the primary school level. suited for this as they are a respected part of The second emphasis was to assist those community life.This was very evident in the already in charge of school libraries to manage Cook Islands where people gathered every them more effec-tivelly. morning to read the papers and discuss local Stage three involves continued support. news. The librarian, Mrs. Carmen Te Mata, One of the main reasons for the success of the had a particularly high profile in the community Vanuatu project was the continuity and follow and was very active in promoting reading and through. Not only did the Australian National information skills with children, not only in the Commission for UNESCO provide ongoing fund- library, but in the local shcools of Roatunga.

4 The library was situated just off the main conditions. These modifications were included street in the heart of the town and opposite the in the final version. library of the University of the South Pacific and The booklet was distributed to public close to the Teacher's College.The public libraries in the Southwest Pacific. An encourag- library was therefore well situated to cater to a ing response came from the University of Papua wide variety of young people. The collection was New Guinea Library School where it has been quite extensive with a separately housed child- included in its librarianship training program. ren's section. The bookstock was mainly Euro- The interaction between Australian school pean which could be seen to be a problem, but library educators and their overseas colleagues with so little published by South Pacific Is- has proven to be of mutual benefit. While Aus- landers, this was inevitable. The people of the tralians have been able to share their expertise Cook Islands are extremely religious having with others, they have also become richer by been converted to Christianity both by "Baptist" developing an understanding of lib rary and and "The Church of Latter Day Saints" mission- education systems in other countries and have aries.Some children were educated in New been able to develop a deeper appreciation of Zealand while others undertook higher educa- other cultures. tion in the USA.It can be seen then that Westernized culture and the English language were not unknown but formed a part of their every day lives, especially as Bible reading was required of all the congregation both adults and children. The public librarian, Mrs. Te Mata, ran many formal library programs for teachers both within individual schools and for teachers in training. Formal literacy classes for both adults and young people were also conducted when time allowed. The booklet which had been prepared for trial was designed to help library workers who had no professional library training to develop programs which could be used with individuals and small groups on a formal and informal basis. The main emphasis of the booklet for young peole was survival skills and keeping informed through local and international newspapers. The main primary school in Roatunga, Nikao Primary School, had a school library and a librarian who was also the principal. The emphasis in this school was in giving the children information skills and encouaraging reading for pleasure. Even though resources were scarce, and the bookstock completely inadequate by Australian standards, the resourcefulness and enthusiasm of the librarian was evident in bright displays, the children's evident pride in their library, the high standard of achievement, and literacy programs operating throughout the school. Mrs. Louis Henry, the Head Teacher At Black Rock Pre-School, is the wife of the Prime Minister.She was exremely enthusiastic, because even though education is compulsory in The Cook Islands, she realized more could be achieved with greater awareness by teachers of how literacy programs could be adapted to local

1 2 The Financial Value of the Teacher Librarian

by Fay Nicholson Library and Management Consultant and Trainer 6The value of the teacher librarian to a school superannuation, work cover, and sick leave program has been well documentedin the area which are additional costs to the employer to of educational contribution. However, with the the staff salary. For the purpose of this paper increased devolution of decision making to the on costs of 50% are used as an exampleonly. school level, with the increased pressure to al- locate scarce resources to gain the best Capital Investment outcomes, and with the need to account for The school has considerable financial finances to the school community, school investment in the school library. This is made councils and principals are closely examining up of the building, stock, and equipment.This the contribution of staff in financial terms. investment represents choice by the school to With the emphasis in educational philo- invest money in this area rather than another sophy on individual learning and the develop- area of the school. As it representscommitment ment of the ability of each student to locate, over many years, it is important to theschool to select, and use information, the school library is maximize these spent funds as well as current an essential component of theeducation pro- spending. gram of each school. This paper, therefore,will The capital investment in each school can not address the issue of whether a school re- be calculated. For example: quires financial commitment to a library but considers the value of the teacher librarian. Building $300,000 The teacher librarian is employed as a tea- Book stock cher in the school but brings additional skills to 10,000 X $25 $250,000 those of education. Qualifications in librarian- Equipment $ 50,000 ship as well as education equip the teacher librarian with skills in selection, acquisition and Total $600,000 organization, and the use of resources. Combin- ed with education, knowledge, and experience, How does the teacher librarian maximize the teacher librarian is equipped to assess capital investment? By organizing the physical teacher and student needs and to match them facility and resources to gain the maximum use with appropriate resources to achieve the re- by the school community. This is achieved by quired educational outcomes. efficient operation of the facility and by the This paper, however, addresses the finan- organization of the collection and stock to cial value of the teacher librarian and outlines provide maximum exposure areas in which this can be identifiedand How do teacher librarians demonstrate indicates measures that can be used to dem- their efficient use of this financial investment? onstrate this value. Organization of the physical facility is There are four major financial areas in undertaken by layout of the interior to match which the value of the teacher librarian can be educational needs, e.g., individual study, small examined. These are: group, or class use. This can bedemon-strated capital investment by records of use of these areas matched with recurrent costs the demand. For example, a primary teacher cost benefit librarian can demonstrate that class use of the cost effectiveness facility is maximized when each class has a For the purposes of this paper, and given regular weekly period in the library. the time constraints, depreciation is not inclu- Use of the collection and equipment is ded in cost examples. The school bursar can recorded by booking sheets for classes and loan advise how depreciation is calculated in a par- records.These statistics will not only record ticular school. Costing of staff also varies from use within the facility itself, but externalin the one authority to another. Incalculating staff classrooms. Other records will demonstrate vid- costs, on costs should be included. These cover eo showings, class sets, topicborrowing, etc.

13 The value of this use can then be demonstrated Recurrent cost example: and assessed when measured against the school program as a whole. Building (power, cleaning, Many schools have invested in library telephone) $20,000 management systems at considerable cost. The Acquisitions 6,000 benefits of these systems to the school program Maintenance (service, etc.) 5,000 can be demonstrated in terms of increased use, Salary $40,000 + on costs (50%) 60,000 most effective access to information, and saving of clerical time by staff $91,000 Cost Benefit Recurrent Costs The school investment in a teacher librarian There are several areas of recurring oper- is also one of choice.The school must decide ating costs.These can be divided into site, whether the greater benefit is gained by alloca- acquisi-tion, maintenance, and salary costs. tion of a teacher librarian or a teacher. Site costs include cleaning, power, and tele- The benefit teacher librarians can demon- phone. Cleaning costs are assessed in the time state is based on their knowledge of the cur- taken for the cleaner in that area. This is esti- riculum, the teachers' requirements and style, mated on space and difficulty of cleaning. The the students learning patterns, and the resour- teacher librarian can demonstrate that cleaning ces in the library, other areas of the school, and time is minimized by the monitoring of use, and the wider community. This knowledge means regular maintenance of the area such as that they will save the school time which in turn reshelving and relocating materials by the end means money and provide access not otherwise of each day. available.Indeed most teachers would not be The cost of maintaining the collection by the able to operate most library interface situations acquisition of new materials has also to be due to lack of knowledge and expertise. justified in terms of the total school budget. The value of a teacher librarian compared The teacher librarian can demonstrate the need to a teacher in time saved cam be shown. For for current and new materials by showing re- example: quests for resources by teachers, unfilled demand by teachers and students, and the Provision of specialist services matching of new resources with curriculum saving teacher time 10 X 1 hr requirements. @ $5.00 per week for 30 weeks Maintenance of equipment is important to per year $7500 maximize investment and use. If equipment is Greater efficiency in Purchasing 500 not maintained, it cannot be used effectively. Incidental expenses 500 This, of course, also includes maintenance of Total $8500 computer systems. A maintenance and depreciation schedule is therefore useful in demon- What is the benefit to the school in other strating value, particularly if linked to use of areas? The teacher librarian adds value to the the equipment. provision of resources by quality and accuracy Cost of telecommunications is becoming as well as speed. For teachers, this will be the more important as teachers and students in- ease and effectiveness of the provision of creasingly access external databases. Teacher resources for their teaching preparation and im- librarians act as intermediaries for such access plementation. For students, who increasingly and through their expertise maximize search rely on resources, access and use of resources success and minimize time and frustration. will be essential.Students views are impor- Staff costs are also part of recurrent costs tant, as resource provision may be an element and should be included. The school or educa- in their choice of school, and of subjects. tional authority will provide information on staff Benefit of the teacher librarian to teachers costs, and how they calculate on costs, i.e. the can be shown by records of consultation and cost of superannuation, leave loading, etc. provision, and particularly of the time saved for the teacher. If there is no teacher librarian, the teacher has to undertake some of the tasks themselves, e.g.selecting, previewing, and setting up a video, while other tasks would not be undertaken.If the teacher librarian saves

14 ten teachers one hour a week, this is one third plus on costs (50%) $2880 of a teacher that has been saved in terms of the $9600 school. Benefits to the students who are after all The cost of each tape to the school is $96.00. the only reason the school exists, can be demon- The value of this service can then be assessed. stated by records of use of the facility, of instruction and of borrowing. Use by students can be Cost Effectiveness linked to the education program, and benefit to Cost effectiveness is demonstrated by the that demonstrated. For example, if the objec- teacher librarian showing that the cost of the tive of the school is to provide a strong VCE current means of provision is more effective than program, student use of the library can be an alternate model or source. The alternative linked to VCE requirements. Students need to possibilities are different levels of allocation of use the facility when they are able to, so hours staff e.g. teacher or librarian or library technic- of access are important to them. Provision of ian or external provision, e.g. use of CD ROMS sufficient relevant resources is important to through links to the public library rather than them. Provision of sufficient relevant resources internal provision. is essential to complete teachers' requirements Staff effectiveness can be demonstrated by and the ability to use them efficiently.This showing levels of provision. If only a part-time means that the number of items and borrowing teacher librarian is allocated, the result to the rules become very important to students. The school can be calculated, and this can then be teacher librarian can demonstrate benefit of the related to the educational program as a whole. school investment by showing use statistics, For example, in a primary school each child may ratio of resources in a subject area per student, only visit the library once a fortnight and the borrowing statistics by subject and enrollment. exposure to the literacy or research program Cost of provision of a service to a class can be could be very limited. calculated. For example: The effectiveness of a teacher librarian can be shown by examples of use of their skill, e.g. Say an American history class at year 11 selection of appropriate resources on the basis has enrollment of twenty-five students. of curriculum, teaching and learning styles and This is a new subject, and the school has levels. A library technician can demonstrate ex- agreed to place priority on its development. cellent system operation skills, but no or limited The teaching method is based on a research educational skills. A teacher can demonstrate approach which involves heavy use of re- excellent educational skills but no or limited sources in the library and additional resource skill. expenditures. The cost of provision to that Cost effectiveness of internal or external class can be calculated: provision can be demonstrated in financial terms. For example, to provide CD ROM will Resources $1000 require investment in equipment, staff time to Research support 1 hour train users, and operation of the area. External per week for 10 weeks 250 provision, e.g. the local public library will also plus 50% on costs 125 require telecommunication costs and staff time, $1375 but may provide a wider range of choice of databases than the school can afford. Cost of provision per student is $55.00. If a service is not provided in the school, the If the school places high priority on this cost of external provision plus the time of the area, the cost of this provision can be shown. teacher concerned must be calculated.For The school can then decide the value of this cost example: to their educational objectives. Cost of a particular service can also be cal- 1 CD search $50.00 culated. To calculate the cost of video recording 3 hours teacher- - one hundred programs per year for example: 1 hour travel 1 hour search definition Cost of tapes @ $10 $1000 1 hour obtaining resources $75.00 3 hours per week consulting and taping for 48 weeks $125.00 of the year $5760

8 15 It is important that the teacher librarian advantage of a profession which shares can identify the cost of provision of a particular information and assists each other.However, service or product and can then compare the teacher librarians must also be prepared to cost provision form another source.It may be demonstrate their value in other terms, not cost effective for the school to provide the service their own.These terms increasingly are as this provision may be more efficient and ef- financial. With deliberate research, preparation fective. However, the school may decide to out- and presentation, the teacher librarian can source the service; that is, buy the service from demonstrate their contribution in an impressive an external source if it is seen to be cost effec- manner. tive and maximize the contribution of the teacher librarian. A current example of outsour- cing is that of cataloguing where the school buys catalog records from ASCIS.This is seen as being more cost effective than using the time of the teacher librarian in cataloging. Conclusion To demonstrate the financial value of the teacher librarian to the school requires particular knowledge and skill. The teacher librarian must havedetailedknowledgeof the curriculum, of subject enrollments, of teaching requirements, and learning requirements. This knowledge must be in a form that can be reported, not just in general knowledge. For example, the subjects taught at each level, enrollment numbers, number of teachers and their allocation weighting to the subject, and the background of the students.In addition, the requirements of that subject for resources- - class use, individual projects, etc. should also be re-corded. The teacher librarian must also have a good understanding of the costs involved in operating the library--cleaning, power, telecommunication and maintenance costs, materials costs, and salary costs. Teacher librarians are no strangers to fi- nance. In most schools they are responsible for the largest budget allocated to a particular staff member.However, as schools are forced to examine the possible alternatives for allocation of their funds, teacher librarians must be prepared to demonstrate the value of the cost of operating the library and the contribution that is made to the educational program.This in turn will require sophistication of report and presentation skills. Teacher librarians are well placed to argue their financial value.They have access to valuable statistical information, particularly through automated systems which enable them to have good knowledge of the school and can place their contribution in context of the total educational program. As a group they are also confident of their role and have the great

9 16 Towards Achieving a Critical Thinking Society in Malaysia: A Challenge to School Libraries and Educational Systems

by Dr. Raja Abdullah Yaacob and Norma Abur Seman The central issue in improving the quality of inthis paper to delve deeply into the critical struction is not a question of promoting thinking thinking factors and mechanics because much of or information, but of school managers striking a it has been written by educators. However, if balance between the two for the benefit of stu- we information specialists believe in the dents. (Jack Zevin) connection that we are part of the educational process, take advantage of thetraining Introduction attained, the guiding rule behind our objectives One of the great challenges facing Malaysia should be to play the part that could help mold amidst its dynamic economic development is the individuals into a critical thinking person. achievement of a critical thinking society.Crit- There are also distinct benefits to be gained ical thinking is defined by Mathew Lipman as, from taking advantage of the seeming "A skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates benevolence of the developed nations. good judgement because it relies upon criteria; is self-correcting; and is sensitive to context."1 Problem Statement It helps promote individual growth through a One of the abilities that the graduates number of methods, theories, ideas, programs, of an educational system acquire is the ability and techniques.Marcia Heiman and Joshua to be critical in their thinking and in problem Slomianko, on the other hand defined critical solving, essential for their survival in the thinking as, "raising questions; breaking up a modern society.This ability is important, not complex idea into smaller components; drawing only during the educational process but also upon prior knowledge; and translating com- during their career. Many observations made plicated ideas into examples."2 To achieve this by employers and concerned individuals have goal, a number of factors are involved.This shown that the present graduates generally would include some discussions among others, lack critical thinking ability. Although the on the role of the government, educational sys- educational objectives have stipulated the need tem, parents, teacher training centers, and also for critical ability, not much has been done to school libraries. One factor that is vital is the make it a reality.Also, findings from various concerted effort that has to be initiated to studies indicate a significant relationship systematically increase the society's information between one's ability to find, utilize and skills. interpret information and his/her ability to Although it is noted that critical think- think critically.Numerous theoretical frame- ing could be attained by common approaches, works in education and other socio-psychological such as the discovery approach, lateral think- models, attempt to guide and show the ways ing, problem-solving, cooperative learning, and and the background leading to the creation of reinforced by the practical experience, it is critical thinking while literature indicate the believed that librarians, via school libraries, strategy and training that can lead to critical could also complement these methodologies, thinking. However, very little has been written given adequate services and activities.While on the ability of an individual to become more this paper attempts to describe elements that critical through the utilization of a wide range of can contribute to the learning of critical think- information. Given a situation where an ing, effort will also be made to identify the individual began to gain the habit of being more characteristics of a critical thinker. At the same critical, this condition has to be maintained, time, with the inception of Vision 2020, it is otherwise there is every possibility that he/she imperative that the nation require this kind of will relapse to the original condition. Another individual in its society.The kind of society problem that may be worth mentioning is that, envisaged would not only help enhance and to many Malaysians, the notion of critical guarantee thesuccessof research and thinking strategies and techniques do not arise development programs but also other socioeco- because this concept itself is not well known. It nomic implementations. It is not the intent of is known among the top leaders, successful

10 17 educators, professionals, entrepreneurs and sectors in terms of their commitment, thinking, administrators of the late attempts being made creativity, and leadership. Would it not be too to exploit to the fullest through the scope of our much to be expected from the high school educational system. leavers? This notion is also based ona critical evaluation of the speeches made by the Rationale government leaders and those closely involved Studies indicate that critical thinking in education.For example, in one of the can be acquired by most individuals, given the speeches, it was said that the present system of encouragement from parents, friends, schools, education emphasizes student memorization and other relevant systems. Within the context and examination and if this is allowed to of a knowledge spectrum, it has been recognized continue it will only result in the acquiring of that in order for a person to be wise and apply knowledge but not using that knowledge knowledge, he/she needs information and that effectively. Early realization of this problem has information needs to be imparted from the resulted in numerous seminars and conferences source to the recipient.This implies that all of which led to positive resolutions towards although information may exist in abundance, improving the situation so that students could an individual has to use it in order to take think more critically and creatively, able to advantage of its value on one hand and to be make decisions, solve problems, interpret, "wise" in selecting the right information on the analyze, and develop new information and other hand. Moreover, information of all kinds research. is the source that is needed to perpetuate new Malaysia may genuinely take pride in knowledge and ideas. her stable economic growth that result ina The present information era has its better quality of life.But highly apparent as characteristic of information as the heart of all the result of modernization is the rise ofan activities, an era which requires critical minds unhealthy culture among the youngergenera- to deal with problem-solving scenarios, to which tion, that is the tendency to "waste their time." information is vital. A high academic qualifica- While there is evidence of an extraordinary tion is not a guarantee for critical thinking. increase of youngsters wasting their time away That is why even in a situation where the at supermarket, parks, and other public places, number of qualified people in Malaysia is there is a clear absence of these youth visiting substantial, the number of potential leaders is the libraries. This problem has in fact reached still not in proportion. public attention and parental outcry to merit it Finally, of late the concept of critical be a national issue. Whether or not it is the thinking becomes the topic of great interest to outcome of modernization or a decline in moral both academicians, professionals, and the and cultural values among the youth, it is up to country's leadership. To thiseffect,in the sociologists to research on this problem. In November, there is a scheduled international the meantime, this problem calls for a serious education conference and the theme is critical effort to help shape a more healthy society--a thinking.In fact, a day seminar on the same society that could think critically and this subject was held on June 9, 1993, given by a should begin with the youth because they are prominent educator, Dr. Jack Zevin.The indeed the leaders of tomorrow. concept of a critical thinking society suddenly has become the topical theme. Vision 2020 Malaysia may be considered as a third State of the Art: Present Society world country, but it is not by any way the Vision 2020 has made the present intention of this nation to let this situation society realize the importance of a more critical remain the status quo. Every conceivable effort society in order to survive the new challenges has been made to improve the economic and problems of the future. However, research standing. It is fitting that the positive economic shows that many graduates leaving institutions and industrial development and success has of higher learning do no meet the expectation of given the confidence for this country to have the both public and private sectors in terms of their visionary goal to achieve a developed nation commitment,thinking,creativity,and status by the year 2020.It is also within this leadership. If the situation is true that context that a critical thinking society is highly graduates from higher institutions do not meet aspired to help with the development of all the expectation of both the public and private sectors of the socioeconomy, industry, and trade.

11 18 What type of society is envisaged in the year Educational System in Malaysia 2020? A society that is more oriented towards The British colonial era left numerous ascientific,progressive,developed and residual issues which were only realized more knowledgeable one. Because without adequate than twenty years later.The environment at knowledge, it may not be possible for the society that time brought along an inevitable situation to reach this goal in order to successfully achieve in which the country was left with thei limited the status of an industrialized nation. choice of accepting the British systems and According to the Prime Minister, Datok Seri Dr. practices. What was inherent was the mere Mahathir Muhammad, in becoming a fully "idolization" of all that was British, even the developed country, he envisaged that Malaysia educational system.It is not the intention of should be "a scientific and progressive society, a the writers to evaluate the educational system society that is innovative and forward-looking, of the British,but it is important to realize one that is not only a consumer of technology that at the infancy stages of independence, but also a contributor to the scientific and there should be a sys-tem that suits the level of technological civilization of the future."The the developinent, culture, and environment of people must also strive to achieve critical the country. The system that was relevant to thinking imbued with the highest of ethical the British at that time may not be relevant to standards so that we can not only move into a Malaysia. Condi-tions vary because they reflect highly technology-based nation but also a caring different historical and cultural heritages. A society.It is indeed through education which is system that assesses students entirely on the related directly to human resources that we can final examination may not be an excellent meet these aspirations.Therefore, when we measure for leadership qualities after all. That decide to invest in human capital, it is of was the system that was being practiced all economic necessity that we invest well to ensure along until very lately when the curriculum in rapid and sustained development the schools and colleges began to be restruc- tured along the local needs and the environmen- Educational Theory tal changes.However, the objectives though Essentially,the basic theoretical excellent have not been given adequate frameworks behind the acquisition of the much attention and at times neglected completely. needed skill has something to do with the Students are exposed to facts on various educational concept and system.In Malaysia, subjects, but they are not taught to think over the educational system is seemingly moving the content that is learned. They are not given toward hospitable and innovative changes. For the chance to search and use information example, it is agreed that in the past, the themselves, which ultimately leads them to be educational system and the learning process too reliant on the teachers and discourages placed emphasis on dates of battles, animal them from giving their own opinion. classification, instead of "a sense of history" or animal life and behavior. Even the teaching Curriculum Approach technique has changed with the increasing use The New Primary School Curriculum of modern instructional devices in some fortu- better known as KBSR was introduced in 1983 nate schools. What has not changed though is with the aim of developing intellectual, affective, the information seeking skills, that is students' aesthetic, psychomotor, social, moral, and ability to work efficiently and to organize their spiritual aspects of human personality.The work.Systematic information skills programs integrated Secondary School Curriculum (KBSM) enable individuals to acquire skills essential or on the other hand, continues the same ideal necessary to cope with the information age that with the objective of achieving a general educa- we are facing now.The concept of lifelong tion and the teaching and learning strategies, education derived from reading enables focussing on specific knowledge, creativity, individuals to use their intellect to the fullest manipulative manual skills, business skills, extent.Calls for the need to revolutionize social sciences, computer education, and moral thinking and the transformation of culture is and religious values.According to Rita Vias, relevant to the future perspective which is these approaches are viewed as child-centered, linked to the concept of development. There is activity centered, and resource-based methods indeed a relationship between creativity and of teaching and learning.3 Even the 1988Nation- open-mindedness and the ability to be critical. al Education Policy clearly highlighted the educational objective of developing newly

12 19 defined knowledge skills and also teaching life- in a short space of time, leading toa somewhat long learning attitude. imbalance in the organizations and structures The reformation of National Education of staff, services, and facilities further led to the new National Education Act, Changes amidst the Vision 2020 have replacing the National Education Act of 1961. been obvious in that the government shows The new act is based on the foundation of bal- great interest in its policy to "grab" everyoppor- ance and harmony in the development of tunity for better educational returns,no matter potential mankind.Students are exposed to how and where it can be achieved.Thus, the the importance of knowledge, skill, and moral diversification of higher education where the values. scholars could now be sent to countries, other The two educational approaches may than Great Britain, Australia, and New Zea- now have to be viewed in light of Vision 2020. land like the old days.Countries such as The educational system would have bearingson America, Europe, Japan, and Korea have been what we are going to be in the future and this added to the list.Also, the growth of private necessitates the setting up of new targets and colleges has been tremendous. The twinning standards of excellence, not only in science and programs with higher institutions in the West technology, but also strategies toward achieving promise to provide quality education. Thegrow- a critical thinking society. ing need of information professionals (IP) to Teacher, Talk and Chalk Syndrome is support these colleges is a testimony of high not new and it is still being practiced. The im- expectations for graduates. It is important then pact is on the students who could pass exami- for the IP to work with the vision of creatinga nations but may not be able to fully utilize the critical thinking society. Active learning is built knowledge or develop leadership qualities. It is upon the assumption that critical thinking is, realized that the educational system should be perhaps even more important than the subject formulated so that it would have a positive content.Students who think critically about effect on the society. broad general principles are expected to be able Three main aspects that contribute to to apply those principles to new and different the quality of the education system are effic- problems. iency that is necessary to sustain the impetus for growth in line with the country's changing Whose Role needs; relevancy that ensures the curriculum is The achievement of a critical thinking suited to social and economic needs of thepre- society depends basically on the society itself sent and future; and the pursuit of excellence which is made up of various quarters. However, that is enhancement of human skills and know- it is be-lieved that the main underlying factor ledge. In short, it would be most appropriate to goes to the educational system and the library quote the guiding principle of the government's system beginning at the school level. The philosophy on quality education as stated in the components that are considered to have effect National Philosophy of Education: on the achievement of critical thinking have been identified as seen in Figure 1 and Table 1 Education in Malaysia is an on-going respectively. effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, 1. Government/Educational System spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced As stated by the education policies, the and harmonious, based on a firm belief in and government is the vehicle, instrumental to new devotion to God.Such an effort is designed to changes. With the inception of the numerous produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledge- resolutions, it is clear that the government able, who possess high moral standards, and who supports the new direction of including a are responsible and capable of achieving a high thinking society and giving impetus to various level [of] personal well-being as well as being able parties to implement this goal. Calls by various to contribute to the betterment of the society and authorities, including at the ministerial level for nation at large. a concerted effort towards achieving this goal has been given nothing more than moral and The educational system in Malaysia is material incentives. therefore, at a turning point where to do nothing would be to choose to be stagnant. The tremendous technological development has taken place

18 Table 1 Roles of Various Components in Achieving the Critical Thinking Society

Components Roles

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS Identify, study and establish policy on how to achieve critical thinking person as part and parcel of the overall educational objectives.

CURRICULUM Incorporate critical thinking approaches into the existing curriculum, using skills approach or direct method, infusion model. Train the teachers and experts in critical thinking to perpetuate the skills across the curriculum. HEADMASTERS/ADMINISTRATORS Aware and conscious of the importance of critical thinking program. Monitors, coordinates, evaluates for its successful implementation. a. School Library & Establish strategies and increase support for every Resource Centre effort to achieve thinking through: b. College Library i.information resources--implement c. University Library ii.services and activities--information skills strategies

PARENTS Encourage, nurture, be exemplary, set role models, show concern and enthusiasm, and motivate the children. TEACHERS Teach, inculcate, promote, motivate, emphasize, assim- ulate concept in teaching and learning activities. En- courage activities, such as debates, lectures, talks, and project presentations.

Table 2 INFORMATION SKILL DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMS PRIMARY YEARS SECONDARY YEARS TERTIARY YEARS Library Orientation Basic Mid-level Advance Library Instruction Basic Mid-level Advance (Library Services and Collection) Bibliographic Nil Mid-level Advance Instruction (Index ,Ab- stracts, reviews, etc.) Information Technol- Basic Mid-level Advance ogy Skills Term Paper Clinic Nil Mid-level Advance Inculcation of Reading Basic Mid-level Advance Skills Habits, Remedial Reading (Problems in Reading)

14 21 2. School Libraries and Resource Centers counselling services in addition to the cognitive There has been evolutionary changes in input should have been emphasized to the educational philosophy and teaching/learn- prospective teachers. Teachers should try to in- ing methods in the school curricultun.These crease the students intellectual capability by changes are also reflected by the role of school teaching students how to learn and training libraries which have prompted various labels: them to analyze, evaluate, and think for them- media center, learning resource center, or school selves. Teachers should also use interpersonal resource center replacing the conventional title relationships with the learners and move of school library.Moreover, with the multi- according to an individual pace.As Huston dimensional expansion of information media stated, "in a participant-centered classroom, that are being integrated as learning materials student learners must feel encouraged to it has called for a transformation of the role of operate from their own domain of experience, the school library and school librarians. Even rather than moving immediately into that of the within the Malaysian context, the term resource educators' experience."5 Further, the role that center is nothing new because the media can be played at the school level would include: resources were added to the schools in the 1970s. However, development is slow and i.helping students to understand and be varies from school to school and is essen-tially aware of the importance of information in an urban school phenomenon. School librarians life. are now expected to be proactive agents of ii. making students realize that knowledge and change in the learning process, amidst the skill acquired while at school is insufficient change in the role of the school library. for later years. They need to continuously Moreover, not all schools treated the new media acquire and utilize knowledge and skills. as an integrated part of the library, but as an iii. teaching students how to manage a large additional facility. amount of information through information School librarians and the media center skill programs. should try to develop among students the iv. applying information skills in the learning following skills: process and later in place of work and daily i. Library skills--develop various reading and life. writing skills as well as critical thinking so that the child is able to interact with his 4. Public libraries readings and writings. A cross section of the public at all levels ii.Inquiry and research skills--able to do use the public library for leisure and education- research in the library and look for all types al purposes. The public library could play a sig- of information resources. nificant role in shaping the thinking and atti- iii. Information presentation skills. tudes of the public and be the agent for change A number of research projects that have in the following ways: been done, including some at the Ph.D level in- i.provides informational materials and re- dicate a positive relationship between academic sources on different subjects that would achievement, language reading, and library nurture the critical thinking process; skills and the quality of school library media ii.highlights and promotes informational service.A good library media service with materials as a source of facts, ideas,and professional staff enhances the quality of experiences which could be useful in solving education. The school library system should be problems, create new ideas, designs and client-centered, allowing students to support the products; cultivation of information literacy. iii. attracts children, youth, and adults to utilize their leisure time critically in 3. Teachers and Schools libraries for pleasure and information; No matter how advanced is the IT, the iv. makes society aware of the role of the public teachers remain the vital resource in the educa- library as the center for education, and tional system.According to Omar, "Students social and cultural activities; need warmth, encouragement, and understand- v. intensifies its effort toward drawing more ing which no curriculum package can provide."4 members from the society so that they can This has implications for the manner in which take advantage of the information to training is given at the teachers' training nourish them intellectually and spiritually centers where the importance of nurturing and

15 22 with the goal of achieving a more critical 6. School of Library and Information capacity and power to excel. Science To support the large-scale changes ne- 5. Parents cessary to promote libraries and literacy, the One of the greatest influential factors in curricula of library schools should be revised. In cognitive and affective development of a child is order to realize the objectives of the emerging the parents. Parents should rad widely and be need for critical thinking, adequately trained knowledgeable in the upbringing of their library personnel is indeed needed.Further, children.Children need to be exposed at an the school's added responsibility is also geared early age to reading materials, rhymes, riddles, at a continuous commitment toward the and educational games. Parents, par-ticularly training and upgrading of various skills. This is in Malaysia within the present context could due to the fact that the adequate and well contribute to the development of critical trained work force could determine the thinking by: effectiveness of the resource centers.Critical i.encouraging the child to question at an early issues that are emerging within the education age to discuss matters with them. The child profession will affect the development of library has to be taught to ask "why" besides what education and training programs needed to is it. meet the need. ii.exposing and involving them to the concept Anotherpertinentfactorworth of problem-solving at an early age, such as mentioning is the teaching of bibliographic how to deal with situations if the washing instruction in the library schools.The library machine is not working. user education programs are usually taken iii. introducing positive attitudes in them. seriously by the college and university iv. explaining to them to discover on their own authorities upon receiving new students.It is through reading. Always reason things out also high on the list of priorities in the academic with them to improve their reasoning abili- library. The programs of the school of library ties and problem solving. and information studies should better equip the v.teaching the child not only to defend a posi- prospective librarians to teach and also remind tion (themselves) and to analyze (itemize) them of their teaching role and the importance but also to apply the skill of doing things of user education.It is appropriate, therefore, (the design and creative elements). in a time of increasing informational media and demand for information by more sophisticated 6. School of Library and Information users for library schools to expose students to Science the theoretical framework in learning such as To support the large-scale changes learning theories, psychological and sociological necessary to promote libraries and literacy, the behavior theories and be encouraged to continue curricula of library school should be revised. In their education in this area.It is recognized order to realize the objectives of emerging need that knowing how knowledge/information is for critical thinking, adequately trained library created, processed, stored, and retrieved alone personnel is indeed needed.Further, the is not enough and more emphasis should be school's added responsibility is also geared at a given on how to strengthen their ability to teach continuous commitment toward training work- people to use this knowledge successfully force couldcould be a determint to the effect- navigate the ever changing informational media. iveness of the resource centers.Critical issues that are emerging within the education How to Achieve: Methodologies profession will affect the development of library education and training programs needed to Technique of Intellectual Work meet the need. Teaching the technique of how to study Another pertinent factor worth men- and how to work is not new since the though tioning is the teaching of bibliographic instruct- was put forward in 1898 by a great philosopher ion in the library schools.The library user and professor, T. G. Masaryk, in his lectures education programs are usually taken seriously entitled "How to Work." What tools could be by the college and university authorities upon used to "augment his mind, amplify his mental receiving new students.It is also high on the power and help him in many aspects of his list of priorities in academic libraries. intellectual activity."6In other words critical

23 thinking can indeed be generated through "Membaca" (Reading) intellectual activities. 3M "Mengira" (Mathematics) "Menulis" (Writing) Educational Years in Schools The school should not be perceivedas What has not been emphasized is the fourth entirely an information seeking place. It should "M", that is "Maklumat" which is Information. be instrumental in the promotion of reasoning Information must be added to the curriculum and problem-solving skills. The two elements because it facilitates the learning of reading and should be the "major objectives, presenting writing. information and developing thinking skills, and Reading are represented in the management of school classrooms, curriculum, and testing programs.7 Information In other words, the content, goals and objectives of the schools and the time spent should not Writing only lead to quality education but also the learning outcomes that would ensure critical The main outcome of the implementation of the thinking. Therefore, the school program should old and new curriculum has been unsuccessful be remodeled, stressing the "higher-order in producing critical individuals because school cognitive concepts and strategies through critical leavers and graduates have not acquiredor approaches as a group, and there are many reached the critical thinking level as expected. different ones, emphasize quality educational management, instruction, and learning rather Seminar: A Method of Instruction than quantity."8 "Seminar has become an established In the classroom setting, teachers as method of instruction in many institutions of role models should be the intermediary in higher learning, especially in the West. problem-solving and encourage students to Although at the beginning, it was confined to discuss, debate among themselves, give projects graduate students, many institutions are using and allow presentations of these projects and seminars as a method of instructioneven at allow other studentstoask questions. freshman level (1st year).The number of Students should be given creative exercises, students in a seminar is small, maybe five to such as reviews of books, articles, and films. ten.The students work in close association The present "parroting" methods should be with the instructor.They make an in-depth eliminated, and students should be encouraged study of some topics, write a paper, present it to view things from different angles and this in class, and invite discussion. The seminaras could be derived through different thoughts of a method of instruction provides an introduction authors.This would help in the adoption of to the methods of scholarly work and helps to alternative approaches to the one single answer cultivate habits of confident presentation and way inherent in the Malaysian system. meaningful discussion.It promotes self-study Questions or discussions given to students and critical thinking. Such a method naturally should demand logical, judgmental, or critical depends on greater use of library materials and assessments. In helping students to learn how library research." to learn, the role of resource centers should be In short,classroom learning and emphasized,and coordination between teaching should be done in a manner to allow classroom and the resource center should be teacher-student interactions with the objective encouraged. Research has been done to of increasing students' cognitive levels. There evaluate and measure the effectiveness of these should be rapport between the two levels, and methods, and it has been found that these encouragement should always be given for methods are good in retaining information but students to ask and answer questions and not in critically analyzing information and discuss problems. Emerging patterns of edua- knowledge.In this new environment, it is tion are increasingly emphasizing process skills, interesting tosee the improvement and opening avenuesfor more activepupil modifications made to suit the new need. For involvement in learning. example the new curriculum has been known as the 3M because emphasis is given to: Post-educational Period Information leads to thinking and therefore reading should be continued and

17 24 pursued during the post-educational period. notably the school and college libraries to The information may cover different areas of improve and speed up the information skill interest or be related to the career. It would not programs. be a bad idea to h_ ave home libraries and also Now that we talk about the important set up libraries in the office. methodologies of achieving critical thinking, the method that can be practically applied by school Continuous Education and Training librarians in order to meet the goal is systemat- (Conference, Seminars, and Workshops) ic information skills.Systematic information As soon as one begins a career, he/she skills are nothing new in the West. In fact, in should undergo full fledged training. Training is Nation at Risk it as clearly stipulated that a an on-going process done by attending con- nation that lacks the tempo of reading would be ferences and workshops. Therefore, it can be tantamount to the downfall of the people's summarized that the two phases of develop- progress, and that it why it is regarded as being ment of information skills, one during the pre- at risk.It is within the context of this problem critical thinking stage,and the other during the statement that critical thinking has to be post-criticalthinking stage that should nurtured, continued and one of the ways is constitute a life-long process in the individual's through the concerted effort of both teachers and intellectual development. librarians to help the individuals through a systematic information skills program. Information Literacy: Systemic Informa- Theintroductionofsystematic tion Skills information skills and a program of critical One's ability to think criticallyis thinking will require the that management/au- influenced by his/her ability to find, utilize, and thorities recognize the importance of increasing interpret information. An information literate critical abilities in the short as well as the long person is able to recognize when information is term. With some refinements, existing methods needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, of information skills could be improved. and employ the needed information effectively. Implementation of a broad-based critical In other words, he has learned what to learn. thinking program in classroom and libraries, The overwhelming increase in the kinds and however, is contingent upon the development of types of information led to the globalization of more sophisticated methods for adequately every sector of life. Not all information is measuring the total output of the programs. relevant and needed and therefore, individuals Also, with the rapidly changing information should be able to select, record, and dissemi- formats, both librarians and users require on- nate necessary information. What is significant going learning. is the realization on the part of the Deputy Table 2 illustrates some examples of General of Education, Datuk Haji Omar Mohd. information skills programs that undertaken at Hashim, who highlighted that with the different levels: knowledge explosion, "...it becomes crucial, therefore to equip the students with higher i. Library Orientation cognitive skills such as critical thinking, the use ii. Library Instruction of the scientific process, the ability to think iii. Bibliographic Instruction abstractly and creatively and the ability to be iv. Library Skills intellectually flexible.Related to this is the v. Information Skills need to master the skills of lifelong learning vi. Library Information Skills Course where we teach students to accustom themselves with the idea of learning throughout their To ensure that the above programs are effective, working life.They must know how to gain it is also crucial to supplement with one-on-one access to information, what kind of information instruction at all times (at the desk) as a form to select, and what to use the information for."9 of reinforcement. Also, Library and Information Although the above statements are nothing new Skills Course could be included as part of the to librarians, the very fact that they come from requirementsincollegeand university a higher authority and from a different curriculum.Appendix 1 underlines issues profession has a great significance because it is related to the implementation of information in agreement with what has been preached by skills program. the library profession.With this official recognition, it is appropriate for all libraries,

18 25 Characteristics of a Critical Thinker 1. curiousity and willingness to listen and to The present generation has been know. typified by its experience with the information systems (explosion in computer hardware, Recommendations software, and telecommunications systems) in There does seem to be a growing body of much the same way that previous generations evidence supporting the idea of creatinga more were traumatized by the experience they had in critical society.From the aforementioned the first or second generation computers. discussions, some recommendations could be Inadequate information (lacking information highlighted according to the following headings: may lead to ignorance, obsolescence, bias, and prejudice) which are the traits of an uncritical Educational System person.Such traits may pose a danger to 1.The educational system complemented by society at large rather than "an asset to systematic information skills appear most society." A profile of a critical thinker would effective with students. accommodate the following traits, taken partly 2.The effect of classroom support andresource from Zeminio although it may not be in anyway centers systematic information skills could a complete or exhaustive list.He stated that be greatly enhanced by follow-up discus- critical thinking skills would enable individuals sions and counselling. to: 3.Critical thinking is important for academic a.distinguish between variable facts and and future success. Therefore, students value claims should be encouraged to engage in the act- b.differentiatebetweenrelevantand ive process of thinking through discussions, irrelevant information and reading and writing assignments. The c:decide the truth or accuracy of statements development of critical thinking abilities d.find the missing elements of a puzzle or should be integrated within the four areas mystery crucial in education and careers:reading, e.identify logical fallacies writing, speaking, and listening. f. identify logical inconsistencies 4.Teachers' roles should be the combination of g.detect bias and prejudices instructors, disseminators of information h. understand a belief or argument from and knowledge, and the facilitators of another's point of view learning. i. recognize assumptions and viewpoints 5.Students assessment should not only be j.judge the strength or weakness of a claim or directed towards the examination results argument but also the presentation of their learning k.predict the probable or possible consequenc- through projects and term papers. es of a decision or action 6.Educational approaches should emphasize Appendix 1 illustrates additional skills that are higher cognitivelevel,like analysis, desired of an individual in line with the goal of synthesis, application, and evaluation, not achieving a critical thinking society. The attain- the lower cognitive level such as memoriza- ment of these skills should enhance individuals tion, remembering, and understanding. by providing: a.good communications skills(including Information Skills Program interpersonal) and people oriented 1.Systematic information skills program must b.self confidence constantly be viewed as an adjunct to other c. patience and perseverance developmental relationships rather than as d.logical and flexible approach to problem an alternative or independent activity solving 2.it should be the objective of the library e.memory for details policies along with that of the educational f. spelling, grammar, vocabulary system to aspire for critical thinking g.good organization and efficient work habits patrons. h.good organization and efficient work habits i. motivation for having and giving additional Curriculum training 1.Curriculum should be structured to allow J. willingness to share knowledge with others the use of information in the resource center k.ability to select relevant information for learning and teaching.

is 26 2.Curriculum structure should not solely skills essential or necessary in order to cope emphasize textbooks but other types of with the information age that we are facing information such as AV, radio and TV now.Information skills as a tool to critical programs,andcomputersoftware. thinking should not be denied to individuals, Students should be able to use various otherwise they will be handicapped in dealing information-handling skills, a reflection of with today's avalanche of information. As such life-long learning skills it can result in individuals being information 3.Include library and Information Skills poor and information rich. The information rich Course as a part of the requirements in is far better equipped and prepared to be college and university curriculum critical as they have adequate reference to substantiate their decisions, point of views, Research ideas, statements, decisions, and policies. 1. A great deal of research should be done, for Finally it is not always true that critical think- example, the effectiveness of critical ing programs should always be centered around thinking programs. the educational years, but also during the post- 2.Youth should be encouraged to involve educational period, meant as followups to each themselves in information and intellectual and individual pursuits.Therefore, it can be activities so that they are not diverted summarized that there are two phases of the toward unhealthy activities. development of the critical thinking skills, one 3.Although it is difficult to operationalize the during the pm-critical thinking stage, and the concept of critical thinking some element of other, the post-critical thinking stage. measurement of critical thinking should be employed.11 Notes At the same time, it is crucial to note 1 Mathew Lipman.Institute for Critical that while we are looking forward to achieving Thinking, Montclair State College: N.J., 19.. both material and intellectual development, Malaysia is basically Asian in its cultural 2 Marcia Heiman and Joshua Slomianko, outlook.It is very crucial then, to create a Critical Thinking Skills, National Education situation where "moral" values and preserva- Association 1985. tion of traditional customs are not totally buried even in a critically based society.This is in 3 Rita Vias, "Educational Needs of School view of the fact that the situation is already Resource Centre Personnel," in paper inherent in some ways where modernization is presented to the Seminar on Library and not balanced with moral, cultural, and religious Information Science Education in Malaysia: values.Respect of the old and the religious Needs and Expectations, International values is indeed the core of society. Islamic University, Petaling Jay, Selangor, Malaysia, 1992: 2-3. Conclusion Malaysia is indeed going toward an evo- 4 Omar Mohd. Hashim, "Toward Excellence in lution in its restructuring of society.This, of the 21st Century," in Free Teachers' Union course, includes the educational system which (IFETU) Regional Conference for Asia and subsequently affects the school library as well. the Pacific Region, Kuala Lumpur, 5-7 The role of the school library and the idea of a November 1990. media and instructional centers have long been accepted although its development varies from 5 M. M. Houston, "Rethinking Our Approach state to state.With the government's initi- forResearchInstruction,"Research atives to achieve a developed nation status by Strategies, 1 (4), 1983: 185-187. the year 2000 it is recognized that school libraries and the educational system are 6V. Stibic, Tools of the Minds: Techniques and instrumental to the success of this goal.It is Methods for Intellectual Work, North-Holland almost appropriate that the transition toward Publishing Co., 1982. the 21st century has led to the present situation and provides avenues for comparison 7 Jack Zevin, "Managing Schools for Quality with the development in Australia and other Learning: The Encouragement of Critical parts of the world.Systematic information Thinking in School Classrooms," Malaysia: skills programs enable individuals to acquire Institute Aminuddin Bald, 1993:1.

20 27 Omar Mohd. Hashim, Pendidikan Persoalon, 8 Ibid:2. Penyelesaian dan Harapan. Kuala Lumpur, DBP, 1993. 9 Omar: Ibid. Philips, Holm. Arul, "Memperkembangkan Daya 10Ibid:3. Pemikiran Pelajar Melalui Matapelajaran KBSM," Journal Pendidikan Guru (8) 1992: UPerhaps we could take advantage of various 1-5. measurement methods that are presently available such as the Watson-GlaserRankin, Virginia, "One Route to Critical Critical Thinking Appraisal (CTA) and Thinking," School Library Journal 34 (5) the ChickeringCritical Thinking January 1988:28-31. Behaviours. Stibic, V.Tools of the Minds: Techniques and Methods for Intellectual Work. Amsterdam: Bibliography North Holland Publishing, Co., 1982. Abu Samah Bin Mohd. Amin, "The Pahang State Educational Resource Centre:Role Vias, Rita, "Educational Needs of School and Development."in18th Annual Resource Centre Personnel," in paper Conference International Association of presented to the Seminar on Library and SchoolLibrarianship,Subang Jaya, Information Science Education in. Malaysia: Malaysia 22-26 July 1989. Needs and Expectations, International Islamic University, pedaling Jaya, Selangor, Chaffee, John.Thinking Critically.2nd ed. Malaysia, 1992:2-3. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Vias, Rita, "Establishing School Resource De Bono, Edward. De Bono's Thinking Course. Centers," in 18th Annual Conference London: Petancor By., 1985. InternationalAssociationof School Librarianship, Subang Jaya, Malaysia 22- Eisenberg, Michael B. and Small, Ruth V., 26 July 1989. "Information-BasedEducation: An Investigation of the Nature and Role of Walton, Graham and Nettleton,Sarah, Information attributes in Education," "Reflection and Critical Thinking in User Information Processing and Management 29 Education Programmes: Two Case (2) 1993: 163-275. Studies," British Journal of Academic Librarianship 7 (1) 1992. Ellner, Carolyn L. and Barnes, Carol P. StUdies of College Teaching. Lexington, Mass: Wilson, Patrick, "Bibliographic Instruction and Lexington, 1983. Cognitive Ability," Library Trends, 39 (3) Winter 1991:259-270. Fielder, Marie and Huston, Mary M., "Access Ability: Harnessing Knowledge of Thinking Zemin, Jack, "Managing Schools for Quality Like a Searcher," Library Trends, 39 (3) Learning:The Encouragement of Critical Winter 1991: 299-315. Thinking inSchoolClassrooms,"in Gentling, Highland, Malaysia April, 1993. Knapp, JoAnn Vergona, "Teaching Research Skills: A Critical-Thinking Approach," School Library Journal 34 (5) January 1988: 32-35. Maclure, Stuart (Ed.), Learning to Think: Thinking to Learn: Proceedings of the 1989 OECD Conference. Oxford: Pergamon, 1991.

21 28 Appendix 1 According to Jack Zemin, critical thinking skills for school and classroom management should include some or all of the following:

1. keeping your mind open to a variety of opinions and positions, even those with which you may disagree. 2. comparing and contrasting alternative approaches or multiple interpretations of a problem, seeking those which transcend cultural boundaries and meanings. 3. learning to live with uncertainty and probability in formulating answers to questions or solutions to problems. 4. identifying the sources, amount, relevance, organization, and quality of evidence, deciding the relative merit of the data, from the subjective to the objective. 5. testing the plausibility and consistency of an argument or theory, working towards a decision to uphold, deny, or revise the concept. 6. carefully applying theory to practice, evidence to explanation, and ethical rules to actual behavior. 7. examining both stated and unstated assumptions in a problem or argument, and determining their impact on conclusions. 8. acquiring a sensitivity to the cultural and historical context of ideas, concepts, and traditions. 9. suspending quick judgement, or "jumping to conclusions," in favor of a neutral or empathetic viewpoint. 10.adopting theviewpointsof othersasorganizersfortheinterpretationof communications, events, and experiences. 11.developing strategies for understanding and clarifying ambiguous, or unclear findings, problems, issues, or theories. 12.appreciating the logic, skill, insight, ingenuity, and perceptiveness of both student-initiated ideas and those of experts, without necessarily accepting these as definitive for all time. 13.predicting future developments based on current observations, evidence, and accepted theories. 14.setting up standards for judgements of value across all subjects and disciplines, including art, music, literature, science, history, and mathematics, sports, etc. 15.information rules, principles, interpretations, and theories of your own invention that seek to improve on current models and concepts.

22 29 Appendix 2

ISSUES RELATED TO THE IMPLEMENATION OF INFORMATION SKILL PROGRAMME

PLANNING PROBLEMS IN RETRIEVING COORDINATION AND USING INF. IN LEARNING EVALUATION

SYLLABUS AND UNDERSTANDING OF TEACHING ASPECT CONCEPT

IMPLEMENTATION OF IS THE CONCEPT INF. SKILL IN SCHOOLS RELEVANT OR NOT i KBSR KBSM

HOW TO INSTIL SKILL IN EXISTING CURRICULUM DO STUDENTS NEED TO ACHIEVE SKILL INF. SKILL

TO WHAT EXTENT INFORMATION SKILL IS ABSORBED. IDENTIFY THE WEAKNESSES.

SUITABLE TIME WHO SHOULD RESOURCE CENTRE SHOULD TO GIVE INFORMATION TEACH THE SKILL BE WELL ORGANIZED AND SKILL WELL EQUIPPED

TRAIN NG FOR TRAINERS

28 Across the Curriculum: Across the World

by Blanche Woolls, Professor School of Library and Information Science University of Pittsburgh It is my pleasure today to speak to you as a technology innovations through school libraries. member of the International Association of The first projects were implemented in New School Librarianship (IASL) and also as Pres- York City in 1988.School libraries in nearly ident of the American Association of School 150 New York City Public Schools were Librarians (AASL), one of the eleven divisions of transformed with paint and other renovations, the American Library Association. I plan to dis- and filled with books. cuss very briefly changes across the curriculum My role here is to speak to you as a and across the world at AASL. Then, sugges- member of the International Association of tions will be made for changes in your approach School Librarians and during our joint to your role as a school librarian that will make conferencewith theAustralianSchool changes in your professional lives.Some of Librarians Association. Our conference these changes will be placed in the context of planners here in Adelaide are well aware of the multi-cultural experiences for children at all need for school librarians to prepare for and grades and stages, changes that must occur in implement change.They have expanded their lives as they prepare for the changes they today's theme, "Society", into "building a picture will meet in the next century. I will end with an of society as we go towards the year 2000, and invitation to visit the University of Pittsburgh beyond...daring to be innovative in our response next year when IASL meets there.But first, to and management of CHANGE in school changes at AASL. librarianship". Those elected to a division presidency My means of meeting this theme begins declare a theme for their presidential year.I with a plan for change, change you must make have chosen "Changes Changes". This seems to to move from our more traditional helping role, fit into many recent conference concepts. Our into a leadership role, perhaps a major change immediate past AASL president, Ruth Toor, in for you. If our students are to become order to feature change during her New Orleans information literate, we must begin to work as conference program, invited a high school chairs of the curriculum team rather than as librarian to share with us plans for her new just members. Again, Ann Weeks is modelling school and the changes being made in her high this changed concept as she chairs the Alliance school library.This library must provide for Curriculum Reform, a group of curriculum information to meet the challenges awaiting related national associations including the students as they prepare for life in 2000 and National Council of Teachers of English, beyond. National Council of Teachers of Math, the Ann Weeks, Executive Director of AASL, International Reading Association, and the is managing our new Library Power project, a Association for Supervision of Curriculum multi-million dollar demonstration program Development, among others.She was elected sponsored by DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest because she was in a unique position to lead Fund.To participate, school districts form with credibility in ALL the areas of the coalitions between business and civic leaders, curriculum rather than allegiance to one, and parents and educators, who must mobilize their there lies our true strength. energies and resources to change public Because we owe allegiance to no single education at the local level.Thus, "in the area of the curriculum, we are in a unique successful Library Power projects change goes position to lead the way for teachers and to help beyond libraries to the educational process them integrate learning across the curriculum. through the schools and districts".1 The Library We must accept that role and begin to change Power project provides qualifying agencies from merely offering suggestions of materials to million dollar grants to expand school libraries supplement classroom teaching, to directing the incities around the US who agreeto collaborative experiences teachers offer their demonstrate changes and to build a picture of students. We must be an integral part, of that

24 31 planning so teachers will adjust their activities new to the school, you can begin by locating the to combine isolated lessons and design them to master schedule of teachers and the grade meet difference in learning styles.It is only in levels or classes they are being assigned for the that way that all students will be well prepared academic year.You will then developa to be contributing members of a global society. curriculum unit notebook with information Can we do it? Can we move from being merely about each teacher. You will need to: active partners across the curriculum to active Developaformforcollecting leaders beyond the classroom, working directly information about each teacher. with administrators and parents to further the This form includes information from the education of children? following Moving into a leadership rolemay be Look at the textbooks in use andsee less than comfortable for you. Ifyou do not feel what is suggested capable to such a role at this time, perhapsyou Analyze any school curriculum guides should plan to take courses with those whoare that are available. preparing to be educational leaders, those who When you have this skeleton information, make plan to be the headmaster or building principal an appointment with the teacher and discuss or whatever the administrative leader's title is. when (which weeks) and how long (howmany That does not mean that you willor should weeks, days) the course will be taught. Ifyou leave your position in the school library when can begin to prepare a bibliography of materials you finish the courses, but that you will meet that are available in the library,you can share others who are striving to become effective this with the teacher. To begin to completeyour leaders and you will learn what theyare form during the meeting, you will want to begin expected to know to undertake this role. You to determine the teacher's teaching style. will quickly understand that it isn't easieror harder for another than for you; it merely takes Predict Teaching Styles the desire to learn and implementsome While it is difficult to analyze teaching leadership "rules and regulations". styles unless you can conduct classroom Why you? We have discussed the fact observations over time, you can makesome that you have no allegiance to onearea of the assumptions based upon the type of materials curriculum, but your knowledge of the whole they request and the activities they prefer. curriculum means you can be skilful in Many may still rely heavilyon the lecture combining units and teachers across the method, so you must suggestnew teaching curriculum. Another reason is that, except for strategies. the principal, no other person in the school knows all the teachers, all the students, AND DiscussTeachingStrategies,and all the curriculumIn North America, we are Resource Based Teaching striving to implement "resource-based teaching'. You must sell them on resource-based We are moving from that helping role toa teaching. Explain that this is a process of using leadership role because that is the .waywe can materials beyond the textbook and readily meet the mission of our national guidelines, available in the library. Share with themsome Information Power,"...to ensure that students ideas for activities that you will plan for the and staff are effective users of ideas and library and those you will plan for the information.2 Assistance with change is needed classroom.Share with them you plans for to encourage teachers to adopt new methods of helping students conduct research in the library. encouraging the development of critical thinking While these appear at first glance to takean skills in their students.We must do this unusual amount of additional time, you must without adding appreciably to their present show them how it will become easierover time workload.It is up to us not only to know the as student interest in learning activities grows. teachers and the curriculum, but we must be, You must try to begin with activities with which aware of exactly what and when teachers teach they will be comfortable before you introduce specific units, whom they teach, and how they major changes. teach. While I am sure that you know very well whom they teach, I am less certain thatwe Point Out Materials Available in the know what, when, and how they teach. Library What if you don't know what and when Now is the time to show them the all the teachers teach their units?If you are materials available in the library on the topic,

25 32 what should be requested from other sites, the teachers' teaching styles and you will be which research skills the students may need to working with someone you have helped learn, and any other pertinent information. You previously. will begin to help them decide which parts of Your suggestions may carry more the unit you will take responsibility, which you emphasis if they can be shown to be successful should do together. in the research. Record Your Planning Session and the As Often as Possible Base Any Suggestion Actual Outcome of the Unit in the Research One suggestion is to maintain your Keeping up with research may not seem planning files in a loose leaf notebook for easy easy and reading research is sometimes boring. access. You can easily record the planning and Attending ASLA and IASL, it is inevitable that recording the activities that were most helpful you will have an opportunity to learn about the for the teacher and most effective for the "hot" research results.In the US we have a students and keep special bibliographies with group of library researchers called "Treasure these units. With this notebook, everything will Mountain" who are doing that for the school be in one location, conveniently stored in your library profession. We meet irregularly to study office.If you complete at least three teachers research of school library programs, and we each semester, it will not take you very long to relate the research we find to the practitioner as have every teacher in your file. well as to the researcher, a very successful You must add to your file at the close of model. Papers3 from the first conference were the unit of instruction adding information from published by Hi Willow Research and the evaluation process.Students and teacher Publishing. will help determine the value of any materials In the US, two new reports of research used in the unit to see their relevance, recency, may be of interest to you, Impact of School and to learn if you have enough copies. What Library Media Programs4 and The Power of works best, the preferred activities, and theReadings to share with you today. The first result of any testing should be added to your reports the results of a national study and its record. replication in the state of Colorado.Lance's Now you are ready to take the next report found that the school library media step. If you haven't determined another program managed by a school librarian was the curriculum area, unit of instruction, or teacher single predictor of student achievement. The who might be interested in integrating with this second book by Krashen demonstrated the unit, review your notebook to see if overlap power of reading in the lives of children and exists that you have forgotten.Coordinating points out that children who do a great deal of integration across the curriculum will become free voluntary reading have improvements in almost second nature to you once you have in grammar and spelling as well as reading depth understanding of what and when your comprehension. teachers teach. You must also keep up with research in One very recent educational trend is to education.Most educational innovation is base student learning as much as possible in implemented with little if any research base, the real world.By leading across the and most of itdies,fades away, or is curriculum, you can relate the math fractions to remodelled into something different before any the cooking measurement in the home extensive research can be done on its economics class or relative times for athletes at effectiveness.However, much can be gained track meets. from keeping yourself and your teachers The first units you prepare will be the informed of any research that indicated most difficult because you aren't certain how it successful teaching methods or educational will work. However, it will not take as long as outcomes from specific activities. you think, and you will need to do a major update of the information only when new Who Teachers Teach as Primary Focus teachers are hired or when present teachers Records of student performance are on change the grade level or subject area they are file, but you may not need to refer to these. You teaching or when curriculum reviews occur. are in a unique position to have many of the Even with major curriculum revisions or new same students year after year.If you can textbook adoptions, you will still understand recognize and relate to their learning styles

26 33 early on, it is likely that you can continue to do nations brought closer together through so easily since those styles usually have little manufacture of products in one country that will change. You can help teachers who may have a be sold in another. Most of us areaware that conflict of teaching style with a student's our children must not only survive, but must learning style adapt assignments to meet the achieve and excel in this international learning needs of students from one grade to the environment if our countries are to grow. We next.This will make for a happier classroom must also reach the acceptance of differences. for everyone. A friend of mine is always pointing out Finally, we must help teachers and the terrible happenings in this world in the students broaden their perspectives to go into past, present, and perhaps future that are often the wider world. "Across the world" means that done in the name of religion.Tolerance of many of us are already drawing ever closer differences can only come about if differences are together. We must help our teachers through understood.Until our children understand our resource-based environment to adapt lesson another country's customs, what happens there plans into multi-cultural experiences. More and may seem silly or frightening or threatening. more our countries are offering asylum and Tolerance is an example of acceptance of citizenship to others who are displaced from change. their countries of origin for political, economic, or Change is not easy. How much more religious reasons.Our students are learning common is resistance to change than acceptance new culture from their classmates who arrive and adoption of change. Many of our teachers from distant shores. are often very unwilling to change. When this is Children are no longer limited to seeing true they become defensive of the status quo. how other people live from reading in books or Yet, change is inevitable and constant. How meeting them in the classroom, they are also much more quickly we must adapt to change learning from television and movies. We must because of thespeed with which our help them have a true picture by teaching them environment, our work places our very lives to question what they see and to check and change. While the flight to Australia seemed confirm their impressions in alternative sources. incredibly long compared to a flight crossing the One of those sources may be first-hand US from my home in Pittsburgh to a vacation in communication withothers. Through Hawaii, how much longer would the trip have INTERNET as well as other electronic mail been if we did not have jet planes, or no planes. connections, children are "talking" to each other While some of us are beginning summer across the world. If children can't find out what vacation, others are into our 93-94 school year. kinds of food are served at meals during the I challenge you to plan changes. Do it alone? holidays in another country in one of your NO! Try to get your fellow librarians to share references, they need only e-mail a school in with you the tasks that have been described that country and ask the students there what above, and write about your successes and ask they are going to eat for their holiday. for suggestions to solve your failures. When you Children learn from a classroom that is develop an effective, interesting integrated some distance from their own. With distance curriculum unit, publish it so it can be shared. education, children can learn Japanese from I want to hear from you the successes teachers in Japan or share a science curriculum you have in making changes next year.If you with students in another city near them or some want to tell me by mail, my address is SLIS, distance away.They are also learning the University of Pittsburghor e-mail on power of information in political times. One of INTERNET woolls @lis.pitt.edu.Another easy the reasons attributed to the failed coup in way to let me know is to travel to Pittsburgh. Russia two years ago was the ability of citizens May I invite you to come next July to attend the to communicate to the outside world with FAX International association on the campus of the and e-mail. The opportunity to share University of Pittsburgh where you will fly into information is not limited to adults during one of the newest and most beautiful airports in stressful national situations, it is available to the world, see the nationality classrooms our children in their schools and classrooms. around the first two floors of the Cathedral of The ability to communicate greatly enhances Learning, one of the tallest classroom buildings the ability to understand differences. in the world, and visit the largest dinosaur bone We are preparing our children for a collection in the world at the Carnegie Museum. global society.children today will grow up in This may be another kind of change for you.

27 34 I'll make you one promise. My President's year will be completed.I'll share my "Changes Changes" with you. References 1"Nine National Library Power Program Planning Grants Awarded". Library Power: Newsletter of the National Library Power Program. 1 (Spring, 1992):p.2. 2 American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Com- munications and Technology.Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Chicago: American Library Assoc- iation, 1988. 3 Woo lls, Blanche, ed. Research of School Library Media Centers. Englewood, CO: Hi Willow Research and Publishing, 1990.

4Lance, Keith Curry. The Impact of School Library Media Centers of Academic Achieve- ment. Castle Rock, CO: HiWillow Research and Publishing, 1993. 5 Krashen, Stephen. The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1993.

28 36 Violence in Children's Literature Today

by Maureen Nimon As adults we are aware hat violence isan acceptance of the promulgation of stories which inescapable reality of our world. However, that incorporated violent threats against children.2 should not prevent us from posing the question, Sometimes violence was used to admonish. We "Does violence have any place in children's all know of the incident in Mrs. Sherwood's literature?" Fiction is an artifice. We use story History of the Fairchild Family (1818) in which to extend our experience and to find meaning in quarrelsome children were taken to view the it.It may serve this purpose for children with remains on a gibbet of a man who had first our mirroring exactly life in all its aspects. As argued with, then killed his brother. Even arbiters of the content and distribution of trivial and thoughtless actions could lead to children's books, we are responsible if violence disaster. A child carelessly dropped anorange appears in them. Its inclusion should therefore peel on the pavement.This caused a boy to be a considered decision and its nature and the slip, breaking his leg and suffering much pain. manner of its treatment ones we have judged to Thestoryuncompromisinglylaidthe be appropriate.Similarly, its exclusion must responsibility for the accident upon the first also be justified. child.3 In examining our initial question of Thus in school reading books and whether violence should appear in children's magazines produced for their leisure, children of literature today, a perspective may be given to the past were directly confronted with their our deliberations by reviewing swiftly the responsibility for their choices and actions and history of books for children.It is worth the likelihood of severe punishments following remembering that in the didactic tradition of closely upon wrong-doing.The lessons were writing for children, punishment figured nothing if not direct.Similar messages were strongly, whether authors were Puritansrepeated more starkly, if possible, in the eighteenth century rationalists or nineteenth traditional literature where no adults sought to century Evangelicals. Writing for children has ameliorate the punishments visited upon the for centuries encompassed pointed little stories figures of evil in fairy stories.In Snow White in which the virtuous were rewarded and the witch queen stepmother was forced to wear evildoers ,Suffered retribution. Violence, red hot slippers and "dance" to her death for her particularly physical violence, was frequently sins.4 -part of punishment,as in the case of a porter Apart from its admonishing, instructive who sought to cheat a fisherman and was given and punishing qualities, violence in juvenile fifty lashes and dismissed.'This story literature has had other roles.It could be appeared in one of Nelson's Royal Readers, praiseworthy, even glamorous.In the late widely used in the United Kingdom and the nineteenth century throughout the British Empire in the late nineteenth and early Empire, both the leisure reading of children and twentieth centuries. But violence also threaded their compulsory reading in school were tightly through the lives of the good, many of whom focussed on the importance of doing one's duty. had to prove their steadfastness by enduring Of course, "doing one's duty" governed the physical affliction or mental intimidation. Take mundane details of daily life, but children were the case of the little drummer boy who was also warned that every one of them could be popular with the officers and men in his called upon, and should be ready, to do their regiment until one day he was offered a glass of duty in far more challenging circumstances.It rum. "I am a temperance boy, and do not taste was not only the great Admiral Nelson who strong drink," he replied. The officers and men should be prepared to die, murmuring, "Thank tried to change his mind until at last the major God I have done my duty!"6 ordered him to drink it, warning him it was The literature of imperialism instructed death to disobey. Even in the face of a threat boys that they were the soldiers, sailors, such as this, the boy stood his ground. Again explorers, and traders of the future "whose duty this story appeared in a reading series prepared it will be to hold the Empire" their fathers for schools so there was clearly community bequeathed them.6 Stories of expansionist glory

29 3.6 permeated school materials such as Nelson's abated."12 Royal Readers and were the stock-in-trade of It may be that there were contemporary boys' magazines such as Chums. Writing on critics of those writers who urged boys to harbor illustrations in Chums, MacDonald observes such aggressive attitudes.Indeed, evangelical that through them, "glory, strength and violence magazines did not promote militarism, though are made dramatic and meaningful, yet MacDonald points out that they were "careful to rendered innocent by boyish high spirits."7In support England's place in the world. "t3 Chums fighting was "reduced to a code in which Certainly authorities such as Charlotte Yonge, reflection was absent, bravery was instinctive, E. G. Salmon and J. Greenwod wrote articles on suffering rendered as endurance and death as the importance of selecting carefully the reading dignified sacrifice."8 The enormous popularity of given to the young and ensuring it was of G. A. Henty and G. Manville Fenn testify to the desirable quality. in 1874 in an article entitled widespread acceptability of the cult of the heroic "Penny Packets of Poison," Greenwood warned figure, which, in boys' materials, took an almost concerned adults exclusively militaristic form. Henty's titles form a record of imperial there is a plague that is striking achievement. Those such as Under drake's Flag it up as roots deeper and deeper or With Clive in India set out the myths of how into English soil...yielding great the Empire was won; In the Heart of the Rockies crops of fruit that quickly fall, or A Final Reckoning:a Tale of Bushlife in rot t en -ri pe .tempting the Australia, how it was held.His here, whose ignorant and unwary, and name changed from book to book, but whose breeding death and misery physique and manner altered not one whit from unspeakable.14 Crecy to battles with Aborigines, personified the ideal British virility. In St. George for England , But the subject of his condemnation was not the Henty explained that courage was "the parent of literature of imperialism and its focus on almost all" the other virtues because it was violence, but the penny dreadfuls. These were required to practice most of them.9These similarly attacked by another article because words prefaced a book in which the success of they fostered unrealistic and socially disruptive British manhood was measured in the tallies of daydreams in the lower orders, encouraging the dead and injured inflicted upon the enemy. shop girls to think they might marry peers of The significance of one victory was highlighted the realm or actresses they might snare by the observation that "history has no [other] baronets with their beauty and virtue.15 record of so vast a slaughter by so small a body While girls might not be expected to go of men."10The "body count" approach to into battle for their country, they did not escape determining success was carried through his the call to face danger or to be ready to sacrifice books, hammering home the message that one themselves.In her Book of Golden Deeds, British male was worth multiples of any group Charlotte Yonge commented that "we all of us of foreigners and that his creed was that which enjoy a story of battle and adventure."She Macauley put into the mouth of Horatius went on to argue that the real appeal in scenes of "woe and violence" was the courage and self- And how can man die better sacrificethey revealed,theactsthat Than facing fearful odds, demonstrated forgetfulness of self."18 In her For the ashes of his fathers, book she then recounted tales of remarkable- - And the temples of his gods!" and often fatal heroism, as many of which figured women and children as men. Thus for Where stores did not deal with war, Yonge including extreme violence in children's they often incited boys to demonstrate physical books was justified if its portrayal also revealed courage. A frequent incident in school stories heroic deeds done by individuals on behalf of was one in which the hero found himself obliged others.Other materials carried the same to fight another, larger opponent, either on a messages to girls.In the Royal Readers there matter of honor or to protect another, smaller were numerous stories of mothers risking or boy. These fights were not brief or minor. To giving up their lives for their children, while take one example, the fight lasted "for nearly an Grace Darling, and her Australian counterpart, hour, by the end of which time both had been Grace Bussell, were featured in many girls' seriously mauled, but the pluck of neither was magazines.Even in the penny dreadfuls,

30 examples of female heroism could be found. disapproving of Westall's The Machine Gunners. Jack Harkaway's wife demonstrated this. She requires of authors writing for juveniles Throwing herself upon Jack, and that they make "certain definitive judgements" standing between his breast about "the ultimate consequences of war...and and the pistol of Miles Fenton, its role in history."19 She declares "it is the she looked like a heroine of old. privilege of writers of fiction to create characters "Back!" she exclaimed, ina who stand out for the prevailing mentalset and clear,but tremulous voice. use them as a way of asking questions and "Back! You reach his body but provoking serious though about the burning through my heart.If I cannot issues of all times."20In short, Whitehead save my husband, I can, at least believes that authors for children shouldbe die for him."17 obliged to construct stories that didactically Being ready to do battle with fate enact the principles of non-violence.21 remained the staple of much juvenile literature Yet even as committed to non-violence up to World Way II and beyond. We only have as Whitehead is, she accepts that it should to think of the immense popularity of Biggles to appear in books for adolescents. She recognizes be aware of that. The 1964 UNESCO that "there is a need for books which helpyoung Statistical Handbook put Biggles twenty ninth people face reality, however distasteful that in the ranking of the world's most translated reality may be.22 books, showing that his readership extended The South Australian Branch of the well beyond English-speaking children. Biggles' Psychologists for the Prevention of War declare creator, CApt. W. E. Johns, publishedone their position in regard to violence in thename hundred four books in which Biggleswa the of their organization. They takea stand close hero. and eleven which starred Worrals, his to that of Whitehead, seeing conflict and female counterpart.18 Nor has interest inthis violence as inherently part of our societyso that kind of action adventure tale expired.Six its portrayal in children's books is inevitable. Biggles books were reissued after editing in But they attempt to induce change through 1992 and, depending on theirsuccess, more promoting books which present may appear.It could be argued that Douglas constructive alternatives to violence and Hill's Galactic Heroseries continues the hostility."23 This they do by offeringa biennial tradition in an off-planet and future dimension. Children's Peace Literature Award. Two of the Thus we should preface.our deliberations about titles which have so far won the awardconcern violence in contemporary juvenile literature by personal relationships in settings of ordinary recognizing that it is only in recent decades that school and family life; the third isa fable about the place of violence in children's books has the destructiveness of violence. been so vigorously questioned. Equally though, Thus there are those today who take our acceptance of that fact does not compel us to the position that children's booksmay endorse the perpetuation of past traditions. in encompass violence and conflict, but it is the late twentieth century,we need no essential that they do so in ways that show the justification for re-examining our position in suffering caused.It is also important that regard to this matter. There is no time like the solutions other than retaliatory violenceare present to seek to exclude violence from given. Some may even agree with Webb who children's literature or to permit its inclusion argues for the literary value of the disturbing. only in ways of which weapprove. These are "The necessary monster," she writes, "is at the our choices. a historical review simply gives us heart of heroic literature, providing it withan the reasons of other generations for their imaginative definition by antithesis: whatever actions. the boundaries of the 'normal'may be, the What positions are held today? monster exists in violation of them."24This In Old Lles Revisited: Young Readers may be extrapolated to children's literature. As and the Literature of War and Violence, the monstrousness of the monster is ameasure Whitehead urges all involved in children's of the hero's daring, so the challenge faced by literature to promote juvenile reading which will children in learning constructive responses to break the cycle of violence. She herself takesa aggression will determine their achievement of very conservative view of what is acceptable for maturity. Yet as Whitehead points out, once youngpeople,endorsingSutcliff,but one has accepted that there is a place for condemning Cormier unreservedly and violence in children's literature, it is often

31 38 BEST COPY AVAILABLE difficult to judge in given instances which books Today, Cormier's reduction of the choice are acceptable.25 between good and evil to its bleakest form--good The work of Robert Cormier illustrates before evil whatever the cost--must be paid in a the dilemma that is posed by a writer who social environment stripped for the most part of purposely studies varieties of cruelty.His the comfort of religious conviction or social graphic descriptions of physical brutality are approval.While in our world of economic skillfully matched by his portrayal of the mental rationalism, some figures have achieved torture of rejection, isolation and mental prominence for their humanitarianism, there is intimidation. The power of his writing is never little evidence today of general community denied.The problem that springs from it is esteem for people of principle over those who that his very skill may seem to glamorize what can be seen to have been self-serving.The he purports to condemn. Whitehead certainly degree to which Jerry Renault is seen to be believes this of Cormier. She writes scathingly foolish rather than heroic reflects this.It is of his giving his audience what it wants.26 this, too, that makes our dilemma in regard to Perhaps, though, Cormier's real "failure" violence in children's literature particularly is that he refuses to write books that follow the important for we must find books that pose the established tradition of Western juvenile fiction issues for children in terms meaningful to them which presents a world in which the exercise of in their world, rather than to us in ours. courage and adherence to principle guarantees success. In the 1990s there are still those who References believe that an essential criterion of children's literature should be that good can be seen to 'Royal Reader, Book III. London: T. Nelson and win over evil--in a physical and material sense. Sons, 1883. pp. 59-60. For it can be argued that in Cormier's books, good does triumph in an ethical and spiritual 2New Royal Reader, Book II. London: T. Nelson sense. In his books, those who remain true to and Sons, n.d. pp. 65-66. themselves and stick by their principles remain admirable, even if defeated, even if dead. Their 3The Children's Friend, 1869, pp. 62-63. position remains as correct as it ever was. For Cormier reverts to the problem of good and evil 4Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Trans. R. in its most austere form.Like Socrates, he Jarrell. Illus. Nancy E. Burkert.Kestral agues that good must be its own reward. He Gooks. Harmondworth, Middlesex, Penguin, poses the question--isn't doing the right thing 1972.This version of the tale by the Bro- the only choice we have whatever the cost?If, thers Grimm shows the traditional punish- for example, you were at Trinity College with ment as a background motif to the cele- Jerry Renault, and you chose to stand by him, bration of Snow White's wedding. then, indeed, you might have suffered his fate. But if you didn't, if you were "only an onlooker," 5Beeton's Eveiy Boy's Annual. 1865. p. 575. then in effect you had chosen to let Archie have his own way and to be, therefore, a lesser 6Beeton's Annual, A Book for the Young, 1866. Archie. Cormier is relentless in making it clear p. 2. that there can be no fence-sitting on moral issues--either one acts or one does not.Either 7MacDonald, R. H., "Signs from the Imperial way, there is no escaping the responsibility for Quarter:Illustrations inChums, 1892- the choice you made. 1914," Children's Literature, 16, p. 33. Perhaps what makes the issue of violence in children's literature more contentious 8/bid. p. 43. today than it appears to have been in the past is the social context in which we find ourselves. 9Henty, G. A. St. George for England. London: For Henty's imperial heroes, there was the Blackie and Son, 1884. p. vii. consolation that if they should die, their fame and honor at home was assured. Though not io/bid. p. 229. often cited, there was also until recently, a general context of Christian belief in reward in a 11"Horatius," The New Royal. Reader, Book V. world beyond the grave for a sacrifice made in London: T. Nelson and Sons, n.d.p. 229. this.

32 39 12Evety Boy's Annual, 1875. p. 94. 13MacDonald, R. H. op.cit. p. 33./ 14Greenwood, J. "Penny Packets of Poison," reproduced in P. Haining, The Penny Dread- fill, or Strange, Horrid and Sensational Tales! London: Victor Gollancz, 1975. p. 359. 15"Penny Fiction," The Quarterly Review, 1890. 171.p. 161.

16younge, Charlotte. Book of Golden Deeds.

17Hemyng, B.Jack Harkaway in America. London: Hogarth House, n.d. p. 30. 18Thomas, M. Guatrlian Weekly, July 19, 1992. p. 23.

19Whitehead, W. Old Lies Revisited:Young Readers and the Literature of War and Vio- lence. London: Pluto Pr., 1991. p. 25. 20/bid. pp. 23-24. 21/bid.For example, see how Whitehead believes L. Hoy should have concluded The Damned. p. 157. 22/bid. p. 5. 23The Advertiser, Saturday, October 26, 1991. The Magazine, p. 13. 24 Webb, J."The Monster as Hero," Contra?), Modes: Proceedings of the World Science Fic- tion Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 1985. Published by Ebony Books, Melbourne, in association with the Dept. of English, University of Newcastle, 1985. p. 1.

25Whitehead, W. op. cit.p. 5. 267bid. p. 5.

33 49 The Politics of Children's Literature

by Jean A. Webb For the past four years I have been running for without them the book could not exist. children's literature courses and a summer Ideally the child would be in a direct and school at Worcester College of Higher Education. unimpeded line of communication.However, This has variously involved a great deal of there is a range of influences which intervenes discussion with publishers, writers, illustrators, between the writer and the child audience /- librarians, and teachers plus those involved in reader and potentially detracts from thepower the commercial book world.the information of the creation. contained herein has been gathered from these The writer must publish the work. experts and academic sources.I would like to "Which publisher," is the next question; the thank them for their enlightening andopen answer to which raises a number of barriers. conversation, particularly Chris Kloet, editor of The choice in the U.K. is considerable,or is it? Gollancz Children's Books, Julia MacRae, and During the current period of recession the Emma Marwood, manager of Waterstone's number of publishing houses is contracting. Bookshop, Worcester, England. Large corporations dominate. The familiar, in- During the spring of 1992, I spent six dividual house which once displayeda par- weeks working on a book review project with ticular identity may well be a small part ofa primary school children aged five to eleven, and large publishing machine, and therefore, am currently supervising a group research governed by a large publishing machine, and project on the same theme.Some of the therefore governed by the business and literary information from these projectsisalso requirements of he parent body. Individuality incorporated into this paper. is eroded by corporate ownership. The Politics and children's literature would independent style does not earn sufficient seemingly be two areas of thought which were capital to survive in a highly competitive incompatible. Politics being the administration market.The career of the publisher, Julia of power, control, government, and regulation, MacRae, as an example of independence, isan whilst children's literature embodies the exception, a testament to her determination, freedom of the imagination at a period in life critical judgement, shrewd businesssense and which Margaret Meek describes as "literary pertinent movement in and out of larger innocence. "1 The lack of innocence of the writers organizations. of works for children has long been recognized in The current nature of the publishing theawarenessof embeddedpolitical machine in the UK disempowers the author. perspectives, whether they been, for example, The usual pattern is that a children's bookpays religious, social, or gender biased.2 A host of by being printed initially in hardback and then interested parties: teachers, librarians, editors, the rights are sold to the paperback companies. not to forget responsible parents, each with The sales curve for a book to prove solvency is their own set of criteria, read critically to guard eighteen months. Warehouse storage space is the nature of the child's world of imagination. so expensive that companies no longer carry The world surrounding books for children would extensive back lists.The cutting of back lists apparently focus upon literary and artistic effectively acts as an instrument of widespread merit, moral soundness, high ideals, whatever censorship by the publishing industry.The they might be.This,most sadly, is an overly right for a book to exist is that it should meet innocent view, the dream of the idealist, for the high economic criteria, regardless of literary dynamics of the practical world and the worth.The chances of future generations of resultant political tensions militate against the children discovering and enjoyinga rich literary interests of children and literary merit. heritage diminish with each cubic foot of storage Who then is involved in this dynamic space saved. The literary past is abandoned to network? Which individuals and agencies play silence. a part in the process of bringing a book to the The implication of a streamlined pub- child? A simplistic model would put the writer lishing industry for the professional writer is and the child in the most dominant positions, that a new book must be produced at least

34 41 every one and a half years to stand a chance of conditions which the authorsare being asked to economic survival under the presentrequire- work under if they want to survive ments, whilst the editor must be the highly sure that the competitive short-lived market ethosof today. work will sell on to the paperbackmarket. The Certainly strategies can be employed relationship between editor and writeris driven to ease by strong external influences. the problems, note the numberof sequels, Large corpor- however the danger is that qualitydeteriorates ations have a fluid staffing pattern. Thecase of under such pressures. editors developing a close workingrelationship with writers is becoming A strategy which does, however,readily more unusual. There spring to the British mind is thatof widening are editors who still strive to work ina personal fashion. the pool of available material byusing the best Julia MacRae, Chris Kloet,for of European children's books.Each springtide example, who nurture and advise.The pub- the Bologna Book Fair lishing system also works against them attracts the major for the publishers from across the continent,here must paperback and newer softbackproduction be the ideal opportunity companies can offer larger rewards due to enable a rich to their cultural and literary mix, whilstusing proven greater sales.In other words ofan aggrieved successful writers.The reality is that each editor of quality hardbacks, thepaper and successive year fewer new children's softback giants are "gobblingup people books in nurtured by other houses." translation are published in the UK.The figure for 1991 was under ten. Thecost of translation Opportunities for new writersare plus the reader's feeare prohibitive, for that increasingly difficult to bring to fulfillment.Risk is an unpopular word where outlay is made beforeany decision is made success is an upon the suitability of the text.The general instant demand. Throughout publishinghistory there are instances of major practice is to buy European booksnot from our writers and continental neighbors, but from theAmericans recognized classical works beingrepeatedly who have purchased the items, rejected at the first stages, fromthe Brontes translated them and Charlotte's famous tattered into American-English and thenrecycled them brown paper to the British who translate theminto English- parcel, to William Golding's Lord ofthe Flies, to English! How close theyare to the original Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot,which would make an interesting study was kept waiting by forty four publishers before in cultural exchange. The mixing of markets, andtherefore it was finally accepted.Conservatism is the multiplicity of market demand creeping into the limited opportunities upon the which writer becomes a dominant factor withregard to remain for the new author. Thecomment on Europe, the UK, and much further the 1992 Mother Goose. Award, afield. A which is given children's book is judged for viabilityupon for the most promisingnew illustrator, whether it well sellon the home market; the highlights the current situation in thefollowing large English speaking assessment given by Sally Grindley: areas of America, This was not a vintage Australia, New Zealand plusEuropean and year for translation possibilities into Japanese,for Mother Goose Award.There instance. was a startling lack of inno- The resultant booksare on the whole vation, and a sense thatsome- retaining their sense of character, one, somewhere is playing safe. as long as Art schools, or publishers, that character translates within theboundaries or of another culture. The censorialjudgement of both?3 the editor is a strong elementhere when Tried and testedsoon becomes tired and arranging such matters, particularly overstretched as the pool of talent with shrinks illustrators. One English illustrator,Heather through lack of opportunity. Buchanan, who specializes in Marketing trends are therefore deter- architectural mining the rate of output which exactness, was prevented from includinga very often bears Welsh cottage in her work becauseit would not a direct relationship to quality. Aiden have been acceptable to the widerrequirements Chambers, in his speech at the IASLConference of the foreign readers. in Belfast last year, spoke of the length The result is on one of time hand a very bland cultural representationwhich required to consider and createa book; the rests nowhere in particular, andon the other a personal case he quotedwas that of fifteen mismatch mix which incorporates years to complete a trilogy. elements Literature is not a which are confusing for the adult whocan define production line profession, yet thoseare the the roots, and must therefore bein danger of

35 42 BEST COPY AVAILABLE utterly confusing the child. An example of such precarious.Without specialist people, we are an anomaly occurs in a widely distributed 1992 thrown back upon extant knowledge, and picture book from one of the major companies, exterior sources. The bulk of children's books which disturbingly introduces an old man are bought from shops during the period prior to dressed in the style of a Southern American Christmas, from the end of October to the farmer, replete with straw hat and overalls, holiday.Typically the sales over these few whereas the rest of the setting is clearly weeks equal that taken for adult books in an typically that of rural England. Muddle results average week throughout the year in an in the mediocre and weak books, whilst in the equivalent shop. The conclusion to be drawn is best of work there is a learning experience in that the majority of children's books bought the melding of fact and fiction.The editor from shops are presents bought by adults for clearly has a role to play here in terms of children. stipulation of requirement and guidance. Choices are made on the knowledge of Some writers and illustrators in the UK what the adults read as children, the strength are dissatisfied with editorial and mass market of advertising, what is perceived to be good, the constraints and are therefor circumventing advice of the shop assistant and random publishers and setting up their own book selection. With current publishing and production units.Time will tell as to the marketing considerations it is already becoming success of such ventures.One suspects that clear how the adult is controlled and disabled their efforts will be limited by the extent of their by the politics of the children's book world. The advertising power.Disseminating knowledge limitations on back lists will increasingly lead about children's books becomes increasingly to a deterioration of the adult knowledge of difficult as the number of books escalates. children's books, as argued above, and therefore There were seven thousand and six books for one of the most common approaches to book children published in the UK last year, which selection is nullified.The sharing of familiar leads one to a consideration of book buyers, how and beloved books is also threatened; the adult they choose books, what are the sources of recalling the love of their own childhood reading information available and how these dictate through known texts and imparting an extra choice. quality of appreciation to the following The sales route of a book depends upon generations. Communication becomes a central the category of buyer, adult, child, teacher, or factor in a multiplicity of ways. The adult can librarian. Book shops divide roughly into high no longer depend upon a body of prior street generalist stores and the purer book knowledge, and the shop assistant may well be shop. They mat be but a short walk away from little better equipped than the customer, under each other. The discerning buyer moving from these circumstances advertising is a most the high street store to the specialist book shop, powerful force. does so in the belief of gaining particular Where can the bewildered adult buyer expertise from the book shop. Corporate look for guidance and information? Publisher's ownership also dominates the world of selling. catalogs contain abstracts which are often In most cases the book shop will be part of the written before the actual book has been high street chain, although such is not made competed, so great are the pressures of time obvious to the customer. Where such alliances upon the industry. They certainly do not seek impact upon the customer is in the quality and to mislead, one wonders how well they are able range of children's books available. Book shop to inform under such constraints.Readily manager are issued with a central core of books available information about children's books is from the corporation supplies office. The same limited to a fifteen minute weekly BBC radio list applies to the high street store and the book program "Treasure Islands" produced by shop.In effect most of the book shops in the Michael Rosen; albeit excellent, the time UK are therefore making the same books allocatedispitifullylittleoutof the available. Particular book shop managers have broadcasting year.In Sweden, for example, to fight hard to free themselves of the dominant there is a regular and long running book review core, and to fight also for the specialist television program for children, hosted by an children's book sales person. There are some academic; it is nevertheless a most popular independent alternative specialist children's source of information and entertainment for book sellers scattered throughout the UK who both children and adults. The medium which is refuse to be dictated to; their survival is so often accused of threatening the book is there

36 43 being used as an effective means of promotion dependent upon the School's Library Service for for non-commercial purposes. specialist help. Shortly this service will have to Information regarding children's books be bought in by schools under changes in obviously divides between commercial and non- funding arrangements made by a government commercial interests.Publisher's catalogs and which believes in market forces.The average the information disseminated by book clubs size primary school generally receives less than must be promotional, whereas non-commercial one pound per head per annum for expenditure sources would seemingly be free from driving upon library books.The projected cost of a pressures. Educational and specialist journals, School Library Service visit to providea fresh charitable foundations such as the Children's source of books on a loan system will be equal if Book Trust, the library services which advise not in excess of the current average school are still pulled into the commercial melee, for expenditure upon library resourcing.At the the children's book awards form a central focus moment schools are used to a least two such in terms of guidance. The awards are mostly visits per year to maintain their book stock, generated by the publishing industry and few additional to the current expenditureupon include children as judges. An award indicates books. that the work "is good;" how that value This is a clear political pressureupon judgement is qualified remains a mystery to the the quality of library maintenance in schools. non-specialist, yet the power of the award label Even more obvious are the cutbacks in library is so great that paperback publications carry provision which are impoverishing the public covers emblazoned with award medallions, service.The 1964 Libraries Act recognizes a indicating immediate selection for the buyer. duty to provide an efficient and comprehensive Selection criteria are of paramount service. Our Prime Minister, John Major, ina importance in the current UK climate where the speech to his own constituents in 1992, government is so dominating education through declared that "Civilized nations open libraries," the formulation and reformulation of the yet in 1993 the political dynamics of his National Curriculum.The constant change government are destroying those dreams. combined with a higher onus of responsibility Library provision is being severely cut due to upon the parent derived of nervousness about budgetaryconstrainsemanating from the quality of education their child is receiving is government decisions; opening hours are resulting in more books being bought for restricted, sixty two percent of libraries now children which are perceived to be "good." The open for less than ten hours per week, whilst qualification for that "goodness" is inclusion in the Sheffield Central Children's Librarywas the government recommended reading lists in threatened with closure.4 The publication of the the National Curriculum.Party political report "Borrowed Time? The Future of Public thinking is exerting a most direct power upon Libraries in the United Kingdom" in June 1993, the imaginative lives of our children. Commerce has highlighted the obvious threat and and politics are firmly linking hands in the misunderstanding of the library service,5 yet literary world, especially under a government there are also insidious covert changes which which believes in market forces. Book shops are impact upon the quality of provision specifically reporting sales levels of children's books which for children. seem to be little affected by the recession; the As with book shops, the tendency is to customers being middle class parents who are move away from the specialist trained children's wishing to supplement what they perceive to be librarian and to employ general assistants in educational needs. the children's book area. Change in practice is Direct parental involvement in schools is also affecting book selection. Children's often centered upon the library. The non- librarians are being pressured to move toward teaching school librarian is a rarity in secondary selection from catalogs rather than reading the education, confined to the very largest of actual book.The implication is that the institutions, whilst primary school libraries are reading matter for children is so low profile that usually run by teachers who carry full teaching it can be recommended without even being seen. responsibilities apart from their library Needless to say there is strong resistance from commitments. Parental help is therefore vital the committed librarians on behalf of the to the running of many school libraries.The children.Librarians, teachers, and parents teacher with special responsibility for the speak on behalf of children, and so do library, yet no specialist training, is therefore academics in developing the specialist subject

37 44 area of children's literature. The development most British schools. of research and theoretical consideration which Group discussion (group sizes varied brings literature for children on a par with that from four to thirty five) focussed initially upon for adults can only be positive.Children's what the children knew about books, what they literatureshould besubjecttoequal needed to know, and why, and how that could opportunities for study and not debarred on be encompassed in an effective means of what are otherwise ageist criteria.6 communication pertinent to the age and ability Having widely scanned the world of level. Knowledge about books was erratic, and children's literature what becomes so apparent this was a school which has a respected is that ageist criteria are being employed, reputation for literacy in the locality. Selection children are marginalized from knowledge about by author was there among the older children, books which are being written for them. The mostly they went for attractive covers and books "Puffin Book Club Newsletter" is the only source where they could read the title.I Like Me was a of information available for children known at popular selection.It was not, however, a the time of producing this paper, and that, right popularly acclaimed book following the reading, so, has a specific commercial purpose. As far as whereas Maurice's Mum was initially rejected I know there is no wide scale source of because of the difficulty of the word "Maurice," information produced by children, except for yet it was subsequently very much enjoyed for example the annual Smarties Book Prize, and the inventive nature of the story and the that isaiming towards specific results. number of good jokes in the text. Children are the silenced group. The work that The emphasis was initially very much Mary Ann Paulin presented at the IASL on talking about the books to other children. Conference in Belfast last year, focussed upon Confidence and enthusiasm high, we then producing child critics using the language of moved on to the problems of disseminating adult criticism.Perhaps there are ways in information about books in a lively and which a critical language for children may b e interesting fashion. The traditional book review developed to encompass the stages prior to the was not highly regarded as an effective tool; a more sophisticated critical concepts required by new approach had to be conceived. The older literary analysis- -ways in which the child may class of thirty five children read the picture be politically empowered by being given a voice books designed for the younger age group. This and an audience. in itself was a most enlightening exercise. For During the spring of 1992, I carried out example, barriers were broken down, enabling a short pilot research study looking at the ways the less able older readers to assume an equal in which children select books, what their status with their more fluently reading peers. knowledges are of books, and what they value The picture books were appreciated for their and would like.This was designed very much subtle qualities which are often recognized by as an investigative venture tolook at adult readers.The children then decided to considerations to underpin a doctoral study make a book review video. Methods of which will begin this coming September. The presentation were varied. One group composed age groups targeted were five to six year olds a rap complete with original music on a theme and ten to eleven year old children within the of their book. Others read the story to camera, same primary school. The school already had a selecting points at which the camera panned in formal book review inclusion in their curriculum. a dose up using the text directly whilst others For the young children it worked on a five star acted parts of the story. The dramatic element system referring only to whether the book was developed more fully in other areas where the appreciated, not why, running on a scale from children assumed comic personas of well known "Brilliant" down to "Yuck." The results were television personalities gathered together to recorded on a wall chart as paper stars.For discuss the books. There were agree criteria, the older children the requirement was a that the title and author should be clearly written report in a personal review book. The communicated. report including a resume of the story and Clearcommunicationneednot hopefully some opinion on the characters. necessarily be dependent upon words. An Neither of the review process involved other infant's school teacher is currently working on children or discussion with the teacher. The use the book review project.She has four to five of review techniques which equate toa year old children in an educationally deprived soliloquy, I suspect, is not very difference in urban school which also draws upon a

38 45 disadvantaged rural area. The young children there are communication their energies and 3 Sally Grindley. "The Mother Goose Award," thoughts about the books to other children Books for Keeps. May 1993, No. 80. through pictures.They draw a response.It may be from the text, or allied, using very much 4 BBC television June 1993 "OpenSpace" their own style.Appropriate words are added program on the threat to the national library in consultation with the child. The review art is provision compiled by the Association of then displayed with the book available for Assistant Librarians and the Information children to read.High levels of interest are and Library Studies Library at the being generated by these procedures, interest University of Wales, Aberystwth. fromthechildrenaboutbooksand communicating ideas. 5 "Librarians Told to Turn Over a New Leaf," Communication is the way to break The Guardian. June 24, 1993, p. 2.and through the stifling atmosphere of political "Closed Minds Closed Books," Leader control. Hopefully, the Book Review Project will comment, p. 25. establish networks of communication between schools. There are already seven involved in the 6Lissa Paul. "Enigma Variations:What early research stages. Wider benefits continue Feminist Theory Knows About Children's to evolve.The teachers are more assured o Literature" in P. Hunt, ed. Children's their selection and literary criteria whilst Literature. Rout ledge, 1990. p. 148. gaining a more expert knowledge of current publications, for the books reviewed by the children as part of this project are allup to date publications provided by the publishers. Interest levels in the pilot schools are high, children making greater efforts with their reading, seeing an outcome, communication their thoughts and feelings, wanting touse the library for they have an ownership in the ongoing active processes which are affecting their environment. The oppressions of control and ignorance which have been reviewed in the early stages of this paper are being attacked. In conclusion the dream of this dynamic enterprise is knowledge, a democratic approach and giving children their voice in the complex of the world of children's literature, a world they should so freed share with adults. References and Notes

1 M. Meek. The Cool Web. Bodley Head, 1977. p. 10. 2 See for example: B. Dixon.Catching Them Young1:Sex Race & Class in Children's Fiction.Pluto, 1977. B. Dixon. Catching Them Young 2: Political Ideas in Children's Fiction. Pluto, 1977. A.Lurie. Don't Tell the Grown-Ups. Bloomsbury, 1989. R. Leeson. "The P.E.N. Ultima," Books for Keeps, May 1993.Report on "political correctness" as enforced upon writers by the publishing industry.

39 46 History, Dreams and Reality: Storytelling Programs in Malaysia by Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad School of Library and Information Science Institut Teknologi MARA Malaysia Introduction Maxwell wrote: Malaysia, historically known as the Malay Peninsula lies across the trade route linking Sitting in the balei of a raja or China, India, and the Arab countries to the chief, or in the veranda of a west. For centuries it has been a trading haven private house, when the sun has for all the various cultures:Chinese, Indian, gone down and the evening meal Arab, British, Dutch, and Portuguese.The is over, the storyteller, very likely neighboring countries, Thailand and Indonesia, a man who can neither read nor have also some cultural linkage with Malaysia. write, will commence one of the Ethnically, its eighteen million popula- romances of hisrepertoire, tion is multiracial which comprises the Malays, intoningthewordsin Chinese, and Indians in Peninsular Malaysia monotonous chant as if he were and the Ibans, Kadazans, Dayaks, Bajans, reading aloud from a book. He Melanaus, Kenyahs, Kayans, and many other has very likely been placed groups in Sabah and Sarawak on the island of purposely near a doorway leading Borneo.It is divided into fourteen states and to the women's apartment, and the Malay language is the national language. the laughter and applause of the This paper describes the history of male audience without is echoed story-telling in Malaysia particularly pertaining from behind the curtains, where to the Malay storytelling.It will also describe the women of the household sit the present day activities for children in eagerly listening to the story. The libraries with an elaboration on storytelling recitation is perhaps prolonged activities. far into the night, and then Storytelling,a powerful means of pro- postponed, to be continued in the viding children and adults with life-enhancing succeeding night.There is no mental images, has been a tradition practiced hesitation or failure of memory on by most cultures throughout the world. Passed the part of the bait; he has been on from one generation to another, the stories at it from his youth up, and has freed the imagination and stretched the inherited his romances form his capacity for such feelings of joy, sorrow, father and ancestors, who told sympathy, and hope. The stories usually have them in days gone by to the a universal message, especially in their aim to forefathersof hispresent cultivate positive norms in societies. The audience.A small reward, a characters or settings might be different but the hearty welcome, and a good meal plots, themes, and genres are identical. await the Malay rhapsodist wherever he goes, and he wanders Historical Background among Malay villagers as Homer Malay storytellers, better known as did among the Greek Cities." "penglipurlara," have long existed even during Another well known British scholar, the Malay Sultanate.To Understand their R.O. Winstedt, also wrote about a Malay function we must first understand that the storyteller in 1908: word "penglipurlara" means a person that makes people happy.Among the earliest He started to chant, his voice at documented evidence of the existence of Malay first cracked with age and disuse storytellers was in the JMBRAS, dated 17th but strengthening as he warmed June, 1886. In his article entitled "Seri Rama a to his tale. The launch clock had Fairy Tale Told by a Malay Rhapsodist," W. E. struck the hour of midnight:I

40 dozed on the top of my cabin but tellers gave their. hearts and souls to the stories still his voice rose strong and they rendered.These stories which are also interested the moonlit bay. For known as oral traditions have a mixed origin me its tale with its mixture of from India, Thailand, and he Middle East. many superstitions, layer upon These stories which involve tale-gods, demons, layer,possessedindeeda spirits, unusual animals, marvelous creatures dilettante interest; to him it was such as witches, ogres or fairies, or even what Robins Crusoe or Treasure conventionalized human characters such as the Island are to a school boy, what favorite youngest child or the cruel stepmother. the Odyssey must have been to a The story is usually an adventure and Greek fisherman. Adventure had love story, such as looking for something gone out of this life; his home was magical or a bride. Most of the themes, plots, poor; his clothes cotton, and his and characters of the stories are stereotyped, wife old and ugly.But as he and of course it will always concludes with a recited, he lived in a different happy ending.Among the stories told are wold; princes in the splendor of popular old Malay folktales. old world raiment fought battles These storytellers will usually tell their with magic arts and weapons, stories using rhyming words interwoven with rescued lovely maidens in distress, proverbs, riddles formulistic expressions, and travelled to land in search of songs thus making it easy for them to adventure, debonair, irresistible, remember. Along with the movement of parts of possessedof the secret perpetual their body especially the hands and the head, youth and passion.Visions of musical instruments, such as gongs, rebab (a sunlight and sea peeped out of two-stringed musical instrument), and batil the rude verse; sails filled with the (copper bowl) were also being used to make freshening breeze, and youth sat theirpresentation moreeffectiveand at the prow gay with silks and interesting.It is interesting to note that one of color andlive,whispering the storytellers is known as "Awang Batil" honeyed nothing to princesses of because he uses a batil to create music and also the Malay Archipelago. "1 uses masks to depict different characters in the From these two statements it is evident tales. that the storytellers during that period of time To employ theservicesofthe weregreatly appreciated by their audiences. storytellers, reservations have to be made. They can charm the listeners till. lat night. Matters such as token fees, the stories they Although they be illiterate and live in poverty, want to hear, and accommodations will have to they handle their stories with pride and love for be discussed.The venue will also have to the art.They usually learned the trade form prepare a stage, complete with incense and former storytellers and enjoy doing it or a mere drinking water for the convenience of the token. storyteller during the show. These Malay storytellers, known as It is with regret to mention that this "Penglipurlara, were always popular during the form of storytelling is a dying art.Many Malay Sultanate era until the mid-twentieth individualsand agenciesinterestedin century.It was among the most enjoyable preserving these forms of oral traditions have forms of entertainment during that time. Apart recorded over six hundred of the stories told. from performing in the palace for kings and Some of the stories have been published, but it queens and noblemen, they also performed for will not be the same as being told orally since other audiences which at that time were mostly the storyteller will usually tell the stories in farmers. their own local dialect.The styles of presen- They usually tell these stories in con- tation are different from each other. Apart from junction with a celebration such as weddings, using their local dialects, some of them chanted circumcision ceremonies, harvesting seasons, or and sang their stories and some were using other calibrations for a fee.Storytelling ses- musical instruments such as rebab, violin, sions are usually done at night and last from rebana, gong, and batil. one to three and sometimes even seven nights Although the era of performing in in a row. palaces has long gone, these storytellers are Being true professionals, there story- still being appreciated at weddings, during

48 thanksgiving at harvesting season, and at state of public libraries differs from one sate to fairs.They are still popular among the older another. Apart from each state library having a generation.Public libraries have invited the children's department, there are also libraries storytellers to tell their stories there.Apart set up solely to serve children, e.g., the Pustaka from these storytellers, there have also been Bimbingan Kanak-kanak, Taman Tun Dr. other kinds of storytelling in the form of the Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, and Child Play Centre theatrical productions known as: in Petaling Jaya, Salangor. Bangsawan, theatrical productions of acting, dancing and singing are for all kinds of Children's Activities in Libraries audiences. They are performed at weddings, at Children are always eager to participate the palaces, or even at fairs and in the country- in programs designed for them. Although much side.Stories performed are classical stories work is involved in organizing the activities, from the Middle East, India, or Malaysia. librarians all agree that it is a rewarding Mak Yong, a dance theater, incorporates experience for both the children and the the elements of stylized dances, songs, music, librarian. and acting.It is said to have originated in Libraries involved with children's Thailand at least four hundred years ago. activities have always aimed at encouraging the Wayang Ku lit, shadow play, is said to use of the library and its collection. The library be the most ancient form of theater in staff has always viewed it as a good public Peninsular Malaysia. The Dalang or puppeteer relations effort. In addition to providing fun to must memorize the story.The Puppeteer children as they listed to stories, watched manipulates characters of the different stories puppets, and participated in art and craft and also maintains a dialogue between a wide sessions, these activities also aimed to instill assortment of characters, male and female, creativity and encourage reading among the spoken in the characters' voices. They perform children. It is also a good method to foster good for hours with intersess;ions by gongs and relationships with parents and other library drums which are being used to emphasize a patrons. scene or to mae it more dramatic. Libraries have long realized that thy Jikey includes choral singing, music, have an important role to play in the mental, and dance drama.This form of theater is physical, and social development of children.I popular in the states of Kedah and Perlis which conducted a small survey which involved the are north of Peninsular Malaysia. fourteen main state libraries.I also included With the advent of modern entertain- the children's department of the National ment such as television, film, and video, these Library of Malaysia and two other children's forms of traditional entertainment are slowly libraries, i.e., The Pustaka Minbingan Kanak- declining. Apart from not being able to sustain kanak, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, and the Child the interest of the younger generation, Play Centre. involvement in these occupations isalso As can be seen from Figure A, the considered as having low social status since the activities for children are varied and include monetary returns are not that lucrative. circulation, storytelling, film/video shows, art During the years there has never been a and handicraft sessions, games, book talks, demarcation between entertainment for children clubs, and storytelling competitions. The or adults.Penglipurlara, Bangaswan, Mak activities are usually carried out by the library's Yong, or Wayang Julit are entertainments for own staff, sometimes aided by volunteers. It is all walks of life and ages.Apart from its not surprising that not all activities can be recreational value, it has always been a tool for carried out since lack of staff is a common bonding togetherness and promoting positive problem for most libraries. attitudes such as respect for the elders, doing good for others, respect and love for the country Storytelling Activities and nation, and many others which are Storytelling has always been viewed as important elements in any nation building. an agent in the promotion of reading and the use of libraries.Since children have always Children's Library Services enjoyed it, the library should make it a point to The children's services programs in have it regularly. Although storytelling is one of librariescorrelatehighlywithlibrary the major activities carried out, survey results development in the country. The development shown in Figure B indicate not all libraries are

42 able to have their storytelling sessions as activities does take a lot of preparation regularly as once a week. Out of the seventeen time. libraries only about five have weekly sessions. e.Not all public libraries havespace The others have their sessions, once every provision for children'sactivities. fortnight, monthly, one every three weeks, and Having story hours means making other some are even irregular.This is easily arrangements for space. understood since the storytelling session is done Despite all these hindrances, the public in succession with other activities such as libraries constantly try very hard tocarry out video/film shows or others. storytelling. The positive reaction of the This is also due to the fact that in children and parents present at these sessions conducting storytelling, a lot preparations have gives much encouragement for the staff to to be done and the library usually does not have continue doing it. enough staff to devote their time doing it, neither can they depend too much on volunteers. Methods of Storytelling It may seem that most libraries do have at From the survey I also gathered various least one professionalstaff involved in methods that have been used in storytelling in storytelling activities or children's activities, but Malaysia. They are reading aloud, puppetry, the children's sections usually come under the theater, using books as well as the use of Circulation Department, and the professionals transparencies, and flannel charts (As shown in in this department are not only responsible for Figure C). Both the professionals and thenon- children's activities but other activities relating professionals combine their efforts in carrying to circulation too. out storytelling. Although storytelling is agreed to be one TheNationalLibraryandthe of the most favorite attractions, the library Malaysian Library Association, as well as some sometimes fails to carry it out regularly due to public libraries, have organized workshops several constraints: using local and foreign expertise in trying to a.Storytelling and other children's make storytelling more challenging and activities are usually carried out on interesting for the audience.Occasionally the Saturday mornings when schools libraries will also invite storytelling groups from sometimes carry out other school teacher's training colleges, and library schools to programs (extra curricular activities). give the audience a fresh view of stories. The This will explain the small number in libraries have also been known to receive foreign attendance at some of the libraries. storytellers from Japan, Thailand, Germany, Some libraries choose to do storytelling Canada, and the United States. irregularly. They will only carry it out The use of a solo storyteller, puppetry, during the school holidays because it is using books, and reading aloud seem to be the only during that time they attract a most popular methods employed by the larger crowd. libraries. b.It is regrettable that some parents do feel that storytelling is a waste of time Storytelling Contests for their children. Some feel that the It is evident from the survey that children should spend their time storytelling contests seem to be a popular yearly reading and not listening to stories or activity for most libraries. Apart from libraries, singing songs or rhymes. teacher's training colleges, and other voluntary c. With modern technology, storytelling organizations also organize these contests for programs must be really good in order the children. These contests are usually carried to get the attention of children, so out with the help of the schools. The schools planning and practice take up a lot of usually hold the preliminary rounds to select time and effort of the library staff. the representative for their schools. d.Not alllibraries have children's Parents and teachers have always librarian posts. Most of the librarians viewed these contests as outlets for their are also supposed to carry out other children to be creative, promoting good language professional duties in the library and development, and building self confidence. It is this does not leave too much time to also a good form of recreation for the plan and rehearsefor children's participants and audiences.The participants activities.Involvement in children's are judged on their style of presentation,

43 50 language, choice of story, and props used. called Negeri Sembilan, the library has been very successful in promoting library services for Professional Storytelling Groups children. In March 1990 the library launched a Apart from storytelling groups inclub for children under the age of fourteen libraries,a new breed of professional known as "Kelab Adikku." This club is under storytelling group seems to have sprung up the patronage of the wife of the Chief Minister of during the eighties.Some were formed for the state. Currently more than seven hundred commercial purposes, i.e., to perform at private children from all over the state have registered birthday parties or other engagements, but as members. They carry out their activities on there are also groups being set up by non-profit Saturdays from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon and agencies to perform for children just for the love from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. of it. Those groups believe in storytelling for the The personnel of the library also carry promotion of reading and a good form of leisure out their activities using volunteers, especially for children. As an example, groups from the students from institutions of higher learning Deqan Bahasa dan Pustaka (National Library who enjoy doing activities for children.In Agency), popularly known as "Si Nuri" (the addition to the normal routine sessions of art mascot is a bird) perform in public and schools and craft, storytelling, songs, quizzes, and with the aim of promoting reading. visits, the children in the club also receive To conclude, I would like to describe coaching in theater, singing, and dancing. children'sactivitieswith emphasison Occasionally, they have been invited to perform storytelling of three libraries in Malaysia to at functions for children and adults. show how a typical children's library program is The club also has a radio show every carried out in Malaysia. Sunday from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm which is being broadcast throughout the state.To keep the Pustaka Bimbingan Kanak-kanak, Taman members informed the club also publishes a Tun Dr. Ismail, Kuala Lumpur monthly magazine called Berita Adikku since its This library is situated at one of the members are from all over the state and some housing estates in the city of Kuala Lumpur. only hear about them through the radio show. Due to its strategic locality it does not have to This monthly magazine is filled with articles of publicize its activities to attract children. general knowledge, short stories, comic strips, Weeklyactivitiesespeciallyon quizzes, and crossword puzzles which most of Saturdays and Sundays such as games, art and the members enjoy. craft classes, and storytelling are carried out. Methods of storytelling such as reading aloud National Library of Malaysia. Children's and puppetry are applied here.It is very Department fortunate that the librarian and the staff here Puppetry, storytelling, drama, shadow are specially assigned to this children's library plays, music, choral singing, arts and crafts, so much of their time and efforts are being folk dancing, pantomimes, and physical and channeled into these activities. vocal exercises are some of the experiences The library personnel also have their provided to children at the National Library. own puppet group which not only performs at Since 1981 they have been actively involved in their own library but occasionally travels to children's theater. There objective in setting up other libraries and other places such as school the children's theater were: and hospitals to entertain.and promote reading. i.to introduce children to the world of The children enjoy the services of the literature, library which is open from Tuesday to Sunday. ii.to instill reading habits, The staff has to sacrifice their Sunday holidays iii. to entertain and develop children's so that they can have the activities with the imagination and their communicative children since activities on Saturdays sometime abilities, and do not get the support because there are also iv. to introduce the library as a center of concurrent school activities. recreation and leisure. The children meet every Saturday and Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Negeri Sunday.The stories used in the theater Sembilan production are from books in the library, thus it Situated about seventy kilometers from serves as an effective means of introducing the city of Kuala Lumpur and in the state children to reading and literature. Apart from

44 51 performing in the library they also perform at national book fairs, Children's Day celebrations, References and even on radio and television programs. The activities were discontinued in 1. Bauer, Caroline Feller.Handbook for 1992 since the National Library was at the Storytellers.Chicago: American Library stage of moving into their new permanent Association, 1977. building. Now they are starting to reorganize their activities again. 2. Devadson, Shellatay and Md. Shukri Edrus."Children's Theatre in Malaysia," Conclusion Country Workshop on Library Children's Storytelling as a form of activity for Theatre in Asia, March 1987. children has its unique way of consoling, healing,and reviving the child for words and 3.Maguire, Jack. Creative Storytelling: pictures to express what he or she perceived. Choosing. Inventing, and Sharing Tales for Many believe storytelling which as been a Children. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985. practice from one generation to another will never lose its magical power in touching the 4. Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad. "Program hearts of the young and old. Every child knows Bercerita di Malaysia. Pandangan dari that the stories are dreams or "make believes." Aktiviti Yand Dijalankan di Beberapa But it is just natural for children to take time Buah Perpustakaan." Paper presented at out from the real world. the Seminar dan Lokakarya Internasional In reality we have to face the fact that Mendongeng. Jakarta, February, 1992. storytelling activities are facing challenges from the present-day high technological world. Today 5. Mustafa Mohd. Isa Awang Belanga: many parents are concerned that children are Penglipurlara dari Perlis. Kuala Lumpur: immersed in an overtly visual world of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1987. television, computers, and video arcades.In reality too, the library is facing the challenge in 6. Mohd Taib Osman. Bunga Rampai Kebud- making storytelling captivating for the younger ayaan Melayu.Kuala Lumpur: Dewan generation. Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1988. Despite the lack of staff, budget and many other constraints, libraries especially the 7. Shahaneem Mustafa and Molina Nijhar. public libraries are working diligently to carry "Reaching Children Through Libraries in on storytelling activities.Initiatives have Malaysia." Paper presented at 6th always been taken by the libraries to ensure Congress of South East Asian Librarians. the children will not be deprived of the Singapore, 30th May-3rd June, 1983. opportunity to listen to stories.However, sophisticated the world turns out to be, children 8.Survey throughquestionnaireand will always remain as children. They just love telephone interviews with the libraries listening to stories especially if the teller is concerned. good. Puppets, drama, television, and video- 9. Visits and interviews with librarians from discs are among the methods used everywhere the National Library of Malaysia, Pustaka by storytellers today in reaching their audience. Taman Bimbingan Kanak-kanak, Taman Both children and adults enjoy them.It may Tun.Dur.Ismail,and Perbadanan just be a change of format or style as evidenced Perpustakaan Awam Negeri Sembilan. in Malaysia. From Penglipurlara" to modern storytelling or children's theater, the audience will still be children or what we can call adults who are children at heart.The motive will always be the same, to entertain and to educate the audience. Be it new words or new experiences for them, stories they have heard will always echo in there memories as one of the most enjoyable moments in their lives.

45 52 Appendix 1 Name of "Penglipur Lara" (Storyteller) According to Origin of State

Name Area (State Method of Presen- Musical Instrument Country) tation of Stories Used

Tank Salampit Kelantan Songs, Chanting, Normal Rebab (a two-stringed Perlis storytelling musical instrument

Selampit Perlis Chanting, Poems, Normal Batil (copper bowl) storytelling

Jubang Kedah Songs, Chanting

Ah li cerita Pahang Songs, or Chanting Begbana Terengganu (Tambourine)

Kaba Selangor Chanting Violin or Rebab

46 LIBRARIES ACTIVITIES FIGURE A z ()0 i__, 0 -.1 1-1(.9 I " 0< C.) 41(r) ....)>4 (,)pt..] w r 6 U- 0 'ii u cnH ..6 -,4 o [i-t gO (..7 0CA 8. 8oa" aU E:Acr) U 2.I. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM JOHOR / / ] / 4.3. IERBADANANPERBADANAN PFRPUSTAKAANPERPUSTAKAANPERI'USTAKAAN AWAM KEDAHKELANTANMELAKA / / / / / / / / / / / / 7.6.5. IERBADANANPERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAANPERPUSTAKAAN AWAMAWAM PAHANGNEGERIPULAU PINANGSEMBILAN (NOT AVAILA.) // // // / / / / / / / / / 9.8.10. SABAH STATE LIBRARY PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAMAWAM PERLISPERAK / / / / / / / / / / / / / 13.12.11. PERBADANAN PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM AWAM TERENGGANUSELANGOR SARAWAK / // // // // / / / // // / / / 17.16.15.14. TAMANNATIONALCHILDPUSTAKA PLAY BIMBINGAN PERINGATAN LIBRARY CENTRE KANAK-KANAKOF MALAYSIAKUALA LUMPUR (KUALA LUMPUR) / / / // / / // / // / / / / LIBRARIES ACTIVITIES FIGURE B Q...1 .-1 > 04., ,(1til0) ii. ..10 0,... (.7 Z ti 44 Zu A Z 0 R z .7r-rJ >,E. 0H E.9, Ix z 0c4p...it / Once a year 3. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM KELANTANKEDAH 1 4 3once weeks every 35 - 50 50 / twice a year 5.4. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAMAWAM NEGERIMELAKA SEMBILAN 1 23 irregularmonthly 50 - 100 50 > / twiceIrregular a year 8.7.6. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAANPERPUSTAKAAN AWAM AWAMAWAM PAHANG PERAKPULAU PINANG (NOT AVAILA.) 21 14 oncefortnightly every 15 - 20 50 / once a year 9. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM PERLIS 1 162 irregular2 months 50 - 70 / once a year 12.10.11. SABAHPERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN STATE LIBRARYPERPUSTAKAAN AWAM SARAWAK AWAM SELANGOR 1 25 weeklyirregular 30 - 45 50>100> / once a year 14.13. PERBADANANPUSTAKA PERINGATAN PERPUSTAKAAN KUALA AWAMLUMPUR TERENGGANU 21 412 monthlyweekly 30 - 50100 - 60 / onceirregular a year i6 17.16.15. PUSTAKACHILD NATIONAL PLAY BIMBINGAN CENTRELIBRARY OFKANAK-KANAK MALAYSIA (KUALA LUMPUR) volunteers1 13 weeksonceweekly in 3 100 -20020 - 40 / onceirregular a year 57 FIGURE C LIBRARIES METHODS USE IN STORYTELLING uatr) >- f--P4 6(-) .-3 .t0 0 Q r .t ,.,F-1,/,t20 W g 6U w , E0 2.1. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAMAWAM JOFIORKEDAH / / / / / / d 4.3. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM MELAKAKELANTAN / . / / / / 5.7.6. PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAANPERPUSTAKAAN AWAM AWAMAWAM NEGERI PAHANGPULAU SEMBILANPINANG (NOT AVAILA.) / / / / / / 10.9.8. SABAH STATE LIBRARY PERBADANAN PERPUSTAKAANPERPUSTAKAAN AWAM AWAM I'ERLIS PERAK / // / / / / 12.14.13.11. PERBADANAN PUSTAKAPERBADANANPERPUSTAKAAN PERINGATAN PERPUSTAKAAN PERPUSTAKAAN AWAM KUALASARAWAK AWAM AWAMLUMPUR SELANGOR TERENGGANU / / / / / / / Filmstrips 17.16.15. PUSTAKANATIONALCHILD PLAY BIMBINGAN LIBRARY CENTRE OF KANAK-KANAK MALAYSIA (KUALA LUMPUR) 58 / / / / / / 59 Training School Librariansfor the Nigerian SchoolSystem: A New Perspective by David F. Elaturoti of increase in the numberof institutions and Introduction student enrollment but also withreference to its It gives me pleasure toshare thoughts on new geographical spread into all partsof the perspectives in developing training programsfor school system Federation. The available statistics on school librarians in the Nigerian education shows that there are34,904 primary at this internationalconference of school librar- of 12,721,087 ians. As some of us are now aware,the 24th schools with an enrollment pupils, 5,868 secondary schoolswith students' Annual Conference of IASLwill be held at 81 special I will therefore like to population of 2,723,791, and Abuja, Nigeria in 1995. education institutions with10,000 disabled use this forum togive some background infor- Grade II Teachers' mation on Nigeria for thebenefit of those who children. There are also 249 with the details of the Colleges with 220,472 students,241 Tech - may not be conversant nical/Vocational centers with 117,852students, country. 60,533 students, 48 The Federal Republic ofNigeria is the 21 polytechnics with occupying an area Colleges of Education trainingteachers for the largest single African country National Certificate of Educationhaving a total of 923,768 square kilometers(356,669 square Universities with miles) and having a populationof 88.5 million. of 58,335 students and 32 Nigeria lies between latitudes4° and 14° north over 160,767 students. 3° and 14° east of The emphasis on educationhas shifted of the equator and longitudes from the liberal arts to scienceand technology. the Greenwich Meridian.Thus, it is entirely in emphasis is to within the tropical zone.It's climate varies The objective of the change to sub-tropical enable the nation to meetits manpower from the tropical at the coast requirements in various areasof social, eco- further inland.There are two well-marked nomic, and political growth aswell as devel- seasons, the rainy seasonlasting from April to which it aspires. October and the dry seasonfrom November to opment and modernization to in the coastal This was one of the fundamentalfacts that March. Maximum temperature informed the adoption of the6-3-3-4 system in areas of the southis 37° celcius while the which emphasis absolute minimum temperatureis 10° celcius. the National Education policy north with maxi- is on guiding students toenable them to choose The climate is drier further the career for which eachindividual is best mum temperatureof 45° celcius. The Federal the students' Republic of Nigeria consistsof thirty states. suited early in life, based on Government is at demonstrated aptitude and potentialafter the The seat of the Federal first nine years of continuouseducation Abuja.The educational system waspredom- inantly British orientedand the official assessment. and government language both of instruction School Libraries in Nigeria business is English. Theprovision of primary Nigeria and secondary education is ashared respon- The various education laws in and the federal are silent about theprovision of school libraries. sibility between the states This prompted the NigerianSchool Library government.The country adopts the 6-3-3-4 Guidelines for education system which providesfor six years of Association to prepare the of junior and Nigerian Legislation for SchoolLibraries/Media primary education, three years Resource Centers in 1978, copiesof which were three years of senior secondaryand four years in compulsory for submitted to the Federal and StateMinistries the university. Education is now of the provision of the child to the juniorsecondary school level. of Education. The importance schools, most post- school library media centers inNigerian schools Tuition is free in all primary of the education primary and tertiary institutions.The move in for the effective implementation make education free program of the schoolhas been stressed many the education sector is to times by Nigerian educators.The National at all levels. Policy on Education which cameinto force in the Education recorded aphenomenal role of the growth in Nigeria in the1970s not only in terms 1980s recognized the important

50 60 school library media center in the education school library development. program of the school and recommended that all Recognition of school libraries has also primary and secondary schools, as well as been achieved through the programs of the teachers' colleges, be planned with libraryNigerian School Library Association which media resource centers funded jointly by both include organizing workshops, conferences, and Federal and State Governments. publishing professional literature. The Assoc- Like many other countries, Nigeriaiation has succeeded in providing a national experienced a period of economic growth and forum and stimulating interest in organizing relative prosperity during the mid to late 1970s, school libraries in various states.Attempts the "oil boom" years, but this period was have been made todevelop standards followed by the hard times of the 1980s with appropriate for Nigerian schools.Notable the attendant cutbacks in staff and funding efforts by library professionals to publish slowing down school library development. But standards for school libraries include Obi's the boom of the 1970s resulted in only modest Manual for School Libraries on Small Budgets gains for school libraries.there are probably (O.U.P. 1977), Ogunsheye's Manual for Nigerian several reasons for this.First, available funds School Libraries (Abadina Media Resource went into a rapid expansion of education at all Centre 1978), and Elaturoti's Developing a levels, most dramatically the introduction of School Library Media Centre (Onibonoje 1990). Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976. The Federal Ministry of Education (1992) Funds that could have been used to develop published Minimum Standards for School school library services were expended on crash Libraries in Nigeria. programs to provide classrooms and teachers for the increasing primary school population. A Teacher-Librarians in Nigerian School second reason is perhaps that there was System insufficient demand for school libraries either In the Nigerian school system, teacher- because of lack of library awareness or because librarians are qualified teachers who possess in the educational system being practiced, the addition to their teaching qualification any of "chalk and talk:system, rendered them the following: a degree, diploma, or certificate superfluous. in librarianship or credits in librarianship courses.They are basically teachers who in Recognition and Legislation addition to their teaching load, run a school There has been increased recognition of library without additional remuneration to their the importance of libraries in education on the salary.In recognition of the additional work- part of government.The National Policy on load of organizing and running the school library Education (1981) makes reference to school program, they carry less teaching load than libraries as one of the most important edu- other teachers where feasible.The teacher- cational service and acknowledges the need to librarians are involved in teaching other supply materials and train staff for school subjects in the school curriculum.In schools libraries. Government has participated in stud- where there are shortages of teachers, the ies and organized workshops to further the teacher-librarians carry a full load of teaching development of school library services, most leaving no time for the library work.The recently in primary schools.Currently the majority of the teacher-librarians do not have World Bank Assisted Primary Education Project professional qualifications in librarianship. includes the development of libraries in primary Elaturoti (1982) reported that there was schools.Workshops are being organized to only one qualified teacher-librarian with ALA train teacher-librarians for primary school and a teaching qualification in the 293 secon- libraries.The Local Governments are being dary schools surveyed in the former Western directed to build zonal school libraries, at least State of Nigeria. Fourteen other teacher-librar- one in each Local Government toprovide library ians had librarianship knowledge through services to schools. The books and other learn- workshops. The remaining schools had no qua- ing resources for the primary school libraries are lified teacher-librarians. Other studies by Bolo- being evaluated, selected, and purchased by the deoku (1979( and Opeke (1980) reported Federal Ministry of Education under the World similar findings. Bank Assisted Primary Education Project.At the secondary schools' level, both the federal Training of Teacher-Librarians for Niger- and state governments are giving support to ian School System

61 reasonable length of time in the schoolsfor Hitherto there has been no recognized remunerative training program for teacher-librariansby the several reasons. The post is not a government for the purpose ofemployment in one as other duty postsin the school and public schools. The post of theteacher-librarian therefore there is no incentive to keep them on the job.Second, for lack of subject teachers in as earlier mentioned,has not attracted any schools, additional remuneration.The bulk of the schools particularly in the secondary school system the teacher-librarians are usuallyassigned existing teacher-librarians in the subjects to teach in the school without any have been trained through shortinservice Third, the courses and workshopsoffered by the Abadina reduction in their teaching load. Media Resource Center, The States;School teacher-librarians, when promoted to higher Library Association, Federal Ministryofposts, find it difficult to combinelibrary work Teachers with their new assignments. Frequenttransfer Education, State Library Boards, and schools of Resource Center, Jos.More recently, some of teachers has also deprived some universities and colleges of educationhave the services of dedicated and qualifiedteacher- librarians. introduced programs to produceteacher-librar- of ians for Nigerian school systems.Ajibero (1991) The lack of continuity in the service listed sic university library schoolsthat offer the teacher-librarians in Nigeriaschool system specialization in school librarianshipbut has affected adversely the developmentof school remarked that not all the library schoolshave libraries in Nigerian schools and thegrowth of good programs for the training ofteacher- the professional association of schoollibrarians. the The efforts made to get the governmentto librarians as the courses offered centered on for role of school libraries in the curriculaand the recognize the position of teacher-librarian the library appointment and remuneration has notyielded need to encourage youth to use qualified resources effectively.He concluded that far more the desired results due to lack of concerted and well articulated programsneed to teacher-librarians in the school system. be introduced in Nigerian libraryschools in The Nigerian School Library Association that would in realization of the obstacles toschool library order to produce teacher-librarians has meet the challenges of theNational Policy on development in the Nigerian schools Education. resolved to work toward the professionalization Some colleges of education up till 1991 of the position of teacher-librarian inschools. offered courses in librarianship as oneof the The achievement of this objective wouldfacili- three subjects studied for theNigerian tate the government recognition ofthe position Certificate of Education (NCE), a three year for remuneration and improved career prospects post-secondary teachers certificate. Othersub- and could help to keep the school librarians on jects offered with librarianship areeducation their job in the schools.The Association has and a teaching subject. The graduatesof the also proposed to substitute thedesignation program are to beemployed in primary or "school librarians" for teacher-librariansfor all secondary schools as teacher-librarians.This qualified school librarians.It is also our expec- right step toward pro- tation that the designation "schoollibrarians" program is considered a heads viding adequate qualified schoollibrarians for when adopted would make the school Nigerian schools. Contrary to expectationsthe more conscious that theprimary assignment of by the national council the school librarian is to develop and run an program was phased out of the on Education in1991 on the ground that effective school media program in support librarianship is not a teaching subjectin education program of the school. schools. Efforts being made to restore the pro- School gram have not beensuccessful. However a few Proposed Curriculum for Training librarianship courses have been integratedinto Librarians for Nigerian School System the general studies program toequip the The proposed program by the Nigerian organization School Library Association for thetraining of students with the knowledge of the and use of library resources. Thephasing out of school librarians takes into consideration librarianship as a subject for the NCE program librarianship qualifications that are equivalent has brought some set back to efforts toprovide to the minimum teachingqualifications approv- qualified teacher-librarians for theNigerian ed by the government for the primaryand post- school system. primary institutions in Nigeria. There has been a problem of retentionof The Diploma in Librarianship is being qualified teacher-librarians in thejob for a proposed as minimum qualification forschool

62 librarians in primary schools.The Diploma is observation during library practice an equivalent of the Nigerian Certificate of Education, the minimum qualification pre- Education Courses (Compulsory) scribed for teachers in the nation's primary Psychological foundations of education schools. Introduction to the history and policy on The Bachelor of Library Science is the education minimum librarianship qualification proposed Psychology of learning for the secondary schools.For teachers who Educational psychology want to train as school librarians after the Bachelor's degrees in a teaching subject, the Education Courses (Required) Master of Library Science has been proposed for Sociological and philosophical foundations of such teachers.The rationale for proposing education these qualifications for school librarians is that Principles and practice of education they should have equal status with other teachers in the school to be able to relate to the teachers as members of faculty in the discharge of their duties as the media resource specialist Teaching Subject in the school setting. The candidate will be offered one The courses for that program were teaching subject in related departments in the designed in collaboration with the heads of the university which would be studied for two years. library schools in Nigerian universities. Three areas of competencies are identified for inclusion Bachelor of Library Science for School in the course program:Librarianship, educa- Librarians tion and teaching subject in the sciences, The course will be a four-year degree humanities or social sciences. The librarianship program.The candidates would be offered courses were selected from the existing courses courses in librarianship, education and one offered in the library schools with some new teaching subject in either the humanities, social additions. The education courses were selected sciences, or sciences.The courses offered are from the existing courses in the departments of listed as follows: education in the Nigerian universities that are relevant to the needs of school librarians with or Librarianship Courses (Compulsory) without education background. For the various Society development and libraries programs the following courses are proposed: Learning resources in education Reference sources and user services Two-Year Diploma in Library Science for Cataloguing and classification School Librarians Collection development Administration of school libraries Librarianship Courses (Compulsory) Computers in libraries and education Libraries and society Library practice Library resources Library survey Cataloguing and classification Library routines-Technical and readers services Librarianship Courses (Required) Library work with children and young adults Technical routine processes School and education libraries Literature and library services to children and Compilation of bibliography young adults Library practice Bibliographies Media technology Librarianship Courses (Required) Indexing and abstracting AV resources management Interlibrary loan and cooperation Subject information sources in science, social sciences and humanities Librarianship Courses (Elective) Library methods in education (Primary Schools) The handicapped and library services Education Courses (Compulsory) Librarianship Coursed (Elective) Psychology of learning Long Essay: Submission of a paper based on General principles of curriculum and instruction

63 with teaching qualifications. In the selectionof Sociology of education the courses we have been guided by the reports Education Courses (Required) of the following bodies:United Kingdom's Introduction to the history and policy of Library and Information Services Council's education Working Party on School Library Services Sociological and philosophical foundations of (1984), IFLA (1985), and Canadian School education Library Association (1985 & 1989). The reports Psychological foundations of education indicate the areas of competence onwhich Introduction to special education trainingisto be given as education, History and policy of education in Nigeria librarianship, and management. For the training program being proposed for Nigeria, Teaching Subject management will be part of the librarianship The candidate would be offered at least courses.Provision is made for a teaching one teaching subject ineither the humanities, subject to be offered in other departments.The social sciences, or sciences in other departments school librarian needs the teaching subjectfor equal academic status with other teachers. The to study for four years. knowledge of a teaching subject would help them in collection development and reference The Master of Library Science for School services to users. Librarians The candidatesforthe master's Effort is now being made to organize a program will be offered coursesin librarianship national conference on the training programs and education only.The subjects studied for later this year.Participants at the conference the bachelor's degree would be sufficientfor would include:Library educators, librarians, required subject background. The candidates officials of the federal and state ministries of would be offered more courses in library science education, the National Librarian, Nigerian Library Association, officials of the teaching to give them the professional competence. service commissions, national university Librarianship Courses (Compulsory) commission, representatives of the Nigeria Collection development Union of Teachers, Conference of Principals of Cataloguing and classification secondary schools and headmasters of primary Automation in libraries, archives and informa- schools, school librarians, and other interested tion centers bodies. Administration of school library media center The conference would examine and Reference sources and user services deliberate on the course content of the training Working with children and young adults programs to determine theirrelevance and Independent study (project) adequacy and to make recommendations to the Practical work in libraries appropriate organ of government for their adoption for training school librarians for the Librarianship Courses (Required) Nigerian school system. It is our hope that the History of archives, libraries and information Nigerian School Library Association would receive the needed support from the related systems proposal a Subject information sources sectors in education to make the Indexing and abstracting reality. Audio visual resources References Education Courses (Compulsory) Ajibero, M. I. (1991) "Provision for Training Philosophy of education Teacher-Librarians in Nigerian Library Psychology of learning Schools." Paper presented at 12th Annual Principles of curriculum design conference of Nigerian School Library Association, Sokoto. Mimeograph. Education Courses (Required) Research methods in education Dike, V. W. (1991) "School Library Services in the 1990s and Beyond:A Perspective." The admission of students to these Paper presented at 12th Annual Conference programs would givepreference to candidates of Nigerian School Library Association,

54 6 Sokoto. Mimeograph. Elaturoti, D. F. (1982) "Survey of Secondary School Libraries in Oyo, Ondo and Ogun States," Nigerian Journal of Library & Information Studies 1 (1) 52-65. Elaturoti, D. F. (1991) "Developing Curricula for Training Teacher-Librarians for Nigerian Schools." Paper presented at 12th Annual Conference of Nigerian School Library Assoc- iation, Sokoto. Mimeograph. Federal Government of Nigeria. National Policy on Education.Revised ed. Lagos, Federal Government Press, 1981. Hamza, Y. (1990) "The Management of Change- Education in Nigeria Under the Austerity and Structural Adjustment Programmes in the 1980s," Education Today 4 (1) 3-17.

Nigerian Year Book 1992.Lagos, Daily Times 12-20. Marinho, H. (1991) "Basic Education and National Development," Education Today 4 (2), 17-27. Nzotta, B. C. (1991) "Provision for Training Teacher-Librarians at Ibadan."Paper presented at 12th Annual Conference of Nigerian School Library Association, Sokoto. Mimeograph. Prospectus of Departments of Library Science of Nigerian Universities.

55 65 Managing Media Centers in Secondary Schools

by Jan A. Kruger Professor, Department of Information Science University of South Africa Pretoria Introduction the physical facilities, curricular media used Up to now relatively little has been written and and the acceptance of the media teacher as part published about managing media centers in of the teaching team schools. It is not quite clear why this should be so. Books dealing with media centers in The Responsibility for Media Services general, usually include a brief discussion of the If the education authorities accept the topic.What is found, however, is that most media center as an indispensable and insep- publications focus on the use of media in arable part of every school, and it has an education, information skills, information re- educational philosophy and policy to this effect trieval and the selection of media with collection (The Media Center 1988:2), then attention can development in mind. These topics cover the be paid to the question of who should take two fields of expertise of the media teacher, responsibility for media services. The answer to namely education and library and information this question is, in fact, very simple. The re- science.It seems as if management has been sponsibility lies with the education authority. overlooked.Is the reason for this that the The education authority can make certain ar- principal of the school is regarded as the man- rangements to carry of this responsibility. ager of the school and that the media center is These arrangements go hand in hand with the just a part of the school?(herring 1988:22). management of media centers. However, being in charge of the media center the Usually two levels of management can media teacher must be regarded as a manager be distinguished as far as the management of as well (Prostano & Prostano 1987:43).It is media centers are concerned, namely the macro therefore desirable that attention should be and the micro management levels. paid to the management of the media center. A second issue that is even more Macro Management Level striking than the first, is the acceptance of the The education authority functions on the media center as a sine qua non for effective macro management level. Due to the fact that education and therefore part of every school. media services are specialized services, edu- Authors comparing school media services of cation authorities delegate this function to an various countries, regions, or education depart- organization which can take responsibility for it ments, usually take this as their point of de- on behalf of the education authority. In this pa parture. They will compare two different sys- per attention will be paid to two possible organ tems after which certain conclusions are izations which can provide school media reached, without paying attention to the educa- services:first, the education media service as tional philosophy and policy that the edu-cation an ancillary service of the education depart- authorities have with regard to the role of ment, and second, an organization outside the media centers in education.This educational organizational structure of the education philosophy and policy is the cornerstone on department. which media centers are developed and utilized. Only systems where this cornerstone is present, The Education Media Service can be juxta-positioned. Readers are given the Ancillary services functioning in the or- wrong impression when comparisons are made ganizational structure of the education depart- as it is taken for granted that both systems are ment, usually have an educational basis, based on this important cornerstone and that because the functions of an education depart- the two systems are therefore comparable. ment are education and teaching. The primary These publications and articles focus on the role function of an education media service as an of the media teacher in curriculum development, ancillary service is therefore directed toward the size and retrieval of the media collection, rendering a service to education.

56 66 The service rendered by an education technical services on the macro man- media service can be divided into three main agement level.This organization is re- categories: sponsible for the planning and provision of physical facilities.This is done ac- The Departmental Library cording to certain guidelines laid down The departmental library is a by the education departmentas the special library that is concerned with mother organization. Professional the information needs of the officials, guidelines are usually formulated by the both professional and administrative, of education media service and then the education department including all approved by the education department the teachers of that particular education Professional services of the edu- department. Media teachers can there- cation media service include the provi- fore request professional literature from sion of annotated buying lists of se- the departmental library to keep track lected and recommended media. Items of the latest developments in their field from these may be selected and ordered of interest. As the departmental library by media teachers for collection devel- is a professional library and information opment.It must be borne in mind that service, it is just natural that it find a many rural schools are situated far home within the organizational struc- away from booksellers in the cities and ture of the education media service. are not in a position to visit the booksellers personally.The provision and Advisory Services availability of lists of recommended, Media advisors possessing a graded media constitutes a valuable teaching qualification and experience, service to the media teachers. As part together with either a qualification in of this service, media are classified by library and information science or edu- professional librarians at the education cation technology, provide a very impor- media service to further ease the task of tant service within the education media the media teacher. service. Media advisors visit schools on Besides these services the education a regular basis to give guidance to the media service may provide complete sets of media teacher specifically, and to the catalog cartds for the media included in the principal and subject teachers in gen- lists. eral.Qualified media advisors are in a The education media service may position to give guidance on library sometimes purchase media and supply certain matters as well as on media user edu- items to each school. cation, and curricular and extracurricular media use. Because they are, Ancillary Service Outside the Education just as in the case of media teachers, in Department possession of a teaching qualification When the education department dele- they are accepted by the principal and gates its responsibility for media services to subject teachers as media specialists schools to an organization outside the organ- and consequently close cooperation izational structure of the education department. exists between them.Naturally, their It is usually to the organization that is involved guidance to the media teacher includes with public library services. This often results advice on matters relating to the man- in the establishment of combined school/com- agement of the media center. The munity libraries situated at schools. Otherwise media advisors operate on the macro separate school and public libraries are found. management level and are not involved Various examples of these two models exist all in the day to day management of the over the world. media center at the school. That is the It is not always clear whether there are function of the media teacher. people in this type of system who do work similar to that of the media advisors in the educa- Professional and Technical tion media service.If so, it is important to Services know whether these people possess a teaching The education media service qualification and have teaching experience, as renders important professional and the primary function of the media center is

57 67 curricular media use which includes media user department. Other members of the staff who education. These are pedagogical functions. A are involved in extracurricular activities can also media center which is a model in all respects, be co-opted.The primary function of such a but is not used satisfactorily for curricular media committee is to plan and promote cur- purposes, should have its right to existence ricular media use.The value of the media questioned. In addition, one could ask whether committee lies in the involvement of senior the guidance provided on the macro manage- subject teachers in the media centersservices. ment level, as well as the management of the A by product of this greater involvement is media center, are pedagogically sound. closer cooperation between the subject teachers and the media teacher, an awareness of the management problems experienced by the Micro Management Level media teacher, and an awareness of the gaps in On the micro management level one the media collection. The media committee can finds the media teacher is in charge of the make a contribution toward the elimination of media center. The media teachers are the man- these gaps. agers of the media centers.They are responsible for the execution of the functions of man- Managing Media Centers in South Africa agement on the micro management level. The Since unification in 1910, South Africa training of the media teacher must, therefore, has enjoyed a stable education system. At the make provision for the execution of the functions moment there are fourteen different education of management. In those cases where media departments besides the four in the independ- advisors operate on the macro management ent homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, level, media teachers receive guidance from Venda, and Ciskei. Some critics describe these them on the management of media centers. fourteen different education departments as Often media teachers experience diffi- fourteen different education systems. Others re- culties with the execution of their management gard them as fourteen subsystems of the South functions. The ideal is for the media teachers to African edication system due to the extent of hold a senior position on the staff of the school. their similarities. This will ease their task as managers because With so many education departments, they can act with the authority that flows from some differences obviously are noticeable. Some their senior position.In education systems departments have an education media service where the emphasis is on examinations, one and well-developed school media centers.In finds that the senior positions are held by sub- other departments, school media services are ject teachers who teach final courses.Unfor- poorly developed, while in yet others school tunately, too often the media teachers are junior media services are almost non-existent.The and inexperienced teachers. The result of this situation depends very much on the educational situation is that they cannot act with authority philosophy and policy of the different education in a meeting with experienced and senior sub- departments with regard to the role of media ject teachers. That contributes toward a high centers in education. staff turnover in the post of the media teacher, During the past decade, and more spe- which in turn has a negative effect on the man- cifically since the beginning of 1990, South agement of the media center.Continuity is of Africa has experienced dramatic changes.Pri- vital importance for successful management. marily these changes are taking place in the po- It is desirable to appoint a media com- litical arena, but they have consequences for the mittee to avoid and solve problems with regard arenas as well.Strong political pressure has to the management of the media center and been exercised to bring about the establishment poor curricular media use. From a certain per- of a single education department. spective it can be argued that the media com- In the process of bringing about a single mittee is operating on the meso management education department in South Africa, various level, that means on a level between the macro far-reaching changes have already taken place and micro management level.The media in the education departments for white children. committee comprises the principal of the school, In the past only government and private schools who acts as chairman and the media teacher existed, but since 1992 a third category, state- who acts as the secretary.Other members of aided schools has been added. State and state- the media committee should be the senior aided schools are now open to everyone while subject teachers, sometimes known as heads of private schools have their own entrance re-

58 68 quirements. Prior to these changes state considered is the continued existence of the schools received substantial funds for the de- present media center at a school.At present velopment of media centers. Since August 1992 each school has a management board chosen when the new education dispensation for white democratically from the parent community. The children came into being, no more funds have principal and his deputy also serveon the been granted to schools for the development of board. The management board is involved in media centers. At the moment it is not clear the general management of the school. whether new state schools to be built will be The instigation of a new body, theman- provided with the physical facilities for media agement committee, will be necessary to look centers. A single education department for the after the media center specifically.The man- whole of south Africa will be established on agement board can ask the management com- April 1, 1994, it is also not yet clear whether mittee to submit a draft of their policy with funds for media centers will be made available regard to the role of the media center in the again after that date.It is, however, of vital particular school for consideration and approval. importance that the education authority must The management committee should con- explicitly formulate in its education policy the sist of at least one representative of the man- role it expects the media center to play with agement board, the principal and/or the deputy regard to teaching and learning. There should principal, the media teacher, one representative be a statement on the philosophy, aims, and of the media committee (which will constitutea objectives of the media center in its schools.If subcommittee of the management committee), the media center's role is not explicitly form- two or more members from the community ulated in the country's educational policy it will (preferably chosen from people qualified as not figure in the curricula or examinations of the librarians and people involved in the training of education system. librarians and more specifically media teachers, as well as people from the business com- Managing Media Centers in the Future munity). As great uncertainty about the future of It will be the task of the management school media services in South Africa prevails at committee to take over the responsibility of the the moment, it is obvious that careful con- education media service on the macro man- sideration is now being given to possible models agement level if the education authority relin- that might be implemented. quishes its responsibility.If the management One possible model is the combined board of a particular school decides that a school/community libtraries that are well known media center at the school is unnecessary, then in South Australia. An alternative model is a management committee for the media center that of community libraries functioning pri- will probably also be unnecessary, except if marily as public libraries, which can also be such a committee were to take up the challenge utilized by the pupils of the surrounding to persuade the management board to change schools. These schools will not have their own its mind. school library or media center. The management committee can There are definitely other models worth appoint various subcommittees. Reference has considering as well. The fact of the matter is already been made of the media committee that if the education authority relinquishes its which is responsible for planning and promoting responsibility for media centers on the macro curricular media use.Other subcommittees management level, a new body will have to fill could take the responsibility for fund raising, the gap if the media center is to continue to cataloging and classification of newly-bought exist.If it is the educational philosophy of the media, or for providing assistance at the new education authority that media centers reference and lending desks. have no role to play in the new education This management model could ease the system, then media centers in the state schools management function of the media teacher will become redundant. As far as state-aided tremendously. It would no longer be necessary and rpivate schools are concerned, it will lie in for the media teacher to convince the principal the hands of their individual management or subject teachers of the importance of the boards to formulate their educational phil- media center.That would be the task of the osophy and policy with regard to the role of the management committee anditsvarious media center. subcommittees. By implementing this manage- One possible model that needs to be ment model the continued existence of the

59 6 media center should be ensured. Bibliography American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Commun- ications and Technology.Information Power. Chicago: ALA. 1988. Gawith, G. A Future Information Generation: the Role of the School Library. New Zea- land Libraries, 1986 45 (3):49-53. Herring, James E. School Librarianship, 2nd edition. London: Bingley, 1988. Kruger, J. A. "The School Library as an Integral Part of the School," School Librarian, 1987 35 (2): 107-111. The Media Centre: A Guide for Those Concerned with Media Centres and School Libraries. By C. M. Vink, J. H. Frylinck, J. A. Kruger and J. S. van Niekerk. Pretoria: Aacacia. 1988. National Education Policy Investigation.1992. Library & Information Services: Report of the NEPI Library and Information Services Research Group: A Project of the National Education Coordinating Committee. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Prostano, Emanuel T. and Prostano, Joyce S. 1987. The School Media Center. 4th edition. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited. Smith, J. B. & coleman, J. G. From the editors, in School Library Media Annual; Volume Ten, edited by J.B. Smith and J. G. Coleman.Englewood, Colo.:Libraries Unlimited.1992. University of south Africa.Department of Library and Information Science. The Use of Libraries for the Development of South Africa: Final Report on an Investigation for the South African Institute for Librarianship and Information Science.Pretoria: University of south Africa, 1988. Yesner, B L. & Jay, H. L The School Admin- istrator's Guide to Evaluating Library Media Programs. Hamden, Conn.: Library Profes- sional Publications, 1987.

60 70 Library Training in the SouthPacific From 1972- 1993 by Melvyn D. Rainey Coordinator, USP Training Program Although this paper will primarily be about the lished centers, libraries have beenorganized new Diploma in Library Information Studies and catered to by the main University which was first offered at the University Library. of the The center libraries are primarily forthe use of South Pacific in 1990, I feel it isnecessary to students taking distance education give a bit of background leadingup to its courses. In inception so that you might better some countries the libraries are under the lead- understand ership of people who have completedthe Cer- how we arrived at the presentprogram. Let me begin by stating that the University tificate in Librarianship and whoare now work- of the ing towards their Diploma in LibraryStudies. South Pacific is celebrating itstwenty-fifth birthday this year. The institution firstopened Library Training 1972-1980 its doors to students in February, 1968. As an In the area of library training,the institution of higher learning, it is uniquein University has played a major role.When the that it is one of the few regionaluniversities in University first opened its doors in the world. Its maincampus is in Suva, Fiji and 1968, the it caters to the needs of twelve Pacific professional library staff quickly realizedthat island training for junior and intermediatestaff and countries, namely the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiri- those working in libraries throughout bati, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, the Tokelau, country was paramount. Withina period of four Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Western Samoa,and years the professional staff at the library along the newest member, the MarshallIslands with Library Services of Fiji met thechallenge which became a member in 1991. Theregion by developing the first semi-formaltraining for stretches over an area of eleven millionsquare non-professionals in Fiji.The Fiji Certificate miles of ocean, an area which is three timesthe size of Europe. was in existence from 1972-1980 and although (Appendix 1) The total land it was primarily for people working inFiji there mass is roughly one-third again as largeas were some people from other countries in the Denmark and the population of the regionis region included in theprogram. The training just over one and one-half million (Appendix1) To develop a training was in the form of a series of one week program which workshops and it was this training thatwas would meet the needs of sucha vast area was instrumental in fostering interest in developing not an easy task; for while the people of the a program that would benefit the entire USP South Pacific have much incommon, each region. In the eight years itwas offered, a total country has its own distinct culture andtra- of seventy-two people receivedtheir first dition. The University from itsvery beginning training and a large number of themhave has always been conscious of this inany at- continued on with further training.It is this tempts it has made to introducenew programs. group that has formed the core of a dedicated As well, it has been charged with themain- group of semi-professional library assistants in tenance, advancement and dissemination of the South Pacific. knowledge by teaching, consultancy, and training responsive to the well-being and needsof its Certificate in Librarianship 1981-1993 South Pacific communities. By the middle of the 1970s, itwas At the present time the University has obvious that a more intensive trainingprogram approximately ten thousand students, and that would include both theory andpractical roughly seventy percent of them undertaketheir aspects of librarianship was needed throughout studies through distance education. Overthe the region if librarieswere to make an impact years the University has established University on communities.By early 1981, funding for centers in all member countries with the such a program was approved by exception of Tokelau which has Canadian an office at the International Development Agency (CIDA).By Western Samoan Center. The MarshallIslands the second semester of 1981, the firsttwo as yet does not have a center but this will be courses of the six required for completion of the established in the near future.In all estab- Certificate in Librarianshipprogram were

61 Al offered through distance education. The new very outset of discussions was toexpand the program was a vocational programand the concept of the program from "Librarianship" to teaching/learning mode was carried out by "Library information Studies".This concept satellite tutorials, face to face tutorials for those was carried through toexpanding the term students living in the vicinity of the University, "libraries" to "library information specialist." It written assignments and some regional was thought the new termswould more accur- workshops. In 1984 the Canadian funding end- ately define the role of libraries and librarians ed and the University took over the financial in the world today.Financial support for the cost of continuing the program. At the endof new diploma program camefrom the Canadian 1992, one hundred and eighty six people in the Funding Agency International Development USP region had gained the Certificate in Research Center (IDRC) in 1988.Financial Librarianship.(Appendix 2) When the pro- support was given for a three-year period. This grain ends in 1993, it isexpected that approx- money was used for the writingof course imately two hundred people will have completed materials, purchasing textbooks, and paying the certificate.No new students have been the salary of one person.At the end of the accepted into the program since 1990.It is three-year period the University accepted the worth noting that at this point in time there is financial responsibility for the continuance of a movement throughout theregion to revise, the program. update and reinstate the Certificate as many in The Diploma does differ from its two the region feel there is still a need for itand predecessors in a number of ways. Perhaps the that it is a viable entry point at which to begin greatest strength of the new program hasbeen library studies. Whether or not this will be con- the involvement of more experts from outside sidered by the University Senate remains to be the region. Two course writers from the Aus- seen. The Certificate programhas been quite tralian National University and the University successful and most people who completed it of British Columbia who have had a number of are working in libraries. Anumber of people years experience working inthe South Pacific migrated in 1987 at the time of the militaryand who have a good understanding of the coups and among those leavingthe country were needs of the region were hired, the former on a librarians; a large number of these people have part-time basis and the latter full time. Four been able to secure positions in libraries at a other course writers from the Universityof paraprofessional level. Hawaii, the University of Maryland, and the California Lutheran University spent from six Diploma in Library information Studies months to a year on sabbaticals working on By the middle of the 1980s the question new course materials. Aswell, a public librar- had arisen about the need for further training ian from New Zealand who is working in Fiji beyond the certificate level.University center has been involved on a part time basis writing directors, government officials, as well as librar- materials. Professional staff from the Univer- ians throughout the region saw a need forfur- sity Library have been involved in giving ther training in their respective countries. The feedback and making suggestions about written University library professional staff under the materials. Having a large number of writers leadership of Esther Williams, the University with different backgrounds and expertise invol- Librarian and Donita Simmons, the Senior ved in preparing courses has been advanta- Assistant Librarian, began working on a pro- geous because it has giventhe program a posal for the new program. Simmons (1987) broader range of ideas and a richer in-depth stated that a great amount of preliminary work appeal for students. Second, the Diploma is a went into the various areas to facilitateplan- recognized and accredited University program ning and assessing the need for upgradingthe and can be a step towards gaining a degree at current certificate to a diploma; analyzingthe the University of the south Pacific. The library components in each of the course books cur- information courses are all at a first and second rently being used; identifying instructional com- year level.For students who do not wish to ponents not included in the certificatethat continue towards a degree they may stop once should be included in the Diploma, and obtain- they have completed the ten courses required for ing input from practicing librarians on the need the Diploma.Those wishing to continue to- for a diploma program and its content and wards a degree will have completed one-half the methods of making it available to students. courses required for an undergraduatedegree. One of the first decisions made at the As one would expect the qualifications

62 72 for admittance to the Diploma program are is treated in much greater detail than theywere stricter than for previous programs. Admission in the certificate program, where only the school may be granted in any of the following ways: library course was a separate course.Course candidates who have successfully descriptions are in Appendix III. completed the USP Certificate in The Diploma began in semesterone, Librarianship or its equivalent; or 1990 as an on-campus pilot program. Twenty- candidates who have passed the New five students were accepted from the Cook Is- Zealand University Entrance or the lands, Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and SenateapprovedSixthForm Western Samoa.The Department suggested examination and LLF11 - names of candidates who had completed the Communication and Study Skills course Certificate, however the final decision had to be and have three years relevant work left to the individual countries.Twenty-two experience; or students began the program and three students candidates who have obtained credit dropped out before the third semesterwas towards a university degree or diploma completed. Scholarship money was provided by may be admitted with certain credit the Asia Foundation and the IDRC.This exceptions as the Senate considers money was used for living accommodation, text appropriate; or books, fees, etc. Governments from the various candidates who pass LLF11 and countries paid airfares for their students. qualify under the mature age regula- Each semester two library-information tions and have three years relevant courses were offered and those students who work experience. were attending full time took one or two elec- The library information courses total tives in their program as well.To make it nine in number, six of the nine are required to possible for a number of students in the Suva complete the library requirements towards the area who were working and who could only diploma. In addition to these six courses, four attend classes after work, the library infor- academic electives must be taken.Students mation classes were held from 5:00pm- 8:00pm may elect to do four one hundred level courses on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Class time as electives or they may use a combination of was divided into lectures, group work, individ- one and two hundred level courses. In choosing ual presentations and visits to different types of electives many students have elected to take libraries in the Suva area. After each semester, management and computer courses, although students and the teaching staff evaluated the history, geography, English and sociology are courses. The course materials were improved also popular courses. upon according to the evaluations and were The first four library information courses then given to the University Extension Unit, cover basic areas of librarianship that are found where a course developer and the course writer in overseas professional library schools: the role concerned collaborated on strengthening the of libraries in society; selection and collection instructional design of the courses to ensure the development; cataloging and classification; and different learning styles of students could better reference/information services.The course in be met. This work normally takes one semester Library information Management and the four to complete. It is then offered through the Dis- specialized courses in School Library infor- tance Education Program.Each semester a mation Centers - Academic Library information course is offered, a new assignment booklet is Centers, Public Library information Centers, prepared for students. and Special Library information Centers are all The overall response from the on- at the two hundred level.The management campus students was on the whole positive. course is a required course and in the spec- For the most part students were keen and ialized courses students are required to choose active participants in all activities. For many of one course although they may take more than the students who came from the region and one if they so desire. It is being proposed to the from other parts of Fiji, it was their first time School of Humanities of which the Library away from home. Homesickness for family and training program is part, that the four spec- a familiar environment were a problem for ialization courses be moved from a two hundred some, but on the whole they coped amazingly level to a three hundred level. This would give well. students a double major if they wish to com- The first distance education courses plete a degree. Each of the specialized courses were offered in semester one of 1991. Each se-

73 mester is fifteen weeks in length and there is a suitable. Many of the readings from overseas two week period at the end for students to journals have to be summarized or adapted to revise and prepare for examinations. The Uni- meet local needs. To be able to write materials versity has recently given departments the at a level which can be understood by students option of trying a thirty week semester, because and at the same time not insult their intel- of difficulties with mail services among USP ligence is not an easy task. countries among other problems, the Depart- The Diploma has given graduates the ment has opted for the longer semester. We opportunity to gain new in-depth knowledge in believe it will give students more time to spend the area of computers and this will be a basis on their studies and assignments and thus which willhelp them keep pace with have a better understanding of the materials technological changes that are taking place at a being covered. rapid pace in the South Pacific. The program There are one hundred and fifty has also helped to build their self-confidence students at various stages in the diploma. and hopefully their professional understanding Each semester there are approximately twenty of what library information centers are about. new students who begin their studies. At the The Diploma program provides people with time of enrollment counselors in each country appropriate training at the semi-professional travel throughout the region to various centers level and thus will help them to more real- helping students choose courses. As well, the istically meet the informational needs of the coordinator of the program spends considerable region.The training at the diploma level is time pointing out to students the various helping to bridge the gap between the library options available, however, the final decision is assistant and the professional librarian.The left to students. Making such decisions is often offering of the diploma through distance edu- very difficult for students because most of them cation will allow students to gain their qual- have never been faced with making decisions of ifications with a minimum loss of income and this nature. personal dislocation, and furthermore the pro- Evaluation of students is never an easy gram will reach the greatest number of people task and it is particularly difficult to evaluate for the least amount of financial resources. students who are taking courses by distance learning.Fifty percent of their final mark is Future Training based on their four assignments in each course What does the future hold for the library and fifty percent is based on a final exam- information specialist in the USP member ination. Students must have a passing average countries of the South Pacific? I believe that we in both the assignments and the examination. can take an optimistic view for the future. As The students studying by distance education countries in the region continue to develop, there are on the whole coping quite well with their will be an ever greater need for well-developed studies.There are of course some difficulties library information centers and library infor- which both students and course writers face. mation specialists.The job market at the For students, the greatest difficulty is with the present time is reasonably bright.An area English language.English is a second and in where library information centers are likely to some cases a third language for many students continue to expand is in schools. Good library and while their spoken English is reasonably information centers in schools are an essential good they often have difficulty expressing their part of a good education.Young people who ideas in written work.Meeting deadlines in graduate from schools who have had the priv- getting assignments turned in is a serious prob- ilege of using well-stocked, well-organized and lem for many students.Assignments are well-run library information centers are the spaced from six to nine weeks apart depending basis for improving the ability and interest of on the amount of work covered in the assign- library information users. Special library infor- ment but the concept of how much time is mation centers in government, industry, and the required to study the material and do the private sector are also likely to continue to assignment poses a serious difficulty for develop as society realizes the need for a greater students even though we indicate the minimum variety and amount of information. amount of time they should spend on the work At this time, it is difficult to say what to be studied.The greatest difficulty that type of training programs will be developed in course writers encounter in preparing courses is the next decade.It is not likely that a new locating material written locally which is program will emerge before 2005. The question

74 of developing a professional degreeprogram has been mentioned, but that hardlyseems likely at the present time because the financialcosts are beyond the University's capacity. Thelack of resource materials as well as humanresources and physical space makes suchan undertaking impractical.There is also the question of whether or not enrollment wouldbe sufficient to support such an undertaking.It is more reasonable to expect thatas people complete their undergraduate degree along with theirdiploma they could be sentoverseas to gain their professional qualifications. In thelong run this would be less costly and forstudents it would be an opportunity to gaina more international outlook about the profession. During the next decade it is reasonable to assume there will bea greater number of in- service professional workshopsfor practicing library information specialists.Such workshops are likely to involve the technological advances that are beginning to find theirway into South Pacific libraries.Outside USP the growth and use of computer applications has madea considerable impact in governmentstructures as well as in the private sector. byand large with the exception of the Universityof the South Pacific and the south PacificCommission, libraries have lagged behind intechnological advancement. At this point in the trainingprogram we feel that we have extended ourselvesto the, very limit of our resources, and by 1995we hope to be able to do a thorough evaluationof all aspects of the program. Sources Quoted Simmons, Donita V. "Library TrainingMethods Moves Up:The USP Diploma in Library information Studies." Suva: Fiji LibraryAssoc- iation Journal, no. 17. June 1987. Other Sources Referred to butnot Quoted Directly Pacific Islands Year Book. Edited byNorman and Ngaire Douglas. 16th ed.London: Angus and Robertson, 1989. The Statesman's Year Book.Edited by Brian Hunter. 129th ed.London: MacMillan Press, 1992-93

The University of the South PacificCalendar. Suva: USP, 1993.

65 75 Appendix 1

Country Area (sq km)* Population** Cook Islands 240 17,463 Fiji 18, 272 747,000 Kiribati 726 72,298 Marshall Islands 171 45,563 Nauru 21 8,100 Niue 258 2,532 Solomon Islands 29,785 325,600 Tokelau 12 1,703 Tonga 697 103,000 Tuvalu 26 8,364 Vanuatu 12,189 142,630 Western Samoa 2,934 157,158

Total 65,331 1,631,411

*Land Area taken from the Pacific Islands Yearbook, 1989. **Population taken from the Statesman's Yearbook 1992-93.

66 76 Appendix 2 Number of graduates by Country from 1981-1992. Country Graduates

Cook Islands 5 Fiji 120 Kiribati 2 Marshall Islands New member to the University region in 1991 Nauru 4 Niue 2 Solomon Islands 8 Tokelau Tonga 6 Tuvalu Vanuatu 4 Western Samoa 13 Ex-Patriots in the region 21 New Caledonia 1

Number of Graduates by Year

1982 - 15

1983 - 26

1984 - 14

1985 - 15

1986 - 17

1987 - 18 1988 16

1989 - 10

1990 - 5

1991 - 20

1992 - 30

Total - 186

67 '74 Appendix 3 Description of Courses for the Diploma in Library Information Studies

HUC01: Introduction to Library Informa- sources; communication skills; accountability; tion Studies setting priorities; time management; evaluation Discusses the library and its functions; and library automation. the role of the librarian; professionalism; the library in society; the library in the total Options information environment; history of libraries; Students are to choose one of the history of information and technology; intellec- options from HU206 to HU209. tual freedom and library information. there are a number of readings included in this course. HU206: The School Library Information Center HU102: Building the Library Information Discusses the purpose of the school Center Collection library information center; emphasis on the role A review of the process involved in of the teacher librarian as a teaching member of selecting books and other resources for library the school staff. Emphasis on cooperative plan- collections; introduction to the book trade and ning and teaching with classroom teachers. selection tools; budgets for books and other re- Discusses the traditional activities of selecting sources; preparation of a selection policy for and organizing materials. Emphasis is placed various types of libraries; collecting archival re- on developing programs in conjunction with sources; censorship; evaluation of the selection what is being taught in the school; cooperation process; automation of selection procedures. between the school library and the community; There are a number of readings included in this automation of the school library. course. HU207: The Academic Library Informa- HU103: Organizing Library Information tion Center Center Resources Discusses the role of the academic li- Thiscoursecoversdescriptive brary information center in tertiary education; cataloguing; ISBD, subject classification, the academic library functions; role of the academic Dewey Decimal Classification and filing.Both librarian; selection; organization; services; man- books and non-print materials are covered in agement; promotion; reporting; communication considerable detail, organizing archival mater- skills; setting priorities; time management; ials and automation. Students are expected to evaluation of the library and its programs; purchase the latest editions of Sears Subject automation of the academic library. Headings, Abridged Dewey Decimal Classifica- tion, ALA Filing Rules and the Concise AACR. HU208: The Public Library Information Center HU104: Library Information Services Discusses the purposes and role of the Includes attitudes toward library ser- public library information center in the com- vices; the reference process, an in-depth look at munity; role of the public librarians; selection, various information sources; reference and organization; services; management; promotion; information services; archival services; circu- reporting; communication skills; setting pr- lation services; evaluation of library services iorities; time management; evaluation and and the automation of library services. automation of the public library information center. HU205: Management of the Library Information Center HU209: The Special Library Information Covers the theories and principles of Center management; problems and issues in library Discusses the purpose of the special management; statement of mission, goals and library information center; types of special objectives; management of library functions; libraries, the role of the special librarian; staffing; data gathering; budgeting; planning selection; organization; services; management, and maintaining facilities, equipment and re- promotion; reporting; communication skills;

68 73 setting priorities; Lime management; evaluation and automation of the special library information center. Students must choose four academic electives to complete their Diploma studies.

75 The Role of the Public Library in Supporting Education in the Natal Region

by Rookaya Bawa Introduction and House of Representatives (HOR). Each is The present provision of library services within attempting to staff, stock, establish and provide the Natal region is highly fragmented and a media service to the children it is responsible largely ineffective. The public, urban,and school for. Each has worked in complete autonomy of libraries continue to exist in complete autonomy the other. from each other and are ambivalent of each other's existence. Each is funded, staffed and The provision of school library stocked individually. No formal policy exists to media services to schools differs inform the funding, staffing or access principles. from one education department Neither does any informal arrangement exist to the next. Some departments between the libraries to collectively service having excellent building and society.The result is a fragmented, under- stock, while other departments resourced and ineffective service in the Natal have nothing that could vaguely region. However, more recently a few forums be called a library. These have emerged which seem to be initiating differences appear toexist discussion between the various library services. among schools within the same department, and then too within The Status Quo in the Natal Region the same geographic area.3 In order to adequately investigate the possible relationships or articulation between School librariesreflect the wider racial public, urban, and school libraries,itis stratification of South African society, with essential to briefly review the present status of historically "white" schools being better library provision in the Natal region. provided for than so called "black" schools. The library resource needs of children Overduin and De Wit (1986) conducted a have been the responsibility of the formal school detailed review of school libraries in secondary sector, with public libraries playing a supportive schoolsofsevendifferenteducation role in the extra-curricular needs of the child departments, "with regard tothe basic and in an incidental fashion the curricular elements of a school library service that is needs as well. It is perceived that the curricular materials, staff, accommodation, organization, needs of the child should be served by each of and funds."4They found that black schools the education departments of which in the were substantially lacking provision when South African context there are ± 151. compared to their white counterpart schools. In However, in South Africa the formal Natal, for example, white schools had 12.8 school provision of media resources has not books per child while black schools had 2.4 materialized uniformly inthedifferent books per child.5 education departments2. In fact provision of A subsequent study done by Vermeulen media and resources in the schools reflects the (1990) of three hundred forty primary schools in wider apartheid structure of privilege that is the Durban and Pietermaritzburg area further racially defined. substantiated the De Wit and Overduin findings of vast discrepancies with respect to School Libraries school library provision.6 In the Natal region we have five Parallel to government schools in Natal, different Education Departments each with its we have a host of private schools with superb own policy, staff and funding. Each of the five library facilities which will compare favorably departments has a media services division and with the best in the world. Examples of those each its respective head of department.The are Wickham Collegiate, Hilton College, and five departments are the Natal Education Michaelhouse. Department (NED), Department of Education READ (Read, Educate and Develop) a and Training (DET), Department of Education non-governmentalorganizationisalso and Culture (DEC), House of Delegates (HOD) attempting to establish and support libraries

70 se with the help of donor agencies. They supply respective municipality they serve.Where a book and resource boxes to schools and/or service does exist it has been imposedon the individual classrooms. Their efforts are people who have had no direct say interms of dependent upon funding from donor agencies where the library is to be built, what stockis to who target specific areas, schools,or projects. be kept, and who is to run the library. Some It is generally accepted that the present areas have libraries and some don't. What they arrangement needs to be rationally and have is what they were given not what they radically reviewed where amore coordinated chose to have. single education department is established and Urban Public Libraries where regional resource sharing and networking Urban public libraries fall outside of the is more seriously investigated. provincial library arrangement. They consist of libraries that opted to remain independent Provincial Libraries when the provincial library servicewas Library provision in the province is established. The following urban librariesare governed by the Provincial Library Ordinance, independent libraries:Bloemfontein, Durban, the Natal Ordinance Number 52 of 1952. On Germiston, Johannesburg, Cape Town, East the basis of motivation the central provincial London, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth, and library administration is grantedmoney and Pretoria. resources to provide a library service to people in the Natal region. However, individual public In each of thesecitiesa libraries are established by local municipal municipal public library service authorities who build the physical library plant functions within its own special and pay the salary of the librarian, while the network which, besides a central provincial library service undertakes to provide library, provides for branch resources and in-service training for the branch libraries acting as service points librarians periodically.Selection, processing in the suburban areas.As in and distribution is centrally coordinated in the provincial library Pietermaritzburg.Thus the branch libraries organization,in the central are sent block loans from the central branch. library of each, material is The central provincial library services prepared and distributed to coordinates the distribution of resources to the various service points. The respective municipal branch libraries via mobile main difference is that the transport services.Public libraries are not central organization itself also always accessible to people. For instance: functions as a service point, and thatthewholeserviceis A survey conducted by Stabbins controlled and financed as a in 1988, before the scrapping of singledepartmentofthe the Separate Amenities Act, municipality.8 found that access to public Urban public libraries are based in the urban libraries for black South Africans areas of South Africa, ignoring the majority of was gradually granted from the our population which is rural based. 1970s and accelerated in the In some areas, public libraries, urban 1980s. While race was removed libraries, and school libraries seem to be from the statutes, no provision providing overlapping resources and services to was made for actualizing the the same clientele in some instances, i.e. principle of equal access. Some children that live within a geographic area that town councils invoked a variety have a school library, urban library, anda of measures(for example, public library in their area.While one substantial membership fees, or acknowledges that the above is possible it is by producing electricity receipts as no means indicative of the Natal region. The proof of residence) as a means to reality is to the contrary.The average child exclude black users.? experiences neither the public library, the school library, nor the urban library because none of Access to public libraries is not a reality the above is accessible to most children. for all.Not all municipalities have provided adequate and sufficient libraries for the A Possible Way Forward

71 The provision of effective library service argued, will require the establishment of a process that it would not be in the aimed at the formulation of policy which will interests of the Administration focus on issues such as, among others: or of this Department for the (i)effective articulation of the three bulk purchase of library books to systems described above, be arranged by the provincial (ii) principles of access and the need to library services. The right of the widen access to those sections of our Principal and his staff to select populationwhichhavebeen books is an essential feature of systematically excluded in the past, the school library scheme and (iii) funding issues, this freedom of action and the (iv)staffing issues and in particular, goodwill of the schools must be issues pertaining to gender and preserved at all times...10 racial imbalances, Further, (v)democratization of the governance the academic revolution which of libraries and library services, had and was still taking place and madeitnecessaryfor the (vi)the link between libraries and Education Department to utilize national development. all available resources to in- Itwould seem that the various crease the efficiency of the teach- Education Departments should merge into one ing service. The requirements of Department of Education.The question of all the different types of schools articulation between the Provincial, urban, and will vary radically as will the re- school libraries should be considered with great quirements of the numerous dif- urgency.The latter has been tried in many ferent subjects in these schools. countries.Surely, if the Education Depart- The new differentiated educa- ments, Provincial Library services, and the tion about to be introduced will respective urban municipalities talked to increase the big differences in rationalize and support one another's initiatives resources needed to provide for rather than the hit and miss arrangement in the additional expected differ- existence presently, the service and status of ences...11 library services would be enhanced. On the basis of the above arguments The infra-structure of apossible The Acting Directing of Library Services in the partnership is not an impossible idea to Natal region made the following resolution: contemplate.In fact Ordinance number 5 of First, 1952 makes the point that the Province can that the Natal Education De- create depots partment should assume full ...at a state school, a state responsibility for all the matters aided school or a private school.9 relating to books for government Until very recently in the Natal region provincial school libraries with immediate library services made resources available to effect. schools via block loan arrangements, which Second, ceased in 1970 for white government schools the Administrative action re- and in 1990 for private schools.Black schools garding the writing off and were never serviced by this arrangement. Is it taking charge of school library not possible to revitalize the service to serve all books by the Provincial Library schools, given the fact that the ordinance does Services and the Education De- not exclude services to schools by the provincial partment respectively be carried library service? out immediately.12 Private schools continued to receive block loans History of Partnership from Provincial Library Services until 1990. Up to and until 1970 the provincial Mrs. Van De Riet13 stated that the service was library services in the Natal region provided terminated because it was felt that it was block loans of reading material to white schools wrong to service only private schools, and if the in the region.The service ceased when the service is to be offered it should be to all Natal White Education Department in Natal schools. The arguments raised are valid if one

72 82 has the funding to establish school libraries in extended to four hundred ninety nine.15 all Natal schools and stock the respective Initially DEC was allocated R200,000 libraries adequately.However, Donaldson to establish school libraries, but with the money (1992) makes the point that allocated it was felt that the box libraries in the Government spending on edu- READ tradition was the affordable interim cation in south Africa (including answer. Thus boxes and class room collections the "homelands") comprised are distributed by DEC and Provincial library 23.6% of the total government services.For the year 1992/93, R100,000,000 spending in 1990, or about 7.1% has been allocated.16 of the Gross National product. Province and DEC approached READ These figures are high by inter- with Mrs. Morren's recommendation to make national standards...and the available their reading list to help set up these government cannot be expected school boxes. READ refused to supply only the to commit substantially in- book lists. They supply booklists and training; creased resources to education. not the one without the other. So READ was co- Although economists will differ opted to help with the task.17 on the details, there is wide- Kwa-Zulu has provided the financial spread agreement that the resources, while librarians have been seconded levels of taxation cannot be sig- by DEC to help with the task.READ and nificantly increased at present, Provincial Library Services have provided the and that job creation, improved expertise, infrastructure, and support for the urban and industrial infra- initiative.The project is presently housed at structure, and direct poverty the central provincial library services building in relief are priority areas along- Pietermaritzburg. side education in fiscal reform. The project is but a beginning that is Government also has a role to hoped will materialize to include more schools play in renewing vocational and a wider geographic area. It must be hoped education and training, which that other education departments are included have been seriously neglected in in the project and that the service is expanded recent years.There will be to include many, many more schools than are intense competition amongst presently being served. these and other ends for such savings in government spending Networking which might result from reduced Regional cooperation with respect to the defense and apartheid-related sharing of resources and expertise among spending.While the economy schools was raised at the University of Natal's continues to stagnate as it has Durban School Library conference. As a result in recent years,it may be of that demand and the Education Foundation's necessary to restrict increases in suggestion that people working with media state spending on education to should meet to discuss education and media, as little as 2% per year in real Sally Ballard and I established a rather historic terms.i4 collaborative group.The Media Forum was Thus the expected money to establish media established.It consists of the Heads of the centers in each and every school, although ideal Education Media Services from the five edu- will not materialize in the near future.Does cation departments in the Natal Region. The this mean that a whole generation will not be group has representation from the Provincial provided with books? Library Services Division, READ, the Education Foundation, Kwa-Zulu school's based/box Hope project and me. Kwa-Zulu Schools Project Meetings are usually held every two In the Natl region the seeds of months. Members raise issues that they need partnership have been sown with the estab- advice on, e.g. DEC was in the process of lishment of the Kwa-Zulu/Provincial Library drawing plans for new school libraries in some project. Kwa-Zulu (DEC) asked Province to help of their schools, and the plans were viewed and establish libraries in ten schools in the Natal improved upon by the group in the light of region in 1989.The service to date has been experiences and expertise that each in the group

83 had. The group has worked and is working on These are but a few examples of part- a number of projects collectively in the region. nerships in the Natal region but nevertheless a The following are a few examples of joint efforts significant beginning towards a shared profes- embarked on: sional goal of common community resource First, a register of all schools in the service. Natal region has been started and all the information is being fed to Dolsie Kriger of the Conclusion Education Foundation who is busy mapping the We seem to have reached the point respective schools in the Natal region. where it's almost possible to arrange a Second, a draft working document on bosberaad on media services in the Natal policy with respect to school library media region, to impact on policy formulation, and to services is being drawn up for comment. create a more rational and effective service for Third, the Education Media heads have the region as a whole.However, these begun discussion with Provincial Library Ser- initiatives described above are not sufficient in vices on possible areas of cooperation between themselves to take the process forward. schools and Provincial Library Services. A process has to be put into place which Fourth, READ and I have been asked to has as its primary goal the drawing together of investigate the possibility of coordinating a `experts' and the large formations of civil society series of in-service workshops for teachers in the to establish a policy formulation exercise which region. A draft document with ideas for in- is representative and has legitimacy.The service workshops is circulating for discussion questions of articulation and access are difficult and comment. but tractable.The cooperation examples de- Fifth, the Forum has been actively scribed above may represent the roots of such a writing letters to various institutions and process. departments challenging the opening of their services to all departments of education. One Notes such success story is the opening of the Indian 1 Christie, P. The Right to Learn: The struggle Teachers centers to all teachers irrespective of for education in South Africa. Cape Town. which Department they work for. However, the Sached Trust/Ravan Press, 1991.p101 group needs to widen its constituency to include Urban Libraries andtohavea more 2 SAILIS/Lambert Wilson Review Workshop. accountable constituency that is able to affect General consensus amongstallthe the necessary changes needed. presenters. 1992. NEPI/Trans LIS 3 School library Conference proceedings. The National Education Coordinating University of Natal, PMB. 1992.p54 Committee (NECC) has produced a number of discussion documents pertaining to policy on 4 Overduin, P.G.J. and De Wit, N. School education in South Africa.As a result, a Librarianship in South Africa, a Critical document relating tolibraries has been Evaluation:SecondaryEducation. produced. A group of individuals and Bloemfontein. University of the Orange Free organizations felt that the National Education State, 1986. PolicyInvestigation(NEPI)document commissioned by the NECC had to be taken 5 Ibid. forward and this led to the establishment of the Transforming Library and Information Services 6Vermeulen, W.M. "South African School Group (Trans LIS).The group consists of a Libraries and Standards." South African wide range of organizations and individuals Journal of Library and Information Science. that are hoping to work together towards 59(2), 1991. common professional ends of investigating and hopefully impacting on policy in the region. 7 Library and Information Services: Report of the NEPI Library and Information Services Forums Research Group, a Project of the National Resource centers within organizations in Education Coordinating Committee. Cape Natal have come together to create the Natal Town: Oxford Press, 1992. Resource Centre Forum.

74 84 8 Malan, S.I. Library and Information Services: a General Orientation. Durban: Butterworth, 1978.

9 Natal Ordinance 5 of 1952. 10 Natal Education Departments Minutes and Records of the Library Media Department, 1970.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid. 13 Van de Riet, A. Discussion during meeting between Province and media heads. Pietermaritzburg. 1993. 14 Donaldson, A. R. NEPI Draft Documentation Paper, 1992. 15 Beecham, L. Personal Communication on the Kwa-Zulu project, 1993. Ibid. 17 Tomlinson, J.Personal communication, 1993.

75 85 Computerizing the Chinese International School Libraries

by Marilyn McMahon Head Librarian Chinese Language School Hong Kong The School September 1993 we have our first Year 13. The The Chinese International School is unique in libraries have been growing also. Hong Kong. It aims to teach the students both However it is only since we have moved English and Mandarin so that the students will into our new facilities two years ago that we be truly bilingual. There are approximately one have had full-time staff in the Junior and Sec- thousand students from Reception to Year 13 ondary Libraries. We now have five staff mem- (ages 4 to about 18).The students have a bers - three professional librarians, one library heavy program of learning English and Chinese assistant and one audiovisual technician. languages throughout as well as the standard When we moved into the present facil- subjects taught in most Western countries. ities two years ago the collections in the Junior Mandarin is the official language of and Secondary Libraries were quite small. The China, Taiwan, and Singapore, and since Hong Secondary Library had only about one thousand Kong will be returned to China in 1997 there is items.It was felt to be a perfect time to com- a great deal of interest in the study of Manda- puterize, anticipating very rapid growth. In fact rin. In fact, Cantonese is the most common Chi- during the last two years we have added about nese language in Hong Kong since the province six thousand items to the Secondary Library of Canton is right next door to Hong Kong, and alone. the most Hong Kong chinese come from Canton (or Guangzhou as it is now more commonly The System known). The local schools teach Cantonese and When we went shopping for a computer English.There are also a number of inter- system for our libraries we needed to find one national schools that offer the UK curriculum that would allow us to input both our Chinese- mostly to students who will be returning to UK language and English-language materials to- or Hong Kong students opting for a British edu- gether and display them together for our stu- cation. It is also possible to have a Hong Kong dents and staff to support our bilingual curric- version of an American education or even French ulum. We found only two: Dynix and V-LIB. or German. At all other schools in Hong Kong Since Dynix quoted us HK$1 million for soft- one language predominates. Students can opt ware alone, this reduced the field to one. In fact to study other languages, but this is not usually after attending demonstrations of both, V-LIB compulsory. At the chinese International School was the one that appealed to us the most. all students must study English and Mandarin. V-LIB was developed by a Singaporean- Therefore, to support this mission our libraries based company and I'm told that the program are also bilingual. We collect English language was written by a librarian.I think that it and Chinese language materials. shows after looking at other library systems written by people with almost no knowledge or The Libraries understanding of libraries. V-LIB is PC based We have three divisions in the school - library management system which uses a Infant (Reception-P2), Junior (P3-P6), and Sec- standard DOS environment.It consists of six ondary (Year 7-Year 13).We have three different modules:Cataloguing and Enquiry, libraries to serve these divisions of almost one Serials, Acquisitions, Item Control, Loans and thousand square meters. There are five floors Circulation, and MARC interface.There are of library. The Infant and Junior Libraries are also three other options: OPAC (On-line Public one floor each in a block adjacent to the Infant Access Catalog), ideographic capability that and Junior Divisions and the Secondary Library allows handling of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, consists of three floors likewise adjacent to the and Portuguese scripts and image interface. All Secondary Division. The school is ten years old. modules are frilly integrated so that a record in- It has been growing year by year so that in put or modified in one module is immediately

76 86 available in all others. loan, and circulation statistics. The system can be introduced gradually depending on budgetary constraints.In our OPAC case we began computerizing with the Cat- It is possible to limit a search according to aloging and Enquiry module and introduced the information type, e.g. only Chinese lang- Circulation and OPAC modules at a later stage. uage books or audiovisual material. We have plans to add the Serials and Acqui- Searches can be made by author, subjector sitions modules in the future. series or according to keywords in the title Let me give a brief description of the entry. modules that we are presently using. Boolean searching to expandor limit the search is also available. Cataloging and Enquiry Users can find out if the item is on loanor Catalog records are in LC MARC formatus- on the shelf and reservations can be made ing standard MARC tags. During the set-up at the OPAC workstations. phase the library defines which it willuse. Users can check their library records. This allows the possibility of importing MARC records at a later stage. Special Features of V-LIB Different information types such as books, Customization serials, videos, posters, etc. can be entered. The system can be set up to suit the Multiple copies of an item can be attached to needs of the library. For example, catalogrec- a single catalog record, each identified and ords can be as detailed or as simpleas re- tracked by its unique barcode number. quired. Data is entered interactively so that it is immediately available for modification or en- User Friendliness quiry. All indexes are updated online. All modules are menu or function -key A stopword list is maintained to eliminate driven with help screens for all functions. The unnecessary indexing of common words such use of color in the OPAC workstations also in- as "a" and "the". creases the system's appeal to students. Presearching by keyword in title, author, subject, series, or call number are available Security to check for duplicates. After horror stories of student hackers Reports available in this module include disabling the library system in another local accession lists and catalog lists sorted by school, we were very conscious of security. Vari- atiy order nominated and the contents of the ous levels of security are available so that stu- list can be defined by the library. dents can only have access to the OPAC module.Using ID and passwords, only the library Loans and Circulation staff can access the cataloging and circulation Borrower records are maintained and can be modules. updated online including borrower status, reservations, loans, overdue items, fines, Local Support and even mess-ages. Vitechnology has an office in Hong Kong. Loan periods, fine rates according to bor- They are available to help us at any time. They rower type, and information type can be have been known to actually be with us within predefined for loans. the hour! For example, on one occasion the sys- Due dates are generated by a pre-set calen- tem was shut down without switching of one of dar to allow for weekends and public and the workstations before the server which meant school holidays. that we lost all of our records. Fortunatelywe When returning, reservations and overdues had been doing our backup daily and with some are notified. Renewals can easily be done. help we were up and running again in a very Fines are also calculated and can be dis- short time. charged at this point. All the parameters are pre-set in the setup Training phase but can easily be overridden. Training was provided for each module A variety of reports are available including as it was introduced. This was vital as there loan and circulation log reports, overdue no- was very little previous experience with com- tices, reservation notices, lists of items on puters among the library staff

77 87 Enhancements Any enhancements or developments to the program are passed on to the other users automatically. The system is constantly being upgraded and improved.For example, "see" and "see also" references have just been introduced. CJK Capability Finally, the most exciting feature: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters can be input and displayed in this system.This feature was vital for us since a large part of our collection is Chinese language material. Implementation Computerizing began in the Secondary Library and was completed in three phases. During Phase 1, all of the records were entered in the Cataloging Module including both Eng- lish-language and Chinese-language materials. This took about six months alongside the normal operation of the library. The OPAC module was then introduced in Phase 2 and finally the Circulation module in Phase 3. The whole process took about one year.The Infant and Junior Libraries will follow this schedule.So far, they have entered all of the records in the Cataloging Module and are about to introduce the OPAC modules. The Future We look forward to introducing the Ac- quisitions and Serials modules after a breath- ing space, possibly in a year's time.In the meantime, we are enjoying discovering all of the capabilities of our system. The software developer is very responsive to our suggestions and enhancements, and in turn we are benefiting from developments passed on to us from the suggestions made by other libraries using this system. We are particularly pleased that we were able to introduce a computer system to our libraries when our collection was so small and the libraries very new.

78 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) I ic

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