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          AASLWhatKindsofBooksforYourLibrary

          Do K-12 Libraries Need Books?  - Alison Ernst

          Deconstructing the question:

          Elementary School Libraries:
              - Students acquiring textual literacy skills (learning to read!)
              - Introduction to research process – information literacy basics

          Middle School Libraries:
              - Students continue to hone textual literacy 
              - Research skills increased – continued Information literacy

          High School / Secondary School Libraries
              - Expectation students are fluent readers of text
              - High priority given to research and presentation skills

          Need:
              - requirement, necessary duty, obligation, imperative demand, necessity
              - lack or something wanted of deemed necessary

          Books:
              - Assumption we are talking about print volumes, or are we?
              - What do books look like at different levels
                    o   Picture books
                    o   Novels
                    o   Nonfiction
                    o   Reference
              - Format of books: print, audio, electronic/digital
              - Story: narrative of both nonfiction and fiction

          Your library and school’s mission and vision:
          Connect your library’s collection development practices with the community served.

          Bibliography:

          Birkerts, Sven. "Reading in a Digital Age: Notes on why the novel and the Internet are opposites, and why the latter both undermines the former and makes it more necessary." American Scholar 79.2 (2010): 32+. Academic OneFile. 

          Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, New York: Penguin, 2009.

          Why Reading Matters: A Holistic Study for the Digital Age (DVD), BBC, dist. by  Films Media Group, www.films.com, 2010.

          Alison Ernst served as director in both public library and school library settings. She currently consults, evaluating youth services at school and public libraries. Alison Ernst contributed an essay to the book Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on Excellence (Libraries Unlimited, 2010) about her work at the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, where she partnered with the IT director to develop an Information Commons, based on a higher education model providing one-stop shopping for educational technology and library resources.  

          Contact:
          Alison Ernst Associates         alisonernst.com
          413-218-7253                         alisonaernst@gmail.com