Public libraries have long been considered important spaces of adult education and learning. However, major social changes over the past few decades, and the impact these have had on libraries' work, have received little attention. Our three-year cross-national study of libraries in Canada and Britain explored how librarians navigate the discourse…

Asserts that one of the increasingly critical skills that undergraduates must master is electronic information retrieval. Maintains that sociologists can readily integrate library instruction into undergraduate courses and help develop student awareness of and ability to use the ever-growing body of library resources and information. (CFR)

Presents a dramatization of a high school library in 1968, a place with wooden bookcases, card catalog, wooden furniture and tiptoeing librarian through 30 years of changes to a library media center with banks of computers, librarian-teacher cooperation, emphasis on authentic assessment, and the satisfaction of librarian, teachers, and students…

This document defines information literacy (i.e., the ability to access, evaluate, organize, and use information from a variety of sources) and outlines reasons to be concerned about information literacy. It then summarizes the implications of information literacy for teaching, learning, schools, libraries and librarians, the workplace, and…

Two papers that examine how to assess students' work in this age of electronic information sources include: "Students on the Net: Enhancing Learning through Authentic Assessment" (James Henri); and "Assessing Students' Work from the Net: An Impossible Dream?" (Paul Lupton) The first paper notes the problem of parents doing…

The 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), provided estimates of library/media center resources and helps to put into perspective the question of the role of libraries/media centers in school reform. Education reform has prompted increased attention to the role school…

Discusses issues involving physical and intellectual access to the Internet. Topics include skills for effective use; the importance of teachers and librarians ensuring full access for students; and a vision of information access needs in the future. The Mankato Internet Skill Rubrics evaluation checklist is appended. (AEF)

While the library is at the center of many campuses physically, it is often an overlooked and underused resource in improving the learning and success of first-year college students. Librarians, classroom faculty, administrators, and higher education researchers come together to explore the potential of the library in shaping the student…

This collection of 38 articles, reprinted from "Emergency Librarian," addresses critical elements of school library media program development and implementation, organized by seven areas: foundations; the school context; role clarification; information literacy; collaborative program planning and teaching; program development; and…