School libraries - a student right

Here's a little riff on ALA President Barbara Stripling's Declaration for the Right to Libraries...

Declaration of Students' Rights to School Libraries

All students have the right to a well-staffed, well-stocked, and up-to-date physical and virtual school library that..

1. Provides access to materials on a wide range of topics, expressing a wide range of viewpoints, with a wide range of reading levels, and in a wide-range of media formats.
2. Provides access to a curated collection of online materials, as well as Internet access in as unrestricted an environment as possible.
3. Provides novels, non-fiction, magazines, games, videos, and other materials of high interest for practice reading and recreational use.
4. Provides access to professional information experts who teach information seeking, evaluation, and communication skills.
5. Provides a physical environment in which every student feels welcome, comfortable, and safe.
6. Provides access to the tools needed to communicate and share self-created information in a range of media with peers and with the world.
7. Provides encouragement to explore topics of personal interest and make learning an enjoyable, voluntary, life-long enterprise.
8. Provides a social physical space for face-to-face group work for all students.
9. Provides access to resources, spaces, and staff outside the regular school day.
10. Supports an education philosophy of problem-solving, creativity, authentic assessment, attention to dispositions, and personalization.

 OK, those are the top ten off the top of my head. Yours, fellow librarians?

AASL, I happily cede the right to this concept to you. 

Check out the very nice graphic of this done by LibraryGirl, Jennifer LaGuarde!

Comments

[D Bossman]

Fantastic! We will share widely in South Dakota!

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Daria. Use as you can - and improve!

Doug

[Sophie Morissette]

I'd like to translate il in french please.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Sophie,

Of course, please use it as you can. Share and credit the source is all.

Merci,

Doug

[Regina Powers]

At a time when libraries are suffering from lack of support and funding, public and school libraries should be uniting. We are all, ultimately, fighting for the same thing, right? Why make distinctions? Doing so may cloud an already confused public's perception about what libraries are and what librarians do.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Regina,

A war never has a single front line. I would expect public and academic libraries to proceed with their own advocacy programs. In trying to speak for everyone, ALA doesn't really speak for anyone at times.

Doug

[Vivian]

We return home to Canada usually every two years to spend the summer. Our first stop is always to get groceries. The second stop is to the public library. I put books right up there with "food and water". You don't know what you are taking for granted until you have to do without. We've lived in Asia and now we live in Europe. I miss my library so much. My library card is the biggest bargain in the entire world. I still pay my annual membership fees as I can borrow e-books from overseas (though somewhat limited in selection). I love my public library and I know it's because I loved my school library. The school library is what taught me to love reading. (The basal readers I read in class would not have done it!)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Vivian,

I agree that the love of libraries of all kinds is formed as a young reader/researcher. And libraries of all types are a bargain.

Oh, blame the publishers, especially the Big Six, for the paucity of loanable e-books. ALA is fighting for the rights of public libraries to loan titles in e-formats, but getting stiff resistance.

Doug

[Lena Graham]

What kind of school does not have a library? Ugh. As the expert writer I'd say that should be a pre-req for a charter or any other school.