Advocacy

The INFODEMIC of the 21 st  Century

As school librarians, we need to make our constituents (parents, administrators and legislators) aware of the newest pandemic of the 21 st  century, the INFdemic! In the past, numerous studies have shown that school libraries DO have an impact on student learning. The Ohio study undertaken by OELMA with Dr. Ross Todd and Dr. Carol Kuhlthau of Rutgers University showed 99.44% of over 13,000 students in 39 "effective" school libraries "...indicated that their school library and it's services, including the roles of school librarians, have helped them in some way...with their learning". Despite all of this evidence, the school library and/or school librarian are often the first budget cuts. So what is the problem?

Simply put, the problem has yet to be identified! Our parents, administrators and legislators are unaware of the seriousness of the information problem, the INFOdemic! With so much information at their fingertips, students have become complacent, believing that if the information is out there in the public domain, they have the right to use it in their papers. Plagiarism abounds! Academic integrity wanes! Reporters plagiarize stories, authors use one another’s writing, college students lose degrees and are removed from universities! The problem is very serious.

In order to better inform our constituents, OELMA has decided to gather evidence of the effects of not having a strong school library with a credentialed teacher-librarian. As you read articles that demonstrate this problem please add to our wiki by giving the name of the article and posting a link to where the article can be found. It would be MOST helpful if you could give a brief summary of the article as well. GREAT! Let’s get started!