Study on Improving Libraries

This Alliance for Excellent Education report makes suggestions for both policymakers:

* Envision the role of school librarians as extending beyond the physical space of the library and being more than the keepers of books and reference materials and consider the critical knowledge and skills that school librarians bring to the digital learning transition.

* Consider how funding the role of the school librarian is also supporting teachers, students, and administrators in the digital learning transition.

* Recognize how the library and the technology within the library are essential to providing students with access to the Internet and research and learning guidance and to leveling the playing field for students without access to the Internet or devices at home, especially outside of regular school hours.

As well as librarians:

* Share how the collaboration, professional development, and instruction provided by the school librarian are integral to the digital learning transition.
* Continue learning to be leaders in the digital learning transition and experts who can provide professional development, implement new tools and resources, and guide teachers, students, and administrators.
* Lead and model the potential of the library itself as a hub of digital learning and the connection to rich and diverse content, and create a makerspace designed and positioned to meet the needs of students and teachers.

 Wolf, M. A., Jones, R., & Gilbert, D. (2014). Leading in and beyond the library. Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education. https://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BeyondTheLibrary.pdf

Suggestions for the Future of Media Literacy Programs

In this report, authors Monica Bulger and Patrick Davison make five recommendations to guide the future of media literacy programming for educators, legislators, technologists, and philanthropists in the space. Specifically, they warn against the treatment of media literacy as a panacea–particularly at a time when significant resources continue to be pushed toward media literacy programs as a counter balance to “fake news.”

The report recommends the following approaches:

• Developing a coherent understanding of the media environment
• Improve cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Leverage the current media crisis to consolidate stakeholders
• Prioritize the creation of a national media literacy evidence base
• Develop curricula for addressing action in addition to interpretation

Bulger, M. & Davison, P. (2018). The promises, challenges, and futures of media literacy. New York, NY: Data & Society. https://datasociety.net/pubs/oh/DataAndSociety_Media_Literacy_2018.pdf