School Libraries

Student achievement increases as library media specialists take an active role in the instructional program of the school.

More than 60 research studies throughout the nation have shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized tests than their peers in schools without libraries.

 

The California Education Code reinforces the essential role of school libraries by requiring school districts to provide school library services for their students and teachers and by requiring the State Board of Education to adopt standards, rules, and regulations for school libraries.

 

School libraries have evolved from having a focus on print materials to providing a rich selection of resources, both print and digital; from students learning how to search a card catalog to learning strategies for searching a variety of digital resources and using Internet Web browsers; from basic literacy to information literacy (the ability to access, evaluate and use information effectively).

 

California Model School Library Standards for Students incorporates information literacy, the ability to utilize or search print, media, and digital technology to access, evaluate and use information, to enable students to function in a knowledge-based economy and society.  The standards describe what students should know and be able to do at each grade level, kindergarten through grade six, or grade span, grades seven and eight and grades nine through twelve, as a result of having an effective school library program at their schools.

October 2009 Update:  The Pt. Loma High School Library has new extended hours -- until 5:00 pm Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; and until 3:30 pm on Thursdays and Fridays -- to provide a quiet place to study with access to computers.

Our Librarians in Pt. Loma -- Barbara Forster (Dana), Marcia Abbott (Correia), and Sarah Sine (Pt. Loma High) -- perform a vital role in opening up the world of information for our students by promoting literacy; blending digital learning with other learning styles; teaching students how to find, use, and analyze information; validating online sources and data bases; and conducting professional development for teachers and elementary school library techs to bridge technology into the learning process.

The Pt. Loma branch of the San Diego Public Library has copies of text books for Pt. Loma High School, Correia, and Dana.

Teacher Librarians Impact Achievement:  "21st century literacy is the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap.  These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, recognize and use that power, manipulate and trans­form digital media, distribute them perva­sively, and easily adapt them to new forms."  Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit 2005