The School Library and Information Centre in the 21st Century

In 1998 I received clear instructions from the directors of the Kalsbeek College in Woerden to prepare the School Library and Information Centre (SLIC) for the 21st century, taking into account important factors such as:

  • the changes in the information society caused by the digitalisation of information,
  • the new possibilities which are now available since the introduction of ICT within the school and specifically within the SLIC,
  • new forms of learning which have been made possible by the use of ICT within the school.

The hope was to retain the traditional facilities which the school library and the school librarian have always provided, but to extend these facilities, taking into account new forms of learning which are made possible by the introduction of ICT.

I carried out the instructions which I received by doing Ph.D research and by testing my conclusions with “Action Research". Action research is often used to test educational theories. My research is being carried out under the supervision of:

  • Dr. Victoria de Rijke, Middlesex University in London,
  • Professor Sylvia van der Bunt, Middlesex University, and the VU in Amsterdam and The Hague University and
  • Professor Albert Boekhorst, UvA in Amsterdam University of Pretoria in Johannesburg and Tallinn University in Estonia.

At the Kalsbeek College, extensive changes have been made in the traditional school library (a new library has been built, and special attention has been paid to the interior design and facilities). Extra attention has been paid to the quality of the traditional collection. The atmosphere in the library (a place where pupils and teachers feel comfortable and can study, do homework etc.), reading skills and reading pleasure are still very important. The SLIC has also become a digital library.

A democratic decision was made by elected representatives of the staff to introduce structured, compulsory instruction in information literacy skills, for all teachers and pupils. This instruction is given by the school information specialist in the SLIC. The model used for the information literacy instruction is known as the KILM (Kalsbeek Information Literacy Matrix). A detailed description of the KILM will be published on 31 January 2007, during a meeting of Dutch school librarians and other visitors. As soon as possible, this document (description) will also be published in English on the ENSIL website.

This information will also be published in Italian in March 2007, thanks to Luisa Marquandt’s hard work.

Helen Boelens
Kalsbeek College, Woerden, The Netherlands

Articles by Helen Boelens:

02 February 2007 in News, The Netherlands | | Comments (0)