Presents advice for high school librarians on how they can best redesign the school library to meet the needs of all students, not only those working toward college, but those who will go to either work or a vocational school directly after high school.
Thomas (library and information science, Louisiana State U.) is concerned that students who may not go on to college (or even finish high school) have less attention paid to their curriculum and their educational needs than those who are on the college preparatory track. She feels school librarians are responsible for preparing all students, regardless of eventual academic involvement, for lifelong learning. She describes how high schools had been restructured in the last century, models for reform and redesign and the role of the library, collaboration with the faculty in research and application, exploration of the information needs of the student going directly from school to work, applied information and technology literacy, resources to meet the needs of the students, marketing, and planning and organization for the redesigned high school library. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Most high school administrators, teachers, and staff concentrate on the student who is in the college preparatory track, while those who may not even finish high school have less attention paid to their curriculum and their educational needs. If the role of the school librarian is to prepare all students for lifelong learning, school librarians must work closely with teachers in charge of courses preparing students to go from school to work. This book points out the role of the school librarian in working with all the students and maps out the route to take to make this happen.
The high school librarian has a unique opportunity and responsibility 1) to serve all the students including the forgotten half, those who if they finish high school, are unlikely to go beyond community college or trade school and 2) to work with the teachers in those subject areas whose classes are designed for school to work experiences.