IASL Research Abstracts

IASL Research Abstracts: 220

Odasso, P. (2007). The Social Inclusion Function of the School Library. Italy.

This article presents arguments to support social inclusion as an important function of the school library. Unlike other types of libraries, the school library is not a separate organization, but lives within the school, which has social inclusion as its mission. In order for the school library to fulfill a social inclusion role in cooperation with the school, it must look at the changes that are underway in education systems because of the process of globalization and digitalization of information. Two changes in particular — the movement from the transmission of knowledge to the formation of key competences or capabilities and the growing weight of international evaluations of educational systems — are effecting a paradigm change for schools and school libraries: from the axis of having information knowledge to the axis of being and becoming competent and capable. The school library has the potential to be an essential driver of social inclusion and educational innovation by playing a unique educational role in two areas: the logical organization of information, which can help to address scholastic dispersion (the dropout problem), and the documentation of professional knowledge to help the school become a learning organization (knowledge management).

School Libraries Worldwide, 13(2), 18-31.

Subject categories: 12, 13, 17, 20

Abstract submitted by Rachel Pultusker, University of Michigan.