In search of virtual school libraries

Virtual School Libraries – to some readers of this blog, VSL is probably a familiar term. Since I am not a librarian yet, Virtual School Libraries are something I have actually never considered. Yet a search for virtual + library gave me more than twelve million results!

The first place I found showed me how much catching up I had to do for this week’s blog. Margaret Butterworth wrote “The Concept of the Virtual School Library” in 1992, so I’m only around 15 years behind her, right? http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/13/e6/83.pdf
Yet I find that so much seems to have changed since Butterworth presented her paper at Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship. Highspeed internet access is taken for granted by many, and the ability to download data, especially video and audio, is so much greater than it was 16 years ago, so to me it seems that many of the ideas Butterworth presented have now become now reality.

I next decided to try to get a definition for Virtual School Libraries or at least virtual libraries. Wikipedia tells me that virtual library is an older term for what is now known as digital library, but the entry also states that a digital library is a “type of information retrieval system” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_library). Since I’m still figuring out what a virtual school library is or could be, I’m not sure that the term “information retrieval system” encompasses the whole concept. At any rate, according to Wikipedia a digital library is listed as having the following assets (as opposed to traditional physical libraries):

· No physical boundary. The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
· Round the clock availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
· Multiple access. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
· Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly interfaces, giving clickable access to its resources.
· Preservation and conservation.Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use. Digitized collections and born-digital objects pose many preservation and conservation concerns that analog materials do not. Please see the following "Problems" section of this page for examples.
· Space. Whereas traditional libraries are limited by storage space, digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain them and media storage technologies are more affordable than ever before.
· Added value. Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, may be improved. Digitization can enhance legibility and remove visible flaws such as stains and discoloration.

Okay, so now I’ve learned that a digital library is expected to do more than information retrieval. I next tried to find a good example of a digital or virtual library. A plethora of elementary and middle school libraries popped up, but I was still looking at the big picture, so I continued my search. Moving on, I found a reference to the European Library, which again is referred to as a digital library and not necessarily a virtual library. However, the information I discovered amazed me nonetheless. “The European Library is an Internet service that offers access to the resources of 47 European national libraries. The resources, both digital and non-digital, include books, magazines, journals, audio recordings and other material,” according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Library). A person can access resources from 47 libraries from one site? Holy cats! Furthermore, the plan for the future is to provide access to not only libraries but “all major digital heritage holders” (including museums and other archives) in Europe! The provisional launch date for the European Digital Library, which will be known as Europeana, is November 2008. It sounds to me like the future has arrived.

So from Europeana you will be able to, for example, listen to Albert Einstein explain his theory of relativity, look at original manuscripts written by Cervantes, or peruse the Preview to a Grand Piano by Chopin. From a historical point of view, this is great news for a digital rookie like me; anyone can look at artifacts, writing, or pieces of art that previously we may never be able to physically come near. Also, the European Library/European Digital Library is hiring! Who wants to join?

Subsequently, I looked deeper into virtual libraries, starting with the WWW Virtual Library (http://vlib.org/admin/AboutVL). Here I was told:
“The WWW Virtual Library (VL) is the oldest catalogue of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and of the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva. Unlike commercial catalogues, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the biggest index of the Web, the VL pages are widely recognised as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web.”

A quick scan of what the WWW Virtual Library had to offer led me to move on; for example, the section on Education had been “decomissioned” and no longer existed.
At this point I felt it was time to put my understanding of the bigger picture (what a virtual school library is and why it is important) on the backburner and go directly to some examples, because the big picture was still seeming too fuzzy. I went to http://www.virtualschoollibrary.org/, where I was given the following informational blurb:

"The Virtual School Library will strive to serve the literary and research/information literacy needs of its visitors, particularly those without access to a professionally staffed school library. Information literacy is defined by the National Forum on Information Literacy as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand."


The Virtual School Library looks like a site mostly dedicated to helping elementary-age students find books or do research. It contains many links and can send a viewer to many library-related sites, but of course it doesn’t have a comprehensive database such as the European Library site. But is it a virtual school library as envisioned by Butterworth?It’s not necessarily a one-stop spot for reading, researching, and collaborating.
At this point, I’m still vague on what a virtual school library should do and what a virtual school librarian should do. Discovering an article entitled “The Virtual Library: An Idea Whose Time has Passed” made me feel even more behind. But then the author of that piece of writing, James J. O'Donnell, gave me this morsel: “The ‘virtual library’ is a dream that many share, something many have imagined but none has seen.” (http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/virtual.html) Okay, at last I can feel a little less ignorant. O’Donnell goes on to trace the idea of a virtual library back to the second century BC, which of course led me to believe I am even farther behind in this route of discovery that I hoped, but I soldiered on. O’Donnell goes on to tell readers:

“In an information waterfall, the virtual library that tells us everything and sweeps us off our feet with a storm of data will not be highly prized. The librarian will have to be a more active participant in staving off infochaos. If the traditional librarian has been conceived as a figure at home in the discreet silences and cautious dealings of a Henry James novel, now perhaps the right models will be found in James Fennimore Cooper or the Star Wars films: something between Natty Bumppo the 'Pathfinder' and the Jedi knight will be the best mascot for a library school.”

Wow, there’s an interesting image for us. More importantly, the image of a librarian sternly shushing students may fade away as we forge the way like Jedi knights through Web 2.0. But the question remains for me, is this idea still in the future or is it here and now?

One virtual school library I was impressed with was the Springfield Township Virtual Library (http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/). The databases by subject area alone looks like a wealth of student/teacher information, and the online reference catalogs area also appear well done. At the same time, both of these sections of the virtual library could also be daunting for a newcomer – here’s where the Jedi knight librarian wades in and saves the day. A simpler version of a virtual school library is the Virtual Middle School Library, which of course makes sense since it is formatted for use by middle school students instead of high school students. How do they compare otherwise? They both send viewers to sites for resources (students, teachers, parents), both have subject directories, both can help you find magazine and journal articles, and they’re both available all day, every day (I wish my local public library was open all the time). Is this the kind of virtual library I’m looking for? More importantly, are these the kinds of virtual libraries students are looking for?

An article I found about student opinions on library use (Pew Study: Students Prefer 'Virtual Library') revealed that many students are using the Internet as their library already. That idea doesn’t seem new to me, but the powerful idea that librarians can help students learn more efficiently and more enjoyably through a virtual school library is what is slowly dawning on me. The possibilities seem almost endless, but a few of the things librarians who create their virtual libraries could do are:
· ensure that students aren’t directly sent to sites that are filtered in the school, frustrating everyone.
· help students and teachers use some of the catalogs, databases and reference sources that may seem unwieldy to utilize.
· assist in setting up collaborative learning options using Web 2.0 applications.
· connect virtual library clients to amazing new sites like the European Library.
· Develop virtual libraries that are user-driven, so that students, teachers and parents find them user-friendly and gravitate toward them instead of always heading for Google and Wikipedia.

I think I’ve finally learned what a virtual school library is, or at least what I think it should be – just see the list above.