CISSL was in 2003 awarded a two year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The purpose of the project was to provide sustained empirical evidence of the impact of school libraries on student learning, and in doing so, provide a methodology that is replicable in school libraries identifying the impact.

Results:

• students learned topical content in deep ways, which went well beyond describing the topic, to showing understanding of complex concepts and explanatory and predictive relationships of topical content;
• students became more skillful and confident as information seekers, and showed evidence of learning a range of information literacy competencies;
• students underwent a significant conceptual change regarding information which altered their conception of information seeking as fact-finding into a broader reflective notion.

SLIM Toolkit: a research-based tool, known as the School Library Impact Measure (SLIM) packet was developed to provide a verified mechanism for enabling school librarians and classroom teachers to gather sustained empirical evidence of the impact of school libraries on individual student learning.

Activities:

CISSL organized an International Research Symposium presenting innovative research on the Impact of School Libraries on Student Learning in New York City, April 28-29, 2005. The CISSL team presented research findings from the Impact of School Libraries on Student Learning study. In addition, scholars from six different countries conducting major research on learning in school libraries presented their research.

In July 26-28, 2005, CISSL hosted a Train-the-Trainer Institute at Rutgers for 10 school librarian-teacher teams from the whole USA. The participants were introduced to the concept and methods of guided inquiry, and trained in its implementation. The participants were also presented with the SLIM toolkit, and will test it in their respective schools during Spring 2006.

Presentations:

Dr. Jannica Heinström – July 21, 2006.Conference Presentation: Fast surfing for availability or deep diving into quality – motivation and information seeking among middle and high school students. Information Seeking in Context (ISIC), Sydney, Australia

Dr. Ross Todd – July 19, 2006. Conference Presentation: From information to knowledge: charting and measuring changes in students knowledge of a curriculum topic. Information Seeking in Context (ISIC), Sydney, Australia

Publications:

Todd, R.J. (2006). "From information to knowledge: charting and measuring changes in students' knowledge of a curriculum topic"   Information Research, 11(4) paper 264. Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/11-4/paper264.html

Heinström, J. & Todd, R. (2006). Uncertainty and guidance: school students’ feelings, study approaches, and need for help in inquiry projects,Scan, 25 (3), pp. 28–35.

Heinström, J. (2006). Fast surfing for availability or deep diving into quality - motivation and information seeking among middle and high school students. Information Research, 11 (4).  Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/11-4/paper265.html