A new field of children's learning is emerging. This new field differs from the old in recognizing that children's learning includes active as well as passive mechanisms and qualitative as well as quantitative changes. Children's learning involves substantial variability of representations and strategies within individual children as well as across different children. The path of learning involves the introduction of new approaches as well as changes in the frequency of prior ones. The rate and the breadth of learning tend to occur at a human scale, intermediate between the extremes depicted by symbolic and connectionist models. Learning has many sources; one that is particularly promising for educational purposes is self-explanations. Overall, contemporary analyses show that learning and development have a great deal in common.

Children's learning.

Rural public libraries have been relatively understudied when compared to public libraries as a whole. Data are available to show that rural libraries lag behind their urban and suburban counterparts in technology service offerings, but the full meaning and impact of such disparities is unclear. The authors combine data from the Public Library Technology and Access Study with data from smaller studies to provide greater insight to these issues. By filtering these data through the Digital Inclusion framework, it becomes clear that disparities between rural and non-rural libraries are not merely a problem of weaker technological infrastructure. Instead, rural libraries cannot reach their full customer service potential because of lower staffing (but not lower staff dedication) and funding mechanisms that rely primarily on local monies. The authors suggest possible solutions to these disparities, while also discussing the barriers that must be overcome before such solutions can be implemented.

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Rural public libraries and digital inclusion: : issues and challenges

This Libraries and Policy essay explores the interrelationships between the public library goals of supporting democracy and remaining an apolitical institution and the expectations for demonstration of value and economic contribution at a time in which public discourse emphasizes austerity from public institutions. Libraries’ positions on democracy and neutrality are explored within the context of the tension between asserting value and demonstrating it, as well as the impacts of these positions on the ability to advocate for library value in political and policy-making processes. Building upon these analyses, we examine different ways that libraries can use research to advocate and demonstrate their value by framing the terms of value and austerity in language that acknowledges the tangible and intangible contributions of public libraries.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/671910

Democracy, Neutrality, and Value Demonstration in the Age of Austerity

Three multivariate analyses, all controlling for the effects of poverty, confirm the importance of the library. Replicating McQuillan’s analysis of 1992 NAEP scores, this study finds that access to books in school and public libraries was a significant predictor of 2007 fourth grade NAEP reading scores, as well as the difference between grade 4 and grade 8 2007 NAEP reading scores, suggesting that access is important for improvement after grade 4. Access (school/classroom libraries) was a significant predictor of scores on the PIRLS test, a reading test given to fourth graders in 40 countries.

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Is the Library Important? Multivariate Studies at the National and International Level.

Hollowed out Heartland, USA: How capital sacrificed communities and paved the way for authoritarian populism

/pdf/public-libraries-in-the-united-states-survey-fiscal-year-2pwx2uwjuo.pdf

Public Libraries in the United States Survey: Fiscal Year 2010.

/pdf/public-libraries-survey-fiscal-year-2009-1cyjdqyx48.pdf

Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2009.

/pdf/public-libraries-in-the-united-states-fiscal-year-2002-e-d-5fuon7d0g8.pdf

Public Libraries in the United States, Fiscal Year 2002. E.D. TAB. NCES 2005-356.

/pdf/state-library-agencies-fiscal-year-2005-58i6et46hs.pdf

State Library Agencies Fiscal Year 2005

/pdf/academic-libraries-2006-first-look-nces-2008-337-5570pua9qi.pdf

Patricia O'Shea

Papers

Public Libraries in the United States Survey: Fiscal Year 2010.

Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2009.

Public Libraries in the United States, Fiscal Year 2002. E.D. TAB. NCES 2005-356.

State Library Agencies Fiscal Year 2005

Academic Libraries: 2006. First Look. NCES 2008-337.