Library Impact - education - Brief Article

School Administrator, Dec, 1999

Students in more than 700 schools in 19 cities nationwide benefited from Library Power, an innovative public school library program intended to refurbish and revitalize libraries in low-income districts, according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies and School of Education.

Library Power enables schools to intensify and strengthen instruction and teaches students how to efficiently research and examine information to improve their thinking and critical analysis skills. It is supported by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.

The independent study also found that the program:

* improved book collections to better reflect the courses being studied;

* renovated facilities to accommodate more users and different types of activities;

* increased student traffic with extended daytime hours; and

* enabled greater instructional collaboration between teachers and librarians.

The study's executive summary can be requested by contacting the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, 2 Park Ave., 23rd floor, New York, N.Y. 10016 or via e-mail at dwrd@wallacefunds.org. The report also can be found at www.wallacefunds.org.