MISSION, GOALS AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE NORWALK CATHOLIC SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA
PROGRAM
MISSION
The mission of the library media program is to ensure that students and
staff are effective users of ideas and information. This mission is
accomplished:
-by providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats
-by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in
reading, viewing, and using information and ideas
-by working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the
needs of individual students. Information Power: Building Partnerships for
Learning: 1998, p.6
GOALS
1. To provide intellectual access to information through learning
activities that are integrated into the curriculum and that help all
students achieve information literacy by developing effective cognitive
strategies for selecting, retrieving, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing,
creating, and communicating information in all formats and in all content
areas of the curriculum.
2. To provide physical access to information through
a. a carefully selected and systematically organized local
collection of diverse learning resources that represent a wide range of
subjects, levels of difficulty, and formats;
b. a systematic procedure for acquring information and materials
from outside the library media center and the school through such mechanisms
as electronic networks, interlibrary loan, and cooperative agreements with
other information agencies; and instruction in using a range of equipment
for accessing local and remote information in any format.
3. To provide learning experiences that encourage students and others to
become discriminating consumers and skilled creators of information through
comprehensive instruction related to the full range of communications media
and technology.
4. To provide leadership, collaboration, and assistance to teachers and
others in applying principles of instructional design to the use of
instructional and information technology for learning.
5. To provide resources and activities that contribute to lifelong learning
while accommodating a wide range of differences in teaching and learning
styles, methods, interests, and capacities.
6. To provide a program that functions as the information center of the
school, both thorugh offering a locus for integrated and interdisciplinary
learning activities within the school and through offering access to a full
range of information for learning beyond this locus.
7. To provide resources and activities for learning that represent a
diversity of experiences, opinions, and social and cultural perspectives and
to support the concept that intellectual freedom and access to information
are prerequisite to effective and responsible citizenship in a democracy.
Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning: 1998, p.6
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NORWALK CATHOLIC SCHOOL LIBRARIES
The primary objective of the Norwalk Catholic School Libraries is to
implement, enrich
and support the educational program of the schools. To this end the
Advisory Board of the Norwalk Catholic Schools reaffirms the Learning and
Teaching
Principles of School Library Media Programs prepared jointly by the American
Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational
Communication and Technology.
1. The library media program is essential to learning and teaching and must
be fully integrated into the curriculum to promote students' achievement of
learning goals.
2. The information literacy standards for students learning are integral to
the content and objectives of the schools' curriculum.
3. The library media program models and promotes collaborative planning and
curriculum development.
4. The library media program models and promotes creative, effective, and
collaborative teaching.
5. Access to the full range of information resources and services through
the library media program is fundamental to learning.
6. The library media program encourages and engages students in reading,
viewing, and listening for understanding and enjoyment.
7. The library media program supports the learning of all students and
other members of the learning community who have diverse learning abilities,
styles, and needs.
8. The library media program fosters individual and collaborative inquiry.
9. The library media program integrates the uses of technology for learning
and teaching.
10. The library media program is an essential link to the larger learning
community.
Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning: 1998, p.58
