The role of the library in Teaching and learning

The role of the library in Teaching and learning

The role of the library in Teaching and learning

 A library is fundamentally an organized set of resources, which include human services as well as the entire spectrum of media. Libraries have physical components such as space, equipment, and storage media; intellectual components such as collection policies that determine what materials will be included and organizational schemes that determine how the collection is accessed; and people who manage the physical and intellectual components and interact with users to solve information problems.

Libraries serve at least three roles in learning. First, they serve a practical role in sharing expensive resources. Physical resources such as books and periodicals, films and videos, software, and electronic databases, and specialized tools such as projectors, graphics equipment, and cameras are shared by a community of users. Human resources --librarians (also called media specialists or information specialists)support instructional programs by responding to the requests of teachers and students(responsive service)and by initiating activities for teaching and students(proactive services). Responsive services include maintaining reserve materials, answering reference questions, providing bibliographic instruction, developing media packages, recommending books or films, and teaching users how to use materials. proactive services include selective dissemination of information to faculty and students, initiating thematic events, collaborating with instructors to plan instruction, and introducing new instructional methods and tools. In these ways, libraries serve to allow instructors and students to share expensive materials and expertise.

Second, libraries serve a cultural role in preserving and organizing artifacts and ideas. Great works of literature, art, and science must be preserved and made accessible to future learners. Although libraries have traditionally been viewed as facilities for printed artifacts, primary and secondary school libraries often also serve as museums and laboratories. Libraries preserve objects through careful storage procedures, policies of borrowing and use, and repair and maintenance needed. In addition to preservation, libraries ensure access to materials through indexes, catalogs, and other finding aids that allow learners to locate items appropriate to their needs.

Third, libraries serve social and intellectual roles in bringing together people and ideas. This is distinct from the practical role of sharing resources in that libraries provide a physical place for teachers and learners to meet outside the structure of the classroom, thus allowing people with different perspectives to interact in a knowledge space that is both larger and more general than that shared by any single discipline or affinity group. Browsing a catalog in a library provides a global view for people engaged in specialized study and offers opportunities for serendipitous insights or alternative views. In many respects, libraries serve as centers of entry disciplinarily places shared by learners from all disciplines. Digital libraries extend such interdisciplinarity by making diversity available beyond the physical space shared by groups of learners. One of the great information resources test benefits of digital libraries is bringing together people with formal, informal,, and professional learning missions.

Formal learning is systematic and guided by instruction. Formal learning takes place in courses offered at schools of various kinds and in training courses or programs on the job. The important roles that libraries serve in formal learning are illustrated by their physical prominence on university campuses and the number of courses that make direct use of library services and materials. Most of the information resources in schools are tied directly to the instructional mission.

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