White House Conference on School
Libraries
Overview
On June 4, 2002, Laura Bush hosted a White
House Conference on School Libraries to discuss the latest
research on libraries, student achievement and successful
local programs. Mrs. Bush was joined by her co-host, Dr.
Robert Martin, Director of the Institute of Museum and
Library Services and education, library, government and
philanthropic leaders from across the country. Experts
and panelists offered compelling stories of the power
of school libraries to make a difference in student achievement.
These
Conference Proceedings are also available in a printed
booklet. To request a copy, e-mail imlsinfo@imls.gov.
Conference Resources
• Opening
Remarks - First Lady Laura Bush
• Opening
Remarks - Dr. Robert Martin, Director, Institute of
Museum and Library Services
• Keynote
Address - Dr. Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie Corporation
• The
Role of School Libraries in Elementary and Secondary Eduation
- Dr. Susan Neuman, Assistant Secretary for Elementary
and Secondary Education, United States Department of Education
• What
Research Tells Us About the Importance of School Libraries,
Keith Curry Lance, Ph.D., Director, Library Research Service,
Colorado State Library
• Reflections
of an Empowered Library - Faye Pharr, Lakeside Academy
of Math, Science, and Technology, Chattanooga, TN
• What's
It Take?- Gary Hartzell, Professor, Educational Administration
and Supervision, University of Nebraska, Omaha
• Building
Student Learning through School Libraries - Dr. Kathleen
D. Smith, Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village,
CO
• History
of Medford School District Library Media Centers -
Dr. Steve Wisely, Superintendent, Medford School District,
Medford, OR
• The
Role of Foundations and Philanthropy in Supporting School
Libraries - M. Christine DeVita, President, Wallace-Reader's
Digest Funds
• Closing
Remarks - First Lady Laura Bush
Speaker and
Panelist Biographies
Dr. Vartan Gregorian, President,
Carnegie Corporation of New York, is a distinguished educator,
scholar, and administrator. He earned a Ph.D. in history
at Stanford University and served as a professor of history
and administrator at the University of Texas and the University
of Pennsylvania. From 1981 to 1989, he was the President
of the New York Public Library, and from 1989 to 1997,
he was president of Brown University. He is an outstanding
spokesman for the central role that libraries play in
education.
Dr. Susan Neuman, Assistant Secretary
for Elementary and Secondary Education, U. S. Department
of Education, is a distinguished scholar and educator.
Until 2001, she was Professor in Educational Studies at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Director of
the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement.
Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, Dr. Neuman was
a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. She
has also taught at Boston College, the University of Massachusetts,
Lowell, and Yale University. Early in her career Dr. Neuman
was an elementary school teacher and a reading specialist.
Dr. Keith Curry Lance has been the
Director of the Library Research Service since 1987. The
LRS is a unit of the Colorado State Library and the Colorado
Department of Education operated in partnership with the
Library and Information Science Program in the College
of Education at the University of Denver. With a Ph.D.
in Sociology and History from the University of North
Texas, he is the lead author of The Impact of School
Library Media Centers on Academic Achievement (1993)-a.k.a.
"the Colorado study" and How School Librarians Help
Kids Achieve Standards: The Second Colorado Study
(2000), as well as a co-author of similar studies for
Alaska, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Iowa, and New Mexico.
Dr. Gary Hartzell is Professor of
Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska
at Omaha, where he teaches in the master's and doctoral
degree programs, preparing students for careers as building
and district-level administrators. He joined the educational
administration faculty at UNOmaha after serving as a high
school teacher, assistant principal, and principal in
California. His research interests center on schools as
workplaces for adults, with particular attention to workplace
relationships. Among other works, he is the author of
Building Influence for the School Librarian, and
the lead author of New Voices in the Field: The Work
Lives of First-Year Assistant Principals. He is an
internationally known speaker on librarian-principal relationships
and a monthly columnist for the School Library Journal.
Dr. Steven R. Wisely is completing
17 years as the superintendent of Medford School District
in Medford, Oregon. He has been a classroom teacher, elementary
principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent, and
an instructor at four universities. He was named Oregon's
Superintendent of the Year in 1991 and Oregon Educational
Media Association Administrator of the year for 2000-01.
He was nominated by the library media specialists of the
Medford School District for his commitment to providing
quality school library programs and staffing them with
certified personnel in all K-12 schools. He holds a Ph.D.
from the University of Oregon.
Dr. Kathleen D. Smith is the principal
of Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado,
a Denver area urban/suburban school with over 3,500 students
on an eighty acre campus. She is a member of several local
boards and serves on the College Board's Western Regional
Academic Council. Dr. Smith received the Distinguished
School Administrator Award from the American Association
of School Librarians last year. She has been a social
studies teacher, counselor, central office, and middle
and high school administrator. She received a Ph.D. from
the University of Northern Colorado.
Faye Kimsey-Pharr is the Principal
of Lakeside Academy of Math, Science, and Technology in
Chattanooga, Tennessee. She has been a classroom teacher,
Basic Skills Consultant, Elementary Instructional Supervisor,
and Assistant Principal. In 1996, she was named the Administrator
of the Year by the American Library Association.
M. Christine DeVita is the President
of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds, a leader in the
use of philanthropic resources to encourage new institutional
practices designed to improve services to people. Over
the last decade, the Funds' Library Power initiative,
the largest private investment in school libraries in
more than 30 years, helped more than 700 schools make
their libraries into stronger centers of teaching and
learning, and shared those lessons nationally. The Funds'
current programs are aimed at strengthening school leadership,
promoting out-of-school learning opportunities in underserved
communities, and broadening public participation in the
arts and culture.
For More Information
Capitalizing
on the School Library's Potential to Positively Affect
Student Achievement - A List of Resources
Laura
Bush Foundation for America's Libraries
American
Association of School Librarians |