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