FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Updated - June 7, 2005

Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Eileen Maxwell, emaxwell@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov

New IMLS Publication: Charting the Landscape/Mapping New Paths: Museums, Libraries, and K-12 Education

Washington, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has released a report on how museums and libraries bolster K-12 education and lifelong learning in communities across the Nation. “Charting the Landscape, Mapping New Paths: Museums, Libraries, and K-12 Learning,” is based on a workshop the Institute hosted August 30-31, 2004 at which more than seventy educators, researchers, policymakers, and museum and library professionals examined K-12 collaborations among their organizations.

As the report notes, workshop participants agreed that in the 21st century, a competitive and successful society will require people who never stop learning. It is essential, therefore, to build a foundation for lifelong learning during the elementary and secondary school years. The responsibility for building that foundation and nurturing lifelong learning does not rest with schools alone but cuts across institutional boundaries to include museums, libraries, and other community organizations.“Congress charges the agency to encourage museum and libraries in carrying out their educational role as core providers of learning in conjunction with schools, families, and communities,” writes Dr. Robert S. Martin, Director of IMLS, “With that mandate, IMLS possesses a unique vantage point for bridging these communities and convening them.”

Three key challenges to developing a “learning society” with museum, library, and school partnerships as a central element of that society emerged from the workshop:

• Successfully redefining education as a lifetime endeavor;
• Understanding the changing nature of professional roles;
• Moving beyond anecdotal evidence to show what works.

Workshop participants also identified steps that practitioners, policy-makers, and museum and library professionals and educators should take to support such a society:

• Build a community of practice by creating a clearinghouse of best practices, funding innovative partnerships, and developing tools for convening stakeholders.
• Build better relationships with education policy-makers, education associations, and parent and community organizations at the federal, state and local level.
• Support research and evaluation that examines the impact of museums and libraries on K-12 formal and informal learning.

The report highlights projects and partnerships and can be used as a tool to lay a foundation for understanding the power of museum, library, school, and community collaborations in cultivating lifelong learning societies.

It includes an appendix of selected resources, most of which are available online and a useful glossary of terms used throughout the workshop. To obtain free copies of the report, email the Institute of Museum and Library Services at imlsinfo@imls.gov, or access it electronically from the agency’s Web site.