Effort to Improve Libraries in Public Schools Leaves Its Mark

Findings from the Evaluation of the National Library Power Program: Executive Summary evaluates four years of a $40-million project started in 1988 by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to improve libraries in public schools. The study, undertaken by the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, contains data collected from over 450 schools nationwide that participated in “Library Power” from 1993 to 1997. The goals of the program were to buy books, make library hours flexible enough to meet the needs of students, refurbish facilities, and train teachers and librarians to collaborate on projects. The survey of the schools’ librarians found general agreement that those goals were either met or in sight by 1997. However, the report concludes, while the results in many schools were encouraging, improving a library in a poor school didn’t necessarily improve the school. “Library Power did not solve existing problems that plague urban and low-income districts,” the report notes. “It did not provide answers to all the dilemmas schools encounter as they educate large numbers of disadvantaged children with limited resources.” A more comprehensive assessment of the program will be available later this fall from Libraries Unlimited, in Englewood, Colo.; (800) 237-6124. Publisher: DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, Two Park Avenue, 23rd Floor, New York 10016; (212) 251-9700; fax (212) 697-6990; dwrd@wallacefunds.org; http://www.wallacefunds.org; 25 pages; free. A copy of this executive summary may be downloaded from the fund’s World-Wide Web site.