Editorial: Learning from Our Past

Abstract

This issue of School Libraries Worldwide was conceived as a challenge to what the Editors see as the ahistorical stance of our field. Unfortunately, the responses to our challenge did not cause us to change our view. There were only few articles submitted for this issue that were, indeed, papers exploring the history of school librarianship. Many other articles submitted for the theme were, instead, descriptions of the development of school libraries in a particular country. Such descriptions were and are valuable documents, but they did not address the theme of Learning From Our Past. The School Library Worldwide reviewers and editors were looking for papers that addressed the history of school libraries or of an aspect of school library practice in such a way that the readers of the paper could "learn from the past." Papers for this issue needed to have a strong analytical framework or organizing theme as well as a rich description of events.