How do School Libraries Promote Student Success?

Abstract

Education in Portugal is undergoing significant changes related to the government-led Technological Plan. This is a consequence of the major reconfiguration introduced by educational technologies now available to schools. Such a process presents challenges to schools libraries, which must respond adequately, change management and information management practices and engage in collaborative work with teachers. School Libraries aim at developing reading and information literacies and at implementing creative problem solving-based approaches to learning, such as inquiry based learning. Since its establishment under inter-ministerial initiative in 1996, the School Libraries Network (SLN) has strived to incorporate critical success factors identified in international literature. SLN has moreover implemented the School Libraries Self-Evaluation Model, to reinforce school libraries' educational role and promote quality and accountability. This paper aims at confronting the realizations and shortcomings of SLN with internationally identified concepts, standards and critical success factors, whilst revealing aspects of the Portuguese reality.