Research indicates that when teachers collaborate with the librarian to teach classroom content, students become more engaged through use of meaningful and relevant resources. A good library means a good school and improved literacy. Together with the school, the church and the hospital, a library is one of the cornerstones of a healthy community. Libraries give people the opportunity to experience new ideas, explore great minds, and experience great art, while at the same time providing a sense of place for gathering.
To most of us, a library is a place we go, a place in which literary and artistic materials are kept for reading, reference, or lending. Traditionally library materials were limited to books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes. The collection of such materials would be systematically arranged in shelves. A room could be set up, even in a home, to hold a private collection of materials. A series or set of books issued by a publisher, can also be referred to as a library
The concept of materials has grown over the past 20+ years with the unparalleled access to electronic information obtained over the internet using a computer. Vast amounts of current and historical information is now available on demand and at a moments notice.
A school library has the core mission to ensure that the students are information literate; this means that they are users of information and ideas. Libraries are an important asset which not only provides access to materials, as mentioned above, but they also can provide instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas. Libraries can also help educators to collaborate and design learning strategies to meet the needs of all students.
The notion of a school librarian has also matured with the advent of computerization and broad reaching electronic technologies.