Library Information Skills and the High School English Program Second Edition » (2ND)

Hackman's practical ideas for integrating library information skills into the high school English curriculum emphasize the importance of teacher-librarian cooperation and curriculum match. This new edition also addresses the media specialist's challenge to help teachers feel comfortable with new technologies while incorporating them into the program. The author gives numerous examples of how the media specialist and English teacher can team up in composition, literature, and the performing arts-all taken from successful programs based on national, state, and regional standards. A useful resource for media specialists, teachers, library and education students, and school administrators.

VOYA

Not many books have been written specifically connecting library information skills and high school English. It was a disappointment to find a book that had potential but lacked an up-to-date combination of issues, trends, and ideas. Perhaps what the author tried to do was too ambitious. This book covers the role of the high school library media specialist, gives a history of English teachers and school librarians from the 1960s through the '90s, discusses curriculum, recommends building relationships, describes a district library media program, and suggests units on Shakespeare. The author specifically devotes only one chapter, 17 pages out of 136, to the topic indicated by the title of the book. Too much lecturing and lack of clearly useful information dominate the chapters. A VOYA review of the 1985 edition (June 1986) leads me to believe that the second edition is much like the first, with the addition of a few Internet references. There are many high quality books that concentrate on each area this author addressed, but other selected books provide information much more interestingly and competently. For example, school library media specialists would be better served to familiarize themselves with Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (ALA, 1998/VOYA review below, August 1999), three volumes of Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the Classics (Christopher-Gordon, 1992, 1994, 1997), Connecting Young Adults and Libraries by Patrick Jones (Neal-Schuman, 1998/VOYA August 1998), and ICONnect: Curriculum Connection on the 'Net (ALA, 1996). Index.