The recent I.D.E.A. legislation has caused a great deal of consternation among elementary school teachers. These already overburdened professionals are now facing a new challenge: they must now make individual adjustments for and document that they are meeting the curricular needs of all students in their classroom--including the gifted. No longer is it sufficient to ship the gifted student out of the classroom for a few hours of "enrichment" each week. Each gifted student now has the right to an education that is appropriate to his or her needs and abilities. Of course some educators have long believed in the educational rights of gifted students. As Sanders states, "When we speak of the community’s obligation to provide equal educational opportunities for all children, when we speak of the development of all children to their maximum potential, we include the academically talented. The able child—as well as the handicapped child—has a right to expect from his society opportunities for self-actualization" (8). What is different under I.D.E.A. is that the law has now formalized this right. This leaves the classroom teacher with the overwhelming task of teaching an entire spectrum of students whose abilities may range from the lowest functioning mentally retarded student to the highest functioning gifted student--whose abilities may challenge those of the teacher who is trying to provide appropriate instruction. The mainstreaming of students from either group is challenging to any teacher, but now the teacher must be held accountable for meeting the academic needs of the entire spectrum of ability levels in a single classroom. Needless to say, the task appears overwhelming.

 New Developments and New Learning Paradigms

Fortunately, the timing for this legislation could not be better. We stand on the brink, educationally of a massive paradigm shift, brought about by the increased accessibility of information processing technology. Eventually, if software and hardware availability can be matched to the curriculum of the local school district, it should be theoretically possible for the classroom teacher to become a facilitator of learning--one who guides and administers the learning process in the classroom, rather than the major source of instruction. "The electronic world provides profoundly new challenges to education that both confound all the other problems and provide hope for solving them. Schools must incorporate computers into everyday functioning and prepare students to live in an adult world where computing is pervasive" (Kohl xiv). This shift, if and when it comes, will allow for even greater individualization of the learning process. The major problem with these developments in the field of education is that it is extremely difficult for the average classroom teacher to keep up with the available technologies and sources of electronic information. There is, however, a resource that has been largely overlooked in our school systems--the school librarian.

 New Paradigms in Information Science

The same paradigm shift that has so strongly impacted the field of education has necessarily forced changes in the field of Information Science. The very fact of the name-change (from Library Science to Information Science) reflects the nature of the changes in the field. Libraries are no longer dusty (or moldy) collections of antiquated books and outdated periodicals. The modern library is a gleaming, fast-paced center of learning, replete with the latest available media for the transfer of information. Glowing banks of computer monitors have replaced the daunting rows of dusty card-catalog drawers. Interlibrary loan is often seconds away, as compared to weeks, as many texts become available online. The librarian is no longer the dry and frumpy cardigan-clad custodian of the books whose main job is to keep people quiet with a perpetual "Shhhhh!" The librarian is now an active, busy, no-nonsense media specialist--an information professional whose job is to match the information need with the best available source. As Craver has noted, "All of the technology-driven educational changes will require a greater need for the services of a school library media specialist (SLMS). The connection between the growing world of information and the student requires a skilled interpreter, consultant, instructor, and gatherer of information."

 Curriculum Compacting

Curriculum compacting, as suggested by Joseph Renzulli, is the logical first step for meeting the needs of gifted students. These students have the ability to learn more quickly and with less practice or repetition than the average student. Therefore, they rapidly become bored in the traditional classroom setting. Allowing them to proceed to the next level, the next lesson, the next skill, or even accelerating them to the next grade level, if appropriate, is one way for the classroom teacher to meet their needs. This may leave, however, large chunks of unstructured time which the teacher must find some way to fill with educationally appropriate activities. In the past, these students have been told to sit quietly and read a book until the rest of the class is finished, or they have been sent to a pull-out "enrichment" program. Neither of these approaches has really met the needs of the gifted students. Many teachers have believed the persistent misconception that "gifted children get along very well in spite of their schooling." Research does not support this blissful assumption. "…About half of the nation’s gifted and talented children and youth drop out of school before completing college. That can scarcely be called ‘getting along well.’" (Sellin 27). There is now, however, a way to meet the enrichment and/or acceleration needs of gifted students without straining the resources of the classroom teacher.

 The Librarian as Resource

The Librarian, as coordinator of the information resource center for the school, is the ideal person to serve as a learning facilitator for gifted students. These children need to learn to be self-directed learners; the media professional is in the business of providing the information resources to make independent research and learning a possibility. These children, when properly motivated and guided, have a voracious hunger for knowledge that cannot be appeased in the traditional educational curriculum. The information they seek needs to more accurate, current, challenging, and relevant than the pre-digested pablum available in most textbooks. The librarian can be the guide to open a new world of self-directed learning in which the student explores independent research projects utilizing a wide variety of media resources to explore ideas and issues that cannot be explored in the standard curriculum. The library thus becomes a central part of the learning experience. "A library is…essential for high-quality instruction. When properly planned and operated, the library becomes not only a storehouse for materials but a center of great significance in the teaching program" (Sanders 16). In this approach, everyone is a winner. The classroom teacher is relieved of the burden of finding something creative for these wonderful-but-challenging children to do; the librarian gets the opportunity of doing what good librarians (like Tiggers) do best--guiding stimulated learners toward the resources, media, and materials needed to slake the thirst for knowledge. Most importantly, the students become the ultimate beneficiaries as they have the challenge, the resources, and the opportunity to become self-directed life-long learners: an opportunity that they do not receive when forced to conform lockstep in the regular classroom.

 Prerequisites for Success

Such a program of supplemental instruction in the library can function as academic acceleration, if appropriate materials are available, or as enrichment, depending on the philosophy and resources of the individual school. Despite the abilities of the students involved and the librarian who works with them, however, there are certain prerequisites to success in implementing this type of program for gifted children. These include, but may not be limited to, administrative support, a committed classroom teacher, an adequately developed library with access to technology, and a library program that allows the librarian to function as an information professional and not just a glorified babysitter. Problems in any of these prerequisite areas put the success of the program in serious jeopardy before it ever begins.

The most important element in the success of any program designed to meet the needs of gifted students is the unqualified commitment of the classroom teacher. It is the classroom teacher who has the ability, through curriculum compacting, to free up large blocks of time that the gifted students may use for special courses or projects under the guidance of the librarian. As the person responsible for applying and implementing the curriculum, the teacher should know it well and be able to exempt able students from learning activities geared towards teaching skills already acquired or knowledge already gained. They should also be able to recognize when these students catch on very quickly to ideas, concepts, or skills that other students need more time or practice to acquire.

On the other hand, teachers who are unwilling or unable to adjust their planning and grading styles to account for the needs of gifted students will effectively prohibit their successful involvement in any type of accelerated or enrichment program offerings. If these children are expected to do everything that the students in the regular classroom are doing, they would be happiest if left alone to fend for themselves. At least they would be able to make good grades with minimal effort. They would not have to do as homework everything that the other students were doing in class while they were involved in their special learning activities. Teachers need to remember that these children, though gifted, are still active, healthy children. They need time to exercise, play, and socialize as much as, and perhaps more than, the average child. As Sellin and Birch have noted: "Terman’s long-range studies led to rejection of stereotype--puny, introverted, otherworldly, narrow-focus, and emotionally unstable persons. Instead they are healthy, well-rounded, committed, responsible, and likable persons…and they tend to keep those qualities throughout their lives" (13).

Assuming that a particular school has a capable information professional with the time, willingness, and availability to work with gifted children in this fashion, and able, committed classroom teachers with the ability to compact the curriculum for gifted learners, there must also be adequate resources available for this program to function effectively. There is no substitute for a well-provisioned library media center. As Sanders has stated, "A library is another essential for high-quality instruction. When properly planned and operated, the library becomes not only a storehouse for materials but a center of great significance in the teaching program" (16). As the twenty-first century is about to dawn, the old-fashioned dim and dusty book warehouse guarded by a grumpy old sergeant-at-arms will not meet the needs or catch the interest of today’s children. To meet the educational challenges of this generation, a library should maintain, in addition to an adequate collection of print materials, a wealth of multi-media resources (hardware and software) developed to meet the curricular needs of the student population. This should also include access to current information technology, including a sufficient number of computers with appropriate software and access to the Internet. This is no longer an option or an "add-on." Computers are an integral part of today’s world, and any school that does not provide training in and access to educational technology is failing to meet an essential educational need for the children they serve. As Herbert Kohl has stated, "The electronic world provides profoundly new challenges to education that both confound all the other problems and provide hope for solving them. Schools must incorporate computers into everyday functioning and prepare students to live in an adult world where computing is pervasive" (xiv).

The librarian who would serve as a resource in such a program for gifted students must have more than concern and expertise. It is essential that the library program be recognized as more than just an expensive baby-sitting service to allow classroom teachers to take a break. It is the norm in many elementary schools for library to be considered a "special area" to which students are sent during one of a teacher’s planning periods. In this type of a program, the primary responsibility of the librarian is to supervise student behavior. Collection development, purchasing, processing, circulation, and even library skills instruction are of secondary importance to this primary goal. Yet, the librarian is not relieved of responsibility for maintaining an adequately organized and up-to-date collection, as well as providing circulation services to the student population and promoting literacy through reading programs. With all of this responsibility, it is not surprising that many librarians would rather not take on the added responsibility of assisting gifted students with educational projects, despite the enjoyment it would bring to both librarian and student. It must be recognized, however, by all concerned parties that this is the job that librarians are trained for, and should be their primary responsibility. If "babysitting" gets in the way of this function, it is the "babysitting" that should be handled in another fashion.

Therefore, the first-mentioned prerequisite becomes the most crucial element of a successful program. For new learning paradigms to flourish, administrators must be informed, supportive, and proactive. It is not enough for the administrator to give token approval to a gifted program. It is the administrator’s responsibility to ensure that every participant is doing his or her part of the job, that adequate resources are relegated to the program, and that personnel are properly trained and equipped. Without administrative support, the most well-designed program has little or no chance of survival.

The specific resources needed will vary, of course, with the number of students served and their grade levels. An effective library, however, will include the following resources as a minimum. A good team effort between librarian and administration can result in a library that not only meets, but exceeds these minimum standards.

In terms of print resources, the library must have a minimum of ten books per student to simply meet standard requirements. This however, is woefully inadequate if it includes fiction, nonfiction, and reference collections. The ten-per-student ratio is a good beginning guideline for the fiction collection. This will generally provide a fiction collection that will meet the needs of the average student population. It should be recognized, however, that a school with a high proportion of gifted students may need to increase that ratio. The nonfiction section of the library should be developed in coordination with classroom teachers to support their instructional needs and student interests. A good reference section includes a variety of encyclopedias (at least one set of which must be no more than five years old), dictionaries, almanacs, indexes, and other resources. Neither electronic substitutes (like CD-ROM encyclopedias) nor access to the internet should be used as an excuse for eliminating the reference area. At this point the electronic substitutes are still not of as high a caliber as their print counterparts (though arguably more easily accessed) and the internet is not yet organized sufficiently to act as a substitute.

In terms of electronic resources, the library catalog should be computerized and available at the networked workstations in the library as well as in the classrooms. There should be enough computer workstations to support the largest class in the school with a maximum of two students per computer. Each of these workstations should also be equipped with a multimedia package (CD-ROM and speakers), internet access, and a productivity software package such as Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office (including a presentation package, a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a database). A sufficient number of reliable printers should also be available so that student work can be printed, when appropriate. Each library should develop a collection of multimedia software, including videotapes, CD-ROM’s, and other developing technologies geared to the curricular needs of their individual schools. Options could be explored for the sharing of some of these resources on a county-wide basis.

The Jefferson County Department of Education is making great strides toward providing our schools with the level of technology needed to begin implementation of this new approach to meeting the needs of gifted students. Piedmont and Talbott are particularly noteworthy, as each classroom in both of these schools is a "21st Century Classroom." There is, however, a limiting factor that prevents full implementation of these services to our gifted students: Neither school has a full-time librarian.

As Jefferson County moves into the 21st Century, it is important that we look carefully, not only at the equipment we make available to our students, but also at the allotment of personnel in our schools. In the past, the librarian has been used as a glorified babysitter--providing a "special area" for students so that the classroom teacher can have a planning period. This might be referred to as the "educational supplement model." It is vital to the future success of our schools that a new model of library services be recognized within our schools. The "information services model" places the library at the center of the educational experience of our students, rather than at the fringes. In this model, the library is open as a resource center during the majority of the school day, with the librarian free to meet the research and information needs of both students and faculty. Unfortunately, both Piedmont and Talbott are hindered in moving toward this model because they currently share a librarian.

Jefferson County needs a county-wide library coordinator. This individual would need to be both a certified school librarian and an individual with demonstrated technological expertise. The county library coordinator could give guidance to librarians in collection development, inter-county resource-sharing, and in the effective integration of technology into the school libraries.

Recognizing the significance of information technology as an integral part of library services, Jefferson County should make a commitment to place a librarian in every school to serve as an information and technology resource person to both faculty and students. One of the duties of the County Library Coordinator could be ongoing training and development of current librarians, as well as the recruitment of new librarians to meet the needs of our schools.

Given an adequate library with sufficient print and technological resources, administrative support, and a program that allows for flexibility and creativity, librarians are the ideal facilitators to assist classroom teachers in providing supplemental services to gifted students. Librarians are trained to teach people to do independent research, and gifted students must learn to research and write if they are to meet the promise of their potential.

Craver, K. W. School library media centers in the 21st century: Changes and challenges.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. ED 377 871.

Kohl, Herbert. Foreword. In Gooden, Andrea R. Computers in the Classroom: How Teachers

and Students are Using Technology to Transform Learning. Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Sanders, David C. Elementary Education and the Academically Talented Pupil.

Washington DC: NEA, 1961.

Sellin, Donald F. and Jack W. Birch. Educating Gifted and Talented Learners.

Rockville, MD: Aspen, 1980.