Service Response Discussion: Formal Learning Support
This post is part of a series designed to further discussion of the PLA Results service responses, designed in 1998 to describe “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.”
The bulleted comments below were gathered in conference sessions by the PLA Results team, in an effort to update the current service responses, which were originally written almost ten years ago. The PLA Results group is looking to the community for feedback on how to update these service responses to better reflect current public library methods and standards.
“A library that offers Formal Learning Support helps students who are enrolled in a formal program of education or who are pursuing their education through a program of home-schooling to attain their educational goals.” (definition care of the PLA Results site). The current version of the Formal Learning Support service response, is available for review on the PLA Results web site (the file is an Adobe .pdf file, and requires Adobe Reader to view).
Share your feedback on the Formal Learning Support service response, as well as the starter comments listed below, by leaving a comment on this post page. You can help PLA Results bring public library service responses into the 21st century!
Formal Learning Support Discussion Group Comments
Should this service response be renamed?
- We should call this Education Support Center.
- If we call this Education Support this could create confusion with Lifelong Learning since that is also “education.”
- We could divide this into two service responses: Homework Help and Formal Learning Support.
- If it is called Homework Help it might be more inclusive of home-schoolers.
- Call it Student Support.
- We could call it Student Services or Student and Teacher Services.
- Call it Curriculum Support.
- The word “Formal” is a problem, but it is probably needed.
Go back to the Service Response Discussion Index.
There are 5 Comments to "Service Response Discussion: Formal Learning Support"
I’ve always liked “Formal Learning Support;” but, then again, I had a clear understanding of what this meant. I think our customers/patrons would understand “Homework Help” much more readily. “Curriculum Support” sounds like the public library is an official extension of the school system–a complete misnomer, especially for those schools and public libraries that rarely talk to each other.
Why not just use “Learning Support?” That could cover various ages, processes, types of learning.
I like “Learning Support,” but it’s not narrow enough since it seems we help all public library patrons/customers to “learn” something, whether it be why the North won the Civil War or how to repair a lawnmower. Helping students with homework is a unique role/function that deserves its own very specific designation.
Some libraries combine Lifelong Learning and Formal Learning Support. Community members want to acknowledge the home schooling efforts as well as the support for the k-12 efforts (homework help, passing the SATS, and getting into college, among many other programs). They also feel a need to provide services for “self-directed” personal growth and development for others.
I wonder if it has to do with a need to categorize by age and semantics?
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