IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 1 Improving Folktale Collection Access in School Libraries Marsha Hawkins University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 2 Abstract Humans have retold and adapted folktales over generations to reflect the moral and cultural character of a changing world. Some adaptations today are not as readily recognizable as a folk or fairytale even though the story may be based on one. With the growing number of folktale adaptations, folktale holdings are increasing but so is the confusion over their placement in the Dewey Decimal nonfiction section. Newly arrived books (to school libraries) are being copy cataloged into the easy fiction section of the school library rather than the venerable 398.2. With the broad array of adaptations, a collection access system is evaluated as a solution to the confusion over the placement of a folktale in an elementary school library. The proposed folktale organization treatment seeks to ensure that the folktale collection is fully utilized so that the breadth and variety folktales can be easily discerned by teachers and students. The research proposal evaluates and applies the knowledge of published literature on the role of folktales in moral and cultural development, evaluates the Dewey Decimal Classification System s and other established treatments and indexes of folktales, and draws inspiration from the work of a Kansas librarian who sought to improve access to folktales in her own public library. Keywords: collection access, folktales, fairytales, school library, Dewey Decimal Classification System, elementary school, elementary school teachers
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 3 Improving Folktale Collection Access in School Libraries The fact that folklore and folktales are located in the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) nonfiction section has sparked many a conversation in elementary school libraries. It has been observed that children ask why fairy tales are included in nonfiction if they are stories, not fact. An experienced librarian tends to have a prepared response that generally indicates that fairytales and folktales are stories that have been passed down for generations and often reflect a certain cultural tradition, and therefore belong in 398.2 (300s being Social Sciences). This distinction, which must be explained without waiver to children, is in fact a gray area for school librarians today. Often, a new adaptation of a fairy tale arrives on a school librarian s desk, already cataloged as Fiction, and tentatively placed in the Easy Fiction area of the library. Many publishers release books that are between mild and fantastically different adaptations of traditional fairy tales. Any uncertainty on this fact was eliminated with a simple search for The Gingerbread Boy in Amazon Books. The search yielded 918 results. Titles varied from The Gingerbread Cowboy to The Gingerbread Man Loose in School to Gingerbread Man Superhero. A more exact search in The Library of Congress Catalog revealed 95 results with titles ranging from Runaway Tortilla to Musubi Man: Hawaii s Gingerbread Man. Authors are engaging their creativity and, hence, we all benefit. However, with the growing number of adaptations, newly arrived books (to school libraries) are being copy cataloged into the easy fiction section of the school library rather than the venerable 398.2. Fairy tales have been retold and adapted for years, orally and in print. Some adaptations today are not as readily recognizable as a folk or fairytale even though the story may be based on one. With the broad array of adaptations, a system should be established so that confusion over the placement of a fairy or folktale is eliminated.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 4 This research proposal intends to address that tentativeness and ask and hopefully answer some of the questions non-catalogers may have found themselves pondering. This proposal also intends to research a suggested organization to enrich the fairytale and folktale section so that the stories are fully utilized and their breadth and variety can easily be discerned by teachers and students. This research seeks to answer the following question: Would folktales be more easily utilized and accessed by students and teachers if the 398.2 section was organized by some meaningful key such as country of origin or the Aarne-Thompson Folklore Indexing system rather than the author s last name? The findings of this research are expected to improve collection access to folktales for both students and teachers, reduce confusion about folktales, and provide guidelines for proper cataloging in school libraries. Literature Review Why Folktales? In 1976, child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim published the book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales in which he advocated for the important role of fairy tales in the psychological lives of children (Tatar, 2010). Inspired by Bettelheim s theory on fairy tales, Joan Brogran Wipf and Denise Da Ros-Voseles assert in their article in the journal Library Media Connection that fairy tales offer children the opportunity and skills to cope with struggles, both personally and as a society. Basically, fairy tales teach children that struggle is inevitable but it is possible to succeed. Brogran Wipf and Da Ros-Voseles
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 5 advocate for the role of fairy tales in a child s life by emphasizing Bettelheim s belief that fairy tales are an important part of a child s moral education. In Brogran Wipf and Da Ros-Voseles work, the researchers primarily set out to determine if teachers use fairy tales in the classroom to connect children emotionally. The researchers sought to confirm the theory that fairy tales connect children with the pleasures of reading and storytelling. However, they were surprised to find that the responding teachers primarily used fairy tales to teach a certain set of skills to children (the exact skills were not provided in the research report). Only a handful of teachers commented on the use of fairy tales to support the emotional skills of students. Brogran Wipf and Da Ros-Voseles found that there was a general diminished use of fairy tales in the classroom, which they stated could be attributed to teachers efforts to improve student scores on standardized tests. The researchers concluded that fairy tales have an important role in classrooms and should not be overlooked, as they often are in school (Wipf & Ros-Voseles, 2012). Upon researching the use of folk and fairy tales in today s education environment, one finds an array of curricular activity involving their usage. From preschool to high school, the roles of folktales (this includes fairy tales also) span from teaching literacy to ethnography. No research exists (to the knowledge of this researcher) on the exact number of classrooms utilizing folktales, but it is evident that folklore champions endure in education. Just as literature has gone in and out of fashion over generations, so does folklore. However, one can visit any bookstore or movie theatre and witness a noted resurgence in the retellings and adaptations of these age-old stories.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 6 The retelling and adaptation of folktales and fairytales is a prolific practice and inherent in their very nature. Andrew Lang, a early 20 th century folklorist, comments on this in the preface to his book, The Lilac Fairy Book, by alluding to the fact that no one can really write a new fairy tale. His commentary states that folktales can be mixed up, re-characterized, and reillustrated, but the original tales will always still exist at the heart of the story (Lang, 1910). Children s Librarian, Judith Rovenger is one of the many individuals who have delved further into just how diverse and how many folktale adaptations exist. She comments in her article for School Library Journal entitled, The Better to Hear You With: Making Sense of Folktales, that there has been an influx of folk and fairy tale adaptations, retellings, and reillustrations. As a result, Rovenger conducted secondary research to try to understand the origins of one particular fairytale: Little Red Riding Hood. She found that the story has been traced to oral origins inspired by historical events that occurred in the 15-17 th centuries. At the time, men were accused of being werewolves (as a result of witchcraft) and the stories were meant to caution children. Rovenger estimates that Perrault, the renowned fairy tale author, heard these stories and wove them into spruced-up versions for the French upper-class. Rovenger asserts that by their nature -- folktales are fluid and are meant to change and adapt as they are passed down from generation to generation. They take shape from the teller and change according to the context of his/her generation (Rovenger, 1993). Folktales (this term also encompasses fairytales since fairytales are a type of folktale) have been retold, adapted, changed, enhanced, and so on for many years. But one must ask, why? As mentioned earlier, psychologist Bettelheim validated the importance of fairy tales in a child s developing moral psyche. Harvard University professor Maria Tatar states in her article, Why Fairy Tales Matter: the Performative and the Transformative that fairy tales have a
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 7 transformative effect on people. She states that when people hear fairy tales, they experience magical thinking through language even when the listener (a child) does not possess the full ability to use that language. Hence, the basis of fairy tales can be imagined and enjoyed by anyone. It can be concluded that this finding also confirms Bettelheim s assertion that fairy tales connect children (people) emotionally (Tatar, 2010). Basically humans share the ability to enjoy the same story. This notion is further confirmed by a study conducted by Northwestern University professors, Virginia Walker and Mary E. Lunz in their paper Symbols, Fairy Tales, and School-Age Children. They found that people share a collective image of the archetype or ideal character when hearing or reading a fairy tale. The researchers term this the collective unconscious and state that all people despite their culture, geography, age or race, share these images. Basically, Walker and Lunz (1976) found that all humans share similar symbols. This might very well explain the fact that many folktales have crossed cultural, geographical, and generational boundaries. If the reason for the enduring life of folktales can be attributed to the collectively-shared symbolism of their stories, then we cannot dismiss their importance in our society and, ultimately, on our library shelves (Walker & Lunz, 1976). The History of Organizing Folktales Folktales and folklore have roots in oral story tradition and it would be nearly impossible to trace their exact beginnings. But once the printing press began to make its mark on the book industry and libraries began filling their shelves with materials, folktales began their metamorphosis into printed books. Perhaps as a reflection of their presence in a variety of cultures around the world, or, as mentioned earlier, folktales abilities to tap into the collective
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 8 subconscious of the human experience, or maybe because folktales, as asserted by Bettelheim, support the moral education of children, folktales emerged as such a significant number of materials that a logical organization was necessary. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, according to Hans-Jorg Uther in his article, Indexing Folktales: A Critical Survey an agreed-upon system of classification for folktales was required. Classifying folktales became a central issue for folklorists, too (Uther, 1997). The Aarne-Thompson tale type index is noted as the preeminent international classification system for folktales. Even though many folklorists cite frustration with the system, the Aarne-Thompson (most recent edition is from 1961) stands out as the most widely-used system for organizing folktales. Uther states that even though dissatisfaction with folktale classification is widespread among folklorists, no better system has been devised and that most systems are based on the Aarne-Thompson Index. Most of the frustration with the systems seems to be based on the diversity of the stories in both length (some folktales are long and would be fragmented if indexed under just one available system), the country of origin, and the dilemma tale type. According to Uther, the Aarne-Thompson system lends itself to the European-oriented tales and lacks accommodations for tales from Central Africa or Native Americans, for example (Uther, 1997). The difficulty of creating the perfect international classification system for the dynamic nature of folktales could be compared to the daunting challenge of classifying the Internet. To create a classification structure for both subjects, which are notorious for their changing natures, is more like to use a common phrase nailing down Jello. Humans naturally seek to make sense of the world around them. So there is not a shortage for classification systems for
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 9 information. However, there is one notable classification system that has stood the test of time. That system is the Dewey Decimal Classification system. The Dewey Decimal Classification System Born in 1851, Melvil Dewey is known as The Father of Modern Librarianship. He was the first to establish librarianship as a profession and spearheaded the the creation of the American Library Association. He also devised the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC), which is the most widely used classification system in the world (Educational Resources, 2013). The DDC was created, and through its subsequent versions, to organize all the knowledge that could possibly exist. However, many libraries disregard the DDC placement of fiction (literature) in the 800s and create separate sections for Fiction or Easy so that patrons, who tend to prefer this genre to nonfiction, can easily access materials. A further look into the adaptations that libraries have made to the venerable DDC reveals a low roar of librarians suggesting that libraries eliminate the DDC and adopt the bookstore approach to organizing their collections. The school librarians at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York documented their own experimentation with this notion in their article, Are Dewey s Days Numbered? The librarians analyzed research on how children organize information and established 26 main categories (compared to Dewey s ten). For example, their 793.57 became Sports-Baseball and 818 became Humor-Jokes. After a year, the librarians evaluated the system s effectiveness and found that circulation had increased, with a jump of 300 percent in circulation of the 300s section. The librarians also noted that much of their teaching time went from teaching the DDC to discussing more books and teaching critical thinking (Kaplan, Dolloff, Giffard, & Still-Schiff, 2012). The point is that information organization must keep the patron in mind what might
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 10 have worked a century ago may not work today and keeping a critical eye on the current system is necessary in remaining patron-focused. Children s Preferences for Information Organization Because this research project focuses on the organization of folktales in the school library, it is critical that one understands the information needs of children. In her research on the information interests of children, Allison Druin refers to the fact that children think differently than adults. She observes that many information systems that are in place to serve children (i.e., the DDC) were created by adults and, therefore, for adults. She notes that, just like adults, children want information organization systems that meet their needs. Druin cites research that simply states that children want books shelved together in a way that just makes sense to them. In Druin s literature review, she notes catalogs for children that use categories such as scary stuff and jokes and cartoons rather than the DDC. She also found that young children find it difficult to differentiate between fiction and nonfiction (Druin, 2005). With this in mind, it is not difficult to imagine the complicated conversation between librarian and child when explaining why folk and fairytales are located in the 300s in the DDC even though they are not true. Re-doing Dewey s Fairy Tales Research on the effectiveness of an alternative to DDC s treatment of folktales is insufficient. The most relevant published activity in the field of library studies was communicated by a group of Kansas public librarians who designed and implemented a new treatment to folktales in response to the characteristics and needs of their patrons. The author of the presentation advised this researcher on her experience and conclusions. It must be noted that
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 11 the librarians did not conduct primary research before or after the new treatment implementation but did utilize catalog statistics in measuring their program. Camille Lechliter, a librarian in the technical services department at the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas made a presentation to the Kansas Library Conference in April 2009 on her experience in designing and implementing an adaptation to the Dewey Decimal System treatment of folktales. Over the years, efforts had been made to help specify selections within the library s collection. In the 1990s, the Youth Services department had requested that the catalogers organize the section by country of origin, which lengthened the Cutter numbers. The librarians found that the spine labels were being filled with longer Dewey and Cutter numbers due to the mini collections within the collection itself based on schemes such as ethnic groups and geographic locations all results of multiple efforts by various departments to simplify the collection. Eventually, frustration grew in the Technical Services and Circulation departments of the library as they continued to become confused in cataloging and reshelving books with long numbers. Since the long numbers confused professional librarians, patrons were further bewildered with the folktale section resulting in a collection with low circulation statistics. In February, 2007 Lechliter and her team assessed the overall condition and circulation of the 398.2 (Fairy and Folktales) section. They found that about half of the materials were low in circulation only 11% of the collection had been checked out (no further information on the dates of the measurement is given). Almost half of the books had only 11 or fewer circulations or had been checked out at all. The Lawrence library had over 3,000 books in the 398.2, most (81% of the collection) cataloged with the general DDC number of 398.2. The Lawrence librarians decided that change was necessary in order for the collection to be more easily accessed by patrons and maintained by staff.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 12 The team began severely weeding the collection of poor condition books, narrowing down the collection to 1736 items. Secondly, the team considered the population which it serves. The community is home to the Haskell Indian Nations Universities, Kansas University students, and a multicultural population that also includes Hispanics and Chinese-Americans. The librarians decided that they would also consider the Youth Services department s request that the folktales be classified by country of origin. In order to determine the country of origin for each book, Lechliter exported Millenium statistics into Excel and looked for any indication of origin country in the title or subtitle cell. These were identified and a cell for country or cultural group was created. The country of origin for 1500 books was easily identified and Lechliter concluded that a country of origin system could be designed. Once it was determined that a country of origin treatment could be designed, the librarians sought to simplify things for their patrons by identifying the first collector of the folktale as the author and file like with like items. For example, all King Arthur characters would be placed together with spine labels that said ARTHUR. So despite the author, all Robinhood books were labeled ROBINHOO (8-digits only for the spine). Also the team decided to set the goal of limiting the spine label to just two lines in order to keep readability and patrons in mind. Creating continent labels of differing colors (8 total colors) further helped in visually organizing the collection. Lechliter measured the new treatment of the folktale section by evaluating the circulation statistics. In 2009 (two years after beginning the process), the librarians found that folktales jumped in circulation with 31% of the collection checked out compared to 11% back in 2007. It must be noted, though, that weeding worn books from the collection could have been a factor in
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 13 the effectiveness of the program. Fewer and better conditioned books could have affected the overall perception and ease of findability of the collection (Lechliter, 2009). Research Methodology The purpose of this research is to build upon the efforts of Lechliter and her staff. The Lawrence librarians responded intuitively to the needs of their patrons by making the folktale collection more accessible through weeding and organization efforts but were not able to measure the effectiveness of the new treatment beyond just circulation statistics. This research proposal will test the notion that a new treatment of folktales within the Dewey Decimal Classification system will positively affect access to folktales among students and teachers in an elementary school. The Lawrence librarians regarded the community s multicultural population in their efforts in designing an adaptation to their folktale collection by organizing books by country of origin and other like with like selections. In order to research a new treatment of folktales, one must understand how elementary students and teachers currently perceive the folktale collection and their folktale seeking behaviors. These perceptions and behaviors will then be compared to the proposed folktale treatment by testing the theory among those same study participants. Once the first test results are obtained and interpreted, a baseline for collection access among teachers and students will be obtained. Following this data collection, the proposed folktale organization will be instituted and introduced to the school community through library instruction. Results from the interviews and questionnaires will be analyzed and compiled for testing the effect of the new folktale organization on folktale collection access.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 14 Data Collection Sample Size Two elementary schools in Richmond, VA have agreed to serve as test sites for the experimental folktale treatment. The schools each have 430 students in grades Kindergarten through 5 th grades (about 72 students per grade). A sample of ten percent of each grade from the participating school populations will be interviewed (8 students per grade, 48 students per school, 96 student interviews in all). Interviews for each grade and each school will be separated so that the results account for any changes in the curriculum that may affect the results (i.e., younger grades may utilize folktale more often during certain times of the year, different schools may utilize folktales at various times of the year). The student interview questions will be conducted with a sample of 48 students per school in kindergarten through 5 th grades. This distribution allows for representation from various classes and grades in the sample. Students to be interviewed will be selected at random by lottery (pulling names from a hat, which will be fun for the students). A random selection will be important because teacher-chosen selection or volunteer selection may reflect students with a natural interest in reading or folktales rather than a true representation of the student population. Student names will be recorded on each interview result sheet so that the same interviewees will be questioned during Phase Two. This will allow for a measurement of exposure to and perceptions of the new folktale organization. First Phase: Student interview, teacher questionnaire & circulation stats Eight students per grade per volunteer school will be administered face-to-face interviews to obtain qualitative data on their understanding and knowledge on the current folktale section of their school library. Conducting a student face-to-face interview rather than a written survey will
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 15 accommodate students of varying reading levels and help ensure understanding of the questions. A quiet place other than the library will be used to conduct the interview so that students responses will not be influenced by the environment in which they are sitting during the interview. A quiet place other than the library will be used to conduct the interview so that students responses will not be influenced by the environment in which they are sitting during the interview. The wording of the questions will remain simple so that a variation of comprehension levels will be considered. The questionnaire with include wording such as fairytale rather than the more appropriate word of folktale since children tend to lump these stories under fairytales. Some questions will use both folktale and fairytale since some students may be able to differentiate the two terms, depending on their age and perceptions of folktales. However, this research is not measuring the students knowledge of the difference between the folktales and fairytales, so both terms will be used to define the collection that is being evaluated. The interview will be composed of 10 questions in the Yes/No format to gather the students feelings, perceptions, and opinions on folktales and their access to the collection. The questions were selected to identify student grade, to assess if the organization of folktales meets their needs, to evaluate student s perception of ability to locate folktales, and to assess the student s general awareness of folktales themselves and their cultural context. (See Appendix A) A Likert-scale questionnaire will be administered to all teachers of K-5 grades (1 teacher per class, 4 classes per grade equals to 48 teachers in all for both schools, or 24 at each school) to measure their attitudes toward access to the folktale collection. Each questionnaire will be composed of 10 questions and will be administered during a faculty meeting via paper. (See Appendix B) Surveying the teachers will allow the researcher to identify if usage of folktales in the classroom. The Likert Scale questions will enable the researcher to measure how teachers
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 16 perceive the organization of folktales and if it meets their needs. It would be beneficial to note the responses of each teacher individually and measure their individual perceptions of the folktale collection during Phase Two. It would be considered valuable to know if the new folktale organization improved collection access to teachers and, possibly, if the role of folktales changed in their classroom curricula due to improved access. During the first phase of data collection, librarians at the volunteer schools will be asked to draw data from their cataloging systems including circulation statistics for section 398.2 over the past five years. This includes number of total books classified in 398.2, total number of 398.2 checkouts per month per year, and a list of the 398.2 titles in order of most checkouts to least. This circulation data will be exported in Excel for data analysis. The librarians will also prepare to draw circulation statistics on a regular basis (monthly) during the implementation phase. Development and Implementation of the Organizing Scheme The organizing scheme for folktales that is developed after the phase one data collection will consider the points that were raised in the literature review. As indicated in the literature review of current folktale classification systems, the Aarne-Thompson tale type index is not a preferable treatment for folktales in a school library. Many folktales contain multiple tale types that have them indexed in several areas of the Aarne-Thompson. Also, as indicated by the literature review, folktales have multiple applications in a school setting from moral education to literature to ethnography. These broad themes make the creation of a simpler classification system difficult to achieve with one strategy. However, Kansas librarian Lechliter s work is notable and worthy of exploration. Based on her design and the results of her own circulation statistics, a test treatment of the proposed folktale organization will be formulated as follows.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 17 To ensure that the organizing scheme includes all retellings and adaptations of folktales, the catalog systems at both volunteer schools will be queried for a listing of any book with terms such as folktale, fairytale, adaptation, retelling, and retold. This list will then be evaluated for any selections that could be classified as a folktale and will be included as part of the folktale collection. Depending on the catalog system for the participating school library, metadata for the 398.2 section and any books identified as folktale retellings will be exported into an Excel spreadsheet. A search to identify common theme such as country of origin or Native American will be done on title, subject heading, and summary fields as they are available in the data set. These titles will be separated according to similarities and then another spreadsheet will be created with columns for title and author, old call number, new call number, country of origin, or like with like schemes such as Robinhood or King Arthur. Based on information found during the first questionnaire and the literature review, the organizing approach will create a crosswalk between the Dewey Decimal number assigned to the books and the new school-oriented organizing approach. It is hypothesized that the numbers assigned by the DDC are too long and complicated for teachers and students. Based on the literature review, it is duly noted that the DDC is a system designed for adults and that one must consider the skills and interests of children when designing a system for them. Therefore, it is proposed that the design of the organizing scheme provide an approach that will help students and teachers to identify materials that are related to their interests and curriculum purposes. For example, one likely strategy rather than relying on the DDC number for countries, the organizing scheme would use the general DDC number for folktales: 398.2. Then, the books will be further ordered by country of origin and like with like and shelved
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 18 alphabetically by the author within country of origin. Further based on the approach of the Kansas librarians, there will be specific color continent labels for seven continents and each folktale with country of origin will display that sticker on the spine. (See Appendix C) Second Set of Tests After the Organization Approach Has Been Tested At the end of the school year, the same students from the randomly-selected sample of students (48 students in grades k-5 per volunteer school) will complete the same interview that was used at the beginning of the year. Teachers at both schools will complete the same questionnaire during a faculty meeting. Library circulation statistics will be collected monthly after the initial introduction to the organization the end of the school year. It would be important to collect data over an entire school year since classroom and grade curricula change often and circulation statistics may reflect that. Data Anaylsis Results from the questionnaires and interviews will be coded and analyzed to understand the student and teacher perceptions as a whole in relation to folktale collection access before and after the implementation of a new folktale treatment. Then monthly circulation statistics and results from both phases of questionnaires and interviews will be compared via a scattergram. The scattergram will visually show the relationship between the circulation statistics and the understanding and perceptions of the student samples and faculty. Data from the interviews and questionnaires will apply a coding structure in order to identify patterns of reaction to the new organizing scheme for folktales. Analysis of the data will be designed as follows. To understand the relationship between grade level and student attitude toward the folktale collection, a chi square test will be utilized.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 19 Grade level will serve as the X axis and No/Yes will be the Y axis. Coding for the dichotomous variable will be No = 0; Yes = 1. A similar coding structure will be applied to the teacher analysis also. If the P value is small, then some association exists between grade level and the question. The results of this chi test will be displayed through a bar graph. The same test will be applied during the Phase Two of the student questionnaire and the results will be visualized on a side-by-side bar graph to display the changes after the test treatment implementation. A Likert Scale analysis will be used to measure the teachers attitudes toward folktale collection access before and after the test treatment. In analyzing the results of the teacher questionnaire, the mode for each question will be calculated (the most frequent response). Coding for the Likert Scale will be Strongly Disagree = 0; Strongly Agree = 4. A bar chart for both phases of data collection will be created for side-by-side analysis. Teacher grade level will serve as X axis and attitude will serve as the Y axis. Further circulation analysis will be conducted during the analysis of the Phase Two results. Circulation statistics such as folktale (398.2) holdings vs. checkouts will be exported into Excel for analysis. Circulation by grade and also by student/teacher will be evaluated via bar graph comparison. An increase in positive attitude and familiarity with the folktale section (qualitative data) will signify that the test treatment improved the collection access to users. Improved circulation statistics (holdings vs. checkouts, increase of checkouts from students and teachers) for folktales (quantitative data) will signal to the researcher that the simulation improved the ability of patrons to access the collection. A positive correlation between student and teacher perceptions and circulation statistics will indicate that the proposed folktale treatment improved collection access.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 20 No change or a even a negative correlation in any of these areas will signify that the simulation is not an option in simplifying the folktale section for patrons. Conclusion The findings of this research are expected to improve collection access to folktales for both students and teachers, reduce confusion about folktales, provide guidelines for proper cataloging in school libraries, and enrich the fairytale and folktale section so that the stories are fully utilized and their breadth and variety can easily be discerned by teachers and students. But if anything is certain when it comes to classification schemes for books and folktales, it is that debate has swirled for generations around attempts to organize the stories. The creation of a perfect system for classification of these sometimes ancient stories seems to be a daunting yea impossibly difficult undertaking by anyone familiar with their complex nature. Add into the mix the information seeking preferences of children in a school setting and the result is a complicated situation. As most teachers know, simplifying complex systems for children is much more difficult than most people realize. This research proposal may not quell the controversy over the best approach, but it will surely further explore a concept developed by curious librarians in Kansas. Despite the task set before this research proposal, improving folktale collection access in a school library is worth the effort. Folktales and their adaptations shape many a child s moral development, sense of heritage, storytelling and structure, and imaginations. Children may very well discover that Grimm s Hansel and Gretel has been retold by many writers and set in a variety of cultures. Possibly having these adaptations side-by-side, the originals would visually
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 21 communicate the very heritage of folklore: stories passed down over generations and reflect cultural tradition. Qualifications of Researcher Marsha Hawkins is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science. She currently works as a substitute librarian in various schools in the Richmond, VA area and hopes to find a full-time library job after graduating in December, 2013.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 22 References Druin, A. (2005). What Children Can Teach Us: Developing Digital Libraries for Children with Children. Library Quarterly, 75 (1), 20-41. Educational Resources. (2013). Retrieved March 22, 2013, from OCLC: https://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/biography.en.html Kaplan, T. B., Dolloff, A. K., Giffard, S., & Still-Schiff, J. (2012). Are Dewey's Days Numbered? School Library Journal, 58 (10), 24. Lang, A. (1910). The Lilac Fairy Book. New York: Longmans. Lechliter, C. M. (2009). Re-doing Dewey's Fairy Tales. Kansas Library Conference. Wichita. Rovenger, J. (1993). The Better to Hear You With: Making Sense of Folktales. School Library Journal, 39 (3), 134-135. Tatar, M. (2010, Winter). Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the Transformative. Western Folklore, 69 (1), pp. 55-64. Uther, H.-J. (1997). Indexing Folktales: A Critical Survey. Journal of Folklore Research, 34 (3), 209-220. Walker, V., & Lunz, M. E. (1976). Symbols, Fairy Tales, and School-Age Children. The Elementary School Journal, 77 (2), 94-100. Wipf, J. B., & Ros-Voseles, D. D. (2012, January/February). Lost Opportunities: Rediscovering Fairy Tales. Library Media Connection, pp. 26-28.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 23 Appendix A Student Interview: 1. What grade are you in? o Kindergarten o 1 st o 2 nd o 3 rd o 4 th o 5th 2. Do you like to read fairytales and folktales? o Yes o No 3. Do you know where to find fairytales or folktales in your school library? o Yes o No 4. Have you ever checked out a fairytale or folktale book from your school library? o Yes o No 5. Is it easy for you to find the fairytale or folktale that you want in your school library? o Yes o No o I ve never looked for a fairytale or folktale in the library before
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 24 6. Does the way folktales and fairytales are organized in your school library make sense to you? o Yes o No o Don t Know 7. What best describes a fairytale book to you? (Pick one) o It s a book about princesses o It s a story from another culture o It s a story with a moral 8. What best describes a folktale book to you? (Pick one) o It s a book about princesses o It s a story from another culture o It s a story with a moral 9. Do you know that folktales and fairytales are stories retold over many generations (years)? o Yes o No 10. Do you know that fairytales and folktales come from all over the world? o Yes o No
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 25 Appendix B Teacher Survey 1. What grade do you teach? o Kindergarten o 1 st o 2 nd o 3 rd o 4 th o 5 th Please specify your level of agreement or disagreement with the statements below. 2. I know exactly where folk and fairy tales are located in the school library. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 3. Folk and fairy tales are used in my classroom for moral instruction. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 4. Folk and fairy tales are used in my classroom for multicultural purposes. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 26 o Strongly Disagree 5. I use folk and fairy tales in my classroom to teach about story structure or storytelling. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 6. Folk and fairy tales have a country of origin. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 7. Finding folk and fairy tales is easy in the school library. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 8. My students always find the folk and fairy tales they want in the folk and fairy tale section of the school library. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 9. Folk and fairytales are important for our children to read. o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree 10. The way the folktale section in my school library is organized helps me to use better use folktales in my classroom.
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 27 o Strongly Agree o Agree o Neither Agree or Disagree o Disagree o Strongly Disagree
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 28 Appendix C Example Simulation Design Continent Sticker Colors: Europe Green North America Blue South America Yellow Asia Red Africa Purple Pacific Region (Hawaii & Pacific Islands) Pink For example, the books will be shelved as following: 398.2 DENMARK ANDER em (Anderson is typically included in E Fiction because his stories original and are not based on early oral tradition, but the Kansas librarians decided to keep Anderson in 398.2 and it is proposed that this simulation do the same based on the results of the interviews and questionnaires) (em stands for emperors new clothes, color sticker for Europe above spine) 398.2 DENMARK ANDER em demi (This is where the importance of retellings come in. Demi has a book in which he retells Anderson s Emperor s New Clothes set in China. Keeping with the notion that each book will placed based on the country of origin, this selection would need to have the European sticker. To indicate that the book is retold in author is located on the lable after em) 398.2 DENMARK ANDER em Perlman (Adaptation by Janet Perlman, European sticker) 398.2 DENMARK ANDER em Gordon (adaptation by Mike Gordon, European sticker) 398.2 GERMANY GRIMM ra (ra is for Rapunzel, green Europe sticker) 398.2 GERMANY GRIMM ra Zelinsky (ra is for Rapunzel, adaptation by Paul Zelinsky)
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 29 398.2 GREECE AESOP pi (Green Europe sticker above spine, pi indicates author or illustrator of retelling, in this case pi stands for Pinkney) 398.2 GREECE AESOP sa (green Europe sticker above spine, sa stands for Santore, a common Aesop fable illustrator) 398.2 MEXICO GERSON (blue North America sticker above spine) 398.2 MEXICO LANE (blue North America sticker above spine) 398.2 US GALDONE (blue North America sticker above spine) 398.2 US BLACK HARRI br (US BLACK is for Black American folklore. Blue North America sticker will go above spine. br stands for Brer Rabbit) 398.2 US NATIV NAVAJO (blue North America sticker above spine. NATIV stands for Native American with tribe name next) 398.2 US NATIV IROQUOIS (blue North America sticker above spine) 398.2 RUSSIA DEMI (red Russia sticker above spine) 398.2 RUSSIA ISADORA (red Russia sticker above spine) 398.2 RUSSIA SAN SOUC (red Russia sticker above spine)
IMPROVING FOLKTALE COLLECTION ACCESS IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES 30 Example Shelf: