Developing locating information in books in the fifth grade of the elementary school.

The aim of this research is to investigate the development of
locating information in books in the fifth grade of the elementary
school.
The dilemma, according to the review of the literature, is that many
students are not competent to locate information even in the most
common source, the book, and that those who are responsible for
developing these skills in schools are themselves suffering from
some kind of weakness. Indeed, there is not even a program which is
accepted by the whole scientific community in this area. The review
of the literature also provides us with some idea about bridging the
gaps of those who are responsible for the development of these
skills in schools, and brings us closer to the very heart of the
contents of these skills.
Based on this state-of-the-art, the researcher designed a learning
package program relating to the location of information in books for
fifth graders of the elementary school, and he also designed a test
for measuring the efficiency of this program.
The learning package program was implemented and tested in Israel in
two elementary schools with teacher-librarians and with well
equipped libraries through collaboration between the researcher and
the educational context. One of the schools was of a low
socio-economic status, and the other was of a high socio-economic
status. On the one hand the results strengthen the findings of the
literature regarding the skill gaps of students and the lack of
sufficient stimulation in schools, and on the other hand the results
also reveal the possibility of improving, in many cases
significantly, the location of information in books, by exposing
students to the learning package program.
This study reveals, moreover, that it is possible to bring teachers
closer to the area of locating information in books in particular,
and even to close the gaps between information skills and the
educational context in general.
Implications for teachers and librarians are included as well as
recommendations for future research.