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Dear LM_Netters, I'd really like to thank everyone who sent in their experiences to my query about whether the library should be under another department in a school. I printed up the whole thing (which you can see below) and gave it to my principal to read. I can only assume that he never read it because I believe you all eloquently explained that the library functions much better for the whole school when they are a separate entity from an individual department. I believe that any good administrator who read what you've written, and who had the best interests of the school in mind, would never consider putting the library under some other department. However, there are people who, once they make a decision (right or wrong) they cannot see any other side. Whatever the case may be, as of Feb. 1 we are under the auspices of the English department. At least the English chairman received a letter to that effect (we still have heard nothing). Thank you again for all of the suggestions. Linda Strauss Tottenville HS Library 100 Luten Avenue Staten Island, NY 10312 (718) 356-2220 ext 452 In Message Wed, 15 Dec 1993 21:21:09 -0500, Tottenville HS <sl05561@LLWNET.LL.PBS.ORG> writes: >Our H.S. library has always been a department in and of itself, responsible to the assistant principal administration. Today my principal suggested that it might be better if we affiliated ourselves with one of the other departments in the school. He couldn't really give me any good reasons why. My question is: how is the library treated in your H.S.? what would be the advantages or disadvantages of being "under" another department? I only see disadvantages: going to department meetings that are not at all relevant to our work, needing to bring administrative problems through extra people before getting to the proper person, not having representation, etc. > I would appreciate your input. From: krb@ismennt.is (Kristin Bjorgvinsdottir) I'm sorry to hear about your principal's plans. What department will you belong to? Are you not supposed to serve those in your dept. better than other departments? Here in Iceland in highschools we are all our own departments and I haven't heard any plans to change that. I can't see why we should belong to f.ex. the Icelandic language dept and be involved what they are doing more than f. ex. the History dept. Kristin Bjorgvinsdottir Fjolbrautaskolinn vid Armula IS 108 Reykjavik, ICELAND krb@ismennt.is From: sl07301 (Xavier HS) Linda, I saw your predicament on LM_NET this a.m. Don't let them do that to you. You should, by all means, be a member of the chairpersons' group of the school, but the library is its own department and cannot operate efficiently if anything or any particular department's needs are put above anothers. By being one's own department, as you know, you have the freedom to serve and you get information directly. I think your principal needs to have a copy of Information Power, or the update as soon as it comes out. Stick to your guns, Linda. Anything I can do to help, please let me know. From: Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@tenet.edu> In both Middle School and High School, the LMC is a department. While I was at Middle School and on the Site Based Decision Making Committee, I worked at and finally succeeded in having an "improvement" statement included in our plan where the library media spacialist *would* attend at least a certain percentage of ALL departmental meetings. Of course, I have been fortunate in having a full time adult aide in both places. That way, I was invited or informed each time a department met, but I chose which ones to attend. I attended if I could and always tried to take a few new sources that pertained to the subject (since I try to balance library additions across the curriculum). I also took my turn to take refreshments to the meetings. I almost always attended the reading and language arts meetings, and tried to sit in on at least one of the other departments' meetings. We do not have frequent departmental meetings, so I could usually plan to do that. I was surprised at how often I could suggest how the library could help in teachers' efforts to develop new strategies. Attending also kept me informed of the audiovisual purchases some departments make (since I do not make *all* purchases in the building). That way I could fill in the "gaps" and not spend time on materials that had already been purchased. This year at High School, I have not attended any departmental meetings. During staff development, I *would* have attended the English meeti Lately our media tech staff has been a separate dept. and is part of the district's central office rather than h.s. or elementary. Advantages: we have time to discuss m/t issues district-wiGood luck! Sandal Stephenson, Librarian Bryan High School Bryan, TX sandal@tenet.edu From: Ken Haycock <haycock@unixg.ubc.ca> My experience in this area suggests that incoporating the librarat the head teachers' committee, and that the librarian be preceived as a department head. I point out to principals that if the mandate of the department heads is to determine curriculum dir From: Ken Haycock <haycock@UNIXG.UBC.CA> My experience in this area suggests that incoporating the library resource center in another department only works when it is part of a majorDirector and secretary (both retired this fall). Now we have a half-time secretary and part-time lead teacher/high school library media specialist (me). Because our dept. services the school s2. Alienation of other departments - they would assume your emphasis would be with the dept you joined. The library, of necessity, must work with all departments to do the job required. From: sl05313 (Martin Luther King HS) Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 09:32:22 -0500 (EST) Linda, we try to stay under principal since most of our concerns cannot be resolved by an AP. Moreover, Dept