Re: Professional issues, not swimsuit ones

[Mark Ray <mray@VANNET.K12.WA.US>]

Alice,
Thanks for your perspective. Not only was I annoyed at the 'white noise'
about the SI on my mail reader, I despaired at the shortage of vision
beyond the necessary chat about barcodes and booklists.

Based on my personal experiences, I am convinced that the NII (Internet,
et al) and educational technology have far reaching implications for the
future of media centers and media specialists. The clique of media
specialists has long concerned itself with justifications for the
continued existence of quality library media programs. Like all good
special interest groups, the major driver
for such activism is self-preservation. However, unlike other good
special interest groups, most of the library media specialists have
failed to make their case to the larger circle of teachers,
administrators, and voters. There are notable exceptions, however I too
often hear (and read) about issues that miss the forest for the trees. In
Oregon state, this has led to the vivisection of library media programs
in the face of budget cuts.

In my own district, I have just completed a long and difficult campaign
to justify the existence of a a 'library' in a new high tech middle
school. My principal and I lobbied and finessed a literacy center to
promote reading and literacy in what will be a uniquely electronic
information access environment. While I personally believe in the role of
educational technology and online information resources, I also believe
in the role of books in the promotion of literacy and imagination.
Nevertheless, our success was not due to a self-righteous plea for the
existence of media centers. It was a practical and justifiable case for
assuring access to books and information in a period of transition from
books to electronic information sources. I am convinced that the role of
books will change dramatically over the next ten years. Already, much of
the non-fiction traditionally purchased for libraries is eclipsed by
CD-ROMs and other electronic resources.

There are issues in our midst that fundamentally call into question the
continued existence as media specialists and media centers. I can no
longer rely on the comfortable platform that media centers are necessary
and that everyone else is wrong. I sense that media centers will become
less and less 'necessary' in the years to come. I must personally work to
read the trends and the signs to assure that my program adapts to the
changes necessary to meet the needs of my clients. If that means that I
give up the card catalog for a world wide web home page of useful
Internet resources, that's life. I would gladly forgo a lesson on the
Dewey decimal system for an opportunity to work with a class on how to
use the Internet to find information or send email. Call me a heretic,
but I never entered this field to maintain the status quo.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Robert Frost

Information is power.
Mark Ray 8-)*
Vancouver School District
Vancouver, Washington
mray@vannet.k12.wa.us

 On Mon, 20 Feb 1995, Alice H. Yucht wrote:

> Be careful what you wish for:
> Note; this message is long, and philosophical/political, so if you don't have
>  the time or inclination to read it, don't bother.
>
> Not so long ago, librarians were delighted with the advent of Whole
> Language.  We saw this use of  genuine literature -- instead of basals -- in
> the classrooms as recognition of the value of using real books with real kids
> for real learning (something we'd known about all along).   But the Whole
> Language gurus hyped classroom collections, and almost never mentioned
> using the school libraries.  (Which makes you wonder about the libraries in th
 e
> schools where these gurus worked/visited.)   Now administrators faced with
> tight budgets listen to the loudest voices, and sometimes the library funds ar
 e
> being used to provide books for individual classrooms, rather than for the
> whole school.
> Only a few years ago, Library Automation meant getting your
> circulation, and hopefully your catalog, computerized.   The Technology gurus
> told us that these systems would give us more time and greater efficiency
> with which to help our patrons.   As the information specialists, and
> (hopefully) computer cognoscenti, we were often considered the logical
> candidates to be responsible for the school's computer labs. But then CD-ROM
> resources multiplied like bunnies, and on-line searching was so much swifter
> than plowing through print indexes,  and the Internet offered a world-wide
> wealth of information, and a new world of techies gained importance in the
> educational infrastructure.    Now administrators see the library as merely
> an information distribution system, and pour money into high-visibility
> electronics for classroom-direct fact deliveries, so kids won't have to
> waste time on actually going to the library and browsing.
> We welcomed whole language, and technology, and LANs, WANs, and
> all the other electronic alphabets into our lives, and now they have taken on
> lives of their own.  While we talk among ourselves about swimsuit censorship,
>  the SSSHHH factor in program development, information access,
> cooperative planning, and whether we are educational media specialists,
> or teacher-librarians, or resourcers, we need to pay more attention to what
> the rest of the world sees and thinks about libraries and librarians.
>  Too many of the fiscal powers-that-be see us as stampers and sshh-ers,
> and our current facilities as anachronisms: outmoded inefficient collections
> of materials that could/should be delivered directly to the classrooms,
> where the real  instruction and materials usage is happening.
>
> Educational institutions are being required to account for every penny
> spent, and must adhere to strange and often arbitrary line-item budget codes
>  dictated by the state or municipal bean-counters.   And somehow, because our
 fu
>  nctions are seen as more school-wide resource (like the nurse or the
> guidance counselor or the curriculum coordinator) than direct student
> interaction and instruction,  libraries and librarians are frequently getting
> lumped into administrative or non-instructional budget codes.  (Budget codes
>  only deal with hard, quantifiable numbers, not real-time human functions like
> ongoing reference and reader's advisory services, or prep-time / study hall
> coverage, or literature extensions or life-time learning skills)
> What I'm saying, I guess, is that when the governor of New Jersey
> believes that school librarians and libraries are administrative "extras",
> and when school superintendents think that electronic networks that cut
> down on hall traffic are more valuable than human interaction for the
> development of information literacy...
> then who really cares what happens to a single issue of SI?
> Remember your professional priorities, folks.
>
> Alice H. Yucht
> yucht@zodiac.rutgers.edu  OR  alicey@llnj.pppl.gov