Re: "Uneducated" librarians

[Lawrence Newton <lwnewton@YAHOO.COM>]

Joni Rathbun wrote:
"It would be just as easily said that some schools
hire librarians
without teaching degrees and are grateful to have them
even tho
they do not have the same rigorous background in
curriculum and
instruction school media specialists have."

This situation fits me.  I do have an ALA-accredited
MLS, with professional experience in public libraries
and "pre"-professional experience in special and
academic libraries.  I had to go back to get the bare
minimum required hours to get a teaching certificate,
and the courses peculiar to school libraries.  Believe
me, I feel the lack of classroom teaching experience,
although I now have 16 years' experience as a school
librarian.
   I recently transferred to another school who had
been without a librarian for some time, which is miles
closer to my home, and has a much better schedule.  My
old school had lost enrollment, and was required to
cut a teacher position.  My old job was taken by a
P.E. teacher who will serve half time as a librarian
and the other half in P.E.  Hs is a very bright
fellow, but has absolutely no credentials to serve as
a school librarian.  This kind of thing can't be
allowed.
   While it would be nice if everybody in our
profession were experienced classroom teachers with an
MLS, that is probably not going to happen soon.  The
answer is probably for all school library
professionals to help each other fill in the blanks of
our professional experience and training.
   Some of the finest library folks I have known have
been paraprofessonals with a real sense of public
service, who have learned to serve on a professional
level through years of experience.  However, school
administrators need to show a commitment to library
services by hiring fully qualified library
professionals; they should not be allowed to get away
with saving a few bucks by putting clerical people in
a professional position, or even professional teachers
without library credentials.
   This is not to say that there are no untrained
people who, through lots of hard work and study, have
reached a professional level of library service, but
administrators need to make a commitment for
fully-trained professional library personnel.

Lawrence Newton, Librarian
Carnegie Elementary School
Houston (TX) ISD
lwnewton@yahoo.com





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