Clerks substituting for Librarians

[Jeran Walker <Jerart@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 9/9/00 3:45:04 PM Central Daylight Time,
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU writes:

<<  If you insist that your library clerk can handle your job, you may find
 yourself and your fellow librarians increasingly or fully replaced by
 clerks.  >>

    This whole concept really pushes my buttons!  It goes back to the problem
that the visible part of the librarian's job is to check out books, put them
back on the shelf and the "that's all she does" mentality.  Clerks and aides
are not trained in curriculum, teaching methods, classroom management,
materials selection, media center administration, etc., etc. They do not
spend four years becoming certified to teach and then another year or two
completing an MLS.  We not only have our basic teaching credentials in our
specialty teaching fields, we go a big step beyond.  We are the experts.
School libraries are filled with curriculum relevant materials based on our
knowledge.
  The problem is that we are not communicating this to the public and
administrators.  We have a very serious public relations problem when a
principal thinks a clerk can do our job.

    Jeran Walker, classroom, working on my MLS
     St. Mark's Episcopal School   Houston, Texas
      Jerart@aol.com

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