I think Laura has some very convincing arguments. However, I would like to point
the finger of blame for our image right at us. Why are we waiting for a study to
justify our jobs. Why do we need someone else to speak for us. I am sure most of us
don't spend our day checking in and out books and magazines. I am sure that many of
us are working with children and whole classes in and out of the library. We are
out there using Information Literary standards.
But the public doesn't know what we really do and what we are about. And why should
they? They think they know exactly what we do; at least what they remember the
librarian doing when they were at school. Has anyone ever tried to tell them
otherwise? In short, what have we done to convince the people we serve that we are
an important part of their child's education? Better still what are we GOING to do?
Discuss the validity of the studies that have been done to help us or start helping
ourselves.
I would like to see commercials expounding on the virtues of a good library.
Posters and other forms of media that portray us doing and being what we are. I
argue that we use the studies that have been done. If we haven't noticed we are
already in a game of statistics given high stakes testing and NCLB. I say if that's
the game and those are the rules then we play by them.
Just my two cents.
I know we make a difference in the education of the students. You know we make a
difference in the education of the students. The public doesn't. Why don't they
know? Because we are too busy complaining about our situation and not doing enough
to correct it. I include myself in that. We are too concerned about the validity of
a study
Dan Hoadley
LMS
Beloit, WI
dhoadley@sdb.k12.wi.us
>>> Laura Brooks <brooksla@NORTHVILLE.K12.MI.US> 11/3/2006 1:24 PM >>>
Gail and Carol,
I agree with you both; however, I also hold academia accountable for the
misperceptions and utter ignorance teachers and administrators have of media
specialists and media programs in general. I most definitely agree that we need
more PhD's among our ranks but how can we realistically expect this when 50 states
have 50 different standards for the certification of a media specialist; many do
not even require Master's degrees? I feel every day that I am viewed as what I like
to call "The Book Gleaner Lightbulb Librarian"; that is, when I'm not
"babysitting", I'm the book lady and overhead bulb dispenser. This is why so many
of us are defensive and grasping for valid research in order to be taken seriously.
Why after working so hard to earn a graduate degree, do I need to convince a
teacher that I am more than a walking and talking print encyclopedia?
The answer to our image problem, I believe, begins with college teacher education
programs. Why is it teachers stare blankly at me when I utter, apparently in a
foreign tongue, the words “information literacy”? Wisconsin actually does (or did)
require pre-service teachers to take an entire course on the role of the school
library media program. We are required to take many education courses for obvious
reasons, but why can a classroom teacher who has no clue as to what we do be
allowed to teach in the media center, yet I can't enter a classroom? Doesn't this
negate and invalidate almost all that we do? I, for one, have firmly believed that
until LIS professors and department chairs start advocating for us by suggesting
that Ed. Depts. require teachers in training to learn what it is we do; how we all
work together in a school to further higher order thinking in our students, then we
will forever be trying to prove our worth.
Laura Brooks
Media Specialist
Northville Schools
brooksla@northville.k12.mi.us
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