What if we started a new group - something like TLA - Teacher Librarian Advocates -
and our focus was solely advocating for our profession? We could still belong to
ALA (or not), we could still be leaders in our schools, and we could still be doing
excellent jobs. However, we would not be relying on (or should that be waiting
for?) ALA to tell the public who we are and what we do. We could have low dues and
they could initially all go to pay for the big PR message that needs to be on TV
and in newspapers, etc. "If you know how to judge what's valid and what's hype in a
world of information overload, thank a Teacher Librarian", for example.
For all the good things ALA is and does, there is one important area in which it
has never excelled: promoting the importance of librarians to the public in a way
they understand. Advancing the profession in a way that leads to better salaries,
more opportunities and a well-understood "brand" seems to be beyond ALA's
abilities.
Several of my professors mentioned this problem in my MLS program in the early 90's!
When my father started an early version of distance learning for economists and
govt. ministers in Eastern Europe (late 80's? early 90's), he hired someone with an
MIS degree to manage the delivery of information - he didn't know he had other
choices!
When I was in the public library and I heard of a state's "Educational Media"
organization, I thought it was an industry group that produced instructional videos!
I think that low salaries, mystified consumers, library closings and budget cuts
all point to the fact that the important message has yet to be conveyed.
Grassroots movements, super collaborators, spokespeople/practitioners, curriculum
writers, etc. are necessary but not sufficient to produce the results we need.
Until we have a big, clear message that reaches the public in a big way, I bet we
will be revisiting this whole topic again and again and again.....
And the ALA website will still be telling us how to speak up in our own little
ponds and how to contact legislators and if that was all that was needed, it would
have worked by now...
Melissa Techman, MLS
Broadus Wood Elementary School,
185 Buck Mtn. Rd,
Earlysville, VA 22901
434-973-3865
mtechman@k12albemarle.org
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