Assistant Professor
'School librarianship' has a different mission than that of public librarianship. Often, school librarians fail to prepare K-12 students "to become critical thinkers, avid readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information." (AASL, 2010) By failing to live up to this mission, school librarians often seek to adopt the mission of public librarians. (This, in my opinion, is also a failure of graduate preparation programs preparing 21st century information professionals. One-sized curricula does not support all types of librarianships.)
What is the difference in the stated missions? Primarily, school librarians are held accountable for K-12 learning; while public librarians are not assessed/held accountable for how well learners, adopt, and use information being shared (i.e., vetting credible information sources; etc.).
The current pandemic and the widespread use of virtual learning has exposed the failure of both public and school librarians to prepare learners (young and older) to navigate social media, disinformation, and alternative facts. And, failures/limitations of some graduate preparation programs.
(1) |
Comments (10)
Your main point is that many people applying to become school librarians are not trained to teach research skills effectively.
We have a bit of a chicken and an egg problem in our country with respect to training school librarians. As budgets have been cut for school libraries, the demand for MLS degrees has decreased and MLS degree programs have been cut as well. Many state education departments require librarians to have degrees earned within their state borders, when the degree programs offered within that state are now limited.
One important step for addressing this problem would be to create national standards for becoming a licensed school librarian. Then, states that no longer have solid MLS programs could hire school librarians trained out-of-state. Highly qualified MLS graduates from the best programs in the country could take jobs anywhere in the country, thereby raising the quality of school librarians nationwide.
Despite many MLS programs being cut, we still have some fantastic MLS degree programs in the country: Florida State University, Rutgers, University of Illinois, Syracuse University, University of Maryland, University of South Carolina, University of Washington, University of North Carolina, Simmons College, University of North Texas and more. We need to make it as easy as possible for graduates from these schools to get jobs.
I am transitioning from being a school librarian to being a public library librarian. You raise the really interesting question of whether the missions of the two types of librarian are different. The mission of school librarians is a) to motivate kids to read and b) to teach research skills. Although not your main point, you suggest that the mission of public library librarians is solely to motivate kids to read and not to teach research skills. I think this view is held by many and needs to change. I think public library librarians should be putting just as much effort into helping patrons find credible information as they put into motivating patrons to read for fun.
HI Brenda:
Thanks for joining our conversation. If you were in charge of rewriting the curricula, what changes would you make?
Thank you for the question. Changes to the curricula would vary based on the qualifications of candidates accepted into the program. Certified teachers accepted into a school library program need to understand how the school library differs from a teacher’s classroom (i.e., activities; planning; support; budgets; etc. ). Instructional delivery is not the issue. Also, teachers need to see school librarian practitioners (the good and the bad) in order to understand how to ‘apply’ theory as it is taught in graduate courses. Quality field placements and practicum experiences provide the ‘ah ha’ moment for these candidates.
Candidates who may not have a background in education will struggle with these concepts (design, delivery, and assessment of learners/learning) which are critical for effective school librarians and school library programs.
The good news is that what I have described above is for school librarians. Graduates pursuing public (children and young adult), information technology, and/or academic librarianship do not require the same level of instruction/performance/assessment which I have described. All programs (or all program tracks) are not created equal: nor should they.
In my 16 years as a district level administrator, it was disappointing to interview school librarian candidates who were unable to demonstrate (using evidence of K-12 learners’ performance in a school library program) how they planned to impact teaching and learning. Thus, I ventured into academia so that I could implement changes I wanted to see in graduate level curricula instead of complaining about poorly trained/prepared school librarian candidates seeking employment in my school district with our students and teachers.
Again, just my thoughts.
A lot of school librarians are spread very, very thin. Even if you are well trained and passionate about teaching information/digital/media literacy, it's hard to have much of an impact if you are covering multiple schools or have been tasked with excessive responsibilities.
Very true!
I can't speak for all MLIS programs but I believe most of them do a pretty good job of preparing for a variety of information professions and don't have a one size curriculum. The ALA accredited ones at least with their required skills and competencies seem to cover a wide range of information professions.
My focus is school librarianship and the steady decline of certified school librarians in K-12 school districts. Data are needed to determine the success of these graduates in our K-12 school library programs. One’s beliefs about graduate preparation programs could be confirmed by these findings. Unfortunately, most graduate programs fail to track their graduates’ employment long term (3-5 years). I wonder why?
Just my thoughts...
I think this varies by state. In Minnesota, where the University of Minnesota MLS program was cut in 1986, schools are struggling to find qualified school librarians. In states with strong MLS programs, schools have a much stronger pool of qualified school librarian applicants to choose from.
To address this problem, state education departments could and should change licensing requirements so that states can hire qualified applicants trained out of state.
Graduate programs preparing school librarians are accredited by ALA/AASL/CAEP or Specialized Professional Associations (SPAs). This specialized training for school library professionals is similar to training preparation/requirements for educators planning to serve in areas such as Early Childhood, Counseling, Biology, etc.
Someone commented in an earlier post that national standards are needed for school librarians. I would counter that ‘national performance assessments’ are needed for school librarians.