Week 2 Response

Hassell-Hughes, Sandra and Harada, Violet. Change Agentry: An Essential Role for Library Media Specialists.

"Successful change requires every person working in a school to be committed to change and to strive for individual and collective improvement".

As an undergraduate, i worked in the university library. I would see the librarians help patrons with reference materials, government documents, special documents and journal article selection. As a girl, i saw our school librarian "shh" students and stamp due dates in books. whar a limited role portrayed by people with such knowledge. Surely, thone of the two was a diffrent type of library, but as education changes, so does the role of the staff in the school.

This article sees school librarians as change agents or those bring or help to bring about change thus helping others to innovate, in their daily work. There are five key factors in the change process identified: change as a journey, conflict and diversity as freinds, change being accomplished by individuals, development in growth and feelings, change is aaltered by the culture of the school. Media specialists often see the big picture because they work with everyone in the school, are experienced collaborators, can model effective practices, are engaged in continuous learning and finally they are viewed as peers. The article goes on to give strategies to work as a change agent.

School media specialist appear to have two strong set of skills- teacher and librarian. This could not be overstated. The teacher background helps the media specialists relate to how the classroom operates. The media specialist part are an addition of skills that strengthen what we learn as teachers. Thus media specialists are thrust into a position that to be a key resource to teachers as education changes and resources are challenged. Media specialists have the opportunity to reshape, rethink and relearn what teaching and learning can look like and spread this vision to other school personnel.

Callison, Daniel. Foundations of the Library Media Specialist's Instructional Role.

"The role of teacher-librarian is not new".

I chose this quote because it presents the history of the profession. this article shows how teacher-librarians moved from teaching library skills to facilitators of information literacy. Crucial to this role is projecting a positive attitude with high ability and being influential in aiding student achievement. The teacher-librarian initiates curriculum planning with giving access to everyone involved in the learning process access to the school's library collection.

Yet the chapter states that the most important role is the library media specialist is the ability to work well with others. Successful media specialists have established their roles as instrucitonal specialists. This aids in the relationship with the principal who often sees the role of the media specialist as peripheral to the classroom, as no training in the role of the media specialist is given in training or professional teacher journals.

Thus it is imperative that school media specialist be strategic in what it is they do. They must establish their worth, so to speak, early. they must flaunt their teacher skills to be seen as instructional specialists and how integral the school library is in student achievement.