School media specialists must be teachers, leaders, and advocates for reading, inquiry, and learning. Partnering with classroom teachers, they must design and implement curriculum and instruction that prepare young citizens for a life that requires thinking, inquiry, problem-solving and ethical behavior. These experiences provide the foundation…

School library media specialists wear many hats within their school libraries, classrooms, and districts. Whether these roles are formally acknowledged or not, library media specialists (LMSs) are functioning as co-teachers, curriculum designers, website managers, technology troubleshooters, administrators, and in-service staff development…

The American Association for School Librarians suggests an important mission for school librarians is to ensure personal growth through ongoing exposure to conferences, journal articles, webinars, presentations, and membership in professional organizations. As professional educators, School Librarians should exemplify the vision for being…

The most successful school library media specialists are those who collaborate with teachers as full partners in the instructional process. Without assertive action by the school library media specialist, however, school administrators and teachers are likely to be more aware of the media specialist's administrative role than the roles of teacher,…

The information age has given library media specialists an unprecedented opportunity to play a leading role in helping teachers, administrators, and especially students access and use information intelligently. As the school's premier information specialist; the library media specialist has a unique role to play in helping everyone in the school…

This book provides an in-depth exploration of the topics that are currently relevant in K-12 curricula, including the school librarian's role in dealing with these issues, collaborating with teachers, and connecting to classrooms. The role and responsibilities of the library media specialist in the 21st century continue to expand. Since the…

This column lists and defines several sets of selected terms that may better help any educator communicate with the digital-savvy student clientele. Terms were gathered from the sources listed in "Further Reading" and confirmed among three online professors at Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. The sample terms are clustered by…

Based on the premise that coordination of media resources with the curriculum involves the cooperation of teachers and library media specialists, this guide is designed to enhance both cooperative planning and communication. It contains: (1) six media and curriculum coordination case studies portraying typical scenarios faced by classroom teachers…

Reviews research findings and briefly outlines several strategies for encouraging teachers to utilize available educational media and the expertise of the school media specialist. (6 references) (CLB)

Intended for use by media specialists, this guide offers ideas for teaching media production skills in the curriculum areas. Projects are suggested in science, history, economics/distributive education/marketing, mathematics, English, foreign languages, and child care. The purpose, objectives/concepts, resources, and preparation are outlined for a…

Using this inquiry-based process allows the teacher and librarian to assign mystery topics to individual students so they can conduct independent research on high-interest subjects. The book provides the tools and strategies teachers and librarians need to help students think and rethink methods of gathering and organizing information to solve…

This report presents an analysis of data provided by 196 usable responses to a survey of a stratified sample of 282 college and university media centers. Information was collected on the following topics: current trends in budget and personnel levels; the degree of moral support provided by supervisors and the faculty clientele; the extent to…

This paper looks at how the goals for school library media programs are aligned with the goals of education in general and what this alignment means in terms of the allocation of resources. Citing the 1983 report, "A Nation at Risk," it argues that there may be a disparity between the actual value of the school library media program and…

This manual is a product of the Media and Mainstreaming Project and a fuller version of the manual included in the interim report "Educational Media for Handicapped Students in Regular K-12 Schools"). It focuses on the media-related needs of handicapped students being mainstreamed into regular K-12 school programs. The emphasis is on how…

The critical and central role of school library media programs in equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete successfully in a learning society and an information world was explored. An analysis of patterns of information seekers' behavior provided the basis for a discussion of the importance of considering the…