A Discussion about the Challenges and issues in ID&T as they relate to the role of the School Library Media Center
The author has chosen to focus our discussion on ID&T (Instructional Design and Technology). Our course textbook begins the history of ID&T history with a timeline that begins with school museums at the turn of the century. These were often traveling wagons wich visited rural schools with books, magazines, newspaper clippings, paintings, stereographs, and other visual aids. If a school needed media on a specific topic, it requested a package of library books, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings focusing on a specific subject matter. Sometimes these traveling wagons or libraries had as many as 500 books covering general topics. (Michie, 2005).
Below is a collection of interviews with Mr. Dwight G. Bailey, Instructional Supervisor, Library Media Services Department, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, who will outline philosophies, trends, and ongoing challenges relating to library media centers.
One of the key topics Mr. Bailey touches on briefly that directly relates to instructional design are maker spaces. A maker space is where community members can work alongside parents, staff, and mentors to create, solve, and develop skills in a hands-on environment that fosters talents, thinking, and mental rigor. As designated by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner, the four crucial components for inquiry and life-long learning are: think, create, grow, and share. Active learning using all four components is the basis for a maker space area. It is a safe place where patrons can question current thinking through research, construction, and problem-solving. In addition, patrons can build using cognitive, kinesthetic, and social skills while working through maker space activities. (Preddy, 2013).
Mr. Bailey also articulated the role of the modern-day school media center specialist. The present job description for a media specialist is multifaceted and more detailed. Today, librarians provide tech support, research hardware needs, and master software and web intricacies to help patrons navigate through electronic information. In addition, they are often called upon to de-bug any glitch on any digital device (Zickuhr, 2012).
Studies suggest that library media centers will continue evolving as technologies, community needs, and expectations change. The school library's appearance will evolve to contain more active and group learning spaces. The role of the media specialist will evolve as technology evolves. It will become more focused on teaching patrons how to use learning tools and access information rather than simply managing and controlling the library's assets. (Hawley, 2016).
The media specialist and the media center's role has the potential to become one of service leadership in the community and the school setting. Their impact will directly affect students, teachers, and community members. This author hopes that this discussion may assist in understanding and possibly even in transitioning the librarian/media specialist's role to a great service leadership model that supports individual growth and community development.
Below is a collection of interviews with Mr. Dwight G. Bailey, Instructional Supervisor, Library Media Services Department, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, who will outline philosophies, trends, and ongoing challenges relating to library media centers.
One of the key topics Mr. Bailey touches on briefly that directly relates to instructional design are maker spaces. A maker space is where community members can work alongside parents, staff, and mentors to create, solve, and develop skills in a hands-on environment that fosters talents, thinking, and mental rigor. As designated by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner, the four crucial components for inquiry and life-long learning are: think, create, grow, and share. Active learning using all four components is the basis for a maker space area. It is a safe place where patrons can question current thinking through research, construction, and problem-solving. In addition, patrons can build using cognitive, kinesthetic, and social skills while working through maker space activities. (Preddy, 2013).
Mr. Bailey also articulated the role of the modern-day school media center specialist. The present job description for a media specialist is multifaceted and more detailed. Today, librarians provide tech support, research hardware needs, and master software and web intricacies to help patrons navigate through electronic information. In addition, they are often called upon to de-bug any glitch on any digital device (Zickuhr, 2012).
Studies suggest that library media centers will continue evolving as technologies, community needs, and expectations change. The school library's appearance will evolve to contain more active and group learning spaces. The role of the media specialist will evolve as technology evolves. It will become more focused on teaching patrons how to use learning tools and access information rather than simply managing and controlling the library's assets. (Hawley, 2016).
The media specialist and the media center's role has the potential to become one of service leadership in the community and the school setting. Their impact will directly affect students, teachers, and community members. This author hopes that this discussion may assist in understanding and possibly even in transitioning the librarian/media specialist's role to a great service leadership model that supports individual growth and community development.
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Philosophy: Today's school library media program plays an integral role in educating students about the rapidly changing world. The library media center is a multimedia learning center to enrich support and vitalize the school's instructional program. It provides students and teachers access to information through a collection of print, non-print, and electronic resources. The program's continued aim is to encourage and enable each student to achieve his optimum potential. (dadeschools.net, 2010)
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The media center specialist integrates information literacy, research, and inquiry into all curriculum areas and serves as a teacher technology leader, information specialist, and educational consultant to enhance the learning process. The media center environment should be an open, welcoming third place, where students have resources available to explore their interests. The media specialist identifies those interests and tries to provide the resources. So if the school curriculum does not provide it, it is easy enough for the media center specialist to provide some resource that addresses the desire to learn. That multi-function room offers safe learning, essentially an Oasis of learning.
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School Library Media Centers have lots of challenges. These challenges include funding, staffing, perception, and eBooks.
The first one is funding. They are not appropriately funded or supported by the district. However, most support does come from the grassroots. It is from principals at the school site and students and parents. |
Moreover, the other challenge is perception. People see Media Specialists as book people, but in reality, they are media specialists who serve multiple media types and provide all sorts of services to the school. However, when perceived as librarians or people who hold on to books. It creates the impression that we are not as technologically advanced as we are and do not support the schools in all the multiple ways we do. Many principals obviously understand that and continue to support their media programs.
Next is that staffing is a real issue. When media centers are inappropriately staffed with necessary resources, they become checkout people. Funding and staffing are crucial to continuing to build their collection for new things, and building new learning pathways.
Another challenge is eBooks and how they do not necessarily work in school libraries as well as in the real world. Essentially ebooks are just as expensive, and some books are not even available for library sharing. Moreover, there is also ebook licensing; many of them are only temporarily available. They have a one or two-year period where you can have them. Also, with eBooks, you have the challenge of not seeing them. So unless the student knows that there are ebooks in a catalog that they have to access electronically, they will never know they are available. Nevertheless, other than that, it is a great job. It is just that we have many challenges.
Next is that staffing is a real issue. When media centers are inappropriately staffed with necessary resources, they become checkout people. Funding and staffing are crucial to continuing to build their collection for new things, and building new learning pathways.
Another challenge is eBooks and how they do not necessarily work in school libraries as well as in the real world. Essentially ebooks are just as expensive, and some books are not even available for library sharing. Moreover, there is also ebook licensing; many of them are only temporarily available. They have a one or two-year period where you can have them. Also, with eBooks, you have the challenge of not seeing them. So unless the student knows that there are ebooks in a catalog that they have to access electronically, they will never know they are available. Nevertheless, other than that, it is a great job. It is just that we have many challenges.
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The trends for the future of libraries depend on several things; among these, funding and staffing will impact how quickly libraries transform. In the following paragraphs we will address trends in the media center environment, media center collections, and services that media centers and media specialist provide.
The Environment: |
The first trending area is the space itself. Media centers are improving the environment by increasing accessibility and the space's mobility, opening it up, and allowing for more opportunities to do other project-based activities, which everybody calls a maker space. What libraries have always done is have more capacity to do that. Media centers can accomplish this because they have more electricity, accessible tools, tables, and mobility. So we can use the multi-purpose function of the room a little bit more readily. We can move chairs, stack them, move tables, flip them, and get them out of the way for whatever activity without disrupting the program's core functions.
Collections:
Another trend is the collections move to electronic, but we found that it was more industry driven than consumer-driven. There was a very high adoption rate initially, but then it tapered off. It has leveled off now, and people still like print and eBooks, so it is a matter of servicing both. Both print and eBooks have their challenges. Print is problematic too because it has its own set of issues. For example, print requires an inventory of the materials; additionally, there is one physical copy.
Electronic books do not solve many of those issues; moreover, eBooks have their own set of issues involving publishers, licensing, and availability. So while I (Dwight Bayley) think they will continue to drift to more electronic media, it will take time. I (Dwight Bayley) always felt it would take longer than what everybody would, uh, said it would take. I (Dwight Bayley) figured it would be about ten years, and it has been longer than that to get to that full adoption. So the eventual transition to a no-print library will not happen anytime soon unless whoever does it decides that is what they will do. And that's all they offer their students, but in that case, they are not offering them everything that they want. So then they are just telling them what they will give them. And that's sort of not how media centers operate.
Services:
The other trend is, uh, the service. So I (Dwight Bayley) have always believed that the media specialists should be an educational technology specialist that they understand and use and can train others in using various technologies, whether it be media or electronics. So the room is open, and they are available. However, for educators to optimize the educational experience, they need some help. So the media specialist is the local educational technologist, that liaison for the district, to help provide the training and the professional development needed by the educator. That is one of their essential roles, but they cannot do that unless they have support. Support in the form of clerical support to continue their operations or day-to-day operations. They cannot be doing all these high-level educational design and technology tasks without having some support on the backend. So that comes down to staffing and funding; they need to be effective in that role, which is a distribution role.
Nevertheless, in the teaching role, I (Dwight Bayley) would like to see the trend move us back to information literacy, which is sorely needed. It is not taught in great depth in any of the curricular areas, but it is something that we understand is critical. Moreover, media specialists can provide those lessons in collaborative planning with teachers and deliver that content to them through the curriculum.
Collections:
Another trend is the collections move to electronic, but we found that it was more industry driven than consumer-driven. There was a very high adoption rate initially, but then it tapered off. It has leveled off now, and people still like print and eBooks, so it is a matter of servicing both. Both print and eBooks have their challenges. Print is problematic too because it has its own set of issues. For example, print requires an inventory of the materials; additionally, there is one physical copy.
Electronic books do not solve many of those issues; moreover, eBooks have their own set of issues involving publishers, licensing, and availability. So while I (Dwight Bayley) think they will continue to drift to more electronic media, it will take time. I (Dwight Bayley) always felt it would take longer than what everybody would, uh, said it would take. I (Dwight Bayley) figured it would be about ten years, and it has been longer than that to get to that full adoption. So the eventual transition to a no-print library will not happen anytime soon unless whoever does it decides that is what they will do. And that's all they offer their students, but in that case, they are not offering them everything that they want. So then they are just telling them what they will give them. And that's sort of not how media centers operate.
Services:
The other trend is, uh, the service. So I (Dwight Bayley) have always believed that the media specialists should be an educational technology specialist that they understand and use and can train others in using various technologies, whether it be media or electronics. So the room is open, and they are available. However, for educators to optimize the educational experience, they need some help. So the media specialist is the local educational technologist, that liaison for the district, to help provide the training and the professional development needed by the educator. That is one of their essential roles, but they cannot do that unless they have support. Support in the form of clerical support to continue their operations or day-to-day operations. They cannot be doing all these high-level educational design and technology tasks without having some support on the backend. So that comes down to staffing and funding; they need to be effective in that role, which is a distribution role.
Nevertheless, in the teaching role, I (Dwight Bayley) would like to see the trend move us back to information literacy, which is sorely needed. It is not taught in great depth in any of the curricular areas, but it is something that we understand is critical. Moreover, media specialists can provide those lessons in collaborative planning with teachers and deliver that content to them through the curriculum.
References
Dadeschools.net, (2010). Parent student handbook - miami lakes educational center. Parent Student Handbook. Retrieved July 17, 2022, from http://mlec.dadeschools.net/documents/parentstudenthandbook2009-2010.pdf
Bayley, D. (2022, July 15). Personal communication [Personal interview].
Hawley, J. S. S. (2016). The evolution of the library media center: A study of the past, current, and projected future library services available in Johnson City, Tennessee (Doctoral dissertation, East Tennessee State University).
Michie, J. S. and Holton, B. A. (2005) Fifty years of supporting children’s learning: A history of public school libraries and federal legislation form 1953-2000 (NCES 2005-311). US Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Preddy, L. (2013). Library makerspace programming and activities. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Zickuhr, K., Rainie, L., Purcell, K., Madden, M., & Brenner, J. (2012, June 22). Libraries, patrons, and e-books. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
Bayley, D. (2022, July 15). Personal communication [Personal interview].
Hawley, J. S. S. (2016). The evolution of the library media center: A study of the past, current, and projected future library services available in Johnson City, Tennessee (Doctoral dissertation, East Tennessee State University).
Michie, J. S. and Holton, B. A. (2005) Fifty years of supporting children’s learning: A history of public school libraries and federal legislation form 1953-2000 (NCES 2005-311). US Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Preddy, L. (2013). Library makerspace programming and activities. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Zickuhr, K., Rainie, L., Purcell, K., Madden, M., & Brenner, J. (2012, June 22). Libraries, patrons, and e-books. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
