Comments on: What do administrators want/need to know?

By: Bonnie Mathies

Bonnie Mathies — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:53:37 +0000

Before I retired, I taught a class required for all future principals, superintendents, ed leaders. It was an eye opener to me as well as the participants (hopefully). I was totally surprised at how many had NEVER heard of Infohio, didn’t know anything about what a school library media specialist is supposed to do and their training. Most thought they were volunteers with no education and almost all didn’t know they were teachers. There was a sense that with Google, libraries and librarians were unnecessary. What was needed was a technician. And this referred to ANY kind of library in their minds. No one had any clue about the impact a strong library program and library media specialist can make on student learning.
I think anything that you can do to education, inform, make aware of, is a positive thing to do. Great idea.

By: Rebecca Vasilakis

Rebecca Vasilakis — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:50:39 +0000

I think this is a great idea. I can’t believe that someone is not going to the conferences for board members and administrators doing just this. I thnk it needs to be pointed out that library media centers are costing schools a chunk of change and to not have teachers and students using them to their full advantage is a waste of money. One example is when principals look at lesson plans make suggestions about using the library or librarians more. At the beginning of the year if the princiipal stood up and said “this is the year of research and I expect everyone to make full use of our library services” that would go a long way. We have the research to show how it benefits students but because the state doesn’t mandate anything no one looks at it.

By: David Hayward

David Hayward — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:10:01 +0000

Hey Mary,
I am the ITSCO employee who initiated the conversation and would love to know more about the Kent State grant. I am going to be contacting the OELMA librarians this week to continue talking about this topic and it would be great to have the information. I can be contacted at david@itsco.org. Thanks.

By: Mary Welch

Mary Welch — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:22:23 +0000

This came from the OELMA list about embedded standards. http://www.oelma.org/advocacy/guidelineposter.pdf
How they can encourage teachers to collaborate with the librarian.
Kent State got $2,000,000 several years ago to start a program to teach teachers how to work with librarians and the use of the library. You might tap into that source. Maybe Sue Berg at Wright State knows who to contact.