In the book, Zmuda and Harada share a table (P. 40) entitled, "Bad and Good Business Practices for Library Media Specialists." One of the components listed as a bad business practice is the idea that, "Success is defined by doing whatever is asked in order to be recognized as valuable or important." Its good business counterpart; where library media specialists should be moving toward, is defined as, "Success is defined by investing resources only in those tasks that are central to the library mission." Granted, I am not yet working as a certified library media specialist. But from the exposure that I have had, this seems to be much easier said than done.
For instance, the media specialists in our district have just been informed that they are now in charge of all school text books - no small feat. This will now be another time consuming administrative task which will, necessarily, take up a large portion of time that would normally be spent on tasks considered more crucial to the library mission. In these uncertain economic times, how realistic is it for school library media specialists to stand our ground in terms of focusing on tasks that we know we should be completing as learning specialists verses administrative tasks that are placed on our shoulders as a part of policy?
In reading Librarians as Learning Specialists, I came across Albert einstein's definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I feel that this is exactly the rut that some of our classrooms and teachers have fallen into. How do you get the powers to be to recognize this problem? They have all the information...
Wow... I feel for your media specialist! I recently spent a day in the place of our Media Specialist while she attended a professional learning meeting... How in the world can another administrative task be added to the workload?
My school's media specialist is also responsible for the inventory and disbursal of textbooks. In fact, it takes up almost the whole first month of school... and duhduhDUH!!! --> the media center is closed
How does one maintain a flexible schedule with these administrative responsibilities?
Unfortunately, I think these extra administrative duties are going to multiply as schools have to make cuts in the upcoming years. Textbooks are only the beginning...
In the book, Zmuda and Harada share a table (P. 40) entitled, "Bad and Good Business Practices for Library Media Specialists." One of the components listed as a bad business practice is the idea that, "Success is defined by doing whatever is asked in order to be recognized as valuable or important." Its good business counterpart; where library media specialists should be moving toward, is defined as, "Success is defined by investing resources only in those tasks that are central to the library mission." Granted, I am not yet working as a certified library media specialist. But from the exposure that I have had, this seems to be much easier said than done.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the media specialists in our district have just been informed that they are now in charge of all school text books - no small feat. This will now be another time consuming administrative task which will, necessarily, take up a large portion of time that would normally be spent on tasks considered more crucial to the library mission. In these uncertain economic times, how realistic is it for school library media specialists to stand our ground in terms of focusing on tasks that we know we should be completing as learning specialists verses administrative tasks that are placed on our shoulders as a part of policy?
In reading Librarians as Learning Specialists, I came across Albert einstein's definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I feel that this is exactly the rut that some of our classrooms and teachers have fallen into. How do you get the powers to be to recognize this problem? They have all the information...
ReplyDeleteWow... I feel for your media specialist! I recently spent a day in the place of our Media Specialist while she attended a professional learning meeting... How in the world can another administrative task be added to the workload?
ReplyDeleteMy school's media specialist is also responsible for the inventory and disbursal of textbooks. In fact, it takes up almost the whole first month of school... and duhduhDUH!!! --> the media center is closed
ReplyDeleteHow does one maintain a flexible schedule with these administrative responsibilities?
Unfortunately, I think these extra administrative duties are going to multiply as schools have to make cuts in the upcoming years. Textbooks are only the beginning...
ReplyDelete