It's Broken; Let's Fix It

It’s Broken; Let’s Fix It: The Traditional Model of School Librarianship by Buffy Hamilton

            In this article, she discusses her worry over the fact that so many school districts are cutting back on library media specialists and appointing aides or volunteers to run their libraries. With the ever-increasing amount of online information that is available to students, librarians are needed now more than ever. For some reason, people assume that all you have to do is provide information and students will learn. Information literacy needs to be taught, just like reading and writing need to be taught. Cutting resources hurts more than the library, it hurts the entire school.

            Hamilton says that we need to throw out the old model of school librarianship and create a new and bolder version. She asks the question, “How much more seamless and authentic would research, content creation and evaluation of information be if school librarians would be embedded in a team of classroom teachers?” (Hamilton) With more, not less librarians, working with teams of teachers, think of the dynamic learning that would result. I believe that her Media 21 experiment proves this.

            Hamilton’s model would not only provide dynamic learning opportunities but it would also help develop great relationships between teachers and librarian and students and librarian. We must cultivate meaningful relationships first before we can lead by example. And we can’t do this with one lone librarian handling every aspect of the library. If we wish to develop real learning communities, something must change. That means mobilizing librarians, teachers and principals to take the new model to school administrators, parents and the community. It will take all of us to change the direction of education in this country and I believe that librarians need to be at the head of the line, leading the charge.

            One blogger brought up an interesting idea that Buffy Hamilton needs to assess and present her findings that everyday people can understand, and then make a plug for expanding the program. I thought that was a great idea. If there is concrete proof that children are learning more and better, then maybe school districts would listen to her model of librarianship.

Citation:

“It’s Broken; Let’s Fix It: The Traditional Model of School Librarianship.” The Unquiet Librarian 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/its-broken-lets-fix-it-the-traditional-model-of-school-librarianship/>.