Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract
After eighteen years of professional commitment to library media services
for youth, I found myself perplexed by the question, What do schools need?
Perplexed because my personal perceptions were so clear or so I thought.
Yet, I could not focus and translate them to the written word. It became
necessary to sit and recall years of professional behaviors and experiences
in the school and public library. It also became necessary to summon
relationships and accomplishments, gained or lost, due to those behaviors.
What I saw showed growth and tremendous change, but not nearly
enough. It was frightening because I found that the majority of our
problems were due to us; we did not know who we were or what we should
be doing. I turned to research and fellow professionals for help. I had to
know what was being done in the school library media centers of this
country. There was too much fragmentation in my mind and in the
evidence to determine what was needed now and tomorrow. What I discerned
schools to need from librarianship and what I see them needing in
the future was tied to how we perceived ourselves as being and what role we
are willing to play.Institute sponsored by University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, cosponsored by the Youth Divisions of the American Library Association: American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), Young Adult Services Division (YASD)published or submitted for publicatio