Teacher-School Library Media Specialist Collaboration through Social Marketing Strategies: An Information Behavior Study

Abstract

Based on the importance of teacher-school library media specialist collaboration , this study seeks to advance knowledge involving the dynamics of this special relationship. The subjects were a group of student librarians--themselves experienced teachers--as they attempted to foster collaborative information literacy activities with selected teachers in their host schools.(Note: The term “student librarian” is the official term applied within the institutional setting in which the research occurred.) The investigators instructed these student librarians to base their approaches on social marketing theory and practice. In addition, the investigators acquired data about collaboration processes from two focus groups made up of experienced teachers, who responded to a set of questions designed to measure teacher predictability to engage in collaboration. Findings indicated that collaboration is expensive, involving investments of time, resources, and human interactions within complex systems of institutional culture and personal expectations. Although complex, social marketing principles are integrated throughout the collaboration process; they signal that school library media specialists, as marketers of a socially useful service, need to build trust for themselves and promote the collaborative process as a socially and professionally rewarding activity. Toward this end, school library media specialists-as-marketers have the responsibility for developing a social market environment conductive to collaboration between teachers and school library media specialist.

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