School Library Media Specialists' Perceptions of Practice and Importance of Roles Described in Information Power

Abstract

To determine if practicing school library media specialists perceive they have been able to implement their roles as described in Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (1988) and Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (1998), a survey was developed by the researcher. The survey further sought to determine if school library media specialists perceive it is important to assume a leadership role in the use of instructional technology. The survey was distributed to a random sample of 1,000 school library media specialists. Analysis of the 505 returned surveys indicates that school library media specialists perceive they are unable to fully implement their roles in practice. The most frequent barriers to full implementation were lack of time, including lack of time to plan with teachers; lack of adequate funding; lack of interest and support of classroom teachers; use of a fixed schedule; lack of clerical staff; and too many schools or students to provide for. Elementary school library media specialists who use flexible scheduling perceive they are able to practice more roles than library media specialists who use either combination or fixed scheduling.

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