My Way of Thinking
The American Association of School Libraries state that the Library Media Specialist has four primary roles: teacher, instructional partner, instructional specialist, and program administrator. Library Media Specialists have to be the CEO and the COO. They have to be able to perform the four primary roles while meeting the challenge at every grade level. Like anyone in the education profession, they have to be chameleons and have the ability to don any guise needed to get the job done. Teaching students how to use the resources provided in the media center, helping teachers find the materials needed to teach a topic, evaluating all resources out in the world and figuring out which one will work best for their patrons, and handling the business end of running a media center are just a few of the duties required. By combining all of them, you will find a beautiful tango of disciplines that if correctly steered will produce literate, productive citizens. After all, isn't that the goal of any educator? If you correctly fan the flames, they grow and burn into a deep, passionate love and appreciation of learning. I, personally, have never met anyone who, as an adult, loved to learn who didn't also love to read. Everyone has a dream, and to accomplish it you have to read and use resources found in the media center to reach that goal.