Where Does Your Authority Come From?: Empowering the Library Media Specialist as a True Partner in Student Achievement

The library media center has long been a beloved and specialized learning environment for students, a place rich with opportunities to pursue specialized inquiries, interests, and ideas. In recent years, state and national standards for information literacy and technology have delineated a framework for what students are expected to know and be able to do as a result of their work in the library media center. There is, however, one fundamental problem that has existed for years and has frustrated specialists for years--how to get the authority to teach students. If they do not come to the library media center at all or come for a meaningful purpose (i.e., a task where students are expected to work in critical and creative ways to collect, analyze, and synthesize information), then how can students be expected to achieve the standards? True authority does not come from the superintendent, principal, or even the teachers worked with every day; it comes from a very large achievement gap. Most specialists have been aware of this gap for years and many have vocalized those concerns and, consequently, lobbied for broader access to students and more resources. The major stumbling block, however, is that without data to illustrate this gap, it looks like a rhetorical contention based on the unabashedly biased viewpoint of those professionals that seem to have the most to gain. So, to claim the authority needed to close this achievement gap, it is important to get the data to show the current student achievement levels, compare that to state/national standards for learning, and then propose short-term and long-term ways to close those gaps. This article discusses how library media specialists can be empowered as true partners in student achievement. (Contains 2 figures and 3 resources.)