Lindsey La BargeFRMS 7136Information Skills PaperOctober 7, 2008

Information Skills: Collaboration is the Key

Collaboration between teachers and media specialist is very important in teaching

students information literacy skills. Usually teachers do not venture into the media center

unless they need help with their VCR or need help changing a light bulb. There is so

much that can be gained by teachers and media specialists working together for the good

of the students. Students need critical thinking skills in order to succeed in either the

work force or post secondary education. The media specialist is the perfect person to help

students build these necessary skills, and help teachers continue to teach their students

information literacy.

Social studies teacher Joseph Brubaker feels that students should learn reading

comprehension skills from the media center (personal communication, August 29, 2008).

Mr. Brubaker teaches world history and has problems with students being able to

comprehend or remember the reading within the textbook for the class. This affects the

test scores of his students. He suggested that the media specialist host some sort of

reading comprehension workshop for ninth graders. Within his classes, he has many

different types of students. Some are more advanced than others. Mr. Brubaker has to use

differentiated instruction in his classroom daily. According to Karen Larsen, “the goal of

differentiation is to bring the ideas and concepts of the curriculum to the learner at the

pace and depth that is appropriate for the ability of each student” (Larsen, 2004).

Differentiation is just as important in the media center as it is in the classroom. In some

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ways the students that come to the media center for help are more differentiated than

those in a single class. Differentiation can be just as important as collaboration.

“Collaboration is a great way for us to impact student learning through

meaningful, curriculum-connected learning experiences” (Heard, 2007). It is important

for teachers and media specialists to work together for the benefit of the students. There

is so much that the students can learn from both media specialists and their teachers, so

working together only makes sense. Collaboration is the way to true education and

preparation for the future. “An effective library media center program ensures that

opportunities are provided for students, faculty, and staff to become effective users of

ideas and information and acquire lifelong patterns of learning” (Young, 2005). Even if

these opportunities are available they still need to be made known so that they can be

taken advantage of by the students and teachers.

Social studies teacher Keith McCrory stated that he believes the media center is

the perfect place to teach students basic research skills (personal communication, August

29, 2008). Dr. McCrory teaches AP classes and so his students need the basic research

skills that are required in order to succeed in any AP course. The main problem that his

students have is knowing where to find appropriate academic sources for their research.

Dr. McCrory has suggested that the media specialists come up with a lesson to show the

students some of the places that they can find some great academic resources. That would

help the media center enter the classroom.

English teacher Amber Strickland thinks that the media center should be able to

lead students to literature to support what is being taught in the classroom (personal

communication, September 22, 2008). Most of the students at Jackson County High

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School never even enter the media center because they do not think that there is anything

that can benefit them. Mrs. Strickland thinks that if the media specialist can offer

complimentary literature to what is being presented in the classroom, more students will

find a reason to visit the media center. She also thinks that the media center is a great

place to introduce online academic sources to advanced students.

Media specialists Pauline La Barge and Martha Babb said, “we teach the students

the best research and information access skills, such as how to use Boolean so that they

can get closer to what they are actually looking for. We teach students how to evaluate

websites for information accuracy and how to put the information they find into proper

MLA format, such as how to create citations and bibliographies for both print and non-

print sources. We teach students how to use GALILEO, NetTrekker, and other Academic

source sites. We teach understanding of the ethics of using resources including copyright

restrictions and the concept of plagiarism. We also teach our students how to use Destiny,

our online card catalog, to locate print resources in our media center; we also teach them

to understand the Dewey classification system. Another responsibility is teaching

students how to use the various technology tools such as software, a scanner, digital

cameras to best convey the information and ideas they learned in their research” in

response to the question of how the media center teaches students information literacy

(personal communication, October 6, 2008).

Mrs. La Barge and Mrs. Babb are always traveling between the classrooms and

the media center at East Jackson Comprehensive High School in order to offer what the

media center has to the teachers and students within the high school. They have also

started an extended day program. Mrs. La Barge stays until six p.m. one day per week in

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order to allow students one day to study for a couple extra hours. This allows the students

access to every resource that the media center can offer.

Media specialist Andrea Waldrip says that the problem with collaboration is that

the teachers really do not know the abilities that media specialist has (personal

communication, September 17, 2008). Before the beginning of the school year at Jackson

County Comprehensive High School, Mrs. Waldrip passes out a list of some of the things

that the media specialist can help teachers with. It is not a comprehensive list, but it gives

the teachers an idea of what is available through the media center. The problem is that at

this point in the school year is that the teachers get so much paper work, so most of them

do not even read the list of what the media center offers.

The problem that needs to be fixed in the Jackson County media center is finding

some way to make the teachers more aware of what is available through the media center

and what the media specialist can help them with in their classroom. Awareness of what

is offered through the media center is the key to collaboration. Carl A. Harvey II has

written a list called “What should a teacher expect a media specialist to be?”. This list has

twelve things that a media specialist should be. Some of the points on this list that

teachers need to be aware of are that media specialists are teachers, a media specialist is a

resource locator and a media specialist is a collaborator (Harvey, 2005). It would be very

helpful if every teacher posted this list by their desk so that they knew where they could

go for help. This list should also be posted in the media center for the benefit of the

students. It is “imperative to constantly advocate for the library and regularly show your

teachers how the media center can be a resource to them and their students” (Heard,

2007).

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Collaboration is the key to the success of the students and the success of the

teachers teaching students to be prepared for whatever they do in the future. Whether it is

information literacy, reading comprehension or research skills that need to be taught, the

media center is the place to go and the media specialist is the person to ask for help. In

order to take advantage of what is offered through the media center, there needs to be

some way to make what is offered known to everyone that it could benefit. There is so

much that could be taught through the media center. So, collaboration with classroom

teachers is the key to a future of well-informed and information literate citizens.

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References

Buzzeo, T. (2005 January). Collaborating from the Center of the Universe. Library Media

Connection. 18-20.

Harvey, C. (2005 February). What Should a Teacher Expect a School Library Media

Specialist to Be? Library Media Connection. 23.

Heard, J. (2007 February). Technology: A Tool for Collaboration. Library Media

Connection. 24.

Larsen, K. (2004 November/December). Sink or Swim: Differentiated Instruction in the

Library. Library Media Connection. 14-16.

Young, T. (2005 January). Better Data… Better Decisions. Library media Connection.

14-19.

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