The last couple of weeks I have been on the college visit tour with my son. On one of our last stops we were led through the library were I saw a wonderful display of original illustrations from children's books, most notably, Lois Ehlert. When our student ambassador noticed my interest she excitedly told me about their visit to ALA and their subsequent author/illustrator visits to campus. My response of course, was to not forget that when she begins teaching don't forget to work with the librarian. I would have loved to have gotten into a conversation with this young women, but my son was mortified enough.
As brief as this incident was, it got me to thinking...are librarians seen as teachers by our fellow classroom teachers? Based on my personal experience I'd say "maybe". I know that state organizations are reaching out to administrators, but are we, at an organizational level reaching out to teacher preparation programs?
A quick Google search yielded a 1999 article that preservice teachers do not view their librarians as collaborative partner. I was hoping for a more current view so I dug a bit deeper and found a 2004 book Information Literacy Instruction for Educators. What I briefly read was that it was rare for teacher education programs to explicitly teach about the role of librarians. Very sad indeed.
According to the AASL Advocacy website it doesn't appear that AASL is targeting teacher preparation programs. Understandably as they are working on other advocacy issues. However, should we not target the very individuals who could change the perception of teacher librarians on a grand scale? We need to reach out to our teachers. They need to view us, not only as curriculum resources, but knowledgeable co-teachers.
Thoughts?
