At the same time that I’ve been studying embedded librarianship over the past 3 years, I’ve also been learning a lot about the role of the school librarian / media specialist, thanks to students who are working in school libraries and preparing for careers as media specialists.
It’s seemed to me that school librarians had great opportunities to develop an embedded role, working in partnership with teachers; taking their knowledge of resources and information literacy into classrooms. However, there are few if any examples of this in the literature, and the media specialists I’ve talked to are spread pretty thin, with little time to build relationships and develop customized services.
So I was glad to see the recent post by , in which he characterizes a middle school librarian as “embedded”. She makes a practice of taking her information literacy expertise to the classroom, and works with the students “on their ‘turf'”.
While she may not have all the attributes of an embedded librarian, she does have some of the essentials, including a commitment to the educational mission that transcends a narrow definition of the librarian’s role, and a talent for building relationships.
I’m indebted to John Kennerly for sharing this great example.
The Embedded Librarians Café
March 30, 2010 at 1:08 am |
Thanks for the mention and the kind words. It really was amazing to hear how that middle school media specialist operates.
October 19, 2011 at 1:00 am |
[…] The Embedded Librarian Posted in March 2010 An “Embedded” Middle School Librarian in which he observed; I was glad to see the recent post by John Kennerly, in which he […]