The Changing Realities of Preparing the School Library Media Specialist: A Needs Analysis

• In Event: SMT - Trends, Issues, and Avenues for Enhancing School Library Media Preparation Programs

Short Description

As technology becomes more present in schools, the job of the school library media specialist is changing - both in the nature of the job and the way the job is viewed by stakeholders This presentation will explore how one graduate program conducted a comprehensive needs analysis to explore the current educational needs of school library media specialists and the ways the program could best meet the changing needs of this job with its graduate coursework. The results of the needs analysis will be shared and implications for the preparation of existing and new SLMs will be discussed.

Authors

• T J Kopcha, University of Georgia

• Elizabeth Pitman, University of Georgia

• Angela Chambliss, University of Georgia

• Christa Deissler, University of Georgia