This interview was with , the media specialist at High School, one of ten high

schools in the System. I chose to interview because she has many

years’ experience as a media specialist. The following are Ms. ’s answers to the interview
questions, then a personal reflection of what I learned from the interview that affected my knowledge
and perceptions of the school library media specialist profession.

How long have you been a media specialist?

“I went to the media center in 2009, so I've been in the media center now for 12 years.”

How long were you a classroom teacher before becoming a media specialist?
“I was a language arts teacher for 20 years, and I've been teaching classes still as a media specialist. You
know, when I first went to the media center, I still had my AP language and composition class, and they
would just come into the Media center and we would do AP language. And since then, I've had a variety
of electives: current issues, speech forensics, and a couple of others. I prep students for academic
decathlon. So, I have those in addition to media responsibilities during the day. “

How have your past job experiences prepared you, directly or indirectly, for this position?
“Well, I taught for all those years, and I worked with teachers. And as language arts department
chairperson, I worked with people from all other departments as well as language arts. So, I like people
so pretty much it wasn't a huge stretch to go from working with the language arts department and other
teachers to working with the whole school and the media center.”

Why did you choose to pursue a degree to become a school library media specialist?
“Well, actually I have an add-on because I already had a bachelor’s, master’s, and a specialist in
secondary English education. So, what I did is I went to the University of West Georgia and got certified
by taking seven media classes that ranged from courses in cataloging and courses in just general media
things like doing a budget and all of the different library programs and three-year plans and all that kind
of thing. So, I did the same kinds of classes just doing the add-on, though a lot of people were doing the
media specialist master’s program and we were doing the same work. So, the University of West
Georgia, I think they're pretty much well known for their media program.”

What did you not learn in school that you wish you had?
“Good question. When I went to the media center in 2009, I was totally unprepared for the computer-
fix-it business. At that time, we had two full-time media specialists and an assistant. Because the state of
Georgia, right now, still has media specialists as a line item, and if you have a school of at least 450
students, you are entitled to a media specialist, well then we had over 1000 students at , so we
were entitled to two media specialists and we had an assistant. Anyway, over time we've gone to just a
media specialist and no assistant, no second media person. But what would happen is we would sort out
the responsibilities, like I learned literally how to fix computers on the job from the other media
specialist, and he didn't have any formal training except somebody had shown him how to do things. So,
we learned how to do things on Dell computers because that's where the problem would lie. The
computer wouldn't start or whatever, and so it was trial and error. When I had my exit interview for the
University of West Georgia, I asked them why we didn't do more computer-fix-it stuff, and they said,
‘Well, you can take our instructional technology classes, and in the technology classes not only do you
learn how to do instructional technology things, but we also do a whole lot of computer-repair kind of
things.’ But that was in 2005, so I'm not even sure what instructional technology does now. But since
then, like in the last few years, we have a designated technology specialist, you know, somebody who
was actually hired to fix the computers. So, I've stepped back from that in the past few years because we
were told that that's why they hired that person. Unfortunately, our technology person, he's wonderful,
but he has six schools and there are six schools’ worth of work orders in right now of stuff that needs to
be fixed at . I'm not sure how that plays in other counties. I'm not sure if they all have
computer-fix-it people, but that's the one thing that I wish I'd learned how to do in classes so that I
didn't have to learn it on the job as I went along.”

What experience have you had with cooperative program planning? with cooperative teaching?
“Well, cooperative program planning, you know we have a media committee, and we sort of sit down
and decide things to buy and how to best help teachers. That's not really cooperative planning though,
as far as media is concerned. I guess I haven't had a whole lot of experience with that, except that I had
co-teachers when I was in the classroom I worked really closely with. Some of the special education
teachers and I would divvy up what we were going to do and how we were going to do it, and we would
teach class. And then later, we had cooperative planning with teachers in our subject area, and we
would do that. Now, I just work with teachers as they want to come in the media center. I have a little
form that they fill out, and we kind of divvy up what I'm going to do and what they're going to do, and
we both walk around and help the students. But we don't do nearly as much of that as I would like to,
just because of a lot of times the teacher gets behind because of curricular demands and pacing guides
and all that kind of thing, and I get behind because of Title One inventory and library inventory and
textbook inventory, and all of those things that have to be done, so I don't do nearly as much
cooperative planning with teachers as I would like. In a perfect world, I'd be able to do it three or four
times a week, but that doesn't happen.”

How would you go about developing a strong team approach with other teachers? How would you get
reluctant teachers to utilize the library?
“Well, that is always a challenge. Thankfully, I work with a lot of people, and have worked with a lot of
people, who like using the library. They like spreading their students out, so invariably I can get my two
cents in even if it's not in a structured cooperative way. I have teachers who use the library every single
week, and they like being in there, and I always pull materials for them and do all kinds of things. But I
usually just give invitations to reluctant teachers, and when they come in once, they're pretty much
hooked, because they see that they get extra assistance with classes.”

How do you see the role of the library in the overall reading program of the school?
“Well, the media center is supposed to be the hub of the school, and I have many reading programs and
things that I've liked over the years, like Accelerated Reader. Not everybody loves accelerated reader,
but at least with accelerated reader or a program like that, there's an incentive for reading. With the
kids and their phones today, a lot of times they don't love books, they don't love reading. They just want
to maybe read or text on their phones, and with incentives that come from programs like Accelerated
Reader, I can at least get them in the door. And if I get them in the door, then I can find something that
they like to read. For example, I had kids last year that I've never seen in my life who came to the media
center just because I got a bunch of graphic novels and a whole bunch of manga books. I bought a whole
bunch of those on kid recommendations, and of course I research them too, because I've gotten burned
with graphic novels in the past. Some award-winning graphic novels have content that’s not necessarily
parent friendly, and as a result I've ended up with some books that I've had to weed from the library
collection shortly after buying them. So, I took student recommendations and did research and bought
sets of graphic novels, and last year I had more traffic through the media center just for those graphic
novels than any year that I know of. And I've really been trying to promote the young adult novels
because, as a member of the Peach committee, we try to find diverse books with an eclectic mix of,
especially fiction, for young adults. We look at the last two years, so like this year we're considering
books from 2020 and 2019, and we are trying to find the 20 best books for teenagers to read. And then
doing that means that we have hundreds that we have to go through to see if we like them, and I've
been adding young adult novels. Usually, if I can get students in, then I can suggest a novel or two, and
once I do that and they like him, they're back for more.”

How would you go about: (a) promoting appreciation and interest in the use of resource center
materials?
“Well, I do displays that usually are thematic or genre specific, that kind of thing. I have a center of
magazines on different subjects and we were talking about reluctant readers, and one thing I've found is
that my readers, especially some guys, who don't like to read, if you get some hot rod magazines or
some Field and Stream, or some science magazines, you can get a lot of reluctant readers in there that
way. I guess we could do posters and displays and things to try to promote interest in resource center
materials, but are we talking just like some specific science materials that are for a science unit or
language arts materials for language arts materials?”

(b) promoting storytelling, story reading, book talks, and other resource center programs?
“I have a book club. We really focus on the Georgia featured books because I have a Helen Ruffin
Reading Bowl team, and we do Flipgrid videos and bulletin board displays. I know it sounds old-
fashioned. but you know we've got bulletin boards all around the halls, especially outside the media
center, because they've added a few over the years, and the kids do the bulletin boards. So, that's one
way. I also do intercom announcements. Unfortunately, we don't have morning announcements that
are recorded anymore because our equipment broke, I think, and we don't have a class anymore, so we
just do regular old announcements on the intercom. At certain times, we do book talks or anything like
that; it's very seldom lately. But the Flipgrid videos work pretty well, and book talks. Yeah, I do that for
groups in the library in classes and things.”

What is your experience in leading professional development? Especially in leading technology-related

professional development?
“Over time, I have actually done less of that. When I first went to the media center, that's what I did,
from basic computer use, how to use the computer, how to use Word, how to use PowerPoint, to
Schoolwires, which was our school website. I would do planning-period instruction, individual one-on-
one instruction, not a whole lot of large-group. But lately we have instructional technology specialists
from the county now who have been hired to do large-group and planning-period instruction, so we just
schedule with them to come and they do it. In past years, I always loved to go io the Georgia Technology
Conference and come back and share with faculty members the things that I learned at those. But, like I
said, lately it's been our technology specialists from the county. People at school will give a list of things
that they would like more instruction on, and then we'll schedule with our instructional technology
specialist to come and do that. And really, at this point, I just do a whole lot of instruction when it comes
to students. Believe it or not, you probably know this from being in the classroom, students know how
to text on their phones, but they don't know how to double space, single space, indent paragraphs, or
do research. So, I spend a whole lot of time on basic computer knowledge with students, and basic
research skills. So, yeah, but with faculty not so much anymore.”

How do you ensure your own continued professional growth? In what areas do you feel you would like
to develop your professional skills and knowledge further?
“I'm always reading and always learning. And library journals and educational journals, along with, as I
said, I'm on the Georgia Peach award committee, so I'm always having to keep up with trends and young
adult literature. One of my weakest areas is probably historical fiction and sports. I try to buy current
materials, and so a lot of times I have to force myself to find sports books that students would like. It's
not that I don't like them. It's just it's not a particular area of interest or knowledge for me, and so I have
to work harder with that because I’m not so good on the sports books. But that's one place where the
Junior Library Guild comes in handy. We have a membership with Junior Library Guild, and I ask for
sports books every month. Every month, we get new sports books, and I can actually go and change
what they're going to send if I don't like the selections. So, I did that and I'm a member, of course, of the
Georgia Library Media Association and other places, and I read the things that they put out. Lately,
we’ve been working with like Canvas and some other initiatives that are coming out, so probably I need
more practice with that.”

Describe how you will create an inclusive space where diversity and equity are valued by all learners in
the school community.
“That's a hard one. I ask for teacher input, I ask for student input, and I look at data. Especially with
some of our reluctant readers and our low performers, I look at the data and talk to both the students
and the teachers. That's how I make the decisions about what we buy. Lately, I've tried to focus on e-
books because they are supposedly the wave of the future. But one thing that I've really found is, with
my real readers, we invested in some Nooks a few years ago that literally have hundreds of young adult
novels and classics and things on them, and the kids will check out the Nooks because they are a
novelty. But my real readers will bring the Nooks back after a couple of weeks because they want a real
book. So, I'm not sure how, you know, I'd say over 10 years ago they made it sound like we weren't
going to have paper copies of books anymore, but I think a lot of people feel the same way the students
do. They might like an electronic book for a little while, but there's nothing like a real book, and I think
they really feel that way.”

How do you ensure that you have appropriate resources for all learners in your school? How do you
include reading and instructional materials in both print and digital formats that represent multiple
perspectives and varying points of view?
“Well, I keep going back to the Georgia Peach awards, and I apologize, but you know one of the things
that we do in the committee is we look at cultural, religious, racial, ethnic, social, political, you know we
look at all of those things when we're choosing books to represent the 20 books that teens should read
that particular year. And so, I do the same thing on a broader scale in the media center. I look at what I
have on my list that I'm going to think about purchasing that's going to hit all of these areas. And so, it's
hard to do, but after a while it becomes a little easier to try to include everybody, all differing points of
view and thought. And I really try to push Galileo. Galileo has changed a lot over the years, but as far as
varying perspectives and everything, there is a lot on Galileo that meets those criteria, so I try to get
people to use it as much as possible.”

A few things stand out for me about ’s responses to the questions. First, what she said about
her “real readers” was interesting to me, that they might check out Nooks and read using the Nooks for
a while, they come back and turn them in and request hard-copy books. E-books really haven’t caught
on at the school where I work, either. Also, echoes what the other two media center
specialists I interviewed said about professional development—that they don’t do as much of it as they
used to do because most school systems have instructional technology departments with personnel who
have taken on that role. This is also true of what she said about a lot of the IT work, fixing computers
and interactive white boards and such, that media specialists used to be tasked with doing. Thankfully,
most systems have IT people that deal with the hardware now. But said that, due to
additional tasks assigned to her by her school, that time has been eaten up with things like Title One
inventory and textbook inventory, so she isn’t really able to devote more time to things like cooperative
planning as much as she would like.