An investigation of preferences for activities performed by media specialists in middle school

This investigation explored the preferences that middle school personnel hold regarding activities performed by school library media specialists, with an expectation toward finding avenues to increase collaboration. A review of the literature established 6 broad categories in which media specialists function. These broad categories include: program administration and management, collaboration/instructional partnership, information access and delivery, leadership, school improvement, and staff development. Specific activities within each of the broad categories were identified from the literature and from a focus group of active media specialists. Respondents included middle school personnel within one large suburban school district south of Atlanta who were surveyed online and asked to rank the activities in each broad category according to how they believed media specialists should devote their time and efforts. Results indicated that the program administration and management category was preferred by most of the respondents, with the activity of ordering appropriate materials seen as the most important within that category. Surveys were also analyzed according to the employment position of each respondent in the school community: classroom teacher, administrator, counselor, other school personnel, and media specialist. Findings suggested that classroom teachers possessed similar beliefs to school administrators. Few school counselors returned the survey which led the researcher to conclude that more needs to be done to establish a working relationship with the counseling department within the schools. Most school personnel indicated media specialists work as support personnel rather than partners.