Inservice and preservice teachers' attitudes towards working cooperatively with school librarians

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if attitudes toward working cooperatively with school librarians in the instructional process differ between preservice education students and practicing teachers. The assumption for this study was that attitudes change as the result of teachers' knowledge about and experience with the attitude object (i.e., cooperative work with school librarians) and that, therefore, experienced teachers would differ in their attitudes from those who are currently in the educational process. The results of this study showed no difference in attitudes between the two groups. There are indications in the results that while teachers view librarians favorably, they do not engage in cooperative activities. The implication is that librarians have no influence in the school environment.;The data were collected by questionnaires distributed to students currently enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh, School of Education, and to teachers who graduated from the same school and similar programs between 1986 and 1988.;It is recommended that schools of education and schools of library science provide their students with instruction in school librarianship and offer opportunities to practice co-operative activities. A four-step study is suggested to identify the significant variables that affect teachers' attitudes toward working with school librarians in the design, implementation and evaluation of instructional units.;The second purpose was to determine the factors that might explain differences in teachers' attitudes towards working cooperatively with school librarians when such differences do exist. A significant and strong relationship was found between teachers' attitudes toward working cooperatively with the school librarian and the degree to which teachers consulted school staff other than the librarian in designing an instructional unit. This relationship was found only in small schools with size of less than 500 students. Significant but weak relationships were found between teachers' attitudes and (1) their knowledge of the various roles of the school librarian, (2) teachers' knowledge of the preparation required for school librarians, (3) the number of different types of preparation for librarianship engaged in, and (4) the experience that teachers had with the school librarian when they themselves were students.