The effect of experience, educational level, and subject area on the philosophical acceptance, the perceived assumption, and the perceived barriers to implementation of the instructional and curricular role of the school library media specialist

Current national guidelines advocate a curricular/instructional role for media specialists. This role involves three separate, yet overlapping, functions--information specialist, teacher, and curriculum consultant. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not media specialists in South Carolina philosophically accept this favored role, to what degree they perceive that they are assuming it, and what they perceive the largest barriers to implementation to be. Additionally, the existence of a relationship between the philosophical acceptance of and the perceived assumption of the curricular/instructional role and four demographic factors--years of experience as a media specialist, years of previous classroom teaching experience, subject area previously taught, and educational level--is examined.;Two hundred randomly selected media specialists in South Carolina were chosen for the study. One-half of them had previous classroom teaching experience, while the other one-half did not. Participants were surveyed using statements derived from "A Model Task List for media Specialists" which was developed by the Iowa Educational Media Association. These statements were descriptive of the curricular/instructional role.;Findings indicate that media specialists in South Carolina overwhelmingly accept this role (89.1%), that they perceive that they are implementing it on an occasional or regular basis in 63.4% of the cases, and that lack of time and that the competency is not valued nor understood by users are the largest barriers to implementation. No overall significant relationship exists between any of the four demographic factors and the perceived assumption of the curricular/instructional role nor the philosophical acceptance of it. Significant relationships are present between several components of the philosophical acceptance of the role and years of experience as a media specialist as well as years of experience as a classroom teacher. Significant relationships also exist between some aspects of the perceived implementation of the role and educational level, subject area previously taught, and years of experience as a media specialist.