Jimmy Allen's blog reply to Deborah Lyman:

I would like to promote thoughtful discussion on this issue. To which I would like to ask Deborah Lyman, if I may please, you assert that being a school teacher is required to give bibliographic instruction. What if there are no state certified teachers who are also librarians available, Deborah Lyman? What if we are in one of the
47 of the 50 states that have an either severe, or very severe shortage of school librarians? Is it then still appropriate to exclude professional public librarians who hold a
Master's from an ALA accredited institution from the school libraries? Even if it means closing the school libraries? Is that in the best interests of American school children?

In the School Library Journal, June 2003 edition, Alice O'Grady Library Media Teacher Wilson Classical High School Long Beach, CA writes and says, "I chuckled when I read Jimmy Allen's letter in which he proclaimed that "everyone" knows that it doesn't take a teaching certificate to provide bibliographic instruction in a school library."


"Dear Jimmy Allen
This letter is a response to Jimmy Allen, who wrote in the April 2003 issue that "ALA-accredited library school graduates don't need to go to a teacher's college to run a school library or to teach bibliographic instruction…" (Letters , p. 15). I beg to differ—and then some." By Jan Ross, Library Media Specialist, Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Lexington, KY, in the School Library Journal, July 2003 edition.


Has my children's librarianship activism in "Get the Laws Changed!" by Jimmy Allen made a difference in the dialog in the profession? How is my editorial being used along with the very thoughtful review given to "Get the Laws Changed!" by Evan St Lifer, editor of the School Library Journal, in his very thoughtful review, "A letter to Jimmy Allen" in the School Library Journal's May 2003 edition. Well here's one example, here's evidence of it being used as a cited resource in bibliographies. For example by the Frederic School District in Wisconsin, as a "List of compiled research dealing with the impact of school library media programs on student achievement. They put together a good listing of bibliographies which you may find worth bookmarking.

This Is A National Crisis

As such with a critical shortage of school librarians in 47 out of the 50 states in these United States, shouldn't the laws be changed therein allowing public MLS librarians, who are graduates of American Library Association accredited institutions to work in the school libraries. Isn't that a reasonable step that can immediately be taken to help ameliorate this national crisis in the shortage of school librarians? Don't we as library professionals have a fiduciary responsibility to foster this type of a reasonable discussion within our profession? Please voice your opinions. Please remember there are no right or wrong opinions here, and we should all be tolerant of differing opinions within the big tent of the profession of librarianship.