Is School Library Gatekeeping.

Let's foster a thoughtful polemic and discussion in the profession, attendant upon the issue of the tension between the education profession and the profession of librarianship. Let's ask ourselves are the teacher's unions really trying to protect America's schoolchildren from the alleged ineptitudes of professional public librarians who have Master's degrees accredited by the American Library Association in the school library? Or are the teacher's unions really primarily focused on their fiduciary responsibility of protecting school library jobs for their membership of certified teachers? What's your opinion? This is your opportunity to voice your opinion and make a difference in the 47 out of 50 states, where there is either a severe, or extremely severe shortage of school librarians. Please remember there are no absolutely right or wrong opinions. But there must be a meaningful dialog within this profession, that deals with what is in fact the deleterious effects of a national crisis in the shortage of school librarians on American school children. Remember the people who are being hurt the most are in fact America's school children. As members of the profession in good conscience, don't we have a fiduciary responsibility to create a meaningful indeed substantive dialog attendant upon this subject matter within our profession. From May '03 to September '03 the School Library Journal published opinions, letters and editorials which were critical of my point of view.The School Library Journal and it's staff should be congratulated for their leadership in promulgating and facilitating this critical dialog within our profession. As it adds value to our lives as professionals.

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.