The Value of School Librarian Support in the Digital World

Engelbrecht, Shannon.

CA

Ballew, L. (2014). THE VALUE OF SCHOOL LIBRARIAN SUPPORT IN THE DIGITAL WORLD. Knowledge Quest, 42(3), 64-68.

Summary: The author of this article, Linda M. Bellow, a journalism teacher and student journalism advisor at Great Falls High School in Montana, is speaking to high school librarians specifically about the staff and students' need to master in-depth research skills as well as non-fiction writing in many electronic media formats, from Twitter to full research papers. She also concludes that high school librarians need to talk to their colleagues directly to ensure the services they are providing are the ones that their instructional patterns want and need.

Evaluation: This article is the most detailed I have seen so far in addressing the need for students to master research and writing skills across the range of electronic formats. Students are already using many electronic resources for research and writing. Bellows effectively argues that teacher librarians are uniquely positioned to train educators at their schools to master these skills and co-teach mastery to the students. This article also counsels teacher librarians to remember to make personal "face-to-face" connections with other educators in addition to the electronic communication to ensure they "discover what teachers and students really want and need." This article is also going into my professional annual planning file.