CO-Dispositions of Exemplary School Librarians as Identified by Graduate Students

Emily Ratica

CO

Long, L., & Jones, J. j. (2016). Dispositions of exemplary school librarians as identified by

graduate students. (cover story). Teacher Librarian, 43(4), 8-12.

This article provides an insight into the important dispositions of what makes a good school librarian, at least according to graduate students working toward their MLIS. These dispositions include collaboration, leadership, life long learning, compassion/caring, and flexibility. These are all essential characteristics for a teacher librarian, and by developing these dispositions, professionals in the field can "cultivate their own dispositional strengths and improve any weaknesses in order
to hone their practice and provide the best library services to their patrons" (11-12).

While it is very insightful and a good reminder of professional practices, the article is also rather sweet in its naiveté.  It rather reminded me of what it was like to be in my teaching program - a lot of discussion about strategies, practices, and lesson planning, but no amount of discussion could prepare me for what real teaching was like.  The same applies to being a librarian - I did a lot of reading and discussing about professional dispositions, but I was not prepared for what would truly be expected of me as a professional as soon as I took this role.  The things discussed here, while extremely important, of course, are just the very basic functions of everything a good librarian does.  This is a hard profession, and definitely not for the faint-of-heart.  These "dispositions" are a good start, but there is so much more to learn that can only be gained through first hand experience on the job.