Library Media Specialists–Now School Librarians

The American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Board of Directors voted at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010, to officially adopt for the profession the title school librarian.

This has been a reoccuring issue for many years. In the 1950s when I was in elementary school the person who worked in the library was the librarian. By the time I became a teacher the person worked in the media center and was called a media specialist. Fifteen years later I went back to school so that I could work in the media center and I was happy to be called a media specialist because I couldn’t spell librarian without using spell check! We in the profession later became library media specialists and contemplated calling ourselves library media and information specialists….time marches on.

I’ll end my career calling myself a school librarian and thanks to spell check I have even learned to spell it.

To paraphrase Shakespeare,
“What’s in a name? That which we call a librarian
By any other name would still provide access to information and teach information literacy.”

What are your thoughts on the issue?