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Lindsey La Barge
FRMS 7136
Information Skills Paper
October 7, 2008
Information Skills: Collaboration is the Key
Collaboration between teachers and media specialist is very important in teaching
students information literacy skills. Usually teachers do not venture into the media center
unless they need help with their VCR or need help changing a light bulb. There is so
much that can be gained by teachers and media specialists working together for the good
of the students. Students need critical thinking skills in order to succeed in either the
work force or post secondary education. The media specialist is the perfect person to help
students build these necessary skills, and help teachers continue to teach their students
information literacy.
Social studies teacher Joseph Brubaker feels that students should learn reading
comprehension skills from the media center (personal communication, August 29, 2008).
Mr. Brubaker teaches world history and has problems with students being able to
comprehend or remember the reading within the textbook for the class. This affects the
test scores of his students. He suggested that the media specialist host some sort of
reading comprehension workshop for ninth graders. Within his classes, he has many
different types of students. Some are more advanced than others. Mr. Brubaker has to use
differentiated instruction in his classroom daily. According to Karen Larsen, “the goal of
differentiation is to bring the ideas and concepts of the curriculum to the learner at the
pace and depth that is appropriate for the ability of each student” (Larsen, 2004).
Differentiation is just as important in the media center as it is in the classroom. In some

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ways the students that come to the media center for help are more differentiated than
those in a single class. Differentiation can be just as important as collaboration.
“Collaboration is a great way for us to impact student learning through
meaningful, curriculum-connected learning experiences” (Heard, 2007). It is important
for teachers and media specialists to work together for the benefit of the students. There
is so much that the students can learn from both media specialists and their teachers, so
working together only makes sense. Collaboration is the way to true education and
preparation for the future. “An effective library media center program ensures that
opportunities are provided for students, faculty, and staff to become effective users of
ideas and information and acquire lifelong patterns of learning” (Young, 2005). Even if
these opportunities are available they still need to be made known so that they can be
taken advantage of by the students and teachers.
Social studies teacher Keith McCrory stated that he believes the media center is
the perfect place to teach students basic research skills (personal communication, August
29, 2008). Dr. McCrory teaches AP classes and so his students need the basic research
skills that are required in order to succeed in any AP course. The main problem that his
students have is knowing where to find appropriate academic sources for their research.
Dr. McCrory has suggested that the media specialists come up with a lesson to show the
students some of the places that they can find some great academic resources. That would
help the media center enter the classroom.
English teacher Amber Strickland thinks that the media center should be able to
lead students to literature to support what is being taught in the classroom (personal
communication, September 22, 2008). Most of the students at Jackson County High

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School never even enter the media center because they do not think that there is anything
that can benefit them. Mrs. Strickland thinks that if the media specialist can offer
complimentary literature to what is being presented in the classroom, more students will
find a reason to visit the media center. She also thinks that the media center is a great
place to introduce online academic sources to advanced students.
Media specialists Pauline La Barge and Martha Babb said, “we teach the students
the best research and information access skills, such as how to use Boolean so that they
can get closer to what they are actually looking for. We teach students how to evaluate
websites for information accuracy and how to put the information they find into proper
MLA format, such as how to create citations and bibliographies for both print and non-
print sources. We teach students how to use GALILEO, NetTrekker, and other Academic
source sites. We teach understanding of the ethics of using resources including copyright
restrictions and the concept of plagiarism. We also teach our students how to use Destiny,
our online card catalog, to locate print resources in our media center; we also teach them
to understand the Dewey classification system. Another responsibility is teaching
students how to use the various technology tools such as software, a scanner, digital
cameras to best convey the information and ideas they learned in their research” in
response to the question of how the media center teaches students information literacy
(personal communication, October 6, 2008).
Mrs. La Barge and Mrs. Babb are always traveling between the classrooms and
the media center at East Jackson Comprehensive High School in order to offer what the
media center has to the teachers and students within the high school. They have also
started an extended day program. Mrs. La Barge stays until six p.m. one day per week in

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order to allow students one day to study for a couple extra hours. This allows the students
access to every resource that the media center can offer.
Media specialist Andrea Waldrip says that the problem with collaboration is that
the teachers really do not know the abilities that media specialist has (personal
communication, September 17, 2008). Before the beginning of the school year at Jackson
County Comprehensive High School, Mrs. Waldrip passes out a list of some of the things
that the media specialist can help teachers with. It is not a comprehensive list, but it gives
the teachers an idea of what is available through the media center. The problem is that at
this point in the school year is that the teachers get so much paper work, so most of them
do not even read the list of what the media center offers.
The problem that needs to be fixed in the Jackson County media center is finding
some way to make the teachers more aware of what is available through the media center
and what the media specialist can help them with in their classroom. Awareness of what
is offered through the media center is the key to collaboration. Carl A. Harvey II has
written a list called “What should a teacher expect a media specialist to be?”. This list has
twelve things that a media specialist should be. Some of the points on this list that
teachers need to be aware of are that media specialists are teachers, a media specialist is a
resource locator and a media specialist is a collaborator (Harvey, 2005). It would be very
helpful if every teacher posted this list by their desk so that they knew where they could
go for help. This list should also be posted in the media center for the benefit of the
students. It is “imperative to constantly advocate for the library and regularly show your
teachers how the media center can be a resource to them and their students” (Heard,
2007).

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Collaboration is the key to the success of the students and the success of the
teachers teaching students to be prepared for whatever they do in the future. Whether it is
information literacy, reading comprehension or research skills that need to be taught, the
media center is the place to go and the media specialist is the person to ask for help. In
order to take advantage of what is offered through the media center, there needs to be
some way to make what is offered known to everyone that it could benefit. There is so
much that could be taught through the media center. So, collaboration with classroom
teachers is the key to a future of well-informed and information literate citizens.

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References
Buzzeo, T. (2005 January). Collaborating from the Center of the Universe. Library Media
Connection. 18-20.
Harvey, C. (2005 February). What Should a Teacher Expect a School Library Media
Specialist to Be? Library Media Connection. 23.
Heard, J. (2007 February). Technology: A Tool for Collaboration. Library Media
Connection. 24.
Larsen, K. (2004 November/December). Sink or Swim: Differentiated Instruction in the
Library. Library Media Connection. 14-16.
Young, T. (2005 January). Better Data… Better Decisions. Library media Connection.
14-19.