Thoughts on name changing...

I think that as school librarians, we have done ourselves a huge disservice with the changing of names. (in both the space and our titles) A library is a library no matter what label you give it (information commons, learning commons, media center, information center, etc) The public and university libraries have not messed with the word "library" and they are not losing their jobs left and right. Public and university libraries have created community spaces to include all of the changes to the library world, but their label has remained the same. It's like when Bill Schutte had that quote in the paper about schools having designated reading centers. The general public has no idea what a media center is. The school libraries have been closed and now the "common reading area/center" is missing from school life. AASL has gone back to school libraries and school librarians.  (in 2010!!!) I am following their lead as that is our national professional organization.

I think we need to re-educate parents in our schools. Starting with going back to" the library". We do have a lab in our library, makerspace activities on certain days, but it all centers around reading/research. So, we are a library.

A library encompasses all the "things". In my mind, media = tv, journalism, radio, video, photography, etc.  I think inconsistency and misunderstandings tend to confuse our students, administrators, other staff and parents. "getting kids to love reading" specialist would have been better for our profession than media specialist and media center. So for all of the above reasons, I use the terms library, librarian and teacher.  To me, those clearly signify what I do and where I work.  I know there are a lot of opinions out there and I have spent a lot of time thinking about these things, but these are my reasons for making the professional choices that I make.