Gloria J. Reaves, a recent retiree continues to advocate for 21^st century libraries for 21^st century learners.

The School Library Media Center is a channel through which information is transformed into knowledge. I support the American Library Association’s affirmation of the benefits of a quality collection of books, current technology, and guidance from full-time, certified library personnel to the school community. These basic components of an effective library media program enable the learner to connect ideas introduced in the classroom to the real world. Students learn to evaluate websites, search reliable databases, and use critical thinking skills to satisfy personal and academic inquires. There are several reputable studies documenting the impact of quality school libraries on student achievement, evident by increasing standardized test scores, which is the result of growing literacy skills. Through the Library Media Center, students learn how-to learn. The role of the Library Media Specialist is continuously evolving to stimulate creativity and innovation in learners.

The Library Media Specialist is a professional educator skilled in collaborating with the school community. Collaborative work with teaching professionals ensures that students are actively preparing to successfully compete in a global economy. Through teacher and Library Media Specialist collaboration learners learn to inquire, locate, evaluate and use information to solve problems and produce knowledge. They, also acquire communicative and interactive skills that exemplify 21^st century learning. The one-classroom, one-teacher isolationist model is passé.

Critical to the process of preparing students for 21^st century productivity is district and local school administrators’ understanding of the connection between skills learners need, and how they acquire them for success academically, in careers, and in life. All stake holders benefit when the principal, as educational leader, works with the Library Media Specialist and the school community to design a program that enables learners to develop the skills needed to navigate and convert to useful knowledge the vast amount of information now available in print and digital formats. This type of informed, visionary leadership is important in developing quality schools capable of educating present and future generations.

As a library media specialist and educator in an urban school system for nearly 2 decades, I have often witnessed library media centers close and library media specialists eliminated in schools in poorer sections of the city where they are most needed. It is a continuous cycle of setbacks for students who are struggling to catch up academically and reach a level that will enable them to be productive citizens in a global community. We do not live in a vacuum and this inequity in education will adversely impact all of us. Harold Howe, former U.S. Commissioner of Education said it best when he said "What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education." I wholeheartedly agree, yet not only a school but a school system, and ultimately a nation.

I am forming a non-profit organization that will communicate to parents, teachers, administrators and the community of stakeholders the importance of school libraries in 21^st century education. The School Library Media Center is a valuable resource for acquiring a variety of literacies, informing learners of the world around them, stimulating a desire and impacting the ability to make positive contributions to humanity. Everyone should know.

I would love to hear from you. Please email gloria.j.reaves@gmail.com.