The Library Media Center: Touchstonefor Instructional Design and Technologyin the Schools

Echoing a goal that has long been held by the school library media field, these authors capture both the promise and the uncertainty that characterize any fond hope. In fact, many scholars and other leaders in the field have been vocal champions of a strong relationship linking the library media specialist, various learning technologies, and instructional design; however, the realities of life in the public schools have presented serious obstacles to the full flowering of this relationship. Today, as at other periods in the evolution of the library media field, internal and external changes affecting the school environment suggest that the library media specialist is poised to assume a much more active role as an instructional designer/instructional technologist than has been possible in the past. Understanding the nature and history of the field will enable school library media professionals and others to make a realistic assessment of the opportunities that lie ahead and to devise strategies to take advantage of them. This chapter discusses the history of the role of the library media specialist since the field began to emphasize a designand-technology focus in the 1960s; the various instructional design models created specifically for library media specialists to use in the schools; the nature of the library media specialist’s role today, particularly as it relates to instructional design and technology; the accumulated research on the impact of library media programs on student learning and achievement; and the issues related to instructional design and technology that are likely to engage school library media researchers in the near future. The chapter is intended to provide a wide-ranging context for a consideration of the issues the library media field faces in the early twenty-first century and to lay a realistic yet sanguine foundation for its future progress in the areas of instructional design and technology.