Big Bucks for Librarian Training in Maryland

The education department, the University of Maryland-College Park, and the Prince George's County Public Schools System will spend the next 12 months developing a program to entice minority candidates and others to become school librarians. Another aim of the program, which hopes to train about 25 new media specialists each year, is to provide Prince George's County with some much-needed help. At present, only 86 of the district's 180 schools have librarians.

Although Gail Bailey, MSDE's branch chief for school library media services, says that many of the program's details have yet to be ironed out, a portion of the grant will be used to establish two professional development schoolsâ?"the library world equivalent of teaching hospitals. The professional development schools will be based in either high schools or middle schools and will offer future media specialists a semester of on-the-job training with experienced school librarians and master teachers.

What's in it for those participating high schools and middle schools? The schools will each receive several thousand dollars to pep up their libraries, says Bailey, plus classroom teachers will receive the latest training in information technology. And students, of course, will receive more help each time they visit the media center.--R. M.