Breaking New Ground

Library advocates frequently advise media specialists to share research and ideas with their principals. While there's nothing to lose in trying this, I wonder to what degree it alters how most principals perceive school libraries.

New workplace ideas are more likely to be accepted and implemented if they fit into one's existing understanding of how things work, how the various operational parts interact with one another. At work, as in our private lives, we make sense of things through their connections to what we already know or believe. Psychological research shows that when it's difficult to judge something's value—for example, when information is unfamiliar and complex—we usually rely on stereotypes. Research also demonstrates that we tend to easily accept information that confirms our beliefs and discount, or ignore, those ideas that challenge what we believe.

What happens when you give your principal a copy of Information Power or an article on how libraries enhance student achievement? In most schools, I suspect the effect is analogous to a seed falling on hard ground. The writings don't resonate with principals' long-held perceptions, especially if they propose a leadership role for librarians. How can we make principals more receptive to new ideas about library media services?

Perhaps the answer is to try to prepare the ground before we plant the seed—to develop a new context for these ideas, a context that clearly shows principals how they can benefit from our ideas and actions.

To accomplish this, we need to begin building strong relationships with the professional associations that serve administrators—groups such as the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. We should also encourage library association leaders to forge links with those groups. How will this help? I certainly mean no offense to librarians, but I'm convinced that principals will pay more attention to a research report endorsed by their own professional organizations than the same report sent unsolicited by a division of the American Library Association. Somehow, having someone else tell me how great you are rings more true than you telling me.

School librarians also need to target administrators' professional journals. Right now, school libraries and media specialists have little or no presence in these publications. But think what might happen if, month after month, articles appeared that described specific ways in which library programs contributed to school improvement, better teaching, and increased student achievement.

Surprisingly, it wouldn't take a Herculean effort to produce such a body of articles. A steady stream could be generated if those people who are now writing for library journals would submit similar articles to publications such as The School Administrator . The content—addressing topics such as copyright law and school technology—would fundamentally be unchanged, only the slant would need to be different. To break into print the first time, librarians might need to find an administrator to serve as a coauthor, but that would only serve to enhance their credibility to the principals reading them.

I have no doubt that this entire process—building solid professional alliances between organizations, developing a significant presence in administrative journals—will take a long time to achieve the desired impact. Still, if we don't start now, we'll be in the same spot 10 years from now. Frankly, I doubt that without creating a receptive context for our ideas, another decade of "please read this" will make much of a difference.