Letters

A reader wants to end teacher-certification requirements for librarians

It was with great interest that I read "Filling the Void " (June 2002, pp. 44–49). It made some interesting points and was very informative. However, there was no mention whatsoever of the tension that exists between teaching and the profession of librarianship in public school systems. It is as though we, as a profession, are too insecure to bring to the forefront an honest and intellectually well-founded polemic that interprets the reality as described in the article. And that reality is that professional librarians who have master's degrees in librarianship from programs accredited by the American Library Association are essentially not allowed to work in school libraries unless they are also certified teachers. This has contributed to a national shortage of librarians noted in the article.

The truth is that ALA–accredited library school graduates don't need to go to a teacher's college to run a school library or to teach bibliographic instruction, and everyone in the profession knows that. Some states have adopted a policy wherein school librarians do not have to be certified teachers. School counselors and vocational instructors don't need teacher certification because they don't work in an academic classroom preparing daily lesson plans—neither do school librarians.

Such policies will help to prevent the abusive practice described in Jean McClure's letter (February 2003, p. 15) in which school librarians are routinely pulled out of the library to be used as substitute teachers. But you have to care enough to write, first to your school boards, and then to your state legislators. Get the laws changed! Then school libraries will no longer suffer a critical shortage of librarians, because, like all other libraries, school libraries will be staffed by professional librarians with ALA–accredited master's degrees, just like all the other libraries in our country. Let's make a difference today because America's children are worth it.
--Jimmy Allen Business Library Consultant Seattle, WA

Here at Recorded Books our faces are red! We were mortified to find out that six words were omitted from School Library Journal reviewer Brian Wilson's copy of Wild Man Island ! We offer our sincere apologies to Brian and SLJ, and especially the teachers and school librarians who rely on Recorded Books to give their students unabridged audiobooks that match our print books word for word. Believe me, we know how important getting it right is for readers who are struggling to build their skills.

We've corrected the problem. All versions of Wild Man Island now contain every exciting word that author Will Hobbs wrote. And we've taken steps to ensure that this kind of problem never happens again.

All teachers and educators are invited to contact me personally with any concerns or recommendations about our products (800/638-1304).
--Jean Stephens School Marketing Director Recorded Books Prince Frederick, MD

As a publisher, I would not publish a book unless I fully believed it had something of great benefit to offer. It therefore stands to reason that I was disappointed in School Library Journal's review (Dec. 2002, p. 71). Although generous in her critique of the audio ("a lively, energetic reading"), the reviewer seems to have misunderstood an important point about the book. She states that Finny Finds Friends in the Forest, winner of a Graphics Excellence Award and two Dr. Toy Awards, "...has a lot of difficult vocabulary such as fabulous, frightened, ferocious, and footloose... and "The youngest readers will need some help decoding the text." These statements are inaccurate because this story is meant to be read aloud to children. Perhaps the story—about a fish who thinks the grass is greener and eventually finds out there's no place like home—could have been more suspenseful and humorous. But the point is that the story is appealing to children and covers a lot of educational ground that many other picture books do not. The concept behind this book and audio CD combination is that when a beginning sound is seen and heard repeatedly in an alliterative, rhythmic format, it increases phonemic awareness and creates a love of language and wordplay. When properly understood, Finny Finds Friends in the Forest works as both a linguistically entertaining story and an interactive, educational tool.
--Ann Marie Loiseau President Atori Publishing, Inc. Olyphant, PA

I based part of my review on my reading of the promotional material that accompanied the book and CD. The promotional material clearly stated that the goal of this set was to help children learn to read. Therefore, I made the statement about the difficult vocabulary on the basis of the promotional material. After speaking with Ms. Loiseau, she agreed that the promotional material was misleading and that the publisher was planning to revise the wording to more accurately describe the goals of the product. Since Finny is intended to be read to children by adults, then the difficulty of the vocabulary becomes more of a moot point. The story does contain enough words beginning with "f" and enough pictures of items whose names begin with "f" for children to become thoroughly familiar with the sound of "f". So, in that respect, the educational goal of this story does succeed. Ms. Loiseau states that the story is appealing to children. That is not surprising. Many books that are of lesser literary value appeal to children, as librarians know only too well. But pointing out that the literary merit of this work is not as great as most trade picture books is also not intended to warn librarians not to purchase this title. Librarians who have patrons requesting this type of educational tool may want to purchase it anyway, despite its literary faults. My job as a reviewer is simply to tell librarians as much about the product as possible, and the merits and demerits of the product, so that each librarian can make an intelligent purchasing decision.
--Beverly Bixler children's librarian San Antonio Public Library San Antonio, TX