Editorial-Knowledge Navigators

The mere fact that a national hearing on the status of school librarians and school libraries in the country was deemed necessary speaks volumes—loudly. The above headline refers to the title of the hearing, "School Librarians: Knowledge Navigators Through Troubled Times," held by the National Commission on Library Information Services (NCLIS) in late April (see News, p. 20).

So what's troubling the educational waters? Foremost, it's the critical lack of school librarians: fewer trained school library specialists are coming out of library schools; library schools are offering fewer youth services courses; administrators are hiring aides or even using volunteers to staff libraries; political and funding pressures are feeding the assumption that computers are the only resources needed; and the ruinous reduction of materials budgets is pathetic.

There is empirical evidence that proves that strong library media programs help students learn more and score higher on standardized achievement tests than students in schools with impoverished libraries. The equation is simple: better school libraries plus trained school librarians equals better students and better readers.

School librarians are navigators, leading the way of discovery for students; steering young people through channels of new technology; charting new waters with new formats and resources; facing stormy conditions on the sea of education; and ultimately piloting the ship that carries students on a journey of lifelong learning.

As navigators of information, school librarians are akin to the explorer Prince Henry the Navigator. Without sufficient funding and support, his ships would have left port only to founder at sea; without the proper navigational tools, his ship captains would have been powerless; and without skilled captains at the helm, the ships would have been adrift at sea.

For school librarians to become successful knowledge navigators, there needs to be governmental funding designated for school library materials; administrators must recognize and value school library media specialists as the crew of the educational ships; and library schools must return youth services specialization to their curricula. If the horizon of this vista seems far away, then it's time to raise the storm warnings, because a real and present danger is at hand.