Library Media Tech Talk

📌 Updated July 2026: This article was originally published in 2016. Since then I have observed these leadership concepts work as an Army National Guard Bandmaster, a Public Library Administrator, and in multiple School Library Media Specialist positions. They continue to endure the test of time. Recently, I have heard from many teacher librarian friends around the country (and world) that are encountering the effects of personnel and/ or budget cuts. This deeply saddens me when I learn of library services being cut back in any way. We should explore ways to be proactive to hopefully minimize these effects. Sometimes, no amount of promoting the library seems to make a difference when money is tight, but we should still make the effort to show the value of the library. It is crucial that we show the school, community, and world that libraries are an essential part of learning. We should strive to lead from the library and work to do this even from areas in which we are not comfort...

I have started another educational adventure this summer. I have wanted to start an American Library Association (ALA) accredited Master of Library Science degree for several years. I finally took the plunge to return to graduate school since our high school will begin offering an associate's degree program this fall. I thought it might be interesting to pursue the training of an academic librarian to better serve our students at Lakeside High School. I began study at the University of North Texas today in my first graduate course since 2009. One of the first discussion topics the professor brought up in the Web Institute class was "Why are libraries still needed?" This is not a topic I generally ponder in my daily mission as a school library media specialist. It is one we all need to consider since there are many people that think technology and the Internet have made the library an outdated resource. Because of this threat, we should strive to make our library ...