The perceptions of high school teachers on the roles and responsibilities of library media specialists

Teachers do not recognize the instructional expertise of high school library media specialists (LMS). The purpose of this nonexperimental research was to examine the perceptions of state-certified teachers regarding LMS. Using collaboration and social constructivist learning theories, teachers at 3 high schools in Georgia were interviewed regarding the roles and responsibilities of LMS. The primary research question asked how the perceptions of teachers on the practices of the role of the school LMS differ from the way they perceive these roles to be important at their high schools. The secondary research questions addressed the correlations between high school teachers' demographic information and both the importance of and the practice of the roles of the high school LMS. Quantitative data were collected through a survey developed by McCracken. A paired-sample t test was used to compare the theoretical and practical scales in each category of the LMS roles and a Spearman rank-ordered correlations test was used to compare the 13 descriptive variables to theoretical and practical scales. Teacher participants reported each of the roles of the LMS to be more important than what is actually being practiced in their school settings and similar views on both the practice scale and importance scale. Institutes of higher education, professional development providers, and teacher organizations may benefit from having an awareness of the roles of the LMS for academic improvement at schools. Social change implications include community and educator awareness of the role of the school LMS, an increased educator awareness of the roles of a state-certified school LMS to compliment the high school curriculum, and an increased awareness for the need of a school LMS in public school settings.