Collaboration is indeed the new “buzz word” in the field of school library media. Almost every issue of current trade journals has at least one article or column dedicated to the issue. Professional guidelines in ALA’s Information Power (1988) call for collaboration as essential responsibility of school library media specialists. Today’s School Library Media Specialists (SLMSs) are key partners in collaboration on three levels: collaboration with building administrators, collaborating with faculty members, and collaborating with each other. Each partnership plays a key role in student learning. Although success in any one of these three partnerships is to be commended, success in all three is essential to ensure the library has the maximum impact on a school’s success. By collaborating, teachers and SLMSs can create meaningful projects and lessons to enhance student learning. Collaborating with fellow media specialists helps share and spread these successful collaboration efforts and lessons learned from one school to another. The above artifact is a research paper I wrote examining the importance of collaboration for school library media specialists using current research from professional journals.
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