On the verge of the 21st century, media specialists have never had more opportunities to use technology in the library. At the same time, they have never been more torn between supporting the traditional roles of the library and the newly emerging ones.

While more sophisticated tools now exist than ever before in history, the patrons of the school library—the students—may know more than the custodians of the tools. This dichotomy has led to wide differences in how individual media centers work and what they offer to students, even in schools within the same district.

"I can't do it all," said elementary media specialist Sherry Wilk of F.C. Martin Elementary School in Richmond, Fla. "The school has 20 new computers in the lab and 10 in the media center, and I can't support that technology and still do my job as a media specialist."

F.C. Martin Elementary has a once-a-week technology assistant, shared with nearby elementary schools. Wilk persuaded the school's governing council to fund a part-time library clerk to do her most routine jobs but can't keep someone in the low-paying job.

Wilk's solution is to focus in two areas. The first is the specialized research and reference needs of the school, a magnet for Pre-International Baccalaureate studies of foreign language and international studies. A second focus is circulating curriculum materials into classrooms.

Instead of teaching younger students to do internet searches through the school-wide network, she helps them find a few useful sites. She finds that electronic resources provide more accuracy and currency in reference areas than print materials.

About 20 miles away, Kinlock Park Middle School media specialist Carole Ray and computer education teacher Jessica Wetmore together developed a cadre of students to work in the media center and on the school's Macintosh network. At neighboring West Miami Middle School, media specialist Karen Oberstein leveraged a team of students to support the school-wide Windows network and other technology, not just in the media center but also throughout the school. (See sidebar for a profile of Oberstein as the leader of a "high service" media center.)

Filling traditional roles

Today's media specialist needs to be able to use new technology to lead students into traditional technology, such as books, asserts Gary Becker, who supervises media centers in Florida's Seminole County, an affluent bedroom community northeast of Orlando.

Becker's concern is that media specialists who have technology skills and knowledge will be drawn away from their role of support for the instructional program into more technical areas.

"Teaching research skills with print and web-based resources is an appropriate function," he said, "because colleges are getting more into that mode." Because of the opportunity for licensing online reference materials that are more current than print material, media specialists need to expand to online databases. But the media specialist shouldn't become the network support person for the school, he believes.