Librarian Philosopher

As a Librarian (educator):

1. I am responsible for respecting the basic worth of each individual, while recognizing varying degrees of competence.

2. I am responsible for providing different methods of instruction, multiple media formats, materials to suit varying interests and abilities, in order to meet and increase different levels of competence.

3. I am responsible for allowing individuals to reach their own potential, at their own rate, and by their own learning style.

4. I am responsible for every individual entering the Library achieving some sense of success.

5. I am responsible for providing structure for those who need structure to feel secure, and for providing freedom for those who have learned independence.

6. I am responsible for continuing to learn about Education Theory, Interpersonal Communications, Human Psychological Development, Instructional Design, and Libraries in order to see that investments of human, physical, equipment, and material resources are strategically utilized for maximum individual benefit.

7. I am responsible for encouraging everyone to incorporate two values: 1) be considerate of yourself and others, 2) take care of materials and equipment.

8. I am responsible for modeling expected behavior.

9. I am responsible for organizing and codifying knowledge for effective retrieval.

10. I am responsible for creating needed knowledge, for making knowledge kinetic in people’s lives by mediating the application of appropriate information, and for involving individuals in actually mediating their own application of information.

11. I am responsible for delegating as much as possible to as many as possible so that the maximum good can be accomplished.

12. I am responsible for educating teachers about how using the Library’s resources can benefit and enrich their teaching, and for educating teachers how they can integrate their disciplines with related Library resources to enrich student learning and to promote effective Library use.

13. I am responsible for enticing students to learn how to think, how to communicate thoughts, how to teach themselves, and how to master skills of lifelong learning.

14. I am responsible for designing and implementing programs that interpret the Library organization in order to elicit meaningful information-seeking behavior from students.

15. Ultimately, convincing teachers to teach students information access skills in relation to their assignments, developing learning centers that allow students to learn on their own, and delegating clerical and technical tasks frees me to seek out the individuals who have not benefited from all the above and help them begin to take responsibility for their own learning.

16. I am responsible for realizing that I may never fully fulfill all my responsibilities but plan to have fun trying.

 http://library.springbranchisd.com/sbisd_library/director/philosophy.htm

Created by Dr. Barry M. Bishop March 19, 1979, edited January 31, 2000