Libraries in 21st century circularize literacy in its true sense. In the yesteryear, libraries were mostly meant for scholarly research, school curriculum, college studies, and similar academic activities. But nowadays, advanced technology has completely changed the concept of libraries, from merely a reference centre to a fully developed media centre.

Following the advanced and well germinated role of libraries in today’s era of Information Technology, the role of librarians has also grown more responsible. As libraries have become media centers, librarians now act as Library Media Specialists (LMS) whose work also includes leading library members towards technology awareness.

Simply recommending the books to the students and finding out the books from library corners do not fulfill the job responsibility of the librarians any more. Librarians have now become an integral part of the media centre, helping students and teachers to easily browse through the centre for useful technical and non-technical resources.

Importance Of Library Media Specialists At Educational Centers

Library media specialists have now become an integral part of the schools, colleges and other educational centers. LMS work with students and faculty to solve the course curriculum. Educational experts have opined that the Human Resource team of every educational center should work in full capacity to appoint eligible library media specialists. An LMS must fulfill required experience in new media, and acquire skills for incorporating technology into the course curriculum.

Masters level in Library Information Science is the benchmark for preliminary selection of LMS post in any school or university. Though a degree in Library Science guarantees a promising career, the initial year for every LMS is granted as an induction period where the aspiring candidate works under an experienced LMS and learns the nitty-gritty of media library management. At the end of the induction period, candidate’s performance is assessed by a qualified library media specialist, along with this attestation on performance has also to be collected from the district head and library supervisor.

Media Specialist Lessons help aspiring LMS candidates to learn important job responsibilities which they must perform at the media centre. Today’s media specialist also works in collaboration with school and college faculty to bolster study syllabus and extracurricular activities for students and teachers.

Channelizing The Media Centre

It is the utmost duty of library media specialist to channelize the resources of media centre, and maximize its benefits for students, teachers and other visitors. Today’s media centre is knowledge plus technological hub which help students in gathering study curriculum resources. At the same time, it also helps them in meeting up-to-date information on current global civilization. One of the most important roles of LMS is to categorize different sections of the media center in a systematic manner for easy navigation of resources. Most of the libraries today use the online card catalog, to easily find out the section and shelf of the book. Placing orders are also made easy with online card catalog system.

Contrary to earlier libraries, where students used to spend hours browsing through book shelves and magazine racks to find relevant reference books, the new generation librarians have replaced workstations for easy access of books and resources. Media specialist officials have revamped the concept of library into a digital world, to work in tandem with today’s era of technological revolution. Mobilizing the ethical source of information and dissemination the power of knowledge and wisdom is what Library Media Specialists are meant for.

Awakening Reading Interests Amongst The Youth

It is the social responsibility of library media specialist to arouse interest of reading and gaining knowledge amongst the youth. As it is found that many teenagers and even grownups today are spending  less  time in libraries and more in surfing games and internet. Keeping this thing in mind, media centers are specifically designed to attract the youth with different interactive learning tools.

These communicative tools can be in form of books, e-books, online media, DVDs, quiz contests, movies shows etc. Recently, Book Talks themes sessions at Media Centers have become quite popular. Book Talks sessions promote youth participation in book reading covering varied themes of interests, for instance, social drama, mystery, suspense, thriller, film studies etc. LMS also organize these Book Talks through video presentation, to hold audience attention in summary sessions on theme chosen for discussion.

Evaluating Research Conducting Methods

Media Specialist should clearly comprehend and utilize the advanced research and analysis skills to help students in finding answers on intricate questions. It is best advisable for media specialist to maintain his/her own separate catalog on subjects of students’ choice. Now, how to create an LMS catalog is something interesting to learn. The first step is to conduct an interactive survey on SMART display panel. The purpose of survey is to find out the topics for research as per students choice and their difficulty level. It is now the responsibility of the LMS to conduct a model research on the topics of students choice.

Finally, all the accomplished research should be added to the separate catalog meant to understand the modeled research. Each research record should specifically mention the usage of various search engines, online websites, reference books etc. This technique helps students to learn the access and interior arrangements of the media center. An LMS can also arrange for questionnaires to review the research aptitude of the students on this exercise.

Promoting The Centre With Interlinking Methods

Media Specialists are most expected to be highly innovative, self motivated and tech savvy. Along with providing assistance to the students and managing the center, Media Specialists today are actively involved in interlinking the center within teachers and students communities. Creating a website, building a blog, and working upon forums are few important promotional tools to let people know what media centre has to offer to its members. These techniques definitely increase the student participation and enrollment in the media centre.

Recently, most media centers have been motivating students on creating podcasts to convey info on books and other resources which the students have accessed. Podcast are simple audio tools, in form of files, which can be uploaded on the website for other students to access and utilize.