Leanne Bowler's Vision

Visioning Exercise for the Children and Youth Specialization

Once upon a time…there was a library school that trained children’s librarians. In the early days of this school, students graduated with a deep knowledge of children’s literature and storytelling practices. They brought this knowledge to cities, towns, and rural areas across the country and made a difference to the lives of children, helping to promote literacy and lifelong learning. Their work was based on respect for the child and respect for children’s literature.

A hundred years passed and the world changed. The book – the principle method for connecting children and stories – now took on many new shapes. Some stories could be read on small, interactive, handheld screens. Others were read on electronic walls the size of a classroom. Children could touch the stories in these books, listen to them, and even add to the story. The effects of all these new storytelling channels were not known and it became the job of children’s librarians to discover when, how, and where these various forms of storytelling should best be used.

During the hundred year development of this library school, the child’s information world also changed. The amount of information available to children multiplied and the traditional “non-fiction” section of the library, once the principle source of documented information for children, became just one of many ways that children could discover the world through information. It was no longer adequate for the library school to teach future children’s librarians simply how to select the best information – they now had to help children find, choose, and use information. They even had to build tools to help children create information. Teaching media and information literacy skills to children became a principle goal of the children’s librarian, adding to their portfolio of professional skills.

Children’s librarians were no longer just the keepers of books and the tellers of stories. Their role was to design the critical bridges connecting media (new and old) and the child’s need for story and information. What did not change was the respect with which young people and their media were accorded. Children’s librarians were now part of a larger professional group focused on the relationship between children and media. Called Information Professionals (Children and Media), they received a Master of Information, with an additional designation on their transcripts noting their expertise in the special population of children and youth.

The story of this library school ends with an image of how students in the new world of the Children and Media Specialization were trained. Once the exclusive domain of the Library Science Department, the Children and Media Specialization now wove its way throughout the entire school. Anyone interested in the interaction between children, stories and information, literacy, and media – whether through the traditional book, through handheld technology, or even via community-wide games and learning activities – applied to the Children and Media Specialization. Individual students followed their own interests within this specialization. Some in the specialization wanted to work in a public library and needed training in management skills and service delivery. Others chose to work in a rare book department or archives of children’s literature and were more interested in the children’s book as a historical artifact. There were students training to be game designers and who wanted to learn how to build games that could be a platform for children’s literacy development. Still others were interested in information policy and its effects on children’s lives.

What all students in the Children and Media Specialization had in common was a deep understanding of the relationship between young people and their media, in all its forms, and within the larger social, cultural, and historic context. All students in this specialization were well grounded in developmental theory, including theories of youth information behavior, and they learned how to apply such theory to the design of systems and services for children. All students in this specialization were trained in research methods and ethics and as a result, saw themselves as professionals with a responsibility to help build theory in the area of youth information behavior. Due to their broad, rich knowledge of children and media and their contributions to the body of evidence-based practice, graduates from the Children and Media Specialization continued to be a respected and highly sought after group of information professionals.

…And they lived happily ever after.

The Back Story…

Master of Information (Specialization in Children and Media)

- The Children and Media Specialization is an interdisciplinary program that seeks to understand the interaction between children and their media, with a focus on the developmental, cultural, social, and technological consequences of this relationship, in order to propose approaches to information practice that will improve the lives of young people.

- 2 year degree (16 courses or 48 credits)

- One year required on-campus residency (8 courses or 24 credits)

- Remainder of courses can be pursued either on-campus or online.

- Three required courses for all students at SIS. These courses would help to situate all of the specialties at the School into a broader, human context.

o Information and Society. Social, cultural, and historical contexts.

o Information Policy and Ethics. The legal and ethical framework.

o Introduction to Scientific Inquiry. Traditions and paradigms in information science research, research ethics, scholarly communication practices.

- Required research project or thesis for all students at SIS, during the second year.

- Students in the Children and Media Specialization must take four required courses in the Children and Youth stream.

o Child and Youth Culture, Past and Present.

o Developmental Approaches to Information Practice.

o Literacy, Media, and Young People.

o Ethics and Methods of Child-Centered Research.

- The four required courses in the Children and Media Specialization can be complimented with additional electives in the area of children and youth (e.g. History of Children’s Literature) and Library Science courses for students intending to work in libraries.

- The thesis or research project for students in the Children and Media Specialization must be a child/youth centered topic.

Leanne Bowler