Description
Proudly offered by the combined campuses:
- Curriculum & Instruction Department, School of Education, University of Montana - Missoula, and
- Lucy Carson Library, University of Montana-Western
The mission of the library media program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information.
This mission is accomplished:
- By providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats
- By providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas
- By working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the needs of individual students
(from Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (1998), p.6)
The school library media specialist who administers this program has many roles. These include teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, program administrator. Through these roles, the school library media specialist provides: access to information, instruction in information skills, and recommendations for instructional planning. (AASL & AECT, 1998)
The mission of the newly combined library media program at The University of Montana is to prepare teachers who will comfortably fill all of the roles in the library. Three tracks are available:
- K-12 Library Media Endorsement
- Non-teaching Library Media minor
- Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Library Media Services.