This week there's been a bit of back and forth between two respected individuals in the school library field. Linda W. Braun, a project management and consulting coordinator for LEO, a library consulting firm, as well as an adjunct professor at Simmons (who taught the school library technology class I took, it was excellent) and Buff Hamilton, The Unquiet Library who is a school librarian in Canton, Georgia.
Linda wrote an article for School Library Journal called, “Next Year’s Model: Sarah Ludwig left the library, became a tech coordinator, and forged a path to the future”which talks about the work Sarah is doing in her new role as academic technology coordinator and how in many cases it's similar to the work librarians do. Buffy Hamilton took issue with this and wrote a response "Do I Really Have to Leave the Role of School Librarian to Do the Work of a School Librarians?" which questions the idea that one has to leave the role of librarian to do the work of a librarian.
I found both articles interesting and agreed with points both Linda and Buffy made. I agree with Buffy that one does not have to lose the title "librarian" to do much of the work that Sarah is doing in her school. However, I do agree, as Linda points out, that much of the work Sarah is doing could be the future of school librarianship.
There's a lot of discussion in the comment section Buffy's article, as well as on Twitter (@lbraun200, @buffyjhamilton). Both articles are definitely worth a read.
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