Serving Special Needs Students in the School Library Media Center

Book excerpt: School library media specialists are now considered part of the teaching staff and are charged with integrating their library and information skills curriculum with the more general classroom curriculum. At the same time more and more special needs students are part of every school and every classroom. Thus, the media specialist must work effectively with special needs students on a regular basis to develop their information skills, and must also serve as a resource to classroom teachers. This professional reference offers practical information to school library media specialists on how to serve special needs students and their classroom teachers effectively. The first part of the book highlights the teaching role of the media specialist and discusses how and what to teach special needs students. The second part views the media specialist as an information expert who must structure the library and its resources for students with special needs. The third section treats the media specialist's role as a professional who must collaborate with other teachers.