The University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) is attempting to reinvent the message that everyone should love books.

While no one is questioning the importance of reading, SLIS faculty and graduate students are diverging from the traditional library model and embracing a 21^st-century approach that integrates communications and technology literacy with the love of books.

SLIS put this philosophy into practice after securing a national grant totaling $881,692 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for two cohorts of students to go through a two-year program to become certified teacher librarians.

With the grant, SLIS fully funded 39 Iowans to become teacher librarians with a Masters of Arts certification. The first cohort graduated in spring 2010 and the second cohort in spring 2011.

“I’ve learned so much more about what teacher librarians can do for a school district,” said Jodi Schrick, a graduate of the second cohort and a kindergarten teacher at West Lyon Elementary School in Inwood, Iowa. “I didn’t know as much about technology. With the Internet, there is so much information that teacher librarians now have to go through. You used to have to get more information, and now it’s filtering that information and seeing what’s all available and how do I get what I need.”

In 2006, a change in the Iowa Code required that each Iowa school district employ a librarian with a master’s degree. In 2008, 112 Iowa school districts were without a teacher librarian. By 2010, with the UI’s help, only 54 Iowa districts were without a teacher librarian.

Program graduates from the first cohort teach in school districts such as Graettinger, Terril, Humboldt, Iowa City Regina, Mid-Prairie, Panorama, Waukon, and West Fork. Students in the second cohort teach in school districts such as Central Lyon, Fremont-Mills, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, Red Oak, and Ruthven-Ayrshire.

As part of the program, SLIS offered videoconferencing that allowed teachers to attend class from their home districts.

“If they didn’t have this program offered as a grant I would not have been able to do this program at all,” said Donna Salton, a member of the second cohort and a teacher librarian at Emmetsburg (Iowa) Catholic School. “The fact that the classes were over Polycom and over Illuminate, which the University of Iowa provides, I was able to do this program.”

SLIS does not have funding for the program in the 2011-12 academic year.

Jim Elmborg, associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science and principal investigator of the grant, said SLIS may reapply for the grant in December 2011.

“Federal funding, which everyone wants to cut, was critical for this program. But you have to think, ‘Here’s your federal dollars at work putting librarians in Red Oak and West Lyon,’” Elmborg said. “The key in the long term is whether or not we can continue to pay for the full ride.

“Will funding still be there? That’s a big concern. Is the state legislature going to continue to require librarians or will they change the code back? Those two things are out of our control.”

Graduates of the program see real value in the UI’s 21^st century approach to libraries.

“If your teacher librarians collaborate with teachers, reading scores go up,” Salton said. “Everything that the librarian does has an effect on reading scores for the kids. If you keep the librarians in place, and usually the number of hours per week is at least 30, then you see an increase in scores.”