Cheri Zahasky's Portfolio

For Advocacy and Emerging Issues for Media Specialists

In college I decided I wanted to be a teacher and I ended up getting my B.A. in elementary education for K-8 grades. In my second year I remember I needed to choose an emphasis or minor and I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to do. At the time I was working at the university library in what they called the Media Center . This was the part of the library that contained materials and texts that education majors used for creating lessons. I enjoyed working there plus I loved reading so I figured that maybe Library Science would be a good choice for a minor. Back in the early 1980s computers where just coming out and I had no idea how they would change the library field in such a short amount of time. I used computers a little when I worked at the university Media Center but they were Apple IIcs. I really started working on computers in 1991 when I went back to school for my masters’ in Educational Media, at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and have been working with them ever since.

I have been a Library Media Specialist for the last eleven years. The first four years I was the only LMS at a small PreK-12 district of about 300+ students in northern Wisconsin. For the last seven years I have been the high school LMC Director for around 600 students. At my current school I am also the Building Computer Coordinator. Most days I think I deal more with computers and computer issues than I do with the library part of my job. Many times I find it difficult to say if I am working as a LMS or computer technician. Though I would have to say there is a very fuzzy line dividing the two.

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