Preservice Librarians and Principals' Hiring Practice

Abstract

Every year, principals face the challenge of hiring staff to fill the open positions on their campus and may only hire one or two school librarians during their tenure. School principals can build a cohesive team to help ensure student success by hiring staff with strong leadership skills. School librarian preparation standards suggest that school librarians be educated to serve as leaders (American Library Association, American Association of School Libraries, & Council for the Accreditation of Educators Preparation, 2019). Moreover, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) advocates for the leadership role of school librarians in its mission statement (2018). Research indicates that transformational leadership behaviors apply to school librarians because they interact with the entire school community and may serve as change agents to positively transform their school’s culture (Smith, 2011). This study posits that principals often hire preservice school librarians instead of experienced school librarians. Therefore, there is a need to understand the relationship between the hiring criteria identified by principals and the leadership role specified in the school librarian standards. This mixed-methods study examines the criterion principals use to hire librarians and their alignment with the transformational leadership behaviors of preservice librarians.