Library Media

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Library Media program educates library media specialists for schools and small public libraries to be information specialists, teachers, instructional partners, administrators, change agents and leaders who

• develop, access, and organize information resources in all formats,
• educate students and teachers to use these information resources in support of the curriculum and personal needs, and
• engage the passions, curiosities, appetites for learning and love of reading in students.  

The library media specialist serves the needs of all children with their variety of abilities, learning preferences and cultural understandings. The library is important as a welcoming place in which students and other users can engage in self-discovery and self-directed inquiry, free to move beyond the familiar, without fear of failure and with the support of warm, personal attention. The program is rooted in and gives form and meaning to the principles of democracy: the right of people of all ages to intellectual freedom and the right of people to equity of access to information. The program offers

• Two undergraduate minors
  • School library media K-12 minor leading to a 1902 license with the addition of two practicum courses
  • Library science minor leading to Grades 2 and 3 certificates for public librarians
• Master's of Science in Education Degree- Professional Studies, with an emphasis in Information, Technology and Libraries incorporating the 1902 license 
• Licensure alone:  1902  level license for two different audiences
  • Students who have a bachelor's degree but no existing teaching license may choose to work on the 1902 license as their initial teaching license, not as part of a degree program, as post-baccalaureate students
  • Students who already hold a professional teaching license in another area or who have a master's degree and want to earn a library media license without getting another degree

The program also offers a graduate distance education program in collaboration with UW-Madison, and UW-Oshkosh for students in under-served areas of the state. This program leads to the 1902 license. For more information on the University of Wisconsin System School Library Education Consortium (UWSSLEC) or contact Carrie Lencho.