Perceptions of School Library Media Specialists in Promoting Student Intrinsic Motivation

School library media specialists have a flexible role within the structure of a school's environment, which allows for a unique opportunity to promote students' reading motivation. This study qualitatively explored school library media specialists' beliefs and practices regarding promoting students' intrinsic motivation; specifically the strategies they use to promote students' motivation, and examine their own workplace motivation. A qualitative ethnographic framework was used to explore media specialists within the larger environment of a school system. This included a semi-structured interviews and informal observations. Four elementary public school library media specialists from low-achieving schools and four from high achieving schools from one district participated. The interviews explored participants' roles as media specialists and their strategies to promote students' reading motivation, collaboration with teachers, and how they situated their media center within the larger school environment. The results were an emergence of a model where the media specialist's role includes their beliefs, strategies, and responsibilities, which surround the heart of their role, connecting the right book to the right student. In this, the media center plays a role. The model encompassed not only the beliefs, strategies, and responsibilities the media specialists used to promote students' motivation, but also the media specialists' perceptions of outside influences on students. The outcomes of their roles connect with the media center, which in turn influence students' intrinsic motivation to read.