This study explores Virginia elementary school principals' perceptions of the instructional role of the library media specialist and the origin of these perceptions. Principals who responded to the study strongly endorse the role of library media specialist as teacher of information literacy skills and as instructional partner. Respondents indicated that they learn about the instructional role of the library media specialist from library media specialists with whom they work, either in their current positions as principals or through their previous experiences as classroom teachers. Principals form their views on the basis of both negative and positive interactions with library media specialists and base their expectations of their current and future library media specialists on these prior experiences and expectations. Another key finding was that principals place primary responsibility for initiation of collaboration at both the individual teacher level and the school level with the library media specialist. These findings indicate that school library media specialist preparation programs should prepare their graduates to positively present and advocate for their key instructional role and that training in this area should be provided for those library media specialists already in the field. (Contains 7 tables.)