Starting off this course, I thought that my understanding of the role of a teacher librarian was somewhat well developed. Well, I was quite wrong on that front. The teacher librarian is much more than a person that “mans” the front desk and the person that makes sure the library is well stocked and kept relevant. They are also expected to liaise with teachers and administration to ensure that the library is considered in all aspects of the curriculum and not as an afterthought. There are a lot more hats a teacher librarian wears. Within the school, teacher librarians are and should be seen as curriculum leaders, information specialists and information service managers. Ensuring that students and teachers are supported in their learning and instruction.
My understanding of the term Information Literacy was quite limited as I had not come across it before. However, I was excited to discover this new realm, much like Indiana Jones. As an English teacher, literacy was apart of my everyday practicum. There were targeted literacy programs, designed to assist groups of students with different issues, such as developing their sentence structure or the appropriate use of functional grammar and then there were the generalized literacy classes where they broke down meanings of texts and created their own. Though, when reading the definition provided by UNESCO, I realized that Information Literacy was much more than my initial thought of it relating to just technology. “Information literacy (IL) is described in the Alexandria Proclamation of 2005, as essential for individuals to achieve personal, social, occupational and educational goals.” (Catts & Lau, 2008, p.9), it is more about the holistic approach to education, one that students will carry with them through the rest of their lives rather than just focused in the classroom.
As I kept digging through the course, I found that Information Literacy was also attached to models of teaching. Teacher librarians and classroom teachers should be thought of as a team in these models and not as their own separate entities. Information Literacy models are heavily linked with the inquiry process, that is heavily referenced in the Australian Curriculum, however, Mandy Lupton (2014) suggests that the link between the two is not as defined and therefore makes it difficult for the teacher librarians to implement effectively (p. 15). While reading through I discovered that there were elements of various models that had been implemented into my school though there wasn’t a great connection with the teacher librarian. There was an inquiry process in place, however, it wasn’t entrenched within the library program meaning that students lost that opportunity to build a connection with the teacher librarian. The teacher librarian in a school is the equivalent to an academic support team at a university. They are there to support the students and the teachers in developing and growing their research skills in a way that they are able to transfer from school life to everyday life. I feel that Guided Inquiry and the Big6 approach handles this aspect of thinking quite well as there is vested support and guidance for the students, they are not completely left to their own devices. Students grow and learn better when they know they have that support behind them.
Had there been the input of the teacher librarian within the inquiry unit, there would have been a marked improvement in the assessments the students produced.
Throughout this unit, I have discovered many things involved with being a teacher librarian. The library is not considered a single use space anymore, a place to look at books and study privately, but one that takes on a virtual form as well. With the physical space adapting to modern day needs, so too does the teacher librarian. We, as information specialists, must grow and try to meet the needs of our community to better help them with their goals and their learning in general.
References:
Catts, R., & Lau, J. (2008). Towards Information Literacy Indicators, UNESCO: Paris.
Lipton, M. (2012). Inquiry skills in the Australian Curriculum. Access, 26(2), 12- 18. Retrieved from https://search-informit-com- au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=584040093322031;res=IELAPA