I’m just a few weeks into my teacher librarianship (TL) training. I thought this might be a good time to reflect a little. These are my thoughts (in no particular order):
- Wow, I really had no idea that the TL world was so intricate, diverse, thoughtful, complicated, outward looking, people driven, technological…I struggle to find just the right adjectives! Only three weeks, and I have managed to navigate (although poorly), new terminology, such as: patron driven acquisition, bundled sets, selection aids, collection development and management, library ‘nostalgia’, the data-knowledge continuum, information landscape, artefacts, positivism vs interpretivism….the list could go on and on. In many ways, I feel that I have entered into another universe.
- I’m starting to see the overlaps. I was reading a research paper commissioned by the International Baccalaureate Organisation for ETL503, trying to get to the heart of the definition of international mindedness, when I realised, that I could use the same paper for a discussion forum for INF 447. Somehow, my brain had switched gears and I was picking out the research paradigm used (social constructivism) and the limitations of the research. It was an ‘aha’ moment. I absolutely love it when students have that ‘aha’ moment when they link concepts from one subject to another, (the trans-disciplinary ‘got it’ realisation), so to have my own quiet moment was encouraging.
- I’ve been in our high school library a lot over the past week. After many years, I’ve stepped out of full time subject teaching and moved on to a one-year permanent substitute teaching contract at my school. My 15 year-old son is virtual learning full-time (government regulations due to Co-vid). Therefore, it’s not good if we are both bouncing around the apartment, with me nagging him to death about paying attention when he is on Zoom lessons. My retreat has often been the library. It has been really interesting to watch from a distance the comings and goings of students, teachers and administration with varying needs and requests and to see how our TL has handled them all. She is also in the process of coordinating final Extended Essay drafts and running sessions on referencing and formatting. I was lucky enough to spend some time with her yesterday morning, in which I got to pepper her with questions such as…
Q. Do we have a collection development policy with selection criteria + a challenged resource policy? A. We do (and now I have copies!)
Q.What library management system do we currently use? A. Follet School Solutions / Destiny, which apparently many international libraries use – US based.
Q. Although our high school population overall has a high reading level, there is a small group of EAL students or students who struggle with long texts. How do we cater for these? A. Our TL recommends Orca, a Canadian company that publishes books which have a “High-Low” focus – high interest/engagement for lower reading levels.
Q. How well is the high school library budgeted? A. Very well, but she stressed the importance of budget maintenance…..advocating for the library, demonstrating its continued central importance in teaching and learning.
Q. Do we use bundled sets? A. No, our TL sources books on an individual basis.
Q. What are her ‘go to’ selection aids and book review sources?? A. The main ones she relies on are Titlewave (Follet’s selection aid which is very extensive, and books can be delivered ‘shelf ready), Booklist, School Library Journal and a Facebook group, International School Library Connection.
Further questions I’d like to ask (if she has the time in the future) would be:
Q. How do we cater for our mother tongue populations? (I have a feeling this area could use some work as it is not visible just on a ‘walk-through’, which doesn’t mean to say it is not there.)
Q. What current issue/trend does she find challenging as a TL at this present time?
Q. Does she have many members for our wider school community using the high school library? (parents/guardians/other caregivers?) What is our community “reach”? Do we intentionally “reach out” and if so, how?
Figure 1: Christmas cheer in our high school library
References
Seewald, A. (2020). [Christmas cheer in our high school library] [Photograph].