A video embedded in my module notes has lit a little fuse in me (Bonanno, 2011, 8:43-18:45). Addressing teacher librarians in 2011 on the rhetoric that TL’s are a dying breed, having to fight for their space, Karen Bonanno delivered a simple recipe for success. It is so simple, resonates so clearly, and is so immediately and obviously applicable, I want to adopt it across various aspects of my life straight away. But, we’re here to talk about teacher librarians, so I’ll try to focus my reflection there rather than on my health and well-being goals…

The five-finger plan to success: Strength, Focus, Brand, Relationships, and Little Things which Count. I was eating up her words as she unpacked these, so imagine my astonishment when she brandished a copy of a book co-written by Donald Trump as the source! (Trump and Kiyosaki, 2011). Well… I thought, he IS successful… And it makes sense. Bonanno formulates this plan as a “sell” because when those holding the purse strings don’t understand their teacher librarian’s worth, it is up to the librarian to convince them of their value. Regardless – to ever truly make a difference and be of service, we have to know our value, have clear goals, and be successful.

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Let’s put my misapprehensions about looking to wealth creation and individualistic success gurus for inspiration to one side though as we unpack the plan and how it might relate to teacher librarians striving to remain relevant in a changing education and information landscape.

1. Strength (thumb) – strength of character. Cultivate this by establishing your reputation. Blogging is a great tool for this! It is an online presence that give you and your ideas visibility

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2. FOCUS (follow one course until successful) (pointer) – not always practical, but have some specific goals with measurable outcomes, and see them through. When you jump from one thing to the next, you won’t be able to effect change, or truly make a difference.

3. Brand (middle finger) – Bonanno also links this to standards: Teacher Standards, the General Capabilities, even just asking yourself and knowing “what do I stand for?”

4. Relationships (ring finger) – cultivate your relationships with those you are working for and with: teachers, students, school leaders. Adjust your language so you can link conversations back to the curriculum and capabilities (ACARA), the standards (AITSL), and the services and resources (ESA) and how you are supporting the students, teachers and the school to achieve these.

5. Little Things (little finger) – what are the little things you do at your school which no-one else does? It is here that Bonanno highlights the creative critical thinking capability. This is where a teacher librarian can shine by taking the lead in bringing in and supporting inquiry based learning structures, digital literacy etc.
(KB Enterprises, 2011)

The link to the five fingers is memorable for all learners – look at and hold each finger as you recite the plan. I’m not going to forget this, and I see myself designing plans around my health goals and personal projects, and over time using it to create a plan and mission for my future career as a librarian.

Please just don’t use the five-finger plan to try and take over the world!

KB Enterprises. (2011). A Framework to plan your future. https://www.kb.com.au/framework-plan-future/
Bonanno, K. (2011). A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan [Video]. ASLA 2011. https://vimeo.com/31003940
Trump, D., & Kiyosaki, R. (2011). The Midas Touch: why some entrepreneurs get rich and why most don’t. Plata Publishing.

Scanning my memories of my brief teaching career for my understanding of the role of teacher librarian at that time has been… difficult. I’ve basically drawn a blank, and spent the last few weeks pondering.

As a prac teacher in a state secondary school in Brisbane, I recall my year 10 music class had a research assignment, and I ran a library lesson under my supervising teacher’s direction where they had an opportunity to explore resources the librarian had collected on the topic. This is my only memory of meaningful contact with the librarian at that school.

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During my first year out in a state secondary school on the Gold Coast, I recall being physically present in the library for child protection training, and for a couple of lessons timetabled in the library. These memories are of the library as nothing more than a physical space, where non-library related activities were sometimes timetabled. It’s possible there was no librarian. If there was, I must have had some contact with them, however I spent that first year barely keeping my head above water. I never proactively sought out the library as a teaching resource. I don’t recall being given tips or encouragement to use the library, though my memory may be failing me.

After that, London, where, as a day-to-day supply teacher, I didn’t even know where the library was. Then three years in a school for teenagers with severe learning difficulties. No library there. I was the teacher on staff who took the lead with the new interactive whiteboards and then supported my colleagues to use them. I spent an inordinate number of happy hours researching, writing, collecting props, and making playlists for my outlandish and original sensory stories for my students with PMLD (profound and multiple learning disabilities). Both of these are activities I can now see may have been supported by a teacher librarian if I had had access to one.

Age and experience make me want to shake first-year teacher me. In those pre-Australian Curriculum days (which I like to call “choose your own adventure teaching”) I could have drawn on the librarian as a resource, and created inquiry-based library lessons early in my English and SOSE units (though as a green, one year-trained teacher in the late 90’s, I barely knew what inquiry learning was). With my developing ideas of what a teacher librarian can contribute, I find myself imagining what I would do as a teacher librarian to support a new teacher.

It has been since my time as a teacher that I have become more aware of the role of teacher librarian in schools, partly as a result of there being a visible and proactive TL working at my daughter’s school. I’m planning volunteer days working with her as I navigate my studies, as I want to get a sense of a variety of environments. The academic library is the setting which seems obvious for me based on my career to this point, but the more I learn about the specific work of the teacher librarian, the more curious and excited I become.

Two things struck me as I considered the definition of information as part of my course readings this week:

1. The nature of information as a saleable commodity, and
2. The attributes of information – specifically that information is indivisible

Information as a saleable commodity

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The first point interests me as my current job has me dealing in the sale of teaching and learning resources, and therefore information. I work for a major academic publisher, promoting texts and educational technology platforms to academics as tools to support the delivery of their courses, and training them in their use.

On telling acquaintances at social functions what I do, I have occasionally been openly criticised, with people complaining about the expense of textbooks for their child or partner who is studying. After explaining the lengthy and labour-intensive process of developing a textbook, carried out by a large team of highly qualified professionals and subject matter experts, I ask what my acquaintance paid the last time they bought a designer dress or handbag, and how they perceive the inherent value of that compared to the textbook which likely cost less. I see a contradiction in the value we place in certain resources and goods, with complex teaching and learning resources having become devalued.

Not all disciplines rely on resources such as I describe above, nor do students working at a postgraduate level, but for a first year nursing or medical student learning Anatomy and Physiology for the first time, or an accounting or economics student in their very first unit of study, a carefully organised resource presenting the fundamentals of that discipline, supported by quality revision tools, is essential. And costly. All of the information contained within such a textbook or course is freely available somewhere, but to source, select, curate and present it so that it aligns with specific learning outcomes is a major and costly undertaking – and someone has to pay. I am under no illusions about the profit motives of most academic publishers, however I do see a contradiction in the relative value ascribed by some to quality teaching and learning resources.

What do you think?

 Information as indivisible

One of the attributes of information described in the ETL401 module resources is Indivisible: ”Goods used as materials like electricity and water can be divided and used, but information can only be used when it constitutes a complete set.” (School of Information Studies, 2021)

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I would argue that it can be divided and used in discrete parts, and it often is. The question is whether it should be, and of critical importance is the danger of doing so, and of being duped by this practice. The definition does go on to say that when this happens, the information is transformed and becomes new information or misinformation. Helping to educate young people about the prevalence and danger of the division of information for the purpose of wilfully misinforming is one of the things which most interests me about the potential impact a thoughtful teacher librarian can have.

For some further reading on this topic, Andrew J. Hoffman in The Conversation discusses the prevalence of politicians practicing the division of information and the challenge it poses for academics: https://theconversation.com/when-politicians-cherry-pick-data-and-disregard-facts-what-should-we-academics-do-79101

This module has shown me how much more there is to learn about information and has highlighted important questions about how we communicate, learn, and use information. I am daily dealing directly with information as a saleable commodity, and there are many points of contention around this. As well as being a resource which can be costly, information is also enormously powerful, with much potential for dangerous misuse. Libraries play a critical role in relation to both these characteristics of information.  They bring what can be costly and valuable resources to the public at no cost (in a society where this is valued and facilitated – a topic for another blog post) and librarians in their capacity as educators can help people learn how to consume information critically.

School of Information Studies (2021). Module 2: The Information Environment [Subject Resources]. ETL401, https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContentEditable.jsp?content_id=_4194235_1&course_id=_55148_1