In 2015, Kate Bonanno, former CEO of the Australian School Library Association, reflected on the future of teacher librarians and the uncertainty surrounding the direction of the profession. She noted that ‘the vast majority of parents of children younger than 18 feel libraries are very important for their children’ (Bonanno, 2015, p.18). However, her explanation for parental advocacy was linked to the traditional view of the librarian: a custodian of books and promoter of reading. Although this is an important and accurate element of the job description, many members of the community, even teachers, focus solely on this stereotypical image. One of my colleagues left a librarian degree because it didn’t explore books and reading in the way she expected. Our society tends to forget the myriad abilities and skills possessed by the teacher librarian. Often their title is separated and people struggle to see them as teachers.
In 2011, The Los Angeles Unified School District dismissed many teacher librarians after changing their job classifications. They were ‘told that they no longer [counted] as teachers’ (Chappell 2011). When forced to defend their livelihoods, school librarians were subjected to questions such as ‘do you know how to take attendance?’ (Chappell 2011). This attitude demeaned teachers who had been trained as educators and information specialists. In fact, some of these school librarians held higher qualifications than their classroom-based colleagues.
Why does society restrict us to a singular, simplified job title? Some teachers are sport coaches, year advisors and leaders, so why can’t librarians also be teachers? Like classroom teachers, librarians must plan lessons, contribute to school curriculums, create and find resources, manage behaviour and assist students. They also accomplish many other tasks in addition to those they perform as a teacher.
The Accountant Librarian:
Budgets change from school to school and year to year, so librarians must ensure they plan carefully and use their resources to develop a strong curriculum support system.
The Interior Designer Librarian:
Many students see libraries as a ‘safe haven’ (Gray, 2017, 36), so it is the librarian’s job to utilise what they have to create a pleasant aesthetic. Book displays and learning hubs are integral parts of the library and need to be planned carefully to promote accessibility and productivity. Our school librarian seems to reorganise the library every week!
The IT Support Librarian:
Modern teacher librarians must keep abreast of current learning technologies and trends. This means they are often the leading specialists on educational programs and digital mediums. The librarians I know run instructional lessons for both teachers and students.
The Secretarial Librarian:
Our school librarian organises library bookings and completes various resource orders for other teachers. She also schedules events in the library and completes the attendance roll for her tutor group.
Throughout our lives, we simultaneously hold multiple titles. Some of us may be parents, some of us may be pet owners and some of us may be volunteers. This unique amalgamation of roles and skills permanently influences our lives. In the same way, our experiences in the education sector accumulate; they don’t negate who we are.
References:
Bonanno, K. (2015). A profession at the tipping point (revisited). Access (Online), 29 (1), 14-2. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1672921504?
Chappell, B. (2011, May 27). L.A School District Tells Librarians: You’re Not Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/05/27/136727774/l-a-schools-tell-librarians-youre-not-teachers
Gray, M. (2017). School libraries as the third place. Access (Online), 31 (4), 36-37. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1964552788?
The idea of the traditional view of the librarian as a custodian of books is something I have experienced in terms of perceptions from students, parents and teachers in schools. You have highlighted how this is a very important part of the teacher librarians’ job description. It is an expectation of librarians to maintain and service collections of resources which should be readily available to students. Parents, students and teachers expect a collection of books and promotion of reading. These groups should be regarding teacher librarians as more than the ‘keeper of the books’ and the challenge is how to change this perception.
Limiting our understanding of teacher librarians’ specialist skills and abilities to merely cataloguing books and reading to students is alarming. The dismissal of teacher librarians and being told that they no longer even counted as teachers is heartbreaking. The awareness that often those teachers have higher qualifications and specialisations in teaching literacy and ICT makes this even more difficult to fathom.
The description of the multiple roles that a teacher librarian has is broad and encompasses the very often overlooked aspect of the creation of the safe haven in the library space. I believe that those creative and pleasant places are far more meaningful and underutilised at times. They aren’t simply spaces to look good and advertise books. They are spaces where students can go to feel secure, safe and loved. Teacher librarians can play a more significant role in pastoral care than sometimes they are given the opportunity to.
Hi Jae
Your blog template is unique, very beautiful and interesting but I found it hard to navigate to the assessment task. Scrolling is probably not the best means of directing traffic to an assessment post especially if the post heading does not match the task heading. I presumed ‘The Teacher/Librarian Amalgamation’ meant the community perceptions of a Teacher Librarian and went from there. As it says Assessment 1, I think I am in the correct place.
It might be beneficial to create links to posts like assessments from separate pages for different subjects on the main page. (From the link I found myself in the latest post that was for ETL503 which was confusing.)
Once into it, I found that you addressed the task very well and I particularly like how you integrated readings. Listing some of the roles is helpful. There are many varied roles for the Teacher Librarian to fill and the community is still largely unaware of them but with advocacy and effort our own school communities will soon know and this will filter out.
You were an encouragement to Amy with your supportive comment. Learning together is so beneficial.
Basically, you have referenced your work very well with just a few slips but please check even every comma when referencing. I suggest that, as you work on the literature review assignment, you download and keep the APA referencing guide right beside you. http://student.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/294977/APA-Referencing-Summary.pdf
Thank you for your post
Alinda