Part B – Blog

My key learning areas (KLAs) are HSIE years 7-10, Modern History, Geography & Society & Culture years 11 & 12.  Working in an isolated rural area the classroom teachers are expected to teach outside of their KLA.  I really enjoyed the challenge.  My first teaching position was in an isolated rural area which taught K-12.  As it was my first year out, I was the unqualified Teacher Librarian (TL) for 11 periods a week.  I was extremely fortunate to have a Library Assistant who had been in the Library for years.  Prior to teaching, I am ashamed to say my understanding about the role of a Teacher-Librarian was that they were responsible for looking after borrowing and returns for the students and teachers and the teacher resources.  I was surprised to find out the teacher-librarian was much more than I imagined and working as a teacher-librarian in a central school gave me a rudimentary idea of the role of a teacher librarian.

As part of the role of the TL, I was taught how to accession, the ability to enable students to borrow and return books.  My role also included completing a stocktake, ensuring all teacher resources were returned at the end of each term, producing the end of year Library report and teach Year 1 – 6 classes for one period a week in the Library allowing the Primary school teacher’s their non-contact hours and it was a steep learning curve but one that I relished.  I understand there are administrative duties and a budget for resources required for the library and as part of the team, we are all responsible for not going over the budget.  As part of the teacher librarian’s role, they are required to teach the students.  However, eighteen years later the role of the teacher-librarian has changed dramatically. The teacher-librarian has several roles and as such, the TL’s role is similar to the classroom teacher regarding teaching programs, lesson plans, inclusive learning and quality teaching.  Whereas, the Librarian has an additional skillset of information technology – media specialists. TL also teach the students about cybersecurity, assist the student to become a lifelong learner and technology literate (ASLA, 2010, p.14). The teacher-librarian is responsible for library orientation for new students and this would include Year 7 students (ASLA, 2010, p.13). The TL has an important role of assisting the students to improve their literacy and in turn improve the student’s information literacy and their ability to enhance their research skills (Skrzeczynski, 1995, p. 64). The TL collaborates with classroom teachers to ensure the library has adequate resources for student learning. Marketing is another skillset required of TL’s as they show various information skills required to assist students to become better at research, critically analyse, notetaking, referencing and how to avoid plagiarising. To bring this to fruition the TL must be a good communicator and collaborator.  As the digital  revolution is changing as is the teacher-librarians skill set

Reference

Australian School Library Association, 2014, Evidence guide for teacher-librarian in the proficient career stage.  Australian School Library Association, Canberra, ACT, pp.1-22.

Skrzeczynski, Christine. Linking Literacy: The Role of the Teacher-librarian in Literacy Education. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Charles Sturt University, Centre for Information Studies, 1995. CIS research reports, Chapter 6, pp.62-77 retrieved 11 Nov 20.