I was a librarian before I became a teacher. I worked as a librarian in a busy public library in the UK and later as the information manager/research librarian for a domestic violence research unit at UNSW,  https://www.anrows.org.au.

 

When I completed my teaching qualification, I had not planned to teach for long and was looking to work in a school library at the first opportunity. I was always a little curious as to what the role would actually entail and how it would align with my previous knowledge and experience of libraries as well as my expectations of what I would be doing. I  imagined that a lot of the time would be spent with students working on reading, especially promoting the love of reading and literacy, as Neil Gaiman states that reading is, ‘one of the most important things one can do’ (Gaiman, N & Riddell, C 2018, para 1).

 

In some school libraries, there is collaboration between the IT staff and the librarians who manage the library systems and technology located in the library. In many school libraries, the teacher librarian is the leader in using and teaching digital resources. (Webb, S., 2015, p. 29)

All libraries require assets management of resources such as computers, laptops, printers, headphones and ipads and other assorted resources and librarians are often responsible for managing space, hosting events and storage and maintenance of media. I assumed that this management aspect would be part of the job.

I taught as a HSIE teacher for three years before I started my first teacher librarian position. I became immersed in classroom teaching and from this experience, I realised how little time teachers have to think of anything but the syllabus and planning the next lesson. As a new teacher, I spent hours searching for good resources to use in the classroom. I decided that as the school librarian, my priority would be to consult with faculties to generate useful and relevant teaching materials.

As part of my lessons with senior students, I had often demonstrated how to search and retrieve e-resources  from the NSW state library, using their dedicated HSC resources, and, based on the response from these students, I knew this was an area that I could develop as a teacher librarian. (https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/eresources/)

I also realised that while I was teaching, I used the library as a teaching space but rarely used the resources. This was an important realisation for me and I knew this perspective would underpin how I approached collaboration with faculties. I did however support and attend the variety of groups and clubs that used the library as their cultural hub and looked forward to developing these co-curricular events.

I know from my experience that there is a wide variety of roles that can be performed by the teacher librarian in schools but this is often shaped by the school budget and the culture and context that underpins the school and also the skills that each teacher librarian brings to the job. Each school has its own expectation of what the role of the teacher librarian will be while teacher librarians are a diverse group with a wide spectrum of experience and skills, training  and ability.

 

References

 

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018). Anrows. Retrieved from https://www.anrows.org.au

The Guardian.com. (2018). Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell on why we need libraries – an essay in pictures.Retreived from https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/sep/06/neil-gaiman-and-chris-riddell-on-why-we-need-libraries-an-essay-in-pictures

State LIbrary of New South Wales, (2018). eResources. Retrieved from https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/eresources/

Webb, S. & Ray, M.C. (2015). Teacher Librarians: Mavens in a Digital World. School Administrator, May 2015.
Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/pageturnpro2.com/Publications/201504/3167/65468/PDF/130743784049770000_SAMay2015FullMagFlipBook.pdf