The moment I realised how important it is for schools to have a teacher librarian was the moment I realised what it’s like to not have one.
I had worked at a large state high school for 14 years. I loved the school and the students, but while it claimed to value high literacy skills, the fact a principal let go of a wonderful TL and didn’t bother replacing her said otherwise.
The library suddenly became a place where books were culled at an alarming rate. Reading spaces didn’t exist. Spaces to charge laptops became bigger and colder, lacking personality. The person now running the library did not make the students feel welcome – in fact, if you had to send them there on an errand, they begged not to go. This person was not a trained librarian, or even a trained teacher; it seemed it wasn’t important enough a role for the school to provide one. The library had become a place to work on an assignment, print it, then leave. This, I decided, was not at all what a school library should be.
School libraries should be the hub of the school – a place where students can curl up with a book, fill heads with words, and allow their love of reading to flourish; a place where the librarian may not know everything, but she (or he!) will try their best to find you the answer you’re looking for; a place where teaching and support staff can come in and ask questions about resources and how they can best fit their curriculum. In the words of the great teacher librarian Megan Daley, “libraries are community resource centres and operate to contribute to the betterment of their customers.” (Daley, 2019). In a school community, our customers are the students and the teachers. Their “betterment” varies from person to person, but what I take from this is that the role of the TL is to support this “betterment” – that could mean providing a safe place to an over stimulated child to take a breather; or it could mean supporting a teacher to find resources to improve upon their content delivery. It could mean rearranging the library space to create zones that work well for a variety of activities and quiet study, or it could mean arranging events like Readers’ Cup and book clubs to challenge and inspire students to step outside of their comfort zone. Like our “customers”, the role of the TL is going to be slightly different from person to person, depending on their own strengths and interests.
I have now been in the position of TL in my new school for seven weeks and it has been eye opening. I’m a lead member of a team organising a Literary Festival. I look around and see students curled up in the armchairs in our reading nook, switched off from the world. I see students laughing as they play card games or put together puzzles. I see students organising their debate teams, or fighting over who gets the next in a book series, or asking me for book recommendations. I see teachers coming in to ask about resources I’d suggest for their subjects. I see a school library, the heart of a school…and it’s truly a wonderful thing to be a part of.
References:
Daley, M. (2019). Raising Readers. St Lucia, Qld: UQP