Studying collection development policy has opened new perspectives in the way I understand the changing role of the Teacher Librarian (TL) in the emerging digital landscapes of libraries in contemporary Australian schools. It has increased my appreciation of student voice in learner-centred collection development beyond the guidelines of curriculum in creating a library that respects its young people as individuals rather than outcomes of curriculum. Likewise, I have discovered the opportunity to promote awareness of the information rights of young people that empowers them to take full advantage of their ideas and creations as critical to education in digital citizenship. Aligned with this shift in perspective towards the empowering potential of today’s school libraries, the significance of actively engaging in disability rights as the way to create better learning experiences for all greatly impacted the way I view the relationship of the differently-abled to information access, particularly in the digital information landscape. Above all, I have understood how today’s policy must create a space for reimagining the library as the site for the local creation and promotion of children’s culture that is globally connected and empowered to advance the rights children marginalised from democratic access to information. With the new perspectives gained, I am now more engaged in exploring the transformative and visionary aspects of future collection development using new technologies not only within information environments but to create new ones and realise the potential of the collection development as the door to a more inclusive and connected future for our students.
Within the context of Australian schooling the role of the TL is one that has become increasingly linked the achievement of outcomes-based education. I found the learner centred approach presented by Hughes-Hasell and Mancall (2018), while a step in the right direction in its acknowledgement of student choice as an aspect of decision making, still heavily biased towards the curriculum concerns of today. Certainly, almost all of the literature I encountered in regard to collection development shared common consensus that one of the most critical aspects of effective selection is that it considers the future needs of learners. It seems now more necessary than ever to draw upon the advice and recommendations of young people as we design new futures in education.
I became more engaged in this subject through reading about the importance of defending the right to intellectual freedom in schools and pushing back against overreaching filtering and other forms of censorship which marginalise young people from accessing information with the same freedom as others.(Batch, 2014) I wrote about the need to empower students with knowledge of their intellectual property rights and creating awareness of plagiarism that robs young people of attribution and ownership as an aspect of digital citizenship that necessary in today’s classrooms.
The issue of accessibility and disability rights has become a focus for advocacy in my practice as a TL, connected to my own experiences. The readings provided confronted me with my own lack of awareness of the need to close the gap between ambiguous guidelines that do little to increase the information experience and freedoms of the disabled and robust policy that not only protects but promotes the value of the unique information experiences of the differently-abled.(Palmer and Palmer, 2018 )
This expanding awareness of the transformative impact of inclusion on collections led me to critically re-examine concepts of authority in selection. I developed a more progressive attitude towards children as stakeholders, greatly influenced by Aggleton’s recent scholarship, recognising the current opportunity to support the growing movement of children’s culture. (Aggleton, 2018). Recently I have blogged about how applying the shifts in perspectives advised demands TLs to critically re-position our own understanding of our role in the lives of young people from providers to collaborators focusing on the ASLA Bill of Rights.
I can see now the foundational relationship at the core of new school communities is that of the child and TL as collaborators in creating a new space for the promotion of children’s culture. This has been a radical transformation in the way I view the utility of the library itself. I can now see the productive and generative capacity that school libraries have as new centres in children’s culture and the promotion of child rights globally. As I have recently addressed, TLs as leaders in information literacy can play a role in connecting our students to the global effort to advance the information rights of children.
Ultimately, through the critical examination of role of the TL as an agent of empowerment within learning communities has left me inspired to imagine the future potential for transformation of information environments that invite the creative powers of technology and children as makers. The exploration of the use of Mixed Reality (MR) technologies in education can now be embedded in the library and the experience of information seeking animated in new ways that transcend the brick and mortar limitations of physical learning environments which have traditionally been divided geographically, but more significantly socially and economically, as I have explored in recent blogging. Moving towards a commitment to embed new media literacy with access with opportunities to explore information in MR environments, combined with a dedicated concern for the welfare of all in the school community.
Now more than ever the library is situated at the centre of education, as the rapid changes in our daily lived environments have led to the physical dislocation of learning communities, as witnessed in the shift to online learning as a consequence of societal lockdowns. During this epistemic change the information environment cultivated by TLs has become a unifying nexus in a time of changing paradigms. No matter what the future may hold, what must be affirmed is a commitment by professionals in Teacher Librarianship to sustaining the library, as the central information environment of schools, as a place to escape the constraints of a world largely out of the control of students, leading a movement that empowers young people to explore with greater freedom to learn and grow in the way they choose.
References
Aggleton, J. (2018). Where are the children in children’s collections? An exploration of ethical principles and practical concerns surrounding children’s participation in collection development. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 24(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2018.1429122.
Batch, K. R. (2014). Fencing out knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 years later. American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/files/content/oitp/publications/issuebriefs/cipa_report.pdf
Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions.
Palmer, Z. B., & Palmer, R. H. (2018). Legal and ethical implications of website accessibility. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 81(4), 399-420. https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/2329490618802418
Thank you Jacob for a clearly articulated overview of your learning journey. When these types of Eureka moments happen, as indicated in your blog post, its important to remember not to just slide into the next fad or current issue. So while commenting about the need to sustain library environments to meet the changing world our students live in, be aware that this change will continue and as TLs we must change as well. All the best, June