According to the Australian School Library Association (ASLA), the teacher librarian has three major roles. They include that of: curriculum leader, information specialist and information services manager. Their role is vital as they “support and implement the vision of their school communities through advocating and building effective library and information services and programs that contribute to the development of lifelong learners” (ASLA, n.d.). With the teacher librarian role existing as a varied and diverse one, many experts highlight different aspects of the role as a priority.
(Herring, 2007, p. 30) considers role of teacher librarian as multifaceted. He identifies the role to include teacher, librarian, information services manager, information literacy leader, curriculum leader, information specialist, instructional partner, website developer, budget manager, staff manager and also fiction and non-fiction advocate. Ultimately, Herring highlights the importance of “developing information literate students” (2007, p. 33) and that the library space to be first considered as a “centre of learning” before its consideration as a “centre of resources” (2007, p. 27).
Purcell (2010, p. 30) utilises the terminology of “media specialist” to discuss the role of the teacher librarian as leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher and program administrator. She sees the teacher librarian as fundamental in “strengthen[ing] the entire school community”, with the potential to offer improvements in broader school teaching pedagogy as well as in student learning and achievement. Purcell argues that this successful impact upon student outcomes involves the main role focus as being upon inquiry learning as the priority of the media specialist/teacher librarian, as opposed to an emphasis on the clerical/administrative duties.
Lamb (2011) also speaks of the “media specialist”, and coins the PALETTE acronym to categorise and highlight the skills, knowledge, attitudes and dispositions fundamental to the role. The role classifications in this acronym are organised into categories of: People, Administration, Learning, Electronic information, Technology, Teaching and Environments (2011, p. 28).
The key consideration however in all of the above role descriptors remains that the teacher librarian needs prioritise them in relation to the school’s broader contextual needs (Herring, 2007).
References
Australian School Library Association (ALSA). (n.d.). What is A Teacher Librarian? https://asla.org.au/what-is-a-teacher-librarian
Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information. (pp. 27-42). Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-876938-43-7.50002-8
Lamb, A. (2011, November/December). Bursting with potential: Mixing a media specialist’s palette. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 55(4), 27-36. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=f41ea691-37a5-4025-bd80-d5f1a89e03f1%40sdc-v-sessmgr02
Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the roles of a school library media specialist. Library Media Connection, 29(3), 30-33. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=daf294f9-37e5-49ab-9270-256012f38005%40sessionmgr4007