It is difficult to cast my mind back to early in my career, when I thought nothing could be more fulfilling than teaching my own English classes, and when I didn’t realise that the desire to become a Teacher Librarian was beating like a drum in my own heart. Back then, I would sigh happily when I entered the Library and the cool blast of air-conditioning would cocoon me, and I would run my fingers along the spines of the books with a mix of longing, wonder and awe. I would sit with my junior English classes and happily read with them, and think that the Librarian had the best and easiest job in the whole school. Back then, the Library seemed soothing, quiet and supportive: a place of introspection. I didn’t realise at the time that it was all of those things, but so much more: that it could also be a dynamic space which had the potential to radically alter a school learning culture, that could foster collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, and that it could be a space from which one could lead and support teaching and learning throughout the whole school.
I guess I was too busy to notice, or didn’t have the time to think about it in more detail. Certainly, the Librarian would have been willing to help me with resources, curriculum, the acquisition of information, but I didn’t know enough of what they did and I didn’t have time to ask. I only saw the more administrative side to things, the busy work, the duties that largely fell into the Assistant’s role: checking and returning books and helping students print assignments. I thought the Library was predominantly just about books – a safe haven from the technology that seemed to have permeated every other place of the school.
Paradoxically, I was both right and wrong at the same time.
When I thought about the role of the Teacher Librarian, in the years leading up to the decision to become one, it wasn’t just about seeing what was there in front of me. It was also about recognising the absences, about what wasn’t there but could be, if the right person found their way into the right role. I began to realise that a Teacher Librarian needed to be passionate and innovative, interweaving modern twenty-first learning skills and technological knowledge with the old-world belief that nothing is better than losing yourself in a good book, with real pages that you can hold in your hand. I realised they need to be proactive about engaging their colleagues, many of whom will under-utilise the space unless they are actively sought out, encouraged, and shown what is possible. I realised that they are a mentor. A guide. A multi-tasker. And the more I thought about it, the more desirable it became.
And here I am.
Image taken from:
Best Quotes About Libraries Librarians and Library and Information Science. (2020). Librarianship Studies & Information Technology. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2018/05/quotes-libraries-librarians-library-information-science.html
Thanks for your work, your blog looks great and will serve you well in your course. You have written to the task really well, good job! Congratulations on completing your first assessment, Liz