Assessment 1: 8 Roles of the Teacher Librarian
As an elementary classroom teacher for 15 years and counting, I have worked with many different librarians. All these librarians provided lessons and book check-out times for my students but the coordination of these lessons with my teaching was usually quite limited. Luckily almost every librarian I worked with wanted as many of their books as possible in the classrooms or in the hands of students (rather than on the library shelves). I very much agree with this philosophy, and it is one thing I appreciated most in the better librarians I worked with. Before working with my first true teacher librarian I would list the roles of a librarian as:
1. Knowing what the relevant books are for any group of students and to get these books into the classrooms and into children’s hands.
2. Budgeting for and ordering high quality books related to the curriculum and interests of students.
3. Organizing the library and keeping it organized, while…
4. Helping students learn how to the library is organized so they can find what they need or want.
In working with my first true teacher librarian at my last school I learned quite a few other roles the teacher librarian can have. While we had weekly book check-out times scheduled for our classes, library “lessons” were scheduled with the teacher librarian as needed. If we were doing a unit in which students would be taking notes or doing research, we could schedule a series of lessons to support them. Our teacher librarian was also an expert on curriculum design so she was able to support teams, for example, in the backwards design process when creating or updating units. From my work with this teacher librarian I can add to the list of roles:
5. Being an expert on digital as well as text resources, and helping teachers and students to access these resources (parallel with the idea of getting relevant, appropriate print resources into classrooms and into students’ hands).
6. Collaborating with teachers on lessons to support learning in and out of the library.
7. Supporting teachers in developing units.
And from the interactions within our teacher librarian group so far I can also add that teacher librarians need to:
7. Be research experts themselves, and be able to teach relevant research skills to the students and teachers they work with. (Again, this seems to parallel the need for teacher librarians to know the right books, digital resources, and now research skills for their audience).
Finally, in the international schools I have worked at there is always some kind of technology support and/or classes for students in order to assist them in optimizing the technology in the classroom (tablets and computers). I have been growing increasingly concerned that our students need to be learning about digital citizenship, but it has not been clear in my schools who is supposed to lead this teaching. Tech coach/teacher? Teacher librarian? Classroom teacher? I’m interested to know how this is done in other schools. So a possible final role is:
8. Teach digital citizenship and device optimization skills.
I am sure I will be learning much more about the roles of the teacher librarian but I’d like this list to stand as my ”before” attempt.
marla_robertson 
jennifer.reddan 
marla_robertson 
marla_robertson 
Judy O'Connell 
Hi Marla,
I’ve enjoyed reading your post and hearing your experiences in the TL role. Your list of “roles” for a TL is very comprehensive and it was nice to see you adding in snippets of your own experiences throughout and explaining how these had changed and/or added to your perceptions. Your list demonstrates just how complex and diverse this role is and the many different responsibilities a TL has. Like you I think collaboration is very important for supporting children’s learning. As you point out its important for TLs to teach skills to the teachers and children they work with. Through collaboration TLs can ensure learning experiences that are relevant, enriching and support children to build the skills and capabilities they need to be successful lifelong learners. Your note about technology and digital citizenship is also really interesting. I do agree that technology is changing the way children learn and that it will play a big part in how the TL role evolves and changes. As technology becomes more prevalent in our classrooms we will have to look at new ways to use and implement it but, as you point out, its still unclear whose role that will be.
Thanks for sharing.
Catherine