School libraries seem to have entered a significant era. While some of them may need to prove their relevance in this digital age, it is at the same time an immense opportunity to promote the school library from its storage status to that of a learning centre – the true heart of a school. Purcell (2010, p.30) suggests that if teacher librarians are doing their job well, they are “making a difference in the ways teachers teach and in the ways students learn”. It is with this high aspiration that we reflect on the role of a teacher librarian.
As the duality in the name itself implies, many different aspects of the role can be visually sorted under two main headings: teacher and librarian.
As TEACHER, the school librarian “empowers students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information” (AASL, 2013, p.11). Herring (2007, p32) identifies “developing information literate students” as the key role of the teacher librarian in today’s schools.
The teacher librarian helps students and teachers locate and use high quality information, challenges students and provides them with new learning opportunities. Lamb (2011, p.34) states: “School media specialists positively influence students’ research skills development, their motivation for inquiry, reading skills development, and nurture student reading interests.”
SLASA Teacher Librarian Role statement (2008) covers literature promotion in more detail, including exposure to a range of genres in both print and digital format, developing strategies to foster a love of reading, promoting best quality literature, etc.
In this role, active involvement in curriculum planning and collaboration with teachers and management are highly beneficial.
As LIBRARIAN, the teacher librarian is a manager of the school library and provides students and teachers access to relevant information in many different forms. The librarian needs to evaluate benefits of new technologies and their value for student learning on an on-going basis. Purcell (2010, p.32) emphasises that teacher librarians should “work with parents, students and teachers from every department and grade level to make decisions in selecting, previewing, purchasing, and utilising any new technology and resources in their school”.
Teacher librarians ensure efficient day-to-day running of the library, manage library system and other technologies used in the library, source, acquire and catalogue new resources. The role involves managing a library budget, managing library staff and effective timetabling. The teacher librarian is also responsible for creating a suitable stimulating learning environment in the library.
In practice, the teacher librarian’s role will be affected by many factors, such as the size of the school, its mission and vision, the curriculum, library budget and staffing, management support, etc. It may include many other activities based on how proactively is the teacher librarian involved in the school community.
According to Herring (2007, p.32), “one key feature of this role is the ability of the teacher librarian to adapt to new pedagogies in schools and to new technologies used by students”.
The complex role of a librarian requires many different skills, prioritisation, personal commitment and hard work. The right balance and focus on students’ learning outcomes are keys to success for an excellent teacher librarian.
References
American Association of School Librarians. (2013). Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs. Retrieved from Ebook Library.
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). Wagga Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Lamb, A. (2011). Bursting with Potential: Mixing a Media Specialist’s Palette. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 55(4), 27-36.
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), 30-31.
School Library Association of South Australia (2008): SLASA Teacher Librarian Role Statement. Retrieved from http://www.slasa.asn.au/Advocacy/rolestatement.html
Well done Michaela, Using a blog as a professional face is a good way to promote yourself to your school community as well.
Website design – a good looking website. Keep in mind issues for access for the disabled – this is now mandatory under federal legislation and will affect schools soon. Some general rules – avoid red/green colours (colour blindness), use lots of white space, avoid long paragraphs (website writing is more like newspaper writing), use square fonts (sans serif) such as Verdana and Arial for reading from the screen (serif fonts for reading from print eg Times New Roman). Acknowledge any images by linking back to the source. If they belong to you then copyright them by using the copyright or creative commons symbol and your name – modelling best practice.
Looks like you are well on your way.
🙂 BC
Michaela, Your first formal blogpost on the role of the TL is well written and organised, using academic conventions well. You have a good grip on the major parts of our role, and will I’m sure expand your understanding as we get into the inquiry and information literacy dimensions later in the course.
Well done.
Lee
ETL401 Subject Team