I don’t believe that librarians are an endangered species and it frustrates me when I hear this phrase. Everyone becomes a dinosaur if they don’t move with the times. From the teacher who runs the same lesson sequence over and over to the person in the lunchroom who is fixed in their thinking and blocking other perspectives. This is just life. So, if librarians (or in fact, any other professionals) are not going to be flexible and evolve, they will loose relevance.
Karen Bonanno gave a really interesting keynote at the ASLA conference 2011:
Karen speaks about teacher librarians as an invisible profession. I think her take home message is that individuals need to carve out their own niche. Each professional needs self awareness, an acknowledgement of their unique experiences and to see where they can place themselves within a professional context. To be visible, the teacher librarian needs to be a leader within their school context. To implement projects and to have vision. To embed quality teaching and learning in the curriculum, to design and mentor in virtual teaching and learning spaces and to effectuate key capabilities within the Australian Curriculum.
I think there has never been a more exciting time to be entering this profession. As libraries develop more innovative space design, virtual collections, makerspaces, flexible learning environments and inquiry learning, the focus is on connections and leadership. The constantly shifting needs of users challenges libraries to evolve to maintain relevancy. I can’t think of anything more vital than addressing and anticipating the current needs of 21st century learners. To be able to engender a love of literature and reading, to develop digital literacy, to facilitate innovative inquiry and to give students the tools to research and become life long learners. I say, bring it on! This work is vital.