As I reflect on this module of teacher librarians as leaders, I feel conflicted with feelings of being overwhelmed and also excited as I wonder of all the possibilities that lay ahead when it comes to being in the teacher librarian role. 

1. While assisting a parent in the library, his/her young child is running amok amongst the shelves.

I would excuse myself from talking with the parent and go over to the child by encouraging them to sit with a few books, or activities that may be in the library. I would also encourage them to collect the books that they may have taken off the shelf and put them on the circulation desk (as putting them back may pose to be a more difficult task). Once settled, I would go and address the parent again. This is all in the hope that the young child is willing to listen to someone, it may prove difficult if they respond with ‘no!’ 

2. The class outside the library is noisy and jostling each other whilst the class teacher is talking to a colleague.

I would attend the class and remind them of the expectations that are required when waiting for the teacher. I might nicely suggest that the colleagues plan a later time for their discussion, and they are more than welcome to hold it in the library.  

3. The class in the library is noisy and appears off task – under your supervision OR under a teacher’s supervision. 

Under my supervision, it would be necessary to refocus the class. Maybe the class needs a beak, do they need a reminder of the task? 

It is always tricky with another teacher’s class, as you don’t want to step on their toes. Maybe going over to particular students and engaging in conversation about the task and offering to help out with their work. A gentle reminder that they need to remain on task, rather than being noisy. 

4. It is the middle of report writing and you overhear two teacher colleagues complaining about the light teaching and reporting load of the teacher librarian.

This is a tricky one – rather than try and justify my role, I would offer to help. Was there anything I could do to help them? At my school the library coordinator is required to write report comments for all of the primary school students (they are often very similar) but she certainly has far more than me. 

I was attempting to answer these with a servant leadership style, but on the other hand you don’t want to be a doormat, where all the staff walk all over you, or expect you to step in when they are not in control. 

As a teacher librarian you have a dual role. One that is a librarian and one that is a teacher and being able to be a problem solver, information source and have knowledge of the curriculum, which seems like a huge undertaking. I certainly have hopes and dreams of how I would like the library to be, and what I would like to achieve, but I feel that I could potentially be walking into a mess and will need to pick up the pieces first before I can really delve into the full role of the teacher librarian. Then there might be the rocky road to establish myself as a teacher librarian, collaborating with teachers and leadership. Further investigation into advocacy, I feel is needed. It was a big topic to get my head around, and it may take awhile considering the library is currently running on its own and it will be a big job to update and promote the service that the library can be. What an overwhelming but exciting possibility. 

There seems to be so much to get your head around when it comes to library policies. The two main ones being a development policy which is the responsibility of the teacher librarian and the collection management policy which is more of a collaborative work between the library staff and administration. 

Both are vital in the work that we undertake in the library setting. At BCC, we have parts of the policies but they were written back in 2009 and haven’t been updated since. It appears to be the one document that covers: staffing, daily housekeeping, collection development, budget, cataloguing, processing, circulation, stocktake, donations and copyright. There is also a challenged resource guideline and form that can be filled out and the process taken if that was to arise. The problem faced is that the policy and guidelines currently followed are in the current TL’s head and perhaps she doesn’t have the time to update the policy. My hope is that I can work with the TL and be involved in updating these policies so when she decides to retire, the policies are already in place and can continue to be reviewed and implemented. 

Censorship is another issue that can influence what books are bought and placed on the shelves. It is certainly important to put your own views aside and ensure that topics cover both sides (where possible). I find that primary school topics would be easy to cover, but secondary is where I feel I would struggle – mainly because this is not my area. Collaboration with the secondary teachers would be necessary to ensure the right books and topics are being placed on the shelves and students are able to access them.

Since completing Assignment 1 for ETL503, I really feel that teachers aren’t sure of what is available at the library. Just like we completed for the assignment – one of the aspects I would like to implement is a list of resources that would be good to use for the topics covered in each year level. This would give the teachers better access to the library and the resources available. I know that this would take time but I feel it would be of much benefit.