“The library looks like a revolving door of classes,” Jennifer Sturge (2019, p. 26) writes at the beginning of her article on the readiness for school library collaboration. “Classroom teachers come and drop off their classes for a lesson,” she says before concluding, “the school librarian teaches… in isolation”.

What follows these opening statements amounts to a call-to-arms for teacher librarians [TLs]; an incessant urging that if anything is to change, TLs must actively seek out opportunities to demonstrate their value through the creation of authentic learning experiences that are designed to improve and further student outcomes. What needs to happen, Sturge argues, is for the culture of teaching to shift from isolation to one of collaboration, namely, collaboration between TLs and classroom teachers in the teaching and planning of units. For this to successfully happen, there needs to be sufficient buy-in and support from administrators and classroom teachers alike.

Although well articulated and full of practical insights from her own collaboration efforts, Sturge’s argument neither new nor unique. In 2005, Ross Todd and Carol Kuhlthau wrote that school librarians needed to work with classroom teachers to facilitate opportunities for students to learn, particularly when it comes to the development and instruction of information literacy. “This shared dimension of pedagogy,” they argued, “clearly plays a key role in maximising learning outcomes in terms of intellectual quality, the development of higher-order thinking, depth of knowledge, and depth of understanding” (p 86).

As the teacher librarian simultaneously straddles both the education and the information studies disciplines, their role in teaching information literacy is a given – it has, after all, been clearly outlined in the Australian curriculum (ACARA, n.d.), as well as several policies and statements published by Australian library bodies (ALIA & ASLA, 2018). In even these official documents – documents published by organisations that determine the education Australian children receive – the onerous for teaching information literacy seemingly falls solely on the shoulders of the TL. Publicly, this is not a collaborative venture between school administrators, teacher librarians and classroom teachers, as Sturge (2019) and Todd & Kuhlthau (2005) argue it should be.

The failure of the Department and other various bodies to recognise the value – and absence – of collaboration between library and teaching staff looms large for the future of information professionals working within schools. If TLs are to play a part in helping students successfully achieve learning outcomes and become lifelong learners, they themselves must find a way to combat this issue. Teacher librarians are more than just teachers, as the above image included from Alison Young (2014) suggests. Sturge (2019) has the right idea, and her voice joins the others that have gone before her.

Reference List

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n.d.). Literacy learning progression and Digital Technologies. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/3652/literacy-digital-technologies.pdf. 

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2016). Policy on information literacy. Retrieved August 3, 2019, from https://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/aliaasla-policy-information-literacy-australian-schools.

Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA] & the Australian School Library Association [ASLA]. (2018). Joint Statement on information literacy. Retrieved August 11, 2019 from https://asla.org.au/resources/Documents/Website%20Documents/Policies/policy_Information_Literacy.pdf.

Sturge, J. (2019). Assessing Readiness for School Library Collaboration. Knowledge Quest, 47(3), 24–31.