My first school librarian, in the first weeks of Kindergarten, told me off for drawing a heart next to my name and writing my N backwards on the card that I dutifully removed from the back of my chosen borrowing book, printed my name on and slotted into my pocket on the class borrowing board. Great introduction!

Despite her being a somewhat dragon-like visage, guarding a trove of literary treasure, our small school library was a serene space. My favourite books that she had curated included a pictorial history of our school, a biography of Florence Nightingale, and James Duffy’s The Doll Hospital. Nothing was considered hands-off – our exploration of the shelves had no limit excepting what we could physically reach.

Mrs Rasaiah was the first teacher librarian I ever met who integrated digital resources into their day-to-day practice. This library space was much smaller, with a noticeably more limited physical collection, but she was an admirably early adopter of online subscriptions and computer-based cataloguing. Each year she also managed a team of ten Year 6 librarians, selected from applicants endorsed by their teachers (I was among the lucky crew chosen in my cohort).

We had two teacher librarians and a library technician at my third school. The new library was only a few months old when I started Year 7, a blissfully light and airy space decorated in shades of blue and cream. For an Anglican girls’ school, the physical collection was surprisingly liberal. The librarians were formidable; information specialists who knew all about how the internet worked (this was 1997), how to synch up the video players in the library with TVs in the classrooms, who had booked the break-out spaces, and what our borrowing history looked like. They also, we discovered, held the keys to the school archive, which contained physical relics such as uniforms, progress reports, yearbooks, work samples, communication, and the requisite records of enrolment and student conduct. I underestimated these professionals at the time – they must have wielded a phenomenally broad skillset!

My most memorable experience with a librarian when I was in the classroom was with Mrs. Kemeys, who was a bit of a legend in the school community. She wasn’t a teacher librarian, but she took on many responsibilities of one – she provided lessons and materials for teachers with which to upskill their students in information acquisition at multiple levels, procured digital resources, consulted with teachers about how she could support them in their professional development, and maintained a dynamic, responsive, relevant physical collection as well. She was proactive and professional and created an inclusive, welcoming space for all within ‘her’ walls.

What I took away from these rich and varied experiences was that a teacher librarian is, in almost all situations, a conduit. They channel, to quote Ranganathan, the right books to the right readers (and vice versa), and maintain a physical collection as in times past – but they are also the path via which certain digital resources have come to flow through the school. I have learnt, in my capacity as an education professional, that the main point of difference between the role of a TL, LT and LA is that a TL is a connection between the staff and best practices/emerging pedagogies in the information resource field, specifically within the education landscape. I’m looking forward to expanding on these understandings, and seeing how the role evolves in the not-too-distant future!