At the start of this subject, most of my experience with libraries in the primary space led me to believe three fundamental truths: that the main function of a teacher librarian was collection management, that the physical collection trumped the digital collection every time, and that facilitating engagement was more integral to the role than contributing to achievement.
It’s been a steep learning curve.
The only one of these that remains true is the first tenet, but even then, my understanding of ‘collection management’ has evolved to be almost unrecognisable from before. Both the schools that I taught in full-time were not able to facilitate the kind of collaboration that allows for a teacher librarian to explicitly teach information literacy. In the absence of that, which I lament elsewhere, the librarians (one a library technician and one a teacher librarian) had achieved almost deity-like status in the school for their collection management – both could match a child to the exact book they would see themselves represented in, and if it was no in the collection they knew where to get it. They knew which books to put into a particular teacher’s hands to kindle or stoke the flames of a positive classroom culture. They knew which of the teachers wanted to read YA or middle grade fiction for enjoyment, and which authors we were clamouring for more of.
Maybe most importantly, though, they were ruthless in their weeding. I did not realise it at the time but they were methodical, process-driven, and on a mission to create a relevant collection by ditching anything that no longer responded to our students’ needs. I think that has been my biggest take-away. It may be hard to do, but teacher librarians (indeed, all librarians) must be able to balance acquisition with deselection despite any personal (or external) preferences or unjustified biases (Hewasiribaddana, 2024).
Physical collections play a big part in establishing a library’s culture within a school. In most primary schools that I visit, the management of the physical collection is still the teacher librarian’s foremost concern but (especially in independent schools and public schools in higher socio-economic areas where students have access to individual devices at home and wish to access resources after hours) some schools have established subscriptions to online databases and borrowing privileges with external collections. In the secondary space, it seems to be reversed. The bulk of their collection access is through digital resources, including lib guides and e-textbooks or supplementary reading/viewing. I would be interested to know whether/how much active facilitation is done to support this transition in Year 6 or Year 7. In either case, collection development that takes into consideration a balanced approach is vital to future proof both the collection and learning community.
As an aside, I am thrilled to see an avenue wherein my undergraduate majors in policy studies and literary studies might finally prove useful!
Prior to this semester, I had no idea how many studies had been undertaken to prove the effect of having a teacher librarian on staff on academic achievement by students . The necessity of promoting a ‘school-wide culture of reading’ to improve literacy outcomes and engagement with literature is not a new one to me, though I did revisit some experts to update my knowledge of how to build it (Thom with Hermon, 2nd December, 2019; Thom with Hermon, 1st June, 2020). I admit my knowledge was seriously lacking about how teacher librarians develop a collection that aims to raise student achievement in other areas of the curriculum, though through breaking down some of the meta-analyses I have come to understand how policy-driven and curriculum-aligned acquisition and deselection (as well as certain kinds of collaboration with other staff) can play a major part in this process. For a teacher librarian, engagement and achievement do not have to be mutually exclusive goals. They can be intertwined and should be interdependent.
References:
Herman, A. (Host) (2019, 2nd December). Episode 52: Schoolwide Culture of Reading – Melissa Thom. [Audio Podcast]. School Librarians United. https://schoollibrariansunited.libsyn.com/schoolwide-culture-of-reading
Herman, A. (Host) (2020, 1st June). Episode 77: Virtual Culture of Reading – Melissa Thom. [Audio Podcast]. School Librarians United. https://schoollibrariansunited.libsyn.com/virtual-culture-of-reading