What is a Teacher Librarian (TL)?

As a beginning teacher, my experiences in school libraries and with Teacher Librarians (TLs) have been limited, but the first thing that has always come to mind when I have thought about the role of the TL has been as a facilitator of a love of literature and reading and of a manager of resources. This understanding I know now reveals only the surface of the TLs roles, and was informed by infrequent interactions with TLs and my role as an English teacher.

In my early teaching days I had to take each of my classes to the library once a fortnight, where they were required to “engage in wide reading of self-selected [. . .] texts for enjoyment” (NSW Education Standards Authority, 2019, p. 147). In one school, the librarian would lay a selection of books on the table for students before disappearing into her secluded office space. From this very brief experience I had understood that TLs were to provide the means and the space for independent reading to occur, but little more. At my next school this understanding grew when the TL eagerly recommended titles and showed students where to locate books they had found in the search engine. Here it was clear that the role included arming students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the library space and resources, rather than just staying up to date on popular Young Adult literature.

After recent experiences in my current school, however, where I have worked more closely with our TL, my understanding of what this role entails has grown further – and will continue to do so. It is also about engaging the school and the community to foster reading culture. In 2019, events like Book Week Reading Café’s, the Premier’s Reading Challenge and Book Club opened the doors of our library to “encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure” (NSW Department of Education, para. 1, 2018). I learned here that library spaces should be more than just a home for literature. But whilst TL’s do manage versatile library spaces and physical resources, it is clear that this is a very minor aspect of the TLs role.

Perhaps the most key component lies in the arming of students with knowledge to navigate their world – one that has increasingly blurred lines between being offline and being online (Floridi, 2007). I’m talking, of course, about the crucial role of the TL in teaching critical and digital literacies. In an age where students have easier access to more information than ever before, these literacies are more important than ever. And who better to teach them than the Teacher Librarian, who manages such resources? My current school library is a hub of online learning and research, with distance education and independent research occurring daily. The digital world is as much a part of students’ education as it is of their personal lives, and without the skills to critically navigate an ever-expanding infosphere, students run the risk of becoming overwhelmed and uninformed.

TLs will always be champions of literature, that much is evident. But their roles have changed as education – and the world – has. They stand as information specialists who teach students the literacies necessary to successfully navigate the infosphere and become active, informed and critical digital citizens.

Reference List 

Floridi, L. (2007). A Look into the future impact of ICT on our lives. The Information Society, 23, 59-64. DOI: 10.1080/01972240601059094

NSW Department of Education. (2018). NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

NSW Education Standards Authority. (2019). NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum: English K-10 Syllabus. https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/english-year-10/english-k-10