The integration of the real world with the online has changed the teacher librarian’s role dramatically, in terms of the class content that students now need, along with a shift in education to teach thinking skills, rather than the ‘knowing’ of facts. The online world has effectively created new jobs, new ways of working, as well as making some industries obsolete, as demonstrated by effect of online flight and hotel bookings on travel agencies. The Teaching Librarian must now have proficiency in diverse media formats that correspond to the curriculum and are pertinent to the goal of ensuring access to culturally rich materials. This involves granting access to information resources beyond what is currently available in the school library or within the current experiences of library users. 

This shift would also dictate that were is now there is an identified need for teacher librarians to apply evidence-based methods to the work they perform in schools (Hay, 2005; Combes, 2016). Additionally, the lack of Australian data with students within this trend would suggest that there is a demand for TLs to perform their own research in this field. The commissioned review “Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement” by the Australian School Library Association (ASLA), Lonsdale stresses the importance of conducting local research instead of solely relying on the majority of research findings from the United States (Hay, 2005). 

Hay’s (2005) 3 main criteria for change also dictates the need for TLs to work alongside course teachers to support learning and teachers by successfully integrating the development of information literacy and ICT literacy, and working with teachers to support the learning needs of students. Having the teacher-librarian collaboratively plan, implement and evaluate with classroom teachers to expose students to resource-based inquiry, and process learning through thinking and problem-solving activities. By providing training opportunities for teachers in the use of new information resources and ICTs and their use in curriculum contexts. 

Hence, the concept is that a Teacher-Librarian (TL) is an accomplished and highly specialized educator. As per the findings from studies conducted by Lipman (1998) and Payne (1994) cited in Sternberg & Subotnik (2006), an effective teacher exhibits the following traits: dedication, awareness of students’ needs, attentiveness to all students in class, consistent intellectual and emotional engagement, high expectations for students, and the ability to recognize both the weaknesses and strengths of students. 

Combes, B. (2016). literacy matters! literacy, advocacy and the teacher librarians. Synergy, 14(2). https://www.slav.vic.edu.au/index.php/Synergy/article/view/v14220163/14  

Hay, L. (2005). Student learning through Australian school libraries part 1: A statistical analysis of student perceptions. Synergy, 3(2). https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=034e820dd6f2230672da4982f80a7c8228fd8f0c  

Sternberg, R. J., & Subotnik, R. F. (2006). Optimizing student success in school with the other three Rs : reasoning, resilience, and responsibility. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA82395877 

Changing role of the TL and adoption of constructivist teaching principles could be exacerbated in response to the technological advancements (such as chat GPT), which aim to increase productivity by completing routine tasks within industries once requiring substantial formal education (Anton et al., 2020) while allowing more time for the completion of higher order thinking tasks by humans. Additionally, the alleged shortage of creatives due to a large-scale digital disruption of the job market has essentially created new professions which demand inquiry skills. The wave of digital disruption that platform-based labour (Hawamdeh et al., 2023) has affected the labour market in terms of workers’ required skill set, thus demanding a focus by schools on the teaching of inquiry processes for the development of analytical/cognitive, decision-making, and management skills (Kadir, 2018). Many argue that mastering this learning process is crucial for learners (Burton and Lyon, 2017; Rayner & Papakonstantinou, 2015; Tomlinson, 2008; Trilling and Fadel, 2009; Wartzman, 2014). The knowledge economy theory (Drucker, 1969) where ideas, knowledge and creativity are counted as the new goods and services of Industry 4.0 (Schwab, 2017) and Florida’s (2002) much-touted accompanying assertion that the job market is dominated by a ‘creative class’, portray a future with diminished employment opportunities due to automation and AI. In conclusion, this suggests the need for humans to develop social and creative skills which AI currently cannot replicate (Frey, 2019). This would also mean that there is a moral obligation to teach students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the group who suffers the most when job markets fluctuate, along inquiry learning methods.  Particularly because studies have shown that the main barriers to information literacy currently involve a lack of proficiency in electronic information research skills, challenges in English proficiency during searches, and restricted access to electronic information databases and digital libraries. (Mahdian & Shahram, 2012).  

These learners frequently originate from educational backgrounds where errors are not appreciated or viewed as chances for learning, leading to a reluctance to venture beyond their comfort zones, which inquiry learning demands, due to the fear of making mistakes and potentially feeling embarrassed. Much of Industry 4.0 has directed corporations to look at how they can re-design themselves to enhance the creative productivity of workers, and it is easy to see how this philosophy of effective learning environments would be beneficial in schools especially in relation to encouraged student agency and independence over their learning. Especially as information literacy and learning inquiry models seem to be designed for flexibility as they can be easily adapted for students and learners to follow an investigative process, or for teachers to plan a unit or provide a holistic overview to a curriculum.  

A key issue within the industry is the education budget, not only of the actual schools, but in the suitable training of teachers. The question of how to better prepare quality teachers is often asked and as yet still unanswered. The TEMAG (2014) report surmises that teacher quality is deteriorating and the solution is to intensify accountability regimes through increased levels of control. Why not train teacher to work with TL? Or the education of both to include inquiry learning in-depth, especially since historical expertise processes can differ greatly from one ideal for a science class.  

There remains a great need for appropriate training and development (which is appropriately scheduled and renumerated along with academic staff’s other commitments!) (Fang et al., 2021). Obstacles linked with inquiry-based learning include the intricacy of assessing achievements, tackling issues of low student involvement, recognizing overlaps in the curriculum, navigating classroom dynamics, and dealing with the overall challenging nature of this learning method. The approach remains difficult to integrate effectively due to the complexity of assigning grades based on students’ inquiry skills. Comprehensive training in these aspects would be beneficial, as my teacher education focused on curriculum content, pedagogical knowledge, and assessment without providing an opportunity to delve into effectively utilizing the library with students.  

References: 

Anton, E., Behne, A., & Teuteberg, F. (2020). The humans behind Artificial Intelligence – An operationalisation of AI competencies [Jun. 15–17, 2020.]. In Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), An Online AIS Conference. 

Burton, M., & Lyon, L. (2017). Data science in libraries. Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 43(4), 33–35. 

Drucker, P. F. (1969). The age of discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society. New York : Harper & Row. 

Fang, G., Chan, P. W. K., & Kalogeropoulos, P. (2021). Secondary school teachers’ professional development in Australia and Shanghai: needs, support, and barriers. SAGE Open, 11(3), 215824402110269. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211026951 

Florida, R. L. (2002). The rise of the creative class: and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York, NY, Basic Books. 

Frey, C. B. (2019). Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. Princeton University Press. 

Hawamdeh, S., Jeonghyun, K., & Wang, X. (2023). Chapter 3: Technology Innovation and the Information Professions – Foundations of the information and knowledge Professions. In Foundations of the Information and Knowledge Professions. University of North Texas Press. https://openbooks.library.unt.edu/information-knowledge-professions/chapter/chapter-3-technology-innovation-and-the-information-professions/ 

Kadir, M. A. A. (2018). An inquiry into critical thinking in the Australian curriculum: examining its conceptual understandings and their implications on developing critical thinking as a “general capability” on teachers’ practice and knowledge. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 38(4), 533–549. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2018.1535424 

Mahdian, M. J., & Shahram, S. (2012). Barriers and Challenges, Taking Advantage of New Technologies in the Field of Information Literacy from the Perspective of Faculty Members. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69, 2092–2095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.12.170 

Rayner, G. M., & Papakonstantinou, T. (2015). Employer perspectives of the current and future value of STEM graduate skills and attributes: An Australian study. The Journal of Teaching and Learning, 6(1). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Employer-perspectives-of-the-current-and-future-of-Rayner-Papakonstantinou/6e2300798dd5a8a31c59e4bd59636e8fdf149bd9 

Schwab, K. (2017). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Penguin UK. 

Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group. (2014). Action now: Classroom ready teachers. Canberra: Department of Education. 

Tomlinson, M. (2008). ‘The degree is not enough’: students’ perceptions of the role of higher education credentials for graduate work and employability. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(1), 49–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690701737457 

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. Jossey-Bass/Wiley. 

Wartzman, R. (2014, November 5). What Peter Drucker knew about 2020. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/10/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020