Logically, the state of school library budgets in Australia must vary significantly depending on the individual school, however in general, factors, school library budgets face similar challenges (Sheridan, n.d.) to those encountered by libraries worldwide, which include competing funding priorities, budget constraints, and evolving educational needs which can also differ depending on state (School Library Funding, Staffing, and Resourcing – a 10-year Review, 2020). For example, according to a 2021 survey of school library staff in the state of Victoria, only 55% believed that their school library budget was adequate, and with the matching budget concern of staffing, only 47 % said it was adequately staffed. This point would also have ramifications for necessary personal development and training opportunities for library staff. Likewise, a $16 million government funding shortfall over the next five years is expected in South Australia (Willis, 2023). The NSW government has recently announced that it will cut $1.48 million public schools this year leading to $1.4 billion over four years, which one can imagine how this will affect the school libraries (Zimmer, 2024)

1. Collaborator: In this role, the teacher librarian develops a community of people to support the work of the library within the school. This needs to be with teachers as well as administrators of the school. This gives the opportunity for various groups to pool resources when an expansion of the collection is needed, to maximize the budget to the full. A close relationship with teachers is necessary for the library to provide effective information inquiry learning experiences for students to ensure that the school library is understood to be an indispensable part of the school.
2. Steward: A steward gives the impression of a person who is looking after the library and constantly seeking opportunities to make improvements and grow. As a steward of the library’s resources, the teacher librarian carefully allocates the budget to address long-term needs and priorities as well as short term ones. This includes decisions over large investments which need to be made, either in terms of physical materials and devices, or training for library staff.
3. Thinker: Closely related to the role of steward, the role of thinker is always looking for ways to optimize the service which the library provides. Optimizing resources requires the teacher librarian to think and plan strategically, and research any innovative measures (such as updating digital subscriptions, strengthening relationship with other libraries and evaluating current collections) thoroughly.

Heffernan, M. (2023, July 15). School libraries in Victoria suffer from shortage of resources, qualifications. The Age. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/school-libraries-in-victoria-suffer-from-lack-of-resources-qualifications-20230612-p5dfxo.html