critical synthesis of my role as a teacher librarian

At the beginning of studying this subject of Teacher Librarianship my views of the role of the teacher librarian were passionate, but, perhaps, naïve. I had worked as a teacher for nine years before leaving and studying to become a librarian. I then worked in a public library as a collection manager for two years before returning to teaching in 2011. In that time I developed some ideas as to what the role of a teacher librarian in a school might consist of.  What I did not realise is the sheer weight of debate that exists over the role of the teacher librarian, the issue of information literacy and the barriers impeding the work of the teacher librarian.

Herring (2007, p. 32) makes the point that a teacher librarian’s role should be educational rather than administrative – having come from a public library, where a lot of work that I did was administrative with only a small part educational, this idea has resonated with me. Hamilton (2011, p. 35), writes that for her the roles of “administrator, leader, instructional partner and information specialist” begin to blur in her position as a teacher librarian. I am now – as I am about to start a teacher librarian role in my school – beginning to understand just how that can happen and how it should happen. My first professional encounters with teacher librarians at the beginning of my teaching career were not that inspiring (Hannon, 2012d), and undoubtedly set up some initial barriers between collaboration with the library and my teaching. It wasn’t until I started studying to become a librarian that I came into contact with some real role models on how a teacher librarian could contribute in a positive and education way to a school.

Introducing information literacy into a school is one of the most important roles a teacher librarian can have. Defining and implementing a program teaching information literacy seems to be one of the hardest parts of this role. There was a lot of debate on the ETL401 Forum over just what the definition was,  how to make sure that it is taught as more than merely a set of skills and what sort of model should be used to do so. I could see how PLUS model from Herring (J  Herring & Tarter, 2007), could be used alongside the Munro Literacy strategies (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2009) we were already implementing in the school (Hannon, 2012a). Upon further investigation I changed my mind about which model to introduce and was deciding between the Big6 Model (Eisenberg, 2001) or the NSW Department of Education ISP Model (Dawson & Kallenberger, 2007).  Although there is a lot more literature available concerning the Big6 Model as it has been used in a large number of American schools, I have decided to introduce the ISP model in my school as I liked the circular outline (as opposed to the much more linear Big6), and I felt that it was more appropriate to an Australian school. Before investigating these models I was under the rather naïve impression that a teacher librarian could just do a few lessons on internet and book searching and some on correct referencing. I am now planning a whole school approach to information literacy (Hannon, 2012c).

To be able to teach information literacy across the whole school curriculum I have come to realise the importance of collaborating with the classroom teachers. I will need to get the support from my Principal and the leadership team to help me encourage collaboration between myself and those staff who still have the view that a teacher librarian is not a useful person to have in the school library (Hannon, 2011). As I will only be working two days a week collaboration will initially happen with only a small group of staff (Hannon, 2012b) – ones that I know are open to the idea of working with a teacher librarian to teach information literacy skills in the school.

 There is so much more to the role of a teacher librarian than I previously thought. This subject has increased my awareness of how much academic literature and debate is written which is devoted to increasing the awareness and the profile of teacher librarians in schools.  

References

Dawson, Merran, & Kallenberger, Niki (Eds.). (2007). Information skills in the school: engaging learners in constructing knowledge (SCIS 1343769). NSW Department of Education Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/ppub/index.htm.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Literacy to Learn: Getting Students Knowledge Ready for Literacy Learning  Retrieved 27/01/12, from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/strategies/literacytolearn.htm

Eisenberg, Michael B. (2001). Big6 Skills Overview. The Big6: Information and Technology Skills for Student Achievement  Retrieved 18/01/2012, 2012, from http://www.big6.com/2001/11/19/a-big6%E2%84%A2-skills-overview/

Hamilton, Buffy J. (2011). The School Librarian as Teacher: What kind of teacher are you? [Article]. Knowledge Quest, 39(5), 34-40.

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2011, 29/12/ 2011). Initiating collaboration.  Retrieved from http://reehannon-silenceinthelibrary.blogspot.com/2011/12/initiating-collaboration.html

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012a). PLUS model and Munro strategies.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub6_forum&message_id=5524128

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012b, 01/01/12). Re: Initialising collaboration within a school.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub7_forum&message_id=5517015

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012c, 22/01/12). Re: Not just a TL job.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub6_forum&message_id=5535445

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012d, January 18, 2012). Thoughts on the role of a teacher librarian.  Retrieved from http://reehannon-silenceinthelibrary.blogspot.com/

Herring, J , & Tarter, A (2007). Progress in developing information literacy in secondary school using the PLUS model. School Libraries in View, 23, 23-27.

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.), Libraries in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.