Changing Role of Librarian with Changing Technology
On the purely “librarian” side there have been fundamental
changes.
The increasing thrust to new technologies in our world and our schools has
changed the way we run our school libraries. There has been a transformation
in the role of teacher librarians because of the changing nature of the ecology
of the school library. Where once school librarians dealt with card catalogues
and print materials now most have to manage and use library automation systems
and information technology instead.
Earlier the catalogue was on cards, now it is on the computer. Whereas once
much of my time was taken up with cataloguing, with the use of SCIS this has
reduced to validating and expanding; once I would spend a proportion of my
time finding relevant articles to place in the vertical file, now I find many
up-to date articles online; once much of my time was selecting and acquiring
mostly print material, now a great proportion is selecting and locating online
resources.
But all this is basically procedural. The medium is irrelevant, what we've
always been on about is the message. What does it matter if the newspaper article
is from the print version, online on the web, online database or photocopied
from the next door library? If some students want to read an old, obscure book
for a history assignment, what does it matter if they get it from their public
library (don't like your chances of finding it in a school library!); the local
second hand bookshop (don't like the odds of finding it at a mainstream bookseller)
or a second hand store online; or online from the web.
The notion that somehow information, even if from reliable sources, is somehow
suspect if it’s on the web is something we need to fight. The opposing
notion that the only up-to-date or relevant information is from the web is
also suspect. There are lots of good sources that are more available and accessible
and organised than the Internet sources. We all have the skills to assist students
and teachers in choosing relevant, reliable, current information. From what
media that comes is neither here nor there.
Whereas a classroom teacher may avoid or minimise using the new technologies,
a teacher librarian not only has to use them, but also has to teach their use
to both staff and students, and often has to troubleshoot technical difficulties
as well. This has to be managed with no diminution in the other requirements
of their role.
Working with Teachers
However, the more fundamental change that I see comes about with
the teaching or educational role. The responsibility to teach students
research skills and literature has developed and expanded, but my aim
to provide resources (both material and educational) to assist teachers
with their teaching programmes has caused a more vital change to develop
in my relationships with teachers.
Certainly I still provide resources to assist them with their programmes, and
sometimes I am able to work in collaboration with a teacher who has the time
and the inclination. The goals of collaboration and co-operation were always
present, but most often very limited. I’ve been in many previous schools
where I’ve just asked for programmes and assignments. Sometimes these
have been forthcoming, but many only after the students turn up in the library
looking for books, and sometimes not at all.
The use of information communication technologies in the school and library
has meant the expectations of teachers and students have also increased. The
book collection, journals and vertical file collection of the library used
to often govern the scope of the curriculum, now expectations are wider. This,
combined with the widening of the curriculum with the Curriculum Framework,
has meant pressures and demands on school librarians have increased. Previously
there were many restrictions on the content of the curriculum, now there are
very few limits. Staff and students expect the answer to every possible and
impossible question.
One way to deal with the increased demands for more and more information in
a great many areas is to use the web and to create a website which includes
links to appropriate websites to augment the library’s other resources.
When I created a website P.L. Duffy
Resource Centre with internet links to support assignments and projects,
I suddenly found I began receiving assignment sheets, programmes and subject
outlines, often in enough time to provide both the internet links and print
resources.
Best of all I’ve started to see some teachers before they have finalised
programmes or assessments so I am able to provide assistance and guidance in
their development.
Collaboration and Curriculum
Teacher librarians have always been concerned to be involved in collaboration and curriculum development but for the most part this has not happened. As Berkowitz(1989) summarized:
1) school library media specialists have wanted to be actively involved in curriculum since the 1950's (Craver, 1986); and (2) many teachers and administrators still have a negative attitude toward school library media specialists as colleagues in curriculum (Barron, 1987).
There are many reasons for this. Teachers are busy: “time poor” They
do not see that the time they spend planning with a teacher librarian is effective,
but an extra burden with few payoffs. The skills that teacher librarians teach
are more and more subsumed into the outcomes teachers themselves are meant
to teach and so are not able to be separated out. Teachers are usually used
to working in isolated classrooms where they are totally “in control”,
overlooked by no one. They are, for the most part, individuals with little
perceived need for working in a team. They may have often worked in situations
where requesting help could be considered a mark of incompetence. For this
reason, asking for assistance to work collaboratively may be seen as an implicit
message that they don’t know it all.
Teachers see teacher librarians as outside the pressures of teaching. It is
true that teacher librarians are in a unique position. But it is not without
its tensions! Teacher librarians are used to teaching in a gold fish bowl;
everyone in the school can wander past at any time and watch the teacher librarian
in action. They usually have to “larger than life” to establish
contact with students with whom they do not have the time to develop that all
important teacher–student relationship.
For many the teacher librarian may appear to be a keeper of books and in an
age of online information, an irrelevance. However, research indicates that
the roles of school libraries and teacher librarians can alter even the results
of standardised tests: (Library
Research Service,
2001)
LRS studies conducted in Alaska, Colorado and Pennsylvania in 2000 show that school media librarians and libraries help kids perform better on standardized tests
Advocacy and Evidence
To counter this poor public relations image, much had been discussed about how we need to justify our positions as teacher librarians through advocacy (Here I am! Can you see what I’m doing? I am worthwhile!!!). Hewer reflecting on Hartzell, says:
we need to forcibly bring the school library and its functions to the notice of school administration and our school's parent body. (Hewer 1998)
I know in our climate of economic rationalism everything has to be
brought down to the bottom line. However, this imperative for continual
self-justification,
I see, as counterproductive. It takes time (lots of it) and turns our role
into marketing. Some people are good at sales and business, some are not. Does
that mean if you are no good at promoting yourself then you’re no good
as a teacher librarian? Not many of us have the flair or the budget to really
have any impact to people hardened to our climate of advertising hype.
Most teacher librarians I know belong to a number of professional associations
in which they are very active, most are member of academic boards or curriculum
councils. Many make regular contributions to newsletters. Nevertheless all
of this does not change the fact that we are still relatively invisible and
have little power, and likely to remain that way.
The latest injunction is for use to take part in continual evidence based research,
again to prove our worth. (Todd, 2002) This may be very worthwhile for the
advancement of the profession, but in practical terms most of us have increasing
demands with the same amount of time, and while our colleagues may benefit,
the perception of who we are and what we do in the school will remain unchanged,
even if we “prove” how worthwhile our contribution is.
In House Professional Development
My developing thoughts have shifted into a different direction. I think
teacher librarians could be a most useful person: an onsite professional
development
expert. We are meant to work in collaboration or co-operation with teachers,
but this has never really worked except in a very limited way. However, teacher
librarians have a tremendous advantage in that we usually are up-to-date with
teaching and learning theories. We also have unique opportunities: we are outside
the confines of subject or year level; we can see the overlapping interests
of different learning areas. We often have the time and the distance to see
common problems and areas of concern. We are often the experts in use of technology
and its application for education. We can be catalysts for change or change
agents, not where we are “leading the charge”, but as guides to
teachers when they need help, specifically when it comes to using technology
in education.
Much research says the best professional development occurs when it is in context
and as needed, and is lived out, as “reflection in action” (Schon,
1983). Most is exactly the opposite: whole school or department professional
development which “does” all the teachers at once so is likely
to be irrelevant to an individual teacher’s needs, or even if it relevant,
is not useful just then. The teacher librarian can provide “just in time” assistance,
guidance and direction when it is needed, as it is needed, not only for students
but also for teachers.
I’ve helped teachers with a number of ICT, teaching and educational tasks.
Some examples are: how to use their e-mail productively for teaching, how to
construct an Excel spreadsheet for marks, how to teach their students PowerPoint,
how to search for subject related websites and provided information on avenues
for collaborative teaching. I’ve also found journal articles for their
part-time educational studies, suggested questions they could ask for students’ assignments,
constructed webquests for assignments, passed on information about meetings
and competitions, and of course, provided print materials and web links for
their students to complete assignments.
It seems to me that I am much more effective in assisting teachers with their
programmes than I am working with them collaboratively. It takes a smaller
amount of time for them to tell me what they’re doing and what they are
looking for than sit down and work out an entire programme. They do not have
to give up their autonomy in teaching their own syllabus. The exigencies of
timetabling mean trying to match my timetable with theirs is often difficult.
If I can assist them with information or assistance which dovetails exactly
with their programme they can do the rest of the preparation when it suits
their timetable.
Whatever the theory, for the most part, teacher librarians and teachers are
never equal partners in the teaching process. The teachers have syllabi to
which they must teach. They feel very real time constraints in “getting
through” these. Anything that is “extra” is resented and
resisted. To be of real assistance in the school I would suggest we could further
develop this “guide on the side” (McKenzie, 1983) model that works
just as much for teaching teachers as it does for teaching students.
The role I am suggesting is not new, nor is it confined to schools. A public
librarian sees our role this way:
… libraries must position themselves as key motivators in their communities. Libraries should be a main force in informing, networking, and bringing together information users and information givers throughout the library service areas (Terwilliger, 1995)
This concept of librarians as change agents is not new, but I would
like to place it in new context. I don’t think that teacher librarians in general
can be leaders, though some may be. However, we all have skills and abilities
that allow us to be in a unique position to be of assistance to teachers in
their preparation and planning and in providing then with new ideas and resources
to assist them when they need that input.
How it works
While we will still teach research skills or develop literature programmes
for students, in my opinion our talents, education, experience and abilities
are of much more use when we assist teachers in the development of their
programmes. We can sit in academic boards and add our suggestions, we can
take part in
committees and write newsletters, but all of this is outside the teaching
programme. If we sit beside teachers individually and help them discover
a way to teach
a concept which is quicker for them and the students and more importantly
improves students’ learning, then we might make a difference. If we can do for
the teachers what we have long done for students then we can have an impact
that is ultimately more effective. If we can convince a small number of teachers
of the importance of copyright and referencing then all of their students will
be affected. If we can persuade a few teachers of the importance of wide reading
then all of their students will hear the message. If we can provide graphic
organizers and rubrics so some teachers can better teach literacy in their
own subjects, many students can benefit.
I am not suggesting we stand in front of all the teachers and tell them the “good
oil”. Though some teacher librarians may find that procedure useful,
what I suggest is that we provide a one-to-one service for teachers which gives
them the professional development they need when they need it.
For me the developing website has made an opportunity to find out what teachers
are doing and how they plan to do them, and sometimes to influence that.
I am able to provide resources or methodologies they just don’t have the
time to source. For each of you will be able to a different focus, but I believe
it is worthwhile and rewarding way of using our expertise. Whether anyone notices
or it can be measured, who knows?
References
- Berkowitz, R., & Eisenberg, M. B. (1989). "The curriculum roles and responsibilities of library media specialists." ERIC Digest. Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. (ED 308 880)
- Hewer, Sharron (1998) “Advocacy” 027.8 4(5) [online] Available http://www.education.tas.gov.au/0278/issue/985/advocate.htm (Accessed 2002, April 29)
- Horton, Rosemary (2002) P.L. Duffy Resource Centre: Trinity College [Online] Available: http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/ (Accessed 2002, April 29)
- Library Research Service (2001) LRS School Library Media Impact Studies [Online] Available: http://www.lrs.org/html/about/school_studies.html (Accessed 2002, April 29)
- McKenzie, Jamie (September, 1998) “Grazing the Net: Raising a Generation of Free Range Students” Phi Delta Kappan [Online] Available: http://questioning.org/grazing.html (Accessed 2002, April 29)
- Schon, D.A. (1983). “From technical rationality to reflection-in-action.” In D.A. Schon. The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
- Todd, Ross J. (February, 2002) “Evidence based practice: the sustainable future for teacher-librarians” Scan 21(1) 30-37.
- Terwillige, Cynthia (1995) Librarians as Change Agents [Online] Available : http://cterwilliger.com/HTML/change.html (Accessed: 2002, April 29)