The Australian Library Journal

School libraries in Australia

Maureen Nimon

Yearbook Australia 2003 reports that in August 2001 there were 9596 schools in Australia (2003:305). It can be claimed with confidence that each of these has a library and that a member or members of the school staff have specific responsibility for its operation. That this is so is primarily an achievement of the Library Association of Australia (LAA), the predecessor of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and subsequently of ALIA itself and other professional groups such as the Australian School Library Association (ASLA). However, while ASLA and state-based teacher librarian professional groups have played their part in the development of school libraries and their staffing their existence can be attributed the LAA campaign of the 1960s aimed at increasing the presence of libraries in schools.

Foundations

At the beginning of the 1960s, none of the school libraries in Australia could be considered central to the learning activities of the few schools in which they were found. Earlier surveys of Australian libraries had drawn attention to the dearth of library provision for children in Australia, either in schools or in public libraries (Munn Pitt 1935; McColvin 1947). A catalyst for the efforts of librarians was Teachers, libraries and children (1965) by the scholar Ernest Roe. Then in 1966, the publication of School and children's libraries in Australia (Fenwick, 1966) further boosted efforts to obtain federal government funding for school libraries following the Menzies government's provision of funds for the establishment of laboratories in secondary schools. At the invitation of the LAA Professor Sara Fenwick of the University of Chicago visited Australia in 1964. Touring the country for six months, she not only documented the parlous gap between the actual and the desirable in Australian school libraries, but she also gave public lectures and seminars, heightening awareness of the issues. Building on this momentum the LAA also published Standards and objectives for school libraries in 1996. The outcome of these and other initiatives was the allocation by the federal government of $27 million to be spent on the building and equipping of school libraries in secondary schools over the years 1969 to 1971 (Lundin 1981:3).

What could be achieved as a result of federal largesse was set down in a 1969 publication edited by Margaret Trask entitled Planning of Australian school libraries. It reported the discussions which took place at a seminar held over two days in July of that year, jointly hosted by the Library Association of Australia and the University of New South Wales, at which Margaret was then senior librarian (Methods and Training), a position which led to her editorial role (Trask, 1969). In it can be found statements about the goals of school education, the new kinds of learning desired, the nature of library services and the role of school library staff that are essentially still current benchmarks set out most recently in Learning for the Future (2001), a joint publication of ALIA and ASLA.

In 1969, the concept of information literacy was foreshadowed in the statement that one goal of education should be that 'students should know how to obtain information, how to use it in solving both familiar and unfamiliar problems ... and how to judge both the consistency and the usefulness of information' (Hughes 1969:14). Learning was stressed rather than teaching. Importance should 'be given to individual study and research ... Pupils need to work individually with basic references and materials... [they need] access to a wide variety of materials' and 'will profit from different modes of working' (Hughes 1969:21). The library was still a physical place but its services were to reach beyond it. The library 'is a co-ordination of teaching and learning services for a particular community. It is a centre of supply for the classroom program... It is a battery of learning media organised for access...' (Hughes 1969:23). Finally, the role of the staff of the school library was defined. The school librarian should have 'a knowledge of objectives and processes in education... as well as a knowledge of materials... But the greatest impact must come not from the librarian's technology, but from his ideology, his thinking as a professional' (Hughes 1969:22).

These themes have continued to be central to the role of the professional teacher librarian in this country. The terms used have changed over time, but the parallels are clear: the development of students who are information literate, independent learners; teaching approaches which are resource-based, allowing 'students to learn from their own confrontation with information resources' (Learning for the Future, 2001:3); school library services that are integrated into all school activities at the point of need (ibid : 34) and the management of these services by 'a qualified teacher librarian'(ibid : 59). Fenwick, in her report, had even foreshadowed another catchphrase of today, 'life-long-learning', when she wrote 'both school and public library will be responsible for learning that will span lifetimes' (1966:36).

The obvious omissions from the generous 1968 and subsequent federal government grants were funds for primary school libraries and for the professional preparation of teacher librarians. In time money was provided for both, the main breakthrough in regard to primary schools coming in 1973. Dramatic growth in the construction, resourcing and staffing of libraries in schools across Australia, government and private, primary and secondary, continued until 1977 when dedicated funding declined.

It was during the years 1968 to 1976 that Margaret Trask was most directly influential in relation to the nation's school libraries. Firstly, she was a member of the Commonwealth Secondary Schools Library Committee from 1968 to 1973, and in that role, visited secondary schools to assess their library needs and recommend disbursement of government funds in regard to them. Secondly, she was a member of the Australian Schools Commission from 1974 to 1975, a body which continued support for school libraries, though in a lessened form than the provision of the previous years. She was totally engaged in promoting school libraries from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, essentially as an energetic and extremely politically savvy LAA activist (Trask, 1966, 1966b, 1968, 1969). Having made this contribution at a critical time, she then moved on to apply her formidable skills to what she correctly saw as the next arena of the battle, public libraries.

Development

Reviewing the impact of twelve years of government grants from 1969 to 1980 inclusive, Lundin (1981:6) pointed out that the $200 million provided federally had been supplemented by 'state and local spending modestly estimated at about the same again', so that the total was 'over $400 million'. Not surprisingly, the results were impressive. At the end of 1977, he estimated that 'about sixty-five per cent of secondary schools, serving about eighty per cent of secondary students, had libraries of a substantial nature', either because new buildings had been constructed or existing facilities had been refurbished . However, the nation's 7200 primary schools had not undergone change on the same scale since they were more numerous and funding had been directed at them comparatively recently. He concluded nevertheless that at the time of writing it was safe 'to say that every school in Australia now has a library, and almost all of them are of recent origin'.

As pump-priming funds dried up, development continued, but it took another form. Throughout the 1980s, as the maintenance of school libraries, their resources and staff became part of the recurring costs of educational authorities, the direction and scale of change was determined by the professional commitment of teacher librarians themselves. They were largely specialist teachers. The position taken by ASLA today is that professional staff in charge of school libraries should be people holding dual qualifications as teachers and librarians. While the educational arguments for this stand are strong, and are shared by colleagues in the United States and Canada, the achievement of it as a norm in this country was undoubtedly aided by the haste with which the first staff had to be recruited. Faced with a complete lack of suitable staff for the new buildings appearing around the country, federal authorities found it more time-saving to offer qualified teachers short, intensive training in librarianship than to equip librarians with the educational qualifications needed by law for persons in charge of children.

Very rapidly tertiary institutions, at first teachers colleges, then later, universities, developed specialist courses, the graduates of which were qualified both as teachers and librarians. Though the first courses for school/teacher librarians had been created in the 1960s by pioneering figures like Joan Brewer in South Australia, when Margaret Trask planned the new School of Library and Information Studies at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education in Sydney in 1974, teacher librarianship was an important component of its innovative educational programs. Since then it had been common until recently, for the person in charge of an Australian school library to be a teacher librarian as ASLA defines the term. But it is also true that many contemporary 'teacher librarians' were and still are qualified only as teachers: it is also possible to find school libraries run by para-professional staff.

If the crusade of the 1960s and 1970s was to establish school library services, that of the 1980s was to change the way students learned and teachers taught as a consequence of the resources now available to them. United States traditions, in the form of Sara Fenwick's expertise, shaped Australian concepts of what school libraries should be. Now two Canadians, Dr Ken Haycock and his wife, formulated the policies and strategies by which teacher librarians in this country sought to engage their fellow teachers in co-operatively planning resource-based learning programs (Haycock, 1985).

It is not possible to assess quantitatively the outcome of the enormous enthusiasm and energy which Australian teacher librarians invested in the promotion and practice of co-operative program planning and teaching, known locally as CPPT. Many were visibly successful in changing the way information resources were used by both teachers and students. Others reported only partial success. To distinguish the effect of teacher librarians' efforts from other factors driving change in curricula and teaching and learning approaches would not be possible without rigorous and sustained studies of a kind that did not take place. However, there can be no doubt that the engagement of teacher librarians in conferences, training programs, seminars and workshops across the 1980s and into the 1990s around the theme of CPPT imparted a vitality and purpose to the professional development and work of teacher librarians that enriched the education of their students and informed other teachers.

At the same time, teacher librarians became increasingly aware that their effectiveness depended on their ability to convince their fellow teachers that some ways of using the library's resources were more valuable in their learning outcomes than others. They learned that there is nothing more difficult than to change the way teachers teach and students learn as both of these are as deeply influenced by personal characteristics, beliefs and habits as by school or education department policies. Sound educational arguments on their own are rarely enough, a lesson which some academic librarians promoting information literacy practices in universities are currently discovering for themselves.

Above all teacher librarians learned that if they could not persuade senior administrative figures in the school, especially the principal, of their case, their effectiveness in shaping teaching and learning practices across the school community could be very limited whatever they did. Recently Professor Hartzell highlighted research which supports this fact. He wrote 'principals determine school library media program quality as much as librarians do... because they influence or control each of the eleven factors' which have been identified as significantly correlated with 'student achievement levels on various types of standardised measures' (Hartzell, 2003:2).

The present

Since the mid-1990s, Australian school libraries have faced fierce competition both within individual schools and generally, for the education dollar. Proving the worth of school library services in terms of quantifiable outcomes is not a simple matter. Their value-added functions are necessarily diverse, dispersed and subtle in nature, being the enrichment of classroom programs or aimed at results which are verifiable only longitudinally (are all these students equipped to be life-long learners?). ASLA has responded by commissioning Impact of school libraries on student achievement: a review of the research. Its author began by noting the 'range of variables that need to be taken into account' and that 'the concept of "student achievement" itself was variable' (Lonsdale, 2003:4). Yet she was able to conclude that 'there is a substantial body of research... which shows that a strong library program, with a full-time library professional, support staff and a strong computer network that connects the library's resources to the classroom, leads to higher student achievement regardless of the socio-economic or educational levels of the adults in the community' (2003:27). The main limitation of the research is that it has been done in the United States. Nevertheless the report provides a foundation by which to build the few Australian examples into a databank of evidence. Meanwhile Todd, who himself has contributed significantly to the requisite research (1996), has become a leader in advising teacher librarians how to implement evidence-based teaching strategies (2001).

Another current concern among teacher librarians is the staffing of school libraries, both now and in the future. Lonsdale observed that 'a lack of systematically aggregated national data makes it difficult to gain an accurate picture of the national trends in Australia in relation to the staffing of school libraries' (2003:2). In this, teacher librarians are at no greater disadvantage than other specialist teachers or even classroom teachers. Determining school staffing needs more generally is a troubling business arising from 'the division of responsibilities for implementing teacher education policies' (Bates 1998 :1). Bates points out that 'state departments are responsible for workforce planning and recruitment for government schools. There are separate authorities responsible for the large non-government sectors. The Commonwealth responsibilities are divided between schools and the Higher Education Division of DETYA (1998:1).' The outcome is a scattering of data compiled in different ways and on varying bases.

In line with Bates' prediction that in 2004 there will be 'an under-supply of appropriately qualified graduates' in many teaching fields (1998:1), there is evidence that there are already school libraries not staffed by teacher librarians as defined by ASLA. A discussion paper released by the State Library of Tasmania stated that 'in the four years 1996 to 2000, there has been an almost fifty per cent decline in the number of teacher librarians [in Tasmania]' (2000:10). Reynolds and Carroll reported that since 1983 when their findings were 'that fifty-five per cent of primary school libraries in Melbourne were ... staffed by qualified teacher librarians (considered a dismal result then) ...[the total] has been reduced to thirteen per cent' (2001:34).

They found that school library staff reported themselves as teacher librarians when they were qualified only as teachers or had no training at all (2001:33). In South Australia, though the evidence is anecdotal, it seems that some school libraries are run by library technicians or, of more concern, school support staff. These practices are likely to be employed elsewhere in Australia, except perhaps in a state such as NSW where teacher librarians are widely used to provide relief from face-to-face teaching (RFF) for classroom teachers. While teacher librarians regard RFF as an inappropriate use of their time, ironically the practice may have the advantage of persuading principals that teacher librarians are a convenient component of a school staffing profile.

The teacher librarians of Australia are an ageing workforce. Alderman provides figures from a recent Australian Capital Territory study (2003: 4) that are likely to be widely applicable in the areas of other educational authorities. But the issues in relation to the availability of qualified staff are not simple ones of supply and demand. Alderman details the reasons for reopening a bachelors course in teacher librarianship at the University of Canberra. She spells out the careful planning behind the reopening, and the major publicity campaign to draw students who would undoubtedly gain employment on graduation. The outcome of all this effort is sobering - the 'very modest number (for the effort expended) of ten students demonstrates that attracting school leavers to courses in library and information studies is very difficult' (2003:12). Also of significance is the fact that Reynolds and Carroll found that in several instances where there was an unqualified person running the library, there were qualified teacher librarians working on the same staff as classroom teachers (2001:32). Failure to recruit qualified teacher librarians to library positions is not always a result of there being no qualified people available.

As with statistics on the staffing of school libraries, other nation-wide data are lacking. In 1990 Hazell deplored the fact that 'twenty years after the first Commonwealth grants to school libraries, statistics relating to school library services on a national basis' were 'still not available' (1990:21). In 1981, Lundin had been able to support his overview of school libraries across the country by gathering data from the state education departments that had sections dedicated to the supervision and support of libraries in government schools, but such specialised sections no longer exist. Moreover the relationship between central and local authorities in regard to schools has altered drastically, complicating the picture further. Today an overview may only be constructed from a mosaic of reports, supplemented by the documentation of ASLA and the state-based teacher librarian professional associations. These allow some observations to be made confidently, as in the opening lines of this article, but they are restricted to claims made only in general and inclusive terms. What must be borne in mind in considering these statements is that where studies show changes are taking place, the effects of change should not be assumed to be equally distributed. For example, the discussion paper by the State Library of Tasmania points out that the drastic fall in the numbers of qualified teacher librarians in Tasmania is concentrated disproportionally in government schools so that the outcome is a sharp increase in inequality of opportunity in regard to school library services for children in that state (2000:10).

Another major concern of Australian teacher librarians today is to be able to give sufficient time and effort to those aspects of their work they regard as central to their role. Once much of their expertise was devoted to creating means of access to the library's collection for students and staff. Now, with the 'fire hose effect of data' (Bonanno 2003:26) readily available via information systems and information communication technologies, teacher librarians are more concerned with enabling their clients to become 'critical consumers' of information (State Library of Tasmania 2000:3; Lonsdale 2003:8) rather than to help them locate it. Ironically, some of the disincentives to this derive from the very technologies which have lessened the reliance of the school community on the teacher librarian's technical skill in organising keys to the collection or sources outside the school. Performing hybridity (2000:3) the Queensland University of Technology study of the impact of new technologies on the role of teacher librarians, found that 'new technologies continually demand different knowledges, skills and practices in the areas of: information access and processing; technical know-how; in servicing of staff in using computers; teaching and learning strategies using the internet and other technologies; collaborative working relations with IT staff, teachers, administration, computer service providers and other technical personnel'.

Todd (cited in Lonsdale 2003: 11), reported that teacher librarians were required to 'assume the various roles of webmaster, network password administrator, professional development organiser for staff, computer technician with no extra staff/time allowance; and facilitator of technology use for both students and staff'. Book added that there was the 'expectation that school librarians will supervise students' internet usage, assist with home page and website development, help teachers with the intranet... assist with data retrieval, and the uploading/downloading of software and programs, and be responsible for system back ups and general maintenance' in addition to teaching information literacy (Lonsdale 2003:11-12). While performing such diverse duties ensures teacher librarians prove valuable to their school communities, they are simultaneously handicapped by them in being able to achieve what it is that they believe, as a body of professional people, is their unique contribution to student learning, that of working cooperatively with teachers in resource-based learning programs.

The future

Such a dilemma adds tensions to the requirement that teacher librarians meet gaps in the research, like that identified by Lonsdale as 'the lack of specific evidence linking the role of school librarians to student acquisition of information literacy skills' (2003:30). This is especially so if Boyce is right that the teacher librarian's view of information literacy is 'a library product', a construct of the right way of finding and using information, 'the library way' (2000:62). This suggests that any study to identify teacher librarians' contribution to the development of students' information literacy will need to be developed collaboratively with other teachers whose perspectives on the desired learning outcomes and of students' success in regard to them will not always accord with those of the librarian. Success in using information for learning must thus be judged on criteria developed jointly.

It will also be necessary to recognise how fine-grained the measuring instruments must be. Lonsdale reports that it seems that school libraries have less impact on students in high school. She also cites a South African study of a group of trainee teachers whose library use had no visible influence on their studies (2003:25). Difficulties in isolating the variables of library quality and student usage of the library in the complexity of the construction of success at secondary school level may contribute to the first result. Similarly, it seems probable that the homogeneity of the trainee teachers in terms of the educational qualifications they had to have to be selected and the uniformity of the goals they had to achieve might mask any difference produced by their library use.

Could teacher librarians and school libraries disappear? In 1994, McKenzie posed the question, 'will there still be libraries as we know them in 2005?' (Styles 1996:116). Libraries as they were known in 1994 have changed drastically, but it seems unlikely that they will disappear, even if they mutate even more from 'place' to 'service'. In 2001, Lees wrote enthusiastically 'let's get rid of the library' (2001:4), but what she was advocating was 'a decentralised information service... where the idea of a 'library' is de-institutionalised'. There do seem to be people who believe that since information is now so readily available there is no need for an expert to come between the user and the source: it seems hard to credit, however, that the community at large will lose sight of the need for an expert to guide young users of it. Nevertheless, given the indications that the numbers of teacher librarians are falling, it is desirable that more people begin to question the efficacy of making available information technology and services within schools without the adequate provision of teachers expert in exploiting them appropriately. Bundy (2000) cites McKenzie's telling point that the investment of decades of effort and billons of dollars on technology has not moved computers to the centre of life in the typical American classroom.

Since their foundation some forty plus years ago, Australian school libraries and the people who work in them have evolved under the pressures of educational, social, and technical change. The commitment of the professional associations argues that whatever the challenges ahead, there will be people who will resolve them for the benefit of Australian school children.

It would be of great advantage if these people modelled themselves on Margaret Trask whose work contributed so vitally to the development of school libraries in the 1960s. Anyone who reads the relevant papers by Margaret will find that they are characterised by an approach that combined the ideal with the practical. This is evident in the paper she contributed to Planning of Australian school libraries. She would set down the desired goal, outline examples of practice that showed it was obtainable, then she would give indications of how to reach it. Her texts were interspersed with suggestions to set immediate objectives which could be achieved in the short term, including who should do what, how and when. While working for school libraries, she emphasised the need for services to children as a whole, writing on the 'specialisation of children's librarianship' (Trask, 1966b: 46) which conceives of service to young people from the perspective of their needs, rather than by a division into school and public libraries that reflects the realities of adult employment opportunities than the group to be served.

Today Margaret's direction that school and public librarians co-operate more effectively to improve library services to the young people of Australia is being rediscovered. As Bundy argues, 'partnerships between librarians need to go beyond co-operation to a position where every sector of the profession sees itself as a stakeholder in the others'(2003b, c). It is to be hoped that such a position can be attained in the near future.

References

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Bates, R (1998) 'Foreword' Preston, B, Teacher Supply and Demand to 2004.

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Boyce, S (2000) 'Second thoughts about information literacy' Concept, challenge, conundrum: from library skills to information literacy. Adelaide: University of South Australia Library: 57-65.

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Biographical information

Associate Professor Maureen Nimon, of the University of South Australia, began her academic career as a historian, but she taught in the area of teacher-librarianship for over twenty years. Though her current responsibilities are primarily those springing from her role as research degrees co-ordinator for her school, she remains deeply interested in the function of libraries in education, especially schools. Her doctoral work concerned the social functions of children's literature.