The Life of the Blog...

Before heading into professional topics I love to write about, I'm going to take a minute to reflect on the last two posts of 2009. I would like to thank my colleagues, family, and friends who read and forwarded the blog to interested parties.

The topic of the two posts generated over 100 more readers in Canada, 10 from our neighbors next door, and 4 internationally. The blog was also reposted nationally on the CASL Ning and referred to provincially on the BCTLA blog.

I would like to thank those of you who left comments. It is always nice to know you are not alone. You took the time to write insightful, yet from the heart, comments.

It is my sincere hope that your comments are read by our trustees - fingers crossed!

I created a wordle using the text from the comments - interesting to see which words came forward.



I'm not sure what the future will hold.

I do know that I needed to take the time to formulate my thoughts, while compiling together some related information for reference sake.

Thank you for stopping by!

Keeping the Teacher in Teacher Librarian... Learning Centre or Book Repository?

Given my last blog post, I have been asked what will be lost to library programs in secondary.

No final decisions have been made; however some suggestions have been to staff a library with a teacher librarian but no clerical support, or a library with clerical support but no teacher librarian.

I can speak from personal experience as my previous teacher librarian position, where I was for 17 years, never had adequate aide time - 5 hours or less a week - and for 12 of those years I was an 80% teacher librarian.

Here is a section that was annually included in my year end report for 17 years:

I consider the most important function of being a teacher librarian to be the curriculum development, information literacy, and literature appreciation components of a library program.

Unfortunately, due to lack of clerical support, many daily library administration tasks need to be completed by me. The five hours of aide time assigned to the library has never been adequate and are mainly spent completing circulation management tasks such as compiling overdue material lists. This lack of aide time is a constant frustration and limits the time available to spend on curriculum development.

In the absence of adequate aide time, I complete the duties normally assigned to clerical support staff, such as:

* receiving, and processing a wide variety of learning resources
* receiving materials, supplies, and equipment
* preparing orders for resource materials
* preparing bibliographies of materials for consideration for purchase
* processing mail, new materials, discards, and rebinds
* maintaining circulation procedures
* maintaining catalog records in electronic format
* maintaining a pamphlet or information file
* shelving of resource materials
* compiling and/or typing bibliographies, resource lists, unit plans, correspondence, orders, reports and/or overdue notices
* producing and/or assembling displays and other promotional material
* conducting an inventory of resources

Having to complete the above tasks, limits the time available to spend on my professional duties as a teacher librarian, which include, but are not limited to:

• Administration of the Learning Resource Program
• Professionalism and Leadership Activities
• Cooperative Program Planning and Teaching
• Promotion of the Effective Use of Learning Resources and Services
• Selection of Learning Resources
• Information and Reference Services
• Design and Produce Learning Resources
• Acquisition, Organization, and Circulation of Learning Resources

A teacher librarian's expertise in Curriculum Development, Literature Appreciation and Information Literacy is not utilized if the Library Administration Clerical duties become the focus of the job.

Furthermore, secondary school library hours are facilitated by both the teacher librarian and library aide. Noon hour supervision is often shared by the teacher librarian and the library aide. The library aide allows for the teacher librarian to take a lunch break at some point, either before or after noon hour, or during noon hour when the teacher librarian has a noon hour meeting.

School libraries could potentially be closed at noon hour.

Although, by contract, teacher librarians can have a prep period, we never take the time. If our job becomes maintaining a collection as oppose to curriculum development, then this prep time becomes important. This time is also important if the teacher librarian teaches a scheduled class. Therefore, the library could be closed a block or two during the day.

A library staffed with a library aide but no teacher librarian becomes a room with books that circulate. No collection development, no literature appreciation foci, no information literacy skills taught, no curriculum development, no teaching of research skills, no cooperative planning with teachers.

Furthermore, teacher librarians often take a leadership role in the adoption of new technologies. They have both the pedagogical and technical skills to do this. This leadership role becomes increasingly difficult to fulfill if the teacher librarian becomes a library clerk to maintain the collection.

Take a look at the blog entry below for information and background research as to how teacher librarians support the educational program and impact academic achievement.

Dr. Ken Haycock has summarized studies related to school libraries in The Crisis in Canadian School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment, including the impact on student learning, best practice and recommendations.

So... to answer the question what's best for school library programs? For a school library program to be exemplary, to impact student achievement, both are needed. School library programs are the great equalizing factor in the educational program that provide support for all curricular areas - our students deserve no less.

"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."
--Anne Herbert (1950- ), The Next Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools

Again, please forward this post to anyone who you feel should read it.
Back to the fun stuff in the next post - I promise!

"To Be or Not to Be"... a Teacher Librarian

I would be remiss if I did not devote at least one blog entry to my own soap box.

I expect we are no different in our school district than many, as financial strains and budget cut decisions are being made at the board level.

Again, cuts in school library programs are one of the areas under discussion, as they usually are.

Essentially, in British Columbia, all educational professionals who do not enroll a class are at risk because in 2002, Bill 28, The Public Education Flexibility and Choice Act was enacted by the provincial government that removed staffing ratios for all non-enrolling teachers from collective agreements.

I have worked in libraries since I was 12, being a librarian is all I have ever wanted to do. I did not foresee, when I chose this profession over 20 years ago, that I would have to be in a constant state of advocacy.

Ten years ago I was a member of a district team that researched, then wrote our district's library service deliver model Libraries: Literacy and Literature in the Information Age: A Framework for Library Programs and Services in the 21st Century. The research was and is still clear.

At the time, researcher Dr. Keith Lance Curry and his Library Research Service Impact Studies team had just published his second Colorado Study on the impact of school librarians on student achievement. Since then Curry has conducted studies in over 14 states. Powering Achievement: How School Librarians Impact Academic Achievement reports library predictors of academic achievement and recommends staffing school libraries with professional & support staff, stocking them with current books & licensed databases as well as Internet capable computers, funding them to support school's curriculum and state's standards, adopt flexible scheduling and utilizing the school computer network to extend the library program’s reach into every classroom.

Past cuts to school librarian time have already jeopardized student achievement in our district. When librarian time has been cut it is seldom, if ever reinstated when the financial situation improves. The same may be said for library budgets.

The 2008 British Columbia Teacher Librarian's Association Working and Learning Conditions of Public Schools in British Columbia Survey shows where we land in terms with the rest of the province.

Locally, our own Dr. Ken Haycock has summarized studies related to school libraries in The Crisis in Canadian School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment, including the impact on student learning, best practice and recommendations.

Statistics Canada published a study in 2005, Canadian school libraries and teacher librarians: Results from the 2003/04 information and communications technologies in schools survey. This study illustrated the influence on the students' education that the teacher librarian has in extending, beyond traditional teacher librarianship into roles that include ICT, skills such as finding and evaluating information online.

For my own thesis research, I was privileged to work with an exceptional group of teacher librarians and studied their practice for my Master's Degree Teacher Librarians, Technology and Collaborative Connections: A Case Study of Teacher Librarians from a Communities of Practice Perspective . The goal of this study was to document and analyze the work of teacher librarians and how it contributes to the delivery of educational programs. Data were analyzed using codes developed from Wenger’s Community of Practice research, and conversation analysis. The research questions considered whether the teacher librarians constituted a community of practice, the nature of that practice, and how this practice correlated with the delivery of instructional programs. It is argued from the findings how the notion of a community of practice may be helpful in reconceptualizing the nature and role of teacher librarianship.

This work is facilitated by having library aides in place to do the clerical administration of a library, processing and signing out books for example, while teacher librarians focus on curriculum development, literature appreciation, and information literacy.

Teacher librarians are often the unseen heroes of the school, providing safe havens for students to hang out, matching the perfect book to a student's reading interest, hunting down the best reference source...

Teacher librarians are the curriculum integration and information literacy specialists, we support all school programs.

We are the champions for integrating district programs, such as Web in the Classroom, Reading 44, and Literacy 44.

I was at a dinner party last weekend with one of my very good friend teacher librarian mentors. I was telling Mike about the current situation. He said that was why he left the library to become a classroom teacher - the constant advocacy was exhausting. The school library's loss was definitely the classroom's gain. Interesting idea. I have between 10 to 15 years left - I have the energy now to advocate again - what the future holds - we'll see.

To be or not to be a teacher librarian.

If you know someone who you think should read this post, please pass it on.