Teacher Librarian as Information Specialist

Photo Credit: Trevor McKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt 

Throughout the discussions and reading during Theme Two, I kept returning to the idea of a Teacher Librarian as an Information Specialist. An information specialist does the following:

• Provide up to date print, nonprint and digital resources to serve the academic, recreational, and informational needs of the users
• Organize and manage the collection so that it is easily accessed by all
• Collaborate with teachers to support information literacy skills as it relates to units of inquiry
• Conduct reference interviews with students to support their inquiries
• Be a technology specialist that can support access to digital databases
• Teach information literacy skills to enable students to be critically aware and independent
• Promote the collection to students and staff to ensure they are regularly used

The issue with this however is the school, district, and ministry perception of this role and its value (Lo et al. 317). In many schools, TL’s allocation of time is based on the population of the school. As can be seen by the BCTLA’s Working Conditions Average FTE table, schools get an average of 0.61 FTE in Elementary schools (Hufton 4). This does not show that the teacher librarians’ role is valued. In addition, those that have a full time TL provide prep relief and consequently it is difficult to find time for teachers to collaborate and plan together. If and when there is time to collaborate however, teachers need to be open-minded and cooperative with the TL to be successful (Lo et al. 318). There are many teachers that are set in their ways and are not willing to co-plan a unit with a TL. Furthermore, teachers may not be aware of the services that a TL provides, so a TL needs to promote themselves as an informational specialist that is there to provide support and guidance (Riedling and Houston 9).

Another area that is integral role of an information specialist is to be up to date on technology to retrieve information (Wine 209). This takes significant time to learn and then also requires promotion to the staff. We recently had a IB meeting where a TL from another school came to share how to use digital databases with different grade levels and there were many teachers that were not aware of these tools or did not know how to adequately use them. Technology is often a barrier for many, and it is constantly evolving (Wine 210). As an information specialist, TL’s need to be aware of the most current technologies (when time permits) so that students can use them to develop their information literacy skills within the curricular content (Lo et al. 316). 

 

According to Achieving information literacy, “resources are to be evaluated, selected, purchased, catalogued, organized, inventoried, circulated and maintained” (Asselin 24). It goes on to say, “appropriate funding for learning resources is necessary for school libraries to meet the curriculum expectations and the individual learning and social needs of their students and teachers” (Asselin 25). Going back to the BCTLA’s working conditions the average budget table shows that the budget per students can range from $1.02 to $24.24 in elementary schools (Hufton 6). How is a TL supposed to ever reach the explemplary standard for a school library collection? Reference materials can be very expensive and become outdated quickly, so a TL must be very cognizant of the resources purchased and balance cost versus usage (Riedling and Houston 18).

 

More value needs to be placed in the teacher librarian role especially as information specialist because classroom teachers do not have the time or training required to adequately support information literacy (Harris 29). Furthermore, student achievement increases with a full time TL, so districts need to value our role more (Wine 98). 

 

Works Cited: 

Asselin, Marlene, et al. Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada. Canadian Association for School Libraries, 2006.

Harris, Frances Jacobson. “The School Librarian as Information Specialist: A Vibrant Species.” Knowledge Quest, vol. 39, no. 5, May 2011, pp. 28–32. 

Hufton, Amanda. The Bookmark's 32th Annual Survey of Working and Learning Conditions of Public School Libraries in British Columbia Part III. British Columbia Teacher Librarian Association, 2013, https://bctla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/wlc-2012-2013.pdf. 

Lo, Patrick, et al. “The Roles of the School Librarians as Information Literacy Specialists.” New Library World, vol. 115, no. 7/8, 2014, pp. 314–339., https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw-01-2014-0012. 

Riedling, Ann Marlow, and Cynthia Houston. Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 4th ed., Santa Barbara, Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC CLIO, 2019.

Wine, Lois D. “Impact of School Librarians on Elementary Student Achievement.” Old Dominion University, 2020. 

Wine, Lois D. “School Librarians as Technology Leaders: An Evolution in Practice.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science Online, vol. 57, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 207–220., https://doi.org/10.12783/issn.2328-2967/57/3.