The Role of the Teacher Librarian

The role of the Teacher Librarian in our school does not even come close to the role outlined in the Greater Victoria School District.  Over the past four years, the Vancouver School Board has placed teachers into the role of Teacher Librarian at our school.  We have had about six different people in our library and not one of these people placed in our library have even taken one course towards the Teacher Librarianship Diploma or Certificate.  In my eyes, they are not really qualified to take on the role of the Teacher Librarian.  Although they work very hard and do their best, they just cannot seem to fulfill what is really expected/required of a Teacher Librarian.

                Our Teacher Librarian works in the library about fifty per cent of the time.  The rest of the time she is at school she is expected to be a resource teacher as well as a classroom teacher.  Due to her limited time working in the library, as well as having to plan for resource and classroom teaching, I believe that all aspects of the library program are affected.  When working in the library, our Teacher Librarian spends much of her time organizing the library and ordering resources.

                Despite budget cuts and time restraints, I believe that the Teacher Librarian needs to work collaboratively with the other staff members to assist the students in developing effective information retrieval and critical thinking skills.  Children will need these skills throughout their lives in order to become life-long learners.  I also believe that it is important for the Teacher Librarian to provide leadership and promote strategies for teaching the children how to effectively use the wide variety of learning resources available to them.  To be able to have a wide variety of learning resources available, the Teacher Librarian must try and keep our resources as up to date as possible. It is also imperative that the Teacher Librarian build up a bank of parent and student volunteers to help with the daily tasks in the library, such as checking in and shelving books, in order to allow more time for the Teacher Librarian to focus on other tasks.

                After reading through pages 90 – 94 of Evaluating, Selecting and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide, I was surprised to find out that the school should have a Learning Resources Committee with the Teacher Librarian as one of the key members.  In all my years at the school, with qualified and non-qualified Teacher Librarians, we have never had a Learning Resources Committee.  Whenever we needed new resources, the teachers involved would get together and decide amongst themselves what was needed.  The Teacher Librarian takes it upon herself to order new reference and fiction books for the library.  She will often ask teachers what they would like to see purchased but she makes the final decision.  As for the library budget, the Vancouver School Board provides a specific amount in the school’s yearly budget.  I know this because I am on the Budget Committee.  We often discuss whether or not the library’s budget is sufficient and whether or not it needs to be supplemented.  If there is money to supplement the library’s budget the Budget Committee will assign a certain amount but more often than not there is no extra money to add to the library budget. There was only one year that the Teacher Librarian participated in the Budget Committee and advocated for money for her library.