The ongoing importance of school libraries

This is an exciting time to be in libraries. Change is constant and a challenge to many, but there are so many opportunities to make new types of resources available to our users. Who knows what we will be doing in ten years’ time? That is both exciting and a little scary, but I say “Bring it on”.

Libraries are more crucial now than ever before and we need to ensure we are communicating this at every opportunity and to anyone who will listen. We must also be prepared to re-think how we operate in our environments to align with the new modern learning environments in schools.

School librarians are as creative and proactive in promoting their work as ever, but our increasing use of social media is leading to new partnerships and projects that highlight the impact we can have on teaching and learning. I see the future as one of greater resource sharing and partnerships beyond our traditional school ones.

Dedicated librarians have evolved in a relatively short period of time to acquire sophisticated computer skills, which allow them to promote and teach good research skills and information literacy to others. Yes, anyone can do a Google search and find some results. The skill is in assimilating, synthesising, analysing, understanding, and comparing these results, as well as knowing where else to look. This is what a qualified and experienced librarian can do well.

I would like to focus more on providing information literacy skills and digital citizenship teaching, as well as supporting teachers with collated digital and physical resources.

When we opened our library last term we made a “shelfie” booth. Students had their photo taken with the first book they took out of the library - this became our first display. It was a quick way to get their voice and presence into the space.

If students come into the library and leave it with a smile on their face, they will want to come back. It’s exciting to have students tell their teacher, especially replacement teachers, that it is library lesson day and they can’t miss it.

We have a Literacy Team that meet regularly to discuss new ideas to implement across the college. We have the ‘Word of the Week’ which is displayed in the library and in every classroom. We also run various competitions throughout the year designed to improve literacy.

Collaboration is very important in our library. Many of the decisions we make involve the whole school community, especially the students. This includes the term top 10, purchasing resources and how spaces are used in our library.

The trend that is the most exciting is that libraries are becoming social and interactive centres. They are hubs presenting workshops, meetings, children’s activities, etc.

Things have changed so much and the whole concept of libraries has changed. This library has become a relaxed and comfortable place to work and a meeting place for students.

Outside our own library, I’m very aware of school libraries being closed or deprofessionalised and it concerns me greatly. It’s long overdue for government to realize the value of libraries staffed by qualified librarians and I hope the #GreatSchoolLibraries campaign will make a big impact.

Thank you for this survey. We (Teacher-Librarians) need evidence like this so we can continue to ‘fight’ for the importance of this position in our schools. A school library is a special and important space and every student should have access to a trained teacher-librarian and a well-resourced collection. I have been a TL for 33 years and I seem to have been part of this fight for at least 30 of those years.