The Changing Role of the Teacher-Librarian in the Twenty-first Century

Summary of Article:

“There is one role in education that has been forced to keep up with changes brought about by the information age, computers and the changes in society” (Baumbach, 1995, p. 248). That role is the one of the teacher-librarian, whose job is becoming more important.

New technologies bring many opportunities and challenges to school libraries and teacher-librarians.

“Teacher-librarians have come along way from the time when they were considered caretakers of the book collection. Now they are information providers, consultants, curriculum activists, instructional designers, instructional leaders, production specialists and most important, teachers” (Kreiser and Horton, 1992, p. 313).

It is predicted that by the year 2010, ninety percent of all jobs will be computer related and that by the year 2020, twenty percent of the working force will be collecting sixty percent of all the wages (Bens, 1999). Educators must ask themselves what kinds of skills are needed for students to be prepared for these employment trends. These jobs will require critical thinking, higher order thinking and inquiry skills. Teaching information literacy skills becomes a high priority.

The use of resource-based learning materials such as the Internet and CD-ROMS are necessary elements to increase the learning achievement of the student (Mendrinos, 1994). Resource-based learning is adaptable to individuals, groups or cooperative learning situations. Resource-base learning integrates both cognitive and physical tools of information literacy within the curriculum. Teacher-librarians are at the forefront of helping teachers use resource-based learning in their classrooms.

Technology has brought many changes to education in the past 10 years and technological literacy is listed as one of the goals of the Common Essential Learnings, which is a component of the Core Curriculum. The goals of technological literacy are the following:

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To develop a contemporary view of technology
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To develop understanding that technology both shapes and is shaped by society
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To develop students’ appreciation of the value and limitations of technology within society
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To provide opportunities for students’ active involvement in decision-making related to technological developments (Sask. Ed., 1992).

The teacher-librarian is important in helping students develop these skills.

Teacher-librarians can also help students to acquire other goals listed as Common Essential Learnings. The Critical and Creative Thinking CEL is developed when students select and evaluate information. A teacher-librarian can teach the following goals of Critical and Creative Thinking:

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To contribute to development of “strong sense” critical and creative thinkers
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To develop an understanding of how knowledge is created, evaluated, refined and changed within subject areas
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To promote both intuitive, imaginative thought and the ability to evaluate ideas, processes, experiences and objects in meaningful contexts
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To enable students to think for themselves, to recognize the limits of individual reflection and the need to contribute to and build upon mutual understandings (Sask. Ed., 1992)

Through the use of technology and resource-based learning, a teacher-librarian can teach the goals for the CEL of Communication. One of the goals of Communication is to enable students to use language for differing purposes and audiences. Personal and Social Values can also be enhanced by developing students’ abilities to work together in cooperative learning groups and other grouping practices using technology. The CEL that can most strongly be supported by a teacher-librarian is Independent Learning, which lists the following goals:

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To support the development of a positive disposition to life long-learning
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To develop students’ abilities to meet their own learning needs
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To develop students’ abilities to access knowledge (Sask. Ed., 1992).

Why are Teacher-Librarians Catalysts for Change?

The movement away from the use of basal textbooks, the increased concern for learning styles, the explosion of information, advances in instructional and informational technologies, advocacy for cooperative learning and collaborative teaching are factors that increase the complexity in planning for instruction. These factors bring a need for teamwork with a teacher-librarian (Donham van Deusen, 1996). There is no one better able to bring about change than a teacher-librarian working in partnership with school administration, classroom teachers and students. “Few educators are as prepared to navigate the massive amounts of information streaming into schools or to teach others how to do so than the school media specialists. Some are definitely seizing the day” (Harrington-Lueker, 1992, p. 45).

Summary of The Association for Teacher-librarianship in Canada list of professional competencies for teacher-librarians:

The Collaborative and The Curriculum Leadership Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Instructional Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Instructional Technologist Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Library Management Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Information Specialist Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Advocate Role of the Teacher-librarian
The Information Literacy Role of the Teacher-librarian

Challenges Facing Teacher-Librarians
There are many challenges facing teacher-librarians as they strive to develop their multifaceted role. They must ask themselves the following questions:

§ Are you familiar with the many emerging technologies?

§ Are you fully aware of the potential the emerging technologies have for schools?

§ Are you ready to provide the leadership necessary to take full advantage of these and other information programs? (Assiniboine South School Division, 1996).

It is also important for teacher-librarians to keep up with developments in following fields:

§ Telecommunications

§ Information storage and retrieval

§ Computer applications

§ Instructional design (Assiniboine South School Division, 1996).

1) A challenge exists for classroom teachers to alter their perceptions of teacher-librarians and what they do.
2) Traditionally, school libraries have been vulnerable to budget cuts. This is another challenge facing teacher-librarians.
3) A further issue facing teacher-librarians in Saskatchewan is access to library courses.
4) Many are handling technology in addition to their traditional responsibilities. “Some teacher-librarians have jumped enthusiastically into becoming “Cyberians”, others find that it takes away from what they enjoy most about being a librarian (Harrington-Lueker, 1997, p.49). They all don’t have “the ability to deal with the software and hardware.
5) Teacher-librarians are expected to have technological expertise, and to share that expertise with teachers as well as students.