Librarian - Cyber Nanny Article

Today I read another informative article on the role of the Teacher LIbrarian that was all- encompassing. It focused on public libriarians but could very well extend to School Teacher Librarians.

The Librarian as Cyber-Nanny
Elizabeth Beales

".....A librarian is to be available in the shelves recommending a good read, providing research assistance, helping with Internet queries, tracking down a book from a very vague recollection of
details; keeping the library technologically updated and sophisticated without
spending too much money, and maintaining the collection full of the latest
bestsellers and up to date information while not losing its old world charm and
“throwing away” classic or popular stories.

The groups that control libraries – eg. government, schools – see the librarian as something different again. Their librarian is to be first of all a manager, supervising staff and ensuring budgets are adhered to,accountable, judicious and wise.

Librarians of today are all that and more. They are proud to serve their
community..... They keep up to date and
are well read, subscribing to e-lists, newsletters, journals and more. They are
usually involved in their communities in some way, whether personally or on
behalf of their workplace.
Today’s librarian needs to be a public speaker, a counsellor, a public service
worker, adaptable to work with all ages and stages of life, flexible enough to
confidently deal with all levels of the hierarchy in their hometown and the world.

They need marketing skills, research skills, retail, IT, business management
and human resource management abilities. Add to this the programming,
networking, planning, evaluating and surveying which librarians need to
administer and monitor, and basically there’s not a lot a librarian can’t do....

There is, however, one area which some parts of the community feel is the
librarian’s responsibility, particularly in the public library sector, and there have
been media reports and parental anecdotes supporting this. And what is it? It’s
the issue of the access to pornographic material on the public Internet terminals
by minors. It’s the role of the librarian as “child minder”.