With a UK , US and Australian focus , this chapter will explore the role of librarians as educators in schools, investigating the various names they are known by, and the benefits associated with their presence in schools. With the fostering of reading engagement positioned as a broadly accepted facet of their role, the educative significance of students’ reading frequency and attitudes will also be explored. The challenges currently faced in terms of poor valuing and funding cuts will also be introduced here. Finally, I raise concerns about limited reliable research sources and the value of moving inquiry about school librarians further into a broader education research agenda.
What is a school librarian? When exploring the role of school librarians as educators , a necessary starting point includes consideration of what they are called, what they are expected to do, and the research linking their presence with literacy and broader educational benefit.
The nomenclature relating to librarians in schools is actually extremely complex. Someone who calls themselves a school librarian may be a qualified librarian, a qualified librarian and a qualified educator, or neither, having qualifications in another area, or no qualifications.
In our discussions of the merits of employing qualified library staff, we need to avoid demonizing unqualified staff and their efforts, which may be considerable. However, at the same time , it is imperative that we acknowledge that the research supporting the association of qualified library staff with superior outcomes is compelling; for instance, Lance and Hofschire (2012) found that while schools with at least one full-time qualified librarian had higher average scores on reading testing, “school library programs that were not managed by endorsed librarians—whether the alternative was a non-endorsed librarian or library assistant—had no measurable association with CSAP reading scores” (p. 6). As such, unsurprisingly, qualifications count.
As I outline further in Chapter 2, the replacement of qualified librarians in schools with unqualified staff, typically known as library officers and library managers, is a notable concern in current school libraries. This is also a valid concern in USA and UK schools, with UK research suggesting that nearly a third of librarians in schools may not be qualified librarians or graduates (Streatfield, Shaper, Markless, & Rae-Scott, 2011).
Names for Libraries
The school library and school librarians may be hard to find in contemporary schools even where they do exist; both are known by a range of names . School libraries are known as library media centres, learning hubs or information centres amongst other titles (Bleidt, 2011; Merga, 2019c). While collecting data on participants’ views on naming of libraries and librarians was not a goal of the TLALAS , Diane shared her strong view about the alternative name that her school library had been branded with.
I think it’s like calling a doctor’s surgery, “medical facility”. Everyone knows it’s the doctors, it’s the GP, that’s what it’s called. You know, if we change university and called it, you know, “institution for once you leave school”, people will go, “What the heck is that about, you know?” Like, because all of a sudden we don’t want to be associated with the other universities, we want to have a fresh name, well, you know. I think a library’s a library, is a library. And I don’t know if it was changed because they want it to be something else. If they wanted to get rid of the past, if they wanted a different direction, but I just think changing a name doesn’t do that. Just changing a name.
When libraries are no longer called libraries, perhaps to free the facilities from perceived outdated associations, little is known about the impact that this has on the position of reading in the building and in the school more broadly. As I contend elsewhere,
while I do not suggest for a moment that libraries should exist for the purpose of supporting reading only, this purpose should remain integral to any school library and that, before libraries undertake the significant transformative changes that we are often exhorted to make in the name of being progressive, we remain sensitive to the importance of making informed decisions based on research rather than trends. (Merga, 2019c, p. 125)
When renaming shifts the association of the building from books to information consumption, this communicates a new purpose which hopefully will not exclude or devalue the reading purpose inherent in the title of library, or lead to a loss of the unity and cohesion desirable for effective advocacy through the loss of a united front under common names .
Names for Librarians
Libraries are not the only institutions to face rebranding. Librarians in schools hold varying titles which may be reflective of a range of specialities and qualifications which they may hold, and which may also be reflective of a desire to construct the librarian as a modern and reinvented profession that retains relevance in the current context (Davis, 2008). These titles include, but are not limited to: school librarian, school library media specialist, and teacher librarian. However, there has been a shift back to acknowledge the value of the traditional title. In 2010 the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) board of directors voted to revert their nomenclature from “library media specialist” to “school librarian” in order to be responsive to the “role of the 21st-century school library professional as a leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator ” (Scholastic, 2016).
This shift back has not been without controversy, with blogger respondents such as Bunn (2010) contending that the diversity of the role is lost in the name change, and suggesting that the name librarian is associated with outdated stereotypes . Others such as Rendina (2016) argue that the terms library and librarian are still valuable, with some of the new terms such as media specialist leading to confusion in those outside the education profession . She also argues that there are numerous positive as well as negative associations with the term.
Davis (2008) locates the debate about naming of librarians amongst broader concerns facing the profession , as a symptom of “a deeper malaise or ‘condition of discomfort’ underlying the library profession”, noting that
symptoms can be found in the profession’s difficulty in naming itself–there is much debate about whether to call oneself a librarian, information scientist, information manager or knowledge worker. Is the object, purpose or product of our work data, information or knowledge? (p. 58)
The debate reflects changes to the nature of the library, and to the role of the librarian, that are shifting points of contestation both in school and public libraries.
There are varying educational requirements for the role in international contexts (Lupton, 2016). The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is “the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users”, and the “global voice of the library and information profession ” (2019). In the most recent edition of the IFLA School Library Guidelines (2015), it is noted that
Staffing patterns for school libraries vary depending on the local context, influenced by legislation, economic development, and educational infrastructure. However, more than 50 years of international research indicates that school librarians require formal education in school librarianship and classroom teaching in order to develop the professional expertise required for the complex roles of instruction, reading and literacy development, school library management, collaboration with teaching staff, and engagement with the educational community. (p. 8)
In Australia , school librarians are often te...