School Libraries In Australia

Hazell,A. (1990).School library and information services in Australia. In M.Nimo, & A.Hazell (Eds) Promoting learning:challenges in teacher librarianship (pp.17-22). Adelaide: Auslib Press.

I have just finished my second article. The first I needed match sticks to keep awake during so I will make no comment about that one. The second was not too bad.

What are the key concerns in school library services during this decade?
My thought are funding. It seems that all too often the library is the easy area in a school to pull funding from when times are lean. It is therefore essential for teacherlibrarians to be working in partnership with the other areas of the school to ensure learning is enriched across the curriculum for both students and colleagues. Again in some schools I have taught in Library time has been seen as a tack on to the curriculum or RFF rather than an essential element to the learning journey.

I really loved two ideas which were expressed in this reading. The first being that the teacherlibrarian is a partner in students learning. This statement seems exciting and full of possibilities. Could it be that library teaching isn't just one lesson a week but instead may involve the teacherlibrarian working alongside other teachers to plan and implement rich learning experiences. Could it be whole days spent with a year group exploring and delving into new ideas. Could it be working with small groups to enrich their learning. It would be really exciting to have other staff see that the teacher librarian role could be so much richer and deeper than just being a buyer of resources or teaching of RFF.

The other idea I liked reading about was on p.19 where the author discusses students who are aware of the power of information and who know how to find and use it. If we do this well then our roles as teacherlibrarians will be seen as valuable.

I could just keep going on and on and on. But maybe I will stop as I have a feeling I'm the only one reading this and that is probably a good thing.