The School Librarian Perdicament

So last week in class we went through the various types of libraries, and since I want to be a school librarian this post is going to focus on school libraries. I know no real surprise, but what I want to talk about is the issue school librarians face: not being seen as a important part of education.

A few weeks ago I had to interview a school librarian for another class. The librarian I talked to had taught elementary school for years and really enjoyed her job. When I asked her what she though her role in the school was she informed me that she believed her role was to teach information skills that will help her students be prepared for middle school and for life in general. However, when I asked her what other people thought her role in the school was she told me library time was considered a break. For teachers, this was the time of day when they could drop their students off at the library and get other things done. Some teachers collaborated with the librarian, but many teachers did not think they needed to collaborate with the librarian as to them, the librarians job wasn't an important part of a child's education. Now last class I couldn't help but think of this interview. When Professor Lankes talked about how many administrators are cutting librarians because they didn't think of them as teachers I was baffled. In my school media classes I learned about  how school librarians can collaborate with teachers to reinforce information taught in the classroom and how school librarians can stress information literacy and help students understand the research process. Yet, even though we are taught that librarians can do all this, school districts are still having trouble grasping the idea that the librarian is a teacher too. Now I'm not saying all school districts are bad. Many school districts really use the librarian and the librarian and the teachers really do try to work together to bring the students into the library as much as possible. In fact, one school librarian I talked to told me she had a blog for collaboration with other teachers. Many teachers were too busy to meet in person so they found it easier to blog about ideas and lessons that would work well with the library.  Nevertheless, there are still so many school districts who think that just having a library is enough. But a room full of books is not going to help with a child's education. A librarian is, without the person all you have is a quiet room to work and read in.

One of things many school districts do is split a librarian between two different schools. The librarian that I talked with for my interview worked at two separate elementary schools. At one school she was there Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and then she was at the other school on Wednesday. As a result she did not collaborate as often with the teachers at her second school. Because she was there only once a week it was harder to learn the student's names or keep track with what teacher was doing what unit. That conversation made me realize how many school districts don't realize the benefits of a librarian.

So what I think we need to do is tell them. When a new school year starts send emails out to parents or send parents the link to the school library web page. On the web page explain what students do in the library and what a librarians role is. Explain different projects students might do and how a school library and the school librarian are important to a child's education. The same goes with teachers. Librarians can send emails to teachers explaining the resources of the library and how they can help their students. People want to know why a librarian is important to a school, well we need to tell them why.