How have my views on the role of the TL changed during this subject?

When I began this subject, I brought with me a set of beliefs, ideas and assumptions about the nature of the role of the teacher librarian. During my teaching career I had worked alongside teacher librarians and I had also worked temporarily as a TL for almost two terms. I thought I had a fairly realistic expectation as to what being involved being a TL but to quote Senge (2007), "the more you learn, the more acutely aware you become of your own ignorance."

On July 23rd, I wrote on my blog a list of things I thought were part of the role of the TL. I was correct in that they really were things a TL may have to do but after looking over them again I realised that these things were more 'jobs' or tasks than 'roles' or functions. Looking at it like that gave me a different (although shallow) perspective. I think I saw the TL's role as supporting teachers by collecting resources, as a information skills teacher and a library manager. Once I started the readings for Topic 2 and Assignment 1, I started making a lot of connections. When I was acting TL at our local high school, there were other aspects of the role of the TL that I 'touched on' but never realised that it actually was part of the TLs role. I was just trying to embed some Quality Teaching (QT) elements (DET 2003) into my program, make information skills lessons more interesting and useful for students and to be an obliging, helpful colleague. For example, it seemed obvious that students were not retaining and using the information skills 'learnt' from the numerous unrelated worksheets left by the previous TL, so I tried to build them into a lesson on a topic I knew they were studying in another subject. I could only see, like many others, the tip of the TL iceberg.

How have my views changed? From Assignment 1 I learnt that the role of the TL is multifaceted (Herring 2007) and have come to see the role of the TL like a spiders web (Mitchell, 2011 July 24), with threads weaving back and forth, linking different aspects. For example, leadership is one aspect of the role of the TL but it is also linked to curriculum involvement, information specialist and so on. One particular aspect is not totally separate from the others. You don't take off the collaborator hat so you can put on the teacher hat.

I have also come to realise that the role of the TL is constantly changing due to government policies, 21st century curriculum and the needs of learners, and because of that, TLs need to be flexible and creative. In my blog I expressed frustration at those librarians in a rut who are doing the same thing year in, year out and I understand what Dianne Chen (2009) is saying when she tells them to "Get out of my profession!" Being a TL is not just checking out books (Purcell 2010) or some cushy job (Mitchell, 2011, July 22) where you only have to teach a few lessons a week.

The role is a wide as it is deep. It takes a lot more than being a great reader or writer to make an excellent librarian (Osler Quotes as cited in Purcell 2010). A TL is a leader, an information specialist, a collaborative partner, a literature promoter, a library manager, a collection curator, IT specialist, an instructional partner and a curriculum innovator. And that list is conservative. I understand that there is a lot more to each of these roles than what I currently know.

I called my blog "The Information Portal", as I saw it as the entry point into the world of the TL. I wrote that the portal is both description and reflection but at the time, I didn't really understand what I was "reflecting" on or indeed what reflection involved. Most of the other blogs I had read on the internet were informative and entertaining, not reflective. So I don't feel that I really reflected on my views on the role of the TL to any great degree in my blog, but I know my views and beliefs were challenged and turned around. I told a teaching colleague a short while ago that even if I am never employed as a TL in a school, the way I think about teaching and learning has changed significantly, and that we should never underestimate the role of the teacher librarian.

References
Chen, D. (2009). Get out of my profession. School Library Journal. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/practicallyparadise/2009/10/19/get-out-of- my-profession/
Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries
in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Mitchell, K. (2011). The Information Portal. [Web Blog]. Retrieved from http://theinformationportal.blogspot.com/
NSW Dept of Education and Training. (2003). Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools: Discussion Paper. [Online]. Retrieved from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_EPSColor.pdf
Purcell, M. (2010). All Librarian's do is check out books, right? Library Media Connection. 9(3) Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=092fa675-9ae0-42a1- b3d0- 85b627de9cc6%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3Qtb Gl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ907292
Senge, P. (2007). Chapter 1: Give me a lever long enough... and single-handed I can move the world. In The Jossey-Bass reader on Educational Leadership. 2nd ed. p3-15. Retrieved from http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/ereserve/pdf/senge-p.pdf

Making it harder than it needs to be...

There's something about information literacy that I don't quite get. Why do some find it so difficult to understand what it is and what it is about? It seems to me that some read more into it than they need to. Maybe I just see things in black and white. My definition of information literacy comes from the words "information", meaning knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc, and "literacy", meaning the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate society, so as to take part in that society. Therefore, "information literacy" is a combination of these definitions - the ability to use language to read, write, listen and speak at a level that lets one understand communicate and used information (knowledge gained) in a literate society, so as to take part in that society.

Pretty simple, really. I don't believe it is something new. It's been around since the dawn of literacy. Langford (1998) states that historically, literacy was interpreted as a basic ability to read, write and comprehend, and as society's needs evolved,literacy became a universal right.

What do people read, write and comprehend? Information, of course! So one might say that literacy has always been connected with information. It was only in the late 20th century that we actually spelled out this connection.

Abilock (2004) sees Information Literacy as sharing a fundamental set of skills with other disciplines. I disagree. I believe it is embedded in all disciplines, in all aspects of society. It does however, involve a fundamental set of core thinking- and problem-solving meta-skills, and as Abilock also states, students develop "habits of mind".

I'm yet to read the Herring article for this section, so we will see how my definition evolves after consideration. I truly believe that by fossicking around, considering different literacies, we are muddying the waters, creating confusion and losing sight of the main idea. Perhaps there are some TLs who want to see information literacy as their special domain, unobtainable by mere mortal teachers. But to get the best situation for the students it has to be the main educational outcome in every school. And perhaps it already is in most schools, it's just not labelled as "Information Literacy".

Assignment One

I am still unsure as to what two aspects of the role of the TL I shall use in my first assignment. I have read a range a articles and still cannot decide. Do I choose aspects of the role that I personally feel are important, or do I choose aspects for which there is a lot a literature available? I was considering that TLs need to be both a qualified "teacher" and a "librarian" and what these roles may involve. The teaching aspect is essential and the role of teacher also overlaps with the role of "instructional partner". Perhaps I have been considering this because I have been teaching for some time and I feel that this has a lot to do with defining who I am. I found myself reading a lot about the role of leader and what that may entail, but I also feel the role of information specialist is important. I'm not sure where I will go to from here. I think I will re-read the Herring and Purcell articles (again!) and hope something jumps out at me. I really want to be able to start writing something concrete down.

The Role of the TL Continued...

Our first assignment for this subject asks us to critically compare two aspects of the views of (a) Herring and (b) Purcell on the role of the teacher librarian. Purcell's article is devoted almost entirely to the various roles the TL takes on, whereas this is only a small part of the Herring article. Purcell gives us snippets of what the different roles entail but doesn't really say why these roles are more important than others. I kind of feel we don't really find out what she thinks - we just get a brief overview. It's like, here - these are the roles and this is a little bit what they're about. Whereas I want to know a bit more why. I also don't feel she has cited enough references. Herring's chapter is presented differently. He's shown us what a few different organisations/people have said and then it's a case of you make up your own mind. Which is good in a way. Everyone's ideas about what the role of a TL is, is of course, very different. Now it's up to us to work out what aspects of the role we feel are important enough to address in our assignment. Personally, I think most aspects could be melded (is this the right word?) together under just a few titles. For example, a TL in the role of teacher, could also be described as a leader. Or, if you are a TL acting in the role of information specialist, then don't you also need to act as a leader and a teacher to fulfil your role? I'm still considering how to work around this in my assignment. Maybe this is where Purcell and Herring fall down - they don't consider how intricately woven the ties are between the different aspects of the roles.