Teacher-Librarians
February 24th, 2006 by Christopher HarrisDavid Bilmes shared a bittersweet story on LM_NET a few days ago:
A group of 8th grade girls were hanging out on the floor in the corner of the LMC during a study hall, reading aloud to each other “The Thief Lord.” They looked quite cute, and I went over to take a photo of them with my digital camera to put on my LMC webpage, and told them that I had read that book out loud to my homeroom last year (thankfully, I don’t have a homeroom this year). The girls expressed surprise, and one of them said, “You’re a teacher?” I told them that I was a certified teacher, just like all of the other teachers in the building, but that my classroom happened to be the library. “What do you teach?” one of them asked me. I told them that I teach kids how to research, how to find information. They seemed satisfied with my response.
The scary thing is that these are all kids who have been in my school for a year-and-a-half and have spent time both inside and outside of the LMC working on research projects that I have helped them with. Yet they all seemed surprised at the thought that I was actually a teacher, not just a librarian. I guess we still have a ways to go to educate everyone as to what we do!
As I have said before, I am becoming quite convinced that exchanging the “school library media specialist” title for something like “teacher-librarian” could do a lot for the profession. Teacher-librarian, from a purely marketing standpoint, is a great name in that it invokes the two primary roles of the position; that of a fully trained and certified teacher, and a fully trained and certified librarian. Leaving the marketing double-speak behind, the name also just fits. It focuses on students and learning and seems to flow a bit more within the school structure. Think about it: you have your gym teacher, art teacher, music teacher, reading teacher, math teacher, and…school library media specialist. I know we play a special role in schools, but I can’t help but hum the Sesame Street classic “One of these things is not like the other ones.”
Now I am young, so I don’t know the full history behind the school library media specialist title. From what I have been told, the new name came about as a way to incorporate new computer and audio/visual technologies that were becoming part of the library. Please understand that this is in no way attacking the adoption of the title or the reasons behind selecting that title, but I do think it may need a second look these few years later. One of the great changes in educational technology has been a shift away from the “fetishism” of focusing on the tool itself rather than the benefits of the tool. The introduction of personal computers into schools was a period of monumental and incredibly rapid changes, and introducing new vocabulary helped us navigate the change together. Those were the days of “multimedia” and a capitol “I” on internet. It was all so new.
Now, though, we talk about the internet as another widespread communication technology like radio or television. We haven’t worried about things being “multimedia” since Netscape replaced Lynx and our word processors became WYSIWYG page editors. We weathered the gust front, and are now learning to live within a storm of rapid technological changes. I just got a new cell phone and was upset to find out that you can’t just set it to beep or emit a subtle ringing sound anymore – but I too will adapt! In the same way, libraries adapted. They became media centers for analog and now digital audio and video resources. They incorporated computers and the internet. And yet, they remained libraries. Evolved libraries, but libraries all the same.
So let us now take up that proud banner of “librarian” once more and proclaim to the world that we are the teacher-librarians, even the library teachers, of our future. We teach students how to make sense out of information chaos, we help them navigate the wilds of the internet, we even prepare them with the information literacy and technology skills that allow them to download a new ringtone!
February 24th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Hmmmm…I’m not so sure. I take your point about kids sitting through classes with you and still not knowing you’re a teacher. But so what? The kids know who I am by what I do. I don’t much care what they call it. I’ve had kids address me as Mr. Man because they can’t be bothered to learn my name, but who I’ve still managed to connect with and point in some fruitful directions.
I used to work in North Carolina and I was a media coordinator. Now I’m in Virginia and I’m a librarian. But my actual work has varied more according to the cultures of the individual schools than the states or job titles. Teaching and learning is obviously a big part of what we do. But so is information access and delivery. I find myself doing more with technology and online tools now than I have in other schools, advocating for a broader role for social software, a more interactive web presence, loosening avenues of communication. So what am I now, deputy assistant principal for information affairs? Teacher-librarian has an ennobling character to it, but it no more sums up what I do than librarian, a word which I think has a sort of classical connotation, yet is eminently modern. When people ask me what I do, I say I’m a librarian, only secondarily adding that I work in a middle school. People invariably are impressed: They understand that librarian is a profession for the future.
Names change all the time and there is something to be said for perceptions being anchored — in some intangible way — to the word chosen to define something. But as soon as a new name is assigned, one immediately begins to see the old associations gradually migrating along with it. In the end, I think it makes little enough difference that this discussion ultimately goes nowhere. We need to be strong advocates for our roles in the schools because we know we’re important and the research supports us. But in the narrowing context of AYP, administrators are less and less sure of it.
I mean, look, we’ve got literacy specialists, guidance counselors, social workers, instructional coaches, instructional assistants, positive behavior support specialists — all of these people participate in teaching. The kids know that. The fact that they don’t think of us as “teachers” is just a function of our roles within the school. It doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t see us as teaching. And frankly I find it can be an advantage. This is by no means true of all students, but I have had several who speak to me with an honesty and a directness they would never use with a “teacher” because my position lacks the formal, structured, expectation-fraught role sometimes associated (fairly or not) with teachers.
Probably I’m just quibbling. I appreciate what you’re saying. I’m just not convinced it’s a productive use of our energies.
February 25th, 2006 at 2:33 am
Bob,
Great points. What we do is certainly more important than what we call it. And worrying about what we call it should never take priority over discussions about best practices. That said, though, I am also concerned at an administrative level over changes I am seeing in my part of the country. Luckily, for now we are looking on at the 65% solution stuff from a distance, but we those of us not facing it cannot risk staying quiet. The root of the problem there isn’t about what we do, but how what we do is perceived. Perception becomes reality. And when we are perceived by school administrators and the public as not being teachers…well, then it is a lot easier to cut library funding.
In the end, changing a name doesn’t mean anything without the changing of behaviors as you so rightly point out. We need to advocate for, and participate in, building stronger school libraries. It is great to read about your adoption of new technologies that are making the library a more powerfully connected part of the school. That will be what really matters as we move forward in the profession.
That said, I remain convinced that one possible response to the 65% stuff, NCLB, and the Google Effect is making sure what we do is correctly perceived as a professional, expert role melding instruction and librarianship.
Anyone else have some thoughts? I certainly have a lot of questions and some wild ideas, but not all of the answers by any means!
February 25th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
What David has shared on LM_NET has happened to me a handful of times throughout my ten years working in a school library. It hurts every time. What hurts even more is when the same thing is said by a teacher. When I point out that not only did I need to become certified to have this job, but that I had to have my M.L.S. they look astonished. I am currently taking graduate courses to gain a post-graduate degree and people with whom I work (albiet for only the past 2 years) seem to think that I am just now working on my first Masters degree. I am now trying to use those comments as a way to educate people about the field. I recently read an article by Doug Achterman published in the January ‘06 School Library Journal entitled “Another School of Thought… It’s time to educate media specialists in schools of education.” He writes that “…school library degree programs should operate within schools of education, not in schools of library and information science.” If the program were housed within schools of education, maybe our profession would not feel as isolated and misunderstood. It may even encourage other capable teachers to seek it out as a career option. When I reflect on my job it is always as a teacher first. I agree with Christopher- the title of teacher-librarian would do a world of good (not just in the way others perceive us, but also in the way some school library media specialists see themselves).
February 27th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
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