School Librarians Are Real Librarians
About fifteen years ago I attended a state library conference as a university library assistant. At the time I was in the process of getting my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. I went to a session about career information and the presenter was rather pessimistic about the field of librarianship. Since I had decided to focus on school librarianship I mentioned that this field had many jobs in our state since school librarians were retiring in great numbers. The presenter’s response was “No, I mean real librarians.” I was speechless and I was apparently the only school librarian in the room. She quickly backtracked and since I was seeing red I don’t remember much after this statement.
If I were quick with words (and not so angry) I might have said “School librarians are the librarians who do it all. We are the reference desk, the collection development office, the computer lab assistants, and the circulation managers at our school libraries.”
Core Values of Librarianship
After the recent questions about credentials and degrees recently covered by both ALA and the KQ blog, I wanted to revisit some of the most important parts of my training. My graduate program had a course that covered the core values of librarianship with Dr. Esther Swink, one of the nine professors in my MLIS program. This course has been the cornerstone of my career in library science. No matter how much the industry changes and library trends come and go, these key values help guide my decisions even today.
These are some of the Core Values of Librarianship as adopted by the ALA Council in 2004 that we studied heavily in my graduate program:
- Access
- Confidentiality/Privacy
- Education and Lifelong Learning
- Intellectual Freedom
- Preservation
- Professionalism
- Service
Protecting the Staff
Some of the ways the wisdom of this one course has informed my practice have to do with the highly relevant issues affecting school libraries. Most importantly protection, advocacy, and leadership. First, how do faculty and administrators perceive the position of librarian at my school? Do I protect not only my job as school librarian but also the position itself? Of course, we want to be a team player and help in many areas that support the entire school program. However, we do not want to become the permanent test proctor, copy girl, textbook coordinator, laminating queen, study hall proctor, substitute teacher, or babysitter. There is nothing wrong with helping out with any of these school tasks, but the first thing that should come to colleagues’ minds is that a librarian is a professional who holds to these core values of librarianship.
Protecting the Space and Programming
All librarians should be dedicated to service and access. But we are losing space to offices, classrooms, and even our own makerspace. We must ask ourselves are the activities a good fit for the library, do they support service and library access? Or is the library facility thought of as just a really great space? Other questions we might ask are what activities add to the vision and mission of the library? What activities do no harm?
A great place to find fun and unusual programming is the American Library Association Public Programs Office website Programming Librarian.
Protecting the Curriculum
Finally, what are we teaching in the library? Are we swerving too far into another lane? We want to remember the values of education and lifelong learning. When we focus on technology are we teaching high-tech information literacy and information access? When we focus on language arts are we teaching research, copyright, and intellectual freedom? With curriculum like everything else, we must go back to our core values. Because, yes, school librarians are definitely real librarians.
Author: Hannah Byrd Little
Hello, I am the Library Director at The Webb School of Bell Buckle. I use my past experience in college and university libraries to help my current students in school libraries transition into college, career, and life. I am currently the lead Senior Class Adviser for the Capstone Project. I also served at the state level with the Tennessee Association of School Librarians executive board from 2009-2013 and was the TASL president in 2012. I am certified as a Library Information Specialist for PreK-12th grade, have a BS in Communications with a concentration in Advertising and Public Relations, a BS in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Education and Information Systems and a Masters in Library and Information Science.
Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Makerspaces/Learning Commons
Thank you for posting this! I wear many hats at my school like many school librarians and sometimes feel the “library” part of my job is getting lost.
Yes to everything in this post! My co-lib and I are outlining our focus/goals for the next school year, and your post has been very inspiring.