Anyone outside librarian circles or perhaps the teaching profession may not be aware of the constant to and fro of discussion and foreboding that libraries, librarians and therefore teacher librarians, are too 'old school' to be cool. We have google now, right? What can teacher librarians teach us?
Considering over 3.4 billion people use the Internet each minute of each day in 2016, (see infographic below), being able to ask the right questions to answer a problem or inquiry, critically evaluate the results, identify and appropriately use information and create information for a variety of purposes for a variety of audiences, in a variety of formats, is more important now than ever before.
Support for the School Library is often dependent on the Principal and, as the SCIS article suggests, some Principals devalue their Library through inadequate resourcing and funding.
We are very fortunate at Bexley Public School to have strong support that allows us to extend our students and provide them access to information through books, DVDs, apps and the Internet. We also have a well-attended Library @ Lunch program and extension programs such as iBand and Code Club.
As a result, we have seen a steady increase in positive reading behaviours with students being more engaged in reading activities, borrowing regularly, asking for specific titles, and hunting down authors' latest releases. They are becoming active participants in the Internet by writing and responding to blogs and creating content such as images, art and presentations. Our students are also deconstructing multi-modal texts, creating their own and reflecting on opportunities for improvement.
Our Library is becoming a flexible learning space for students and teachers and we hope to extend this soon by including parents in our programs as well.