Identify the role of the TL – analyse literature
In 2008, the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) was released outlining 2 main educational goals for allyoung Australians. The first is for all Australian schools to promote equity and excellence. The second is to ensure that all young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens (p. 7). As this is the directive set out for all Australian schools, then this too must be the core business of each and every school library. If teacher librarians (TLs) are to be valued within the 21st century school setting, our first goal must be to align our values, and the values of our library programs,…show more content… We must develop strategies to promote the safe, ethical and responsible use of ICTs in learning and teaching (ASLA, 2014), and need to ensure that our library’s policies and procedures implement the school’s mission and vision for education and follow information management practises that are consistent with national standards (ASLA, 2004). Whilst Harvey (2001) notes that library education is becoming more focussed on users and their needs and less on the policies and practises of the library, Oberg (2006) discusses the importance of the teacher librarian advancing the school goals by actively knowing and promoting the principal’s goals. This means that information services manager is still vital component in the overall role of the 21st century teacher librarian. We must ensure that effective policies and procedures are in place to ensure that the operations of the school library run smoothly and that we as curriculum leaders and information specialists can fulfil these roles…show more content… In most cases, it is the principal who appoints personnel to the role of teacher librarian (ASLA, 2010), so it is important that we align our library goals, policies and procedures with a similar view in mind to ensure that the school administration and staff share our view of the library program and the benefits it brings to teaching and learning across the whole school community (p. 16). All schools will continue to battle to utilise their resources to maximise efficiency within the school budget and the juggling act between our 3 roles has becomes increasingly important if we are to maintain a presence in 21st century schools and not go the way of the dinosaur. Our specialised skills mean that we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that can make positive contributions towards our school achieving its educational goals. There has been very little change since early last century with the three main elements of information, education and recreation still fundamental to the school library (Prestebak, 2001). We must continue to provide access to quality information to meet the informational needs of our users. We must ensure that we are school leaders and act as agents or catalysts of change (Oberg, 2006) and collaboratively work with our colleagues to plan, implement and evaluate educational learning experiences that
