The Learning Teacher-Librarian

Hazy Memories and Sketchy Drawings

My school years hold vaguely positive memories of the school library as a "centre for recreational reading” as Laurel Clyde (1999, p. 5) describes, even though I must have also used it for research purposes. While my recollection is only vague, I thankfully have no negative library experiences like Ryan, the Starbucks barista, as the Library Girl, Jennifer LaGarde (2018), learned and then wrote about in A Back To School Challenge. My use of university libraries are much closer to Clyde's description of libraries "as a resource to support teaching and learning” and even "a scholar's library--supporting the intellectual elite” (1999, p. 5). In my teaching positions at various small schools, I appreciated the library for the sake of the students, but made use of the internet much more for my math and science classes. It was not until I started learning about the role of the teacher-librarian and started looking more closely at the possibilities within the school library that I began to consider its use and importance much more. After becoming an aunt and then a parent, I have also gained a stronger appreciation for the programmes offered through public libraries - enjoying hearing what Grandma takes my niece and nephew to, and wishing there were public libraries in Phnom Penh!

As I was thinking about these readings, I started jotting some notes looking for themes, and it turned into the broad written response/cartoon that I have attached below. I was influenced by Patrick Valentine's (2012) discussion of how valuable books themselves were (p. 28) and how "the displaying of books was a sign of wealth” (p. 34) and privileged. Clyde also points out how libraries, especially in America, could be useful to a "young man who wanted to educate himself and 'rise in the world'” (1999, p. 12). Similarly, the English grammar schools during the time of Elizabeth I taught Latin and some Greek "so that sons of the local gentry and townspeople could gain entry to the inns of court and the universities and thereby to the professions” (Clyde, 1999, pp. 7-8).

I was also responding to Michael Gorman's (2015) urging to promote and defend the need for and importance of libraries. While Gorman makes some beautiful points about the value of libraries (2015, p. 40) and the purpose of the "traditional” library (2015, p. 44), an undercurrent of fear or panic seems to drive him to an over-assertion of his point that libraries need to be politically advocated for (pp. 53-54). While I agree that we need to be strong self-advocates for our positions and our libraries, I think we need only to show others what the Library IS and is for - what we can 

offer to enrich individual lives and society itself. I think Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell (2018) make a more interesting and compelling argument for the importance of libraries in their essay in pictures. If you have the time, I highly recommend it.

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