When jobs are on the line can the skills of inquiry leader, readers' advisor, resourceful collaborator, curator, promoter, event planner, independent learning expert, blended-learning educator, collection developer, acquisitions staff, indexer, evaluator, weeder, early-adopter, maker/designer, cross-pollinator, community and service-learning practitioner, etc. add value to the title of Librarian and therefore help increase the brand? Or...does sticking to a title like Librarian put people in jeopardy of being thought of as antiquated keeper of books. After all, this is what is portrayed in pop culture and sometimes reinforced by a few untrained, unwilling, or lazy bad apples right? It's hard when a school only has one and he/she fits the stereotype of someone who sits behind a desk and refers to resources as "my collection." If that's a librarian then yes, it's no surprise that the position may end up cut and replaced by more dynamic cheaper staffing with a glitzy title but little training. This has happened across the United States where we say we value literacy. Why? Is the position misunderstood? Are Librarians to busy or too humble to promote their work and the outcomes of teacher and student collaborations and achievements beyond postings and meetings with their own colleagues or beyond their schools or professional organizations?
It baffles me that districts and schools would cut, let alone, not add more high-quality Librarians because:
-A high-quality Librarian works with and knows every student and every teacher over time. The personal interactions go way beyond circulation numbers.
-He/she has unique insight into each individual and understands their interests, their needs, and their skills because he/she has helped teach the students across subject areas and often knows what information and diversions the seek on an independent level through helping to find print, electronic, expert, and community resources.
-Today's Librarian has a multitude of skills and is open-minded and excited to develop and grow with new students, new knowledge, new understandings, new technology, and new strategies for how, when, why, where and what humans learn and teach.
-Librarians are lucky; their approaches to teaching and learning are untethered by a textbook and a classroom roster with one set of students and curriculum.
-Librarians are connected with a multitude of patrons and potential resources.
-Their teaching and learning skill sets involve working in and knowing and supporting everyone in the school, and connecting and helping them make sense of, evaluate, organize and utilize resources, ideas, and communities at an individual and global level.
-Opening doors to the world through ongoing inquiry develops, uncovers, and hopefully challenges subject-area knowledge by encouraging teachers and learners to venture beyond the day to day didactic curriculum, to question, to push, and in turn apply their learning to create, make, and develop new ideas, strategies, models, systems and/or products and solutions.
So should high-quality Librarians move beyond or embrace the title? What do you think? What's in a name?
(inspired by Adventures in Libraryland blog)
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