School Librarians as Literacy Educators Within a Complex Role

Journal of Library Administration

2021

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Schools are increasingly concerned with the promotion of student wellbeing, and relatively little is known about school libraries as wellbeing supportive spaces in contemporary schools. This article draws on qualitative interview data from students and library managers to explore how students make use of the school library, and how this relates to the library as a safe space. It finds that school libraries can be highly valued for their capacity to foster belonging and sanctuary and allow exposure to books and opportunities for reading. Students also appreciated how libraries provided a space for relaxing and recharging, supporting lively and social activities as well as quietude. There was recognition of the role of supportive library staff, who created inviting and supportive environments with careful selection of furnishings and decorations.

Section: Felix Explained Thatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Libraries as Wellbeing Supportive Spaces in Contemporary Schools

Journal of Library Administration

2021

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“…Merga was the single coder, with the findings checked by Ferguson and reference made to the original data when needed. Merga also had recent previous experience analysing job description documents from Australian and UK contexts, and this recent background must have to some extent shaped her analysis of this data set (Merga, 2020a(Merga, , 2020b.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As previously explored, both US and Australian school library staff are in a position of vulnerability to loss of employment and low valuing of the profession, potentially leading to reimagining of the profession to make it future proof in ways that fail to value more traditional roles of the school librarian that are associated with literacy benefit, such as fostering RfP. Both nations experience high diversity of aspects within the role (with the Australian role explored in detail in Merga, 2020a). Shifts in the role to become more ICT orientated to the detriment of an RfP focus could also potentially be motivated by commercial influences that sell technological resources to libraries.…”

Section: Further Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The role of school librarians is vulnerable, complex and highly subject to change, and this can compromise the position of RfP instruction and advocacy within the role (Mardis, 2013;Merga, 2019c). School librarians in Australia are typically dual-qualified teacher librarians as we explore in further detail herein, and recent research exploring the teacher librarian profession in Australia found that 'the role of teacher librarian is highly diverse, with the literacy educator aspect of the role part of a complex and disparate set of responsibilities and requirements' (Merga, 2020a). Lupton's (2016) review of literature found that the RfP aspect of the role has been valued by principals in the US in research cited from the 1980s to the 2010s, and her research also suggests that Australian principals see developing a love of reading as a role of the teacher librarian though the role had grown in complexity to incorporate a greater emphasis on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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School librarians supporting students’ reading for pleasure: A job description analysis

Australian Journal of Education

Ferguson

2021

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Reading for pleasure is an undervalued but highly beneficial practice conferring a range of educative and socio-emotional advantages. School librarians may play a key role in supporting reading for pleasure and associated literature advocacy; however, relatively little is known about how reading for pleasure may be valued within the job description of contemporary school librarians. It cannot be assumed that reading for pleasure is positioned as a valued aspect of the school librarians’ educative role in the United States and Australia, given factors such as evolving demands placed on the profession. Through hybrid content analysis of job description documents, this article explores which aspects of the current school librarian role are related to supporting reading for pleasure, comparing expectations between nations. While there are some similarities in the nature of the reading for pleasure role in the United States and Australia, Australian school librarians are far more likely to be expected to foster reading for pleasure.

“…Therefore, my prior knowledge in this field is both a strength and a limitation. I also had previously analysed Australian job description documents, which could have influenced the allocation of codes (see Merga, 2020b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the literacy supportive role of the school librarian in the United Kingdom?

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

2020

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Building students’ literacy skills is a key educative purpose of contemporary schooling. While libraries can play a key role in fostering literacy and related reading engagement in schools, more needs to be known about school librarians’ role in promoting these goals. To this end, this article seeks to identify the nature and scope of the literacy supportive role required of the school librarian in the United Kingdom. It also investigates how this aspect is situated within the broader competing role requirements of the profession. Using a hybrid approach to content analysis including both qualitative and quantitative methods, this article presents in-depth analysis of 40 recent job description documents recruiting school librarians in the United Kingdom to investigate these research aims. The vast majority of documents (92.5%) included literacy supportive roles or characteristics of a school librarian, and recurring salient components included supporting literature selection, having a broad and current knowledge of literature, promoting and modelling reading for pleasure, devising and supporting reading and literature events, promoting a whole-school reading culture, working closely with students to support reading and literacy skill development, and implementing and supporting reading programmes. This literacy supportive role was found to sit within a potentially highly complex and diverse work role which may compete with the literacy supportive role for time and resourcing in school libraries. This research suggests that the role of school librarians in the United Kingdom is both complex and evolving, and that school librarians in the United Kingdom have a valuable literacy supportive role to play in their school libraries.