February 2024 - Stopping the Staffing Slide in School Libraries

Book bans haven't really affected me directly. I have created a challenged materials policy as a result of the issues. I'm not overly confident however that the policy would be consulted in a challenge situation. I have had 2 incidences where I have been asked to remove books deemed unsuitable by other staff which does concern me that my professional opinion may not be considered when I disagree. My policy states that there should be a group of people inc students who look into the challenge before coming to a decision.

Having a policy is important as we know. I wonder if you should name the group of people responsible for making the final decision. I would include someone from the senior leadership team and speak to them so they know. Interesting to have students in the group. I've not considered that before. How would you go about choosing who they are? They would also have to change on a yearly basis I presume so it might be difficult to keep up to date.

I was using a template for the policy from another librarian, I did ask the DEI member of staff but not the students. I imagine they would be y10+ and yes, a bit tricky as would have to change. Something to consider going forward.

I agree that there is a massive misconception issue. The idea of old fashioned and out of date does seem to preside within the public and education sector (Not HE). The erosion of the professional role has taken place gradually with changes to the ways schools are funded in 1988 (I'm talking England here) meant schools budgets were devolved to individual schools. This means that when money is tight, the library is vulnerable. Also, national curriculum overhaul in 2014 lead to a move into more behaviourist teaching practices, constructivist approaches which complement library involvement were therefore squeezed as schools had to focus on "teaching to the test". I agree that it very much depends on the school leaders and their perceptions as well as are they getting value for money. If they don't understand the professional role and see it as a TA equivalent role (which is often all they understand through teacher training) then they have no expectation that the librarian will be anything other than the book stamping baby sitter. The way I have adapted is to learn more about the role, I was employed as pretty much this but have spent 3 years getting qualified and now have a much greater understanding of what the role should be. I am now however in the awkward position of trying to demonstrate this to staff and its hard! My reason for getting qualified are really to give me more options in the jobs market if things don't improve for SL's then at least I am better qualified to move sector.

Thanks for this @Rachel Huskisson, can you explain what you thought the job was going to be when you first started and what made you begin to think that it should be something more? In other words, what changed?

I had been working as a library assistant so I first saw it as a step up since it was a solo librarian job. I hadn't had a great ending to my previous job (although my boss who has retired that year was a very experienced librarian and had modelled the job well to me so I did have a good idea of what was involved) and was feeling pretty disillusioned with school librarianship as a career, I had no opportunities at my previous school and thought I would give this a go as I had nothing to lose. I was surprised they didn't want a qualified librarian as the previous person had been. I can now see that they were looking to merge the 2 roles, I was probably a bit naive to that. They seemed happy that I had worked in a library and that I was personable. I guess there is a school of thought that it is more about your character than your qualifications for a lot of jobs. I also thought that because behaviour was being managed better in this school that I would be able to do the job more effectively than my last place. I guess as I learnt more about the role through chartership and networking (and this membership!) I began to see the inquiry and information literacy skills as equally important to reading promotion. I have particularly enjoyed learning about the ethics and values of the role and feel these are really important to emphasise.

My school have merged the school librarian role with an after school supervisor role, I am therefore restricted for 9 hours of my 31 hours. The senior leaders seem reluctant to make changes despite me trying to demonstrate the value of being a full librarian! My interactions have lead me to understand that I am seen as admin more than teaching staff by the head and HR. I am termtime only plus 10 days, the bursar was not happy when last summer I had already worked 9 days due to me doing extra and coming in earlier on occasion and said "Who is going to deal with all of the textbook enquires now" I explained that the 10 days were supposed to be for library work such as stock management and strategic planning but she didn't buy it! I now have to get my extra days authorised in advance.

It certainly is difficult to change minds after the fact which seems to be your problem here... There is a lot of work to be done around expectations and value isn't there!

Sadly, I see the problem within the profession as much as outside it. Many school librarians are very happy to be the reading lead as this is what they see their role as. This is no criticism on them... There is no guidance from the top so where do school librarians learn about what it means to be a school librarian and the role? If we as a profession can't explain the role then how are schools and teachers supposed to understand it. I can see a glimmer of hope with the shift to AI in education, however school librarians are not being included in these conversations. This shift is happening without us and this is a worry... There are too few professional school librarians to help schools understand the value of the role within the information world. The only places I see school librarianship growing is within private schools, yes this is because there is more money, but there also is a recognition of its importance and value. Why is this? I'm not sure...

It's a good point about the lack of direction within the profession. The Great School Libraries campaign recently surveyed around 500 school library workers in the UK about their roles, the data is currently being analysed and I expect some insight into this to come out of it. (Watch this space!)

Private schools are where the role is (my move being an example of this) which is leading to even more inequity. I'm not why sure either, I guess if I am being cynical, it's about competition with other schools, if the independent school down the road has a fantastic library with a professional librarian, they have to compete.

It will be very interesting to see the outcome of this survey!

On leaving full time employment my mission has been to support school librarians though my training membership which you can find out more about here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership. I offer free support through this type of learning and I believe strongly in advocacy... talking and writing about all I do... I am currently learning what I can about how AI is going to impact education and what role the school librarian can bring to it.

I have developed a good network of support, doing chartership has enabled me to have a better understanding of the role and where my knowledge and skills gaps are. I try to learn new tech and keep up to date, even if its not something required in my current role. I have taught myself how to use Canva for example as well as trying to be strategic. Using social media has been really helpful too. I also try to push myself to do things a bit out of my comfort zone. It keeps me interested!