What is a teacher librarian?

Teacher librarians are credentialed teachers with an additional credential in library media services. We are part of the teaching core of each school site. Teacher librarians are lead teachers, highly qualified to teach the 21st Century Skills our students need to prepare them for college, careers, and lifelong learning, including information and digital literacy and critical thinking skills.

School libraries are in the center of an information explosion. Along with unprecedented access to previously unavailable sources, a great deal of online information is neither accurate nor valuable. With this explosion, students need help more than ever learning how to navigate and evaluate what they find. A teacher librarian is an information professional, responsible for teaching future generations of information users how to access, evaluate, integrate, originate, and use information safely, legally, and ethically. The teacher librarian also provides professional development to staff in these areas. This is the curricular domain of the teacher librarian and an area of special expertise acquired while earning their second credential in library media services. No other teaching credential area focuses on these special skills.

 

Does your school have a teacher librarian to support your students and staff?

Your students need and deserve one! Unfortunately, so many schools in California lack a proper library, or, even if they have one, lack the services of a credentialed teacher librarian.

 

What do teacher librarians provide for students?

They support:

• Essential Equities (Ed Code)
• Essential Literacies and Learning (Curriculum, Model School Library Standards)

Equities

The California Education Code and the Williams Settlement require that schools provide all students with access to needed instructional materials: books and other resources. The State Board of Education has adopted model program standards for school libraries, which describe staffing, resources, and infrastructure recommended for effective school library programs. The Board recognizes that libraries support the educational program by providing access to a variety of informational and supplemental resources that can help raise the academic achievement of all students. All students need and deserve a school library stocked with up-to-date books, periodicals, reference materials, audio-visual resources, and electronic resources - and devices for accessing them in order to promote literacy, support academic standards, and prepare students to become lifelong learners.

Teacher librarian responsibilities include resource management, integration, and curation, to assure that students all have equitable access to these resources they need and guidance in how to use them effectively and responsibly. Research studies show that in schools with credentialed teacher librarians fulfilling this role, student achievement improves, even when correcting for socio-economic differences. In schools that have a credentialed librarian or a credentialed librarian/support staff team, students benefit from resource management, integration, and curation, and instruction in information and digital literacy, and staff benefit from professional development and support provided by the teacher librarian. Schools without such staffing suffer from inequity of access to materials and instruction.

What do resource management, integration, and curation include?

Resource Management

• Oversee Organization, Distribution and Return of books, ebooks, and mobile devices
• Assure Equity of Access and Supply

Resource Integration

• Staff Development  (Supporting All Curricular Areas)
• Parent Education (Information and Digital Literacy)

Resource Curation

• Building and Managing Physical and Digital Libraries for Grade Levels, Disciplines, Parents, and Students
• Providing appropriate resources for the personal interests of students.

Essential Equities Education Code and Law

• Access Equity  (Williams Settlement)
• Library Program Equity  (Ed Code 18100, 18120, 44868)

Literacies and Learning

Teacher librarians help students achieve college readiness and and career preparedness, and they support the transition to the Common Core State Standards with their emphasis on research, information sources, and reading. While the CCSS lay out what skills students need to learn, the Model School Library Standards provide a roadmap as to how these skills can be taught, such as engaging research projects. Teacher Librarians also help students achieve the 4Cs set out by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: critical thinking and problem solving; communication; collaboration; and creativity and innovation. In 2010, the Librarians Association of the University of California delivered a resolution to our State Board of Education in support of the Model School Library Standards, expressing "affirmation of the great value we place in having strong school libraries and teacher librarians, who are instrumental in preparing California's elementary and secondary school students for success in higher education."

Too many students arrive at college today unprepared for the rigorous research and information literacy required there. Schools with a teacher librarian-led library program prepare students with these skills. They also help to prepare the next generation for jobs that may not even exist today.  In addition, they support the state's requirements to instruct our citizens in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Digital Literacy (Information Literacy ( section 254 (l) of the Communications Act of 1934) (Ed Code 5187.5) and Digital Literacy  (California Executive Order S-06-09)

California PTA

The California State PTA believes that every school library/media center should:

• Be staffed by qualified credentialed personnel who

  • Select appropriate materials and provide activities that support the instructional program;
  • Assist students and staff to become effective users of ideas and information; and
  • Work closely with staff, students and the parent community;

• Meet the needs of all students by teaching the research skills necessary to obtain specific information; and
• Maintain and update print and non-print collections and/or have access to existing information through the use of various technologies.

California PTA Advocacy Toolkit