Mar 31 2009
Having a break, needing a change
As this is my blog, I can say what I want! So, I will explain to anyone who is interested why I am having a break from SLN (School Librarians’ Network). Sorry – it is a long post!
First of all, I must say that I think SLN is a wonderful source of support for school librarians and Elizabeth Bentley, the list owner, deserves a medal for starting it and maintaining it so well for more than ten years. However, from time to time things get out of hand on the list. Sometimes I have been part of that myself – I am not perfect! Today was the final straw for me and I decided that the only way to stop myself from sending a message I might later regret, would be to unsubscribe for a while.
What sent me over the top was this comment:
“With the help of SLN, a subscription to SLA and the purchase of its very good Guidelines publications plus bags of enthusiasm anyone can become a school librarian.”
This was part of a message defending the position of unqualified people running school libraries. It was in reply to something I had posted about the need for training. My messages were a bit sharp, I know, but I am astonished that anyone would think that training is unnecessary! We all need CPD – I am not so arrogant that I think that I no longer need any training myself! I was not even talking about the professional education that I, and others on the list, have undertaken.
I was also angry that anyone should think that the knowledge and experience of professional librarians count for nothing. After all much of the “help from SLN” consists of exactly that! So, the writer of that comment, and others like her, agrees that she picks our collective brains, but on the other hand denies that we need qualifications to do the job!
Again, I know that there are exceptions in any milieu – there are some dull, disinterested professional librarians around who should never take up a post in schools; there are also some colleagues, without professional librarianship qualifications, who do a fantastic job in their schools. I have met truly awful, disastrous teachers too, and some brilliant teaching assistants, but that doesn’t mean that I support teaching becoming a non-graduate profession. At the very least school librarians should work to take the necessary training and acknowledge the expertise that has come with professional education and experience.
So, I do not apologise to anyone for my fundamental belief in professional qualifications for school librarians. Enthusiasm is great – we can all go a long way with that – but we also need a grounding that education gives us. Many years ago, I strongly believed that school librarians in the UK did not need a teaching qualification in addition to one in librarianship. Recently, after interacting with our international colleagues I am changing my mind. A teaching qualification can also bring so many facets to the job, that many of us struggle to develop on our own. Realistically, it would be very difficult for us to undertake teacher training in addition – there are no financial incentives or rewards for us to do this. But I think that it would possibly help us, not only to do an even better job, but also with our status in schools. It would also help us to focus on what a school library is about – teaching and learning, extending the curriculum, reading development, using technologies, and so on – rather than book marks, nice competitions, pretty displays – necessary, but not the “meat” of our raison d’être.
A friend has just sent me this – I was about to write exactly the same thing, but she has put it better:
Imagine this scenario. A message is posted to the TES Forums:
“Dear fellow-teachers,I have recently been appointed to teach at a primary school nearby. I have no experience or qualifications but I am determined to do a good job. The school realistically cannot afford a qualified teacher so they have appointed me. Please give me all the benefit of your expertise and training so that everyone will think I am doing a good job”Signed, TeacherMiss
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You have just written exactly my thoughts and opinions. Thank you.
Ouch! Speechless but not surprised… take deep breath, kick something & dig in.
NO kicking any passing para-professionals though…
I agree – a professional librarian does provide ideas, skills and understanding to the job and I agree that we should have access to professional teaching qualifications as interacting with students is part of the job.
scarpagirl – don’t need to kick anything now as I have got all of this off my chest!
It’s a difficult one, isn’t it? I do agree that someone can come into our profession without Library qualifications, as I did, but should work towards becoming a professional (I am now Chartered). Everyone has to start somewhere, and I have always found SLN to be mostly welcoming, although have had to keep my head down when the chartered/not chartered debates raged. But now that Chartership no longer needs us to take a professional library qualification- something which I did not have the time and the money to do on top of my English degree at the time – there is no excuse. I took the other route into Chartership – spent a year compiling a folder of evidence to prove that I was working to a professional standard. I wish I did have the training, as it would have helped with a lot of areas, (classification for a start!) but I made sure I made up for it by going on lots of training courses, and working hard. Now I feel that I am as professional as anyone else on the list, but through lots of training, and lots of mentoring by others on the list over the 8 or so years I have been a member of SLN. We do welcome ‘enthusiastic amateurs’ – I was one once – but only those who are determined to become professionals as soon as possible, as you say. Sorry, this answer is about as long as your blog post! But I feel that something has gone wrong with SLN recently, Elizabeth must be grieving. At least my Twitter network doesn’t let me down – it is difficult to make rude remarks in only 140 characters! Keep strong, keep maintaining professionalism for school librarians, it’s worth fighting for!
Yes, I agree that we all have to start somewhere and I applaud the way that you have developed and progressed. I cringe when I think of the mistakes I made at the beginning – and still continue to make now and then.
Good! I’d hate my BBC News feed to be filled with stories of random attacks on library para-professionals
… Always better to have a rant & start a debate about these issues.
My two-penneth worth – is training informanics how to teach something the library schools should be covering in more detail or could chartership address the shortfall? We all have to teach in one form or another whichever corner of libraryland we inhabit…
I watch this from an environment where school libraries are inhabited by dual qualified teachers and librarians. Most of us were initially classroom teachers who then went on to further study. Our pay rates are linked to our grade as teachers.
However people vary, whether they are trained or not. I believe there is less ignorance though amongst the trained, and I would HATE to think what type of school librarian I would be if I was dependent on the guidance of management and teachers and relied on a book. Having only 1 position in almost all schools means it would be very easy to create something that is a neat and tidy repository inhabited by nice ladies with nice smiles and provide a warm and welcoming experience.
Ignorance of the principles of information and learning do not come in a Weetbix packet. And the confidence that comes through knowing the my practice can be tracked back to these principles. These have helped me immeasurable because I am a reasonably retiring and quiet person who does not seek confrontation and I do not know how to deal with it very well. However, when I am backed by my professionalism, I can be confident to keep on track and provide my students with the best learning experiences and the most rich and varied resource access. It is a mindset, an internalised set of principles and it came from formal training.
About teacher training – pedagogy is the professionalism that underpins classroom practice and curriculum implementation. We all need it. You are developing as you go. You are right. Teacher training empowers you to develop the skills students need. Library lessons form the introduction each year, but what students need is the development the skills of a research process – different animal altogether. I am sure this is what you refer to.
OK.. so I have written a book in reply. Makes your original post seem quite brief, Anne.
Long live professionalism, and long live lists that help practitioners without training to attain the same level of professionalism. We all need it.
I’ve been thinking about this conversation all day. In Canada, we have teacher librarians. We start out as classroom teachers and then move to the library. In the province I am in now, you need to take at least one course to be a T-L. I personally don’t believe this is enough training.
In the province I use to live in, I had started a Teacher-Librarian Diploma program. It was 30 credits with required courses on cataloguing and managing a library (not just the teaching part). In that province you needed to complete 15 of the 30 credits to be a T-L.
This is a huge difference in just one country.
So I don’t believe you can just learn this out of a book. But some people do have that opinion and though many people may see them as being incorrect in their ideas (me included) they are allowed to have those ideas and to express them appropriately. I am not a member of SLN so I don’t know how this was done.
Sometimes distance is the best answer to a difficult situation.
Anne, surely posting on here the exact topic that got you wound up in the first place is going to make your blood boil?! Take a real break from it. Most people are more than aware of your opinions on the matter so please don’t stress yourself out further on this. Either quit sln and stop tweeting about it or you may as well go back there!
I missed all this on SLN as I tend to delete loads of messages,. I firmly believe that theory underpins practise and without it we only function at a basic level responding to day to day issues. I think that understanding the theories allows us to reflect, evaluate review plan and develop. I always remember Sharon Markless saying years ago on a course about librs teaching that we should be clear on our aims and objectives when planning a lesson or activity before planning the activity, but often people think of an activity that will be fun and dont worry about aims and objectives.
I think that it is of paramount importance to understand the theories and principles of school librarianship, we achieve this through formal fulltime or part time, distance or what ever form of learning, but you dont get it through sln
I am always buying prof lit to read and loved that course we just did on web 2.0
So i guess I agree with you.
Josephine, I unsubscribed from SLN to stop myself responding to stupid and crass messages in a way that would have got myself into trouble. On here I will say what I want. On Twitter I will say what I want. I have now nicely got it all off my chest and my blood pressure is fine.
Yes, people may be more than aware, but then they don’t have to make the decision to come here and read what I think. They can also delete any messages I sent to SLN. They don’t have to talk to me in person either if they don’t want to.
I am not sure by the tone of your message if you are being kind or telling me to belt up! But, I have approved your comment either way!
Sorry I missed the discussion but during term time it is hard for me to keep up to date with my email, RSS feeds etc. Now that it is the Easter hols (whoppee) I can add my voice of approval for all that you have said. You lasted with SLN longer than i did. I tried every possible way to filter out the messages that were off topic or just moans and groans, but in the end I was finding less and less of value. It is a shame as it started out so well and was so incredibly useful. But thanks to people like you I am finding other Web 2.0 sources of CPD that are more applicable to my needs. I am sorry to lose contact with some of my SLN friends but hopefully we can reconnect on blogs and twitter etc.
BTW I find your blog one of those really valuable sources of new ideas so please keep on posting! cheers, Anne-Marie
Thanks Anne-Marie. I am not sure yet if my break from SLN is temporary or permanent. During the start of this new job, I have found the support and advice from many SLNers invaluable. Especially as I am now without an assistant. Most SLNers are wonderful, supportive people. A small minority spoil it for the rest.
As I said above, I am not perfect. I have wasted time with frivolous posts and I know that I have upset some people over the years with my forthright views. But these beliefs are based on a passion for our wonderful profession and I get very annoyed when I see the danger ahead if we allow that professionalism to be watered down.
Anyway – thanks for commenting on here and I will try to keep on developing this blog to share ideas.