Perhaps I may be getting a little over optimistic but there does seem to be a noticeable increase in the appreciation of the importance of school librarians in particular and the profession in general. It was interesting to note the recent government warning to local authorities about their legal obligations for public library provision.
The lack of recognition of the worth of school librarians has many causes, but there are two particularly important ones. First, that school librarians usually work alone and are part of a wider support staff and so do not have the clout of larger information providers, such as higher education, where their raison d’être second element is a more bitter pill to swallow, and that is as professionals we have failed to state our importance strongly enough at a local level.
The traditional image of the librarian as a timid creature hiding among dusty books will still take more time to develop into the reality of highly qualified and highly skilled individuals working at the cutting edge of practical information technology.
With this sea change of opinion, and image change for us, has come a glut of support materials for the school librarian. This is a very welcome development, but is one that must be both embraced by the librarians and used to integrate the information service into the wider school policy.
This On‐the‐Job Sourcebook has been produced by Anthony Tilke who is now Head Librarian at Harrow International School in Bangkok, but was until recently Professional Adviser, Youth and School Libraries, at the Library Association.
The book is written for all staff, from chartered librarians to clerical staff, who are responsible for library provision in secondary schools. Of particular note is Tilke’s desire that the work will also address headmasters and inspectors in the importance of the school library. Tilke understands that the nature of school librarianship varies so much because of the diverse nature of secondary education in this country and so concentrates on the role of the librarian and the skills and experience they need to be successful in their work. Tilke openly states that the book cannot be a blueprint for the development of every school library.
The book itself is divided into six very clear sections and a very handy resource list.
The first section is a general overview of the role of the school librarian and relevant support systems. The author then moves onto a “Policy in practice” chapter which stresses the importance of understanding the specific school you work in and developing the librarian’s role through a library policy, development plans, integration into the wider school culture and evaluation and monitoring. The third section covers management of budgets, ICT, time and pupils.
Following on from these household duties the On‐the‐Job Sourcebook moves onto the critical area of understanding and supporting the curriculum. The penultimate section explores wider issues such as resource development policies, the Internet, accommodation of the library and how to promote the service. Finally, Tilke returns to the librarian’s role with specimen job descriptions, validated courses and qualifications, liaison with staff and pupils and supervising pupils.
There were one or two questions I had with the work, such as its tendency to try to cover every element of the school librarian’s job, which results in some strange lumping together of information as you can see from the section contents. It also struck me that a competent school librarian should already know most if not all of the contents of this book either from library school, training or practical experience. It would also have been useful to have several appendices of good practice policy and development plans, even if they might not have been specifically relevant to any other school.
However, this brings us back to the issue of professional isolation and this work could be extremely useful to provide reassurance where there is doubt, practical assistance for immediate reference and it is an excellent overview of the practical realities of school librarianship.
In general, On‐the‐Job Sourcebook for School Librarians is a very clear and well‐written reference work that is very easy to dip into as and when needed.
