My very first post on this blog highlighted the need for teacher-librarians to stop being the invisible quiet achievers in schools.  It is my view that we are too often ‘overlooked’ because other teachers, parents and leaders aren’t always aware of the vital contributions we make during all stages of the learning process.  We provide ideas, advice, troubleshooting, resources, information and enthusiasm (to name a few).  Moreover, these are often based on our unique perspective of the whole school curriculum; a perspective that gives us valuable insights into teaching and learning processes and educational programs within the school.

Teacher-librarians, as lifelong learners, stay up-to-date with emerging trends and are often first to hear about new learning tools, educational shifts and exciting texts.  It is also a vital part of our role to pass this information on to others.  Which brings me to the point of this blog post …

I pass on a lot of material to staff and I’m still trying to work out whether the following incident is a good or bad development.  I started passing around a teacher magazine with a lot of valuable material in it. Before I started at the school this particular magazine was simply fodder for the recycling bins.  No-one ever picked it up or read it!   At first I only passed on copies to teachers I thought might do something with it, (that is, read it!).  Recently I received extra copies and started passing it on to every teacher. 

Well, today someone cut out an interesting article about libraries and ICT from this magazine and pigeonholed me (no name attached) No doubt this person believes they have helped me out by passing on a crucial piece of ’library’ information.  What they don’t know and will probably never know is that I was the person who passed this information on to them in the first place!  Also, the article, which I had read, was about an Australian teacher-librarian, Judy O’Connell, a wonderful blogger whose blog, Hey Jude I also read regularly! (We also recently became friends on Second Life!)

Is this a positive sign?  It means that teachers are finally starting to read and learn from this valuable resource.  Essentially, I achieved my goal.  OR… is it a negative sign?  Teachers continue to be unaware of how these valuable learning gems reach them and I remain invisible (and perhaps another teacher-librarian position disappears somewhere in the world?)