PD presentation to teacher-librarians

Yesterday I spoke to a group of about 30 teacher-librarians from non-government junior schools about ALIA's PD program. This was the result of a request from one of them who is enrolled in the scheme, and is very impressed with it, and how it works. Her introduction set the scene nicely, so my job was pretty easy. I took the approach that most of them are doing the work anyway, and this was a way to have their efforts acknowledged. There were lots of nods from the audience! I also tied it in with moves in NSW to have teachers keep their credentials up to date through the NSW Institute of Teachers -- they have a category called "teacher identified PD" or something like that, and it sits very well with ALIA's informal learning activities. Might was well get double recognition for their efforts. And of course the very meeting they were all at was another excellent example. It really did go down well, and of course I used it to promote ALIA membership as well. Derek's Frontline in the most recent inCite was useful there. Lots of membership kits were handed out, as well as PD registration forms -- hope there's an influx of members and registrations as a result. One final thought -- freebies like balloons, post-its and bookmarks always go down well at gatherings of teacher-librarians!

On questions about teacher-librarians

I've just answered a couple of questions about teacher-librarian qualifications, and Robyn thought it might be useful to share it with you. Hence, this posting. Here's my answer to a rather vague question about whether teacher-librarians are teachers, or librarians, or both:

"re qualifications for teacher-librarians: I do know quite a bit about this, since I spent many years working as a teacher-librarian myself. In the government sector, teacher-librarians must have teaching qualifications, but not necessarily librarianship quals. This is due to a variety of issues, but most significantly duty of care requirements. Teacher-librarians teach extensively (or at least they should!!), and thus must be qualified teachers. In secondary schools, about 95% of teacher-librarians are qualified librarians. In primary schools, where many teacher-librarian positions are part-time, the figure is less, maybe 75 or 80%. ALIA would like to see all teacher-librarians with dual qualifications -- see https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarians.html and http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html

"I've just had a quick look at the NSW DET website, and see that they too ask for dual qualifications https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/employment/teachnsw/brochures.htm%23librarian But I think the reality is that they cannot always fill positions with dually qualified people, especially in regional and rural areas -- though certainly this is their preference -- and must go with the teaching quals first.

"The non-government sector is mixed -- very difficult to give you a comprehensive overview, but I'd say the majority of teacher-librarians in this sector have dual quals.

"You might be interested in the work that Georgia Phillips and others are doing to promote teacher-librarianship and school libraries at The Hub -- see https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/ ALIA is certainly following this work with great interest. And of course ALIA and the Australian School Library Association work closely together."

As an afterthought, it's worth adding that in NSW, the DET has put substantial resources into helping teacher-librarians gain ALIA recognised qualifications -- in fact this is how I got my start in the industry, completing a Grad Dip in Teacher-librarianship at the then Kuring-gai CAE I(now UTS) way back in the mid 80's.

And please, don't take any of this as gospel, especially the figures -- they are very much guesstimates!