As part of ETL507 I have been required to undertake a 10 day professional placement. I have just completed my 2 weeks in a large regional independent secondary school. I was able to do it here as I am not currently working in a school environment.
Reflection
The placement confirmed my desire to work in a school library and while on placement I was able to put into practice many of the ideas and skills
learnt throughout the MEd course. It was exciting to be able to apply ideas,
knowledge and skills in a school library setting and to have these affirmed and
appreciated by an experienced teacher-librarian. It confirmed many of my ideas
about the potential of the teacher-librarian role and the dynamic and friendly
disposition required of an effective teacher-librarian. It also highlighted the
need to be abreast of any and all technology utilised within the library and
the challenges that problems with hardware and software can create and the need
for the teacher-librarian to be responsive to these. In this respect it gave me
a better understanding of the level of technical knowledge and support that
librarians are often expected to be able to provide and the need to ensure that
as a librarian you are aware of current trends in technology and hardware and
software.
The opportunity to take part in the acquiring and processing of
resources lead to not only a greater understanding of these aspects and the opportunity to discuss the impact of these processes and the need to
ensure that the users’ needs are always at the forefront. This was a valuable
reminder of this aspect of the role which sat well with those experiences
gained on the study visit and the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
Records (FRBR) (IFLA, 1998) approach.
Along with gaining insight into the running of the library, I was able
to see the way in which teachers perceive the library and the role of the
teacher-librarian and how this impacts on the ability of the teacher-librarian
to gain traction to collaborate and or co-develop resources. It was clear that
the ability to perform this was reliant of the personalities of the teachers
and the area in which they teach. This suggests the need for advocacy and the
importance of librarians in providing professional development or ‘how I can help
you’ sessions to raise awareness and increase collaborative opportunities.
The placement also
highlighted the specialist knowledge that librarians possess in regards to
resource and information provision and the management aspects of the library
role. Having a non-trained teacher replacing the teacher-librarian demonstrated
that this role is perhaps undervalued and misunderstood but again reinforced
the need for teacher-librarians to be proactive. This clearly tied in many
aspects of the MEd course in terms of being a leader, leading change and using
research and policies as a way of being proactive in advocating the importance
of the library and appropriately qualified staff.
REFERENCES
No comments:
Post a Comment