Australian School Library Survey

Research studies continue to show that library programs run by a trained teacher library improve student literacy and learning. These studies provide important evidence of the true value of libraries in schools and support our ability to effectively advocate the role of teacher librarians.

One survey which goes a long way to help reinforce the value of our industry is Softlink’s Australian School Library Survey. Since 2010, this survey has identified a positive link between well-resourced libraries and student literacy (NAPLAN) results.

The 2013 Australian School Library Survey is now open.

We encourage school and teacher librarians to participate in the survey and ensure your voice is heard.

The survey will again this year analyse Australian school library budgets, qualified staffing levels and literacy results as well as other key trends impacting school libraries. The results will be provided in an industry-wide report. A copy is distributed to all participates as well as federal and state government and education department decision makers.

For more information please visit the Softlink 2013 Australian School Library Survey.

A Bill of Rights for Students

Every day on the professional TL lists, there are posts that clearly indicate that the role of the TL is still not understood by our peers and principals – one recent post even stated that the person worked for “a supervisor who genuinely believed TLs were on a different award from other teachers just so they could work before or after school if requested”. Other posts indicate that there are many instances in which the TL themselves are unsure of their role, particularly now the “Digital Age” has firmly settled on our schools.

If we, ourselves, are not sure where we sit within the teaching and learning paradigms of the school, how can we effectively advocate for a qualified TL in every Australian school? Perhaps it is time to take time to determine and define our role, both generally as a profession and specifically within our schools. How do we value-add to the work of both staff and students in ways that no one else can? Why are we teacher librarians and why do we need a post-grad qualification to have the right to call ourselves that?

Much is being made in the USA right now about gun control, and my interpretation of some of the arguments is that the objections are more about the citizens’ rights as laid down in their Bill of Rights being eroded than opposing the restricting of access to firearms. If a Bill of Rights is so inviolable, perhaps it is time for schools to develop and declare a Bill of Rights for their students, so that there is a document that approaches the purpose of the school from the students’ perspective. What is it that they have a right to within the school that is sacred regardless of who is at the helm? What should they expect to experience as the absolute intellectual, social, emotional, physical, cultural, ethical, pedagogical and environmental basics of their school experience? Then having determined those in line with MCEEDYA’s href=”http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf” target=”_blank”>The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (which is the current blueprint for K-12 education in Australia) and the school’s philosophy (which may be shaped by a religious perspective, for example) how does the library help achieve those goals, and then how does the TL fit within that through policies, programs, procedures, processes, and practice?

Once the school community, including the parents, staff and students, have negotiated, ratified and implemented the Bill of Rights for the students’ overall education in their school, and developed a mission statement and a plan to ensure those Rights are recognised, accepted and achieved, then the TL can begin to find their place within that and identify how the library’s services and resources will support those rights and goals and their role in ensuring that happens.

There are a number of documents that can help shape this…

IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto

ASLA Statement on school libraries in Australia

AEU, ALIA and ASLA Joint Statement on school libraries and teacher librarians

ALIA and ASLA “Statement on library and information services in schools

ASLA School Library Bill of Rights

ALIA and ASLA Statement on school library resource provision

ASLA Statement on teacher librarians in Australia

ALIA and ASLA Statement on teacher librarian qualifications

ALIA and ASLA Standards of Professional Excellence

The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians

Other statements about resource based learning, information literacy, guided inquiry, funding and policy development are available on the ASLA website but it is also critical that we work within the Professional Standards for Australian Teachers because first and foremost we are teachers with recognised teaching qualifications which legally enable us to supervise and teach students in ways that non-qualifed library staff cannot.

The teacher librarian is unique within the school and therefore has a leadership role. Why not demonstrate that by starting a conversation about creating a Students’ Bill of Rights as the fundamental philosophy on which everything the school does rests?

Target: September 14

The date of this year’s federal election has been set as September 14.

So that gives TLs a little over seven months to target the two key groups who have the most influence over our futures – parents and politicians.

Parents can be your strongest allies and your greatest critics. But they have the power and the voice at the ballot box so it is essential that they understand what it is the TL really does. Starting on the common ground of wanting to provide the best education for their child, it is critical to involve them in what is happening in the library by keeping them informed if not actually in there.

Have a prominent presence through your newsletter, website or social networking media and keep them regularly informed of what each class is undertaking while in your care; events; new releases of books or movies, whatever you think they need to know. Make yourself or your presence their go-to place for information. Regular communication makes the library the hub of the school.

Provide homework support with links to curriculum-related websites, safe game sites for each age group; and other interesting sites that will engage them and support their learning and leisure activities

Provide a parent information lounge both on your website and in your library with information about the school, child development, supporting their child’s literacy and numeracy development, cybersafety, local services and entertainment for children (collect brochures or link to sites), help lines such as the Poisons Information Centre or Lifeline, even lists of appropriate authors, titles or series for each age group for birthday or Christmas lists.

Collaborate with other teachers to host parent participation programs in which the parents learn how to listen to their child reading; help with homework without actually doing it; search without Google (or tips and techniques about using it effectively); understand information literacy; anything that they feel that they might need. Be the pivot on which the relationship between the home and school balances.

Support parents reading with their child, particular those who have just started their education journey, by having grab bags of seven selected titles, that parents borrow like a resource box. There are enough appropriate books for a new title every night, are easily available and borrowed in one transaction. (Enlist some mums or dads who sew to make you some distinctive bags, each one a little different so it’s easy to remember which has been borrowed. Put the barcode on a keytag and attach it to the handle.)

Create links with your pre-school, even having regular storytime sessions with them if that is practical. The younger the child, the more involved the parent so educate them early.

Speak at P&C meetings about what you do so the word spreads that the school library is a very different place from that which they might remember.

Politicians are the puppet-masters who hold the purse-strings – they are the people who direct educational authorities to implement the big-picture changes like National Partnerships, teacher accreditation, Local Schools, Local Decisions and so forth.

They are driven by power, economics and votes. Most have high ideals and are busy. The role of the teacher librarian is not at the forefront of their responsibilities and many have perceptions based on what they remember of their experiences, however long ago that was.

Despite the National Inquiry raising the awareness of the role of the teacher librarian amongst some federal politicians we are yet to see any meaningful change from their recommendations, so it is time to apply the pressure again. Even though the federal government continues to say that staffing is a state government decision, nevertheless with the Prime Minister’s stated focus on education in the election campaign, we now have another opportunity to get our voices heard.

If local politicians, actual and would-be, are kept informed of what it is the teacher librarian adds to the education experience of their constituents and they can see there is the likelihood of votes from parents then they can be powerful allies.

Politicians love to be seen as being ‘in on the action’ which is attracting their constituents. They love an opportunity to be seen and talk and getting them on your side is imperative. Be apolitical and put your preferences aside. Don’t limit yourself to the sitting member – wannabes need to get their names into the community so people recognise it on that election sheet, and those in Opposition love to be informed enough to ask Questions in the House. Build up a positive relationship so when the candidates need a school for a photo opportunity, a launch, a place to place funds, it’s your name and face that come to mind.

Invite them to any library-based function you have but look for unusual celebrations – the Unique Selling Point that will make your event stand out – such as a student-organised Literary Luncheon, a poetry reading by a local poet, a book launch by a new author or illustrator – anything that is also likely to attract the media so they can have a photo opportunity

Invite them to be guest readers, bloggers, speakers, artists or presenters, especially celebrating students achievements based on library challenges. Do a lot of the legwork for them such as

 booking well ahead, including information about the importance of the event with the invitation, sending a reminder with a background brief and an indication of what they are expected to do – it’s about getting them to value the library not necessarily save them work. They will come again if you are PROFESSIONAL.
 selecting the book and getting it to them in advance to practice
 suggesting the focus of the blog post such as their opinion of any proposed educational legislation
 have them be a focal point of your citizenship studies so they talk about what they do
 if you know they have a passion for poetry, drawing, music or whatever invite them to perform as part of a school-based event. It doesn’t matter if it’s not library-related, it’s about reinforcing the connection.
• Email, write or phone them to let them know how decisions affecting the employment and deployment of teacher librarians affects the teaching and learning in the schools in their electorates – let them know that the parents are the voters who will keep them or not.
• If there is something such as the NSW Local Schools, Local Decisions policy that is really going to impact on the teaching and learning at the school, make an appointment and visit them. Be prepared and demonstrate how the issue will affect the families in the electorate rather than your employment. Keep in mind that votes talk and there are more parents than teacher librarians.

Start planning your campaign NOW – and share your ideas through the Comments.

Teacher Librarian of the Year

Congratulations to the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year, Alinda Sheerman.

She is in charge of Broughton Anglican College Information Resource Centre.

Alinda states on her school library blog, “It was announced yesterday that I was the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year 2012 What an incredible honour and privilege!”  Read more here.

LSLD/Funding linked to outcomes: The truth will out

[19] Plan may cost schools millions
LAURA SPERANZA
8 April 2012
Sunday Telegraph – Page 24 in Local Section.
THE NSW government plans to deny schools millions of dollars in school bank account interest used to buy equipment and classroom resources, but haven’t yet told principals and parents.
Despite moves by the state government to give schools greater control of their budget and finances, school bank accounts will be controlled by the NSW Department of Education from October this year.

[27] Wealth key to school success ANALYSIS REVEALS CHILDREN FROM WELL-HEELED HOMES GET AHEAD IN EDUCATION
JUSTINE FERRARI, NATIONAL EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT
7 April 2012
The Australian – Page 1 in Local Section.
EXCLUSIVE
FAMILY and money are the most influential factors in a child’s success at school, with elite independent and government schools serving students from well-off and well-educated backgrounds dominating the list of the nation’s highest achievers.

Australian Teacher of the Year a Teacher Librarian

Congratulations to Jo Sherrin from the Northern Territory!  and to all who work with her at Bradshaw Primary School.  As this year’s Teacher of the Year she is an example to all teachers and principals and departments of education of the contribution excellent TLs make to student learning and quality teaching.

“Jo Sherrin is a highly accomplished and innovative teacher-librarian who consistently creates learning opportunities to meet the diverse learning needs of the Bradshaw Primary School community, of which 50 percent are Indigenous students.

Jo’s outstanding teaching, particularly in foundational literacy skills, is based on sound educational research, a thorough knowledge of her students and the use of cultural and geographical experiences which connect students with their heritage and history and nurture a love of literature and learning. Jo is a founding coordinator of the highly regarded Children’s Literature in the Centre (CLIC) Festival.

Jo’s inspirational contribution to the profession extends well beyond the local community. She is an active leader in the Australian School Library Association in the Northern Territory and is contributing to a trial of the new Australian English Curriculum.” AITSL

There are 151 government and 35 private schools in the NT, yet only 22 staff in NT school libraries have any qualification.

What a difference to the NT’s poor NAPLAN results, trained TLs like Jo could make in NT schools. The NT government must offer scholarships and placements.  Charles Darwin University must be supported to bring back its training course, so more students in the NT have the support of great teachers like Jo Sherrin.

Garrett and Baillieu fiddle while Rome burns

You wouldn’t want to be seen running a Woolies like Victorian principals are now running their school libraries.  Investments accrued over decades amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars are increasingly being left to be run by the “check out chicks” as “managers” are fired.

That’s what continues to be happening in Victoria’s government school libraries. Less than 13% of primary libraries have qualified teacher librarians in charge, including the 248 new federally funded BER libraries at $2-3 million dollars each. And that’s just the infrastructure. Now secondary schools are being battered.  Three more qualified teacher librarians in large state high schools have been told they won’t be replaced on retirement or will be moved to other duties or into the classroom.

This leaves multi-million dollar resource centres in the hands of technicians and volunteers. Does the state see this practice as good management? Do they run their own “corporation” this way? Where is the educational rationale and accountability?

When Victorian schools went to ‘global budgeting’ in the 1990′s the writing was on the wall. Ever shrinking state budgets have meant that principals have had to cut here, cut there over the years.  Gradually, all non-face-to-face teaching positions have disappeared – careers teachers, teacher librarians, student welfare co-ordinators and so on.  Only the very biggest schools can still afford these.  Also, time allowance for positions of responsibility have reduced to the point of disappearing. Special payments for positions of responsibility are also in decline.

Global budgeting is sold to the community as a way for principals and schools to determine their own needs.  In reality, they have become a means by which governments of all persuasions have been able to continually slash education budgets without having to wear the pain. “The school made that decision” is the constant refrain when a well loved program is axed.  Our situation is part of a much larger issue of declining education funding.  Over the past 20 years, education funding in Australia has declined, as funding in other OECD countries has increased.  We are now among the lowest funding countries in the developed world, 28^th after Lithuania and Greece.

Local control of local schools is fine for local projects.  But without adequate funding and without transparency in decision-making and accountability, it will only send us further down the educational and economic ladder.

Meanwhile, we await the federal government’s response to the recently tabled report on the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians, if there are any left by then.

20 September 2011

The Hub (with thanks to P.M.)

Inquiry Report Gap Analysis #3: Funding

According to the Children’s Book Council of Australia survey (2010) submitted, sectors and schools vary markedly in school library funding. The average library budget for an Anglican school was $44,762; for independent schools $37,220; for Catholic schools, $20,732 and for government schools: $10,606. (36% of these were $5,000 or less. 3% were $1,000 or less.) In NT schools, most of which are remote, over half have budgets under $500 according to the 2008 Australian School Library Research Project.

Yet the issue of funding is sidelined in the School Library Inquiry Report.  ASLA had suggested “The Ministers of Education establish a formula for funding the resource collection of school libraries Australia-wide based on a minimum per-capita amount and negotiate with Governments to commit to meeting a national funding agreement for school libraries on an annual basis” (ASLA sub). This has not happened.

Since the 2008 Council of Australian Governments’ intergovernmental agreement, federal funding has been handed over to states and territories “providing them with increased flexibility” (Report p. 12).  Although school libraries in Australia virtually came into existence through federal funding for resources and training, they do not see this as their role now.

Yet grants could be given to BER libraries, for DER programs in libraries, for literacy through libraries.  There are many ways the federal government can fund school libraries, as they have in the past. At the least a much need increase in public school funding would directly affect library budgets.

While reducing the cost of online database subscriptions is recommended, the question of funding is left to

Recommendation 10

The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government, through the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood and Youth Affairs, discuss ways to enhance partnerships with state and territory and local levels of government to support school libraries and teacher librarians.

So it remains for us, concerned parents, citizens, educators and school library supporters to continue to press the state and federal governments for funding standards and adequate, dedicated funding.

South Australian Graduate Women speak out against school library closure

With permission, here is part of a recent submission to the current Federal Review of School Funding from a member of  Graduate Women – SA.  Submissions close today 31 March in Australia and can be submitted from

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/ReviewofFunding/Pages/Submissions.aspx or from

http://inquiry.forourfuture.org.au/

Further submission to the Review of School Funding – March 30^th 2011

Graduate Women-SA

Dear Panel,

The Graduate Women-SA, affiliated with the Australian Federation of Graduate Women with concern for the education of girls and for social justice, and affiliated with the IFUW with consultative status with UNESCO, has been made aware of the capacity of Principals in South Australia to decide which staff they need to have to fulfill their estimation of a school’s staffing needs.

However, student counsellors and teacher librarians are no longer considered essential members of staff. That means that Principals may replace student counsellors by what were once chaplains but now are Christian Pastoral Officers or workers with all the possible intrusion of sectarian influence that such a position creates. Public schools are secular in order to recognise and value the wide range of family-held positions and to free students from any form of pressure from different religious organisations….[section on school counsellors]…..

The second issue is the decision not to include teacher librarians as essential members of staff. Teacher librarians have been at the forefront of helping schools to meet the wide range of changes in resources and ‘tools’ available for learning since 1975. They have helped teachers broaden their knowledge, helped individual students explore areas of interest outside the specific subjects they are studying, provided support for students and their parents with particular needs, been there before school, during lunch times and after school to answer questions or meet all kinds of needs – intellectual, emotional and psychological. Teacher librarians, working across subjects, have helped staff and students to make links with other subjects. That interdisciplinary capacity has helped to broaden the horizons of students, staff and families. Today, because they are not tied to subject specific requirements for My School results, they are even more valuable in that their support for students’ literacy is non-judgmental and is not tied to passing or failing.

Some Principals in public secondary schools, convinced that they need to be at the forefront of the ‘digital education revolution’, have decided they do not need teacher librarians and, indeed, that they do not need libraries. In one metropolitan South Australian school the Principal has decided that the library will be redundant in another two years, believing that leasing e-books will be an appropriate alternative. While e-books may be the answer for subject-based texts, there will be a new level of costs to be factored in by schools as the loan is for a limited time.

Dispersing the non-fiction held in a library to subject areas defeats the purpose of a library where students and staff have the opportunity to explore across a range of disciplines and find unexpected connections. In the 21st century, we are becoming aware of the interconnectedness of so much that we saw as separate in the past. Graduate Women-SA urges the panel not to lose sight of the fact that face-to-face connection is important for the development of interpersonal skills and human relationships, the quality of which lie at the heart of learning.

What will be missing, if more Principals follow this approach, is the broader vision. Students do need to explore beyond the boundaries set in place by this or that subject-based curriculum. Do we want Australian children and young people to have those narrower options? Do we want them to continue to have the narrow outlook of the 20th century when one was considered either ‘academic’ or ‘non-academic’? Do we want citizens unable to recognise the connections between human and natural events? Do we want to perpetuate the past?

All resources, including books, need to be fostered in schools. Decisions to get rid of books are decisions to narrow options for students. Teacher librarians, as non-subject specific members of staff, are in the position of helping to enrich the intellectual and emotional lives of students. They contribute to improving the literacy level of students. Browsing is different from surfing. Time is secondary. A book cannot be removed from the computer once the time allocated for the loan is reached as an e-book can. The leased e-book just disappears when the time is up. What does this mean for the person for whom such time pressure undermines his or her capacity to learn?

School Principals, who have the broader visions for the future, should not be penalised because some schools decide that academic study via the computer is the way to go. Graduate Women- SA requests that the Independent Panel take into account the impact on public schools of these recent decisions by Principals who have sought to save their salaries and replace teacher librarians with subject teachers.

Graduate Women-SA asks, in this submission to the Independent panel, that it recognise the integral roles of student counsellors and teacher librarians as part of the human infrastructure of public schools. Where decisions to undermine these positions are already taking place, we request that the panel takes it into account and quarantines funds allocated to schools to counteract the impact of such short-sighted approaches to the salaries for student counsellors and teacher librarians. Not all Principals, given the Local Empowerment Policy, will be driven by this narrower technological focus. Funding for schools should not force future Principals, and their communities, down this narrower pathway.

What will be missing, if more Principals follow this approach, is the broader vision. Students do need to explore beyond the boundaries set in place by this or that subject-based curriculum. Do we want Australian children and young people to have those narrower options? Do we want them to continue to have the narrow outlook of the 20th century when one was considered either ‘academic’ or ‘non-academic’? Do we want citizens unable to recognise the connections between human and natural events? Do we want to perpetuate the past?

All resources, including books, need to be fostered in schools. Decisions to get rid of books are decisions to narrow options for students. Teacher librarians, as non-subject specific members of staff, are in the position of helping to enrich the intellectual and emotional lives of students. They contribute to improving the literacy level of students. Browsing is different from surfing. Time is secondary. A book cannot be removed from the computer once the time allocated for the loan is reached as an e-book can. The leased e-book just disappears when the time is up. What does this mean for the person for whom such time pressure undermines his or her capacity to learn?

School Principals, who have the broader visions for the future, should not be penalised because some schools decide that academic study via the computer is the way to go. Graduate Women- SA requests that the Independent Panel take into account the impact on public schools of these recent decisions by Principals who have sought to save their salaries and replace teacher librarians with library officers or school support staff.

Graduate Women-SA asks, in this submission to the Independent panel, that it recognise the integral roles of student counsellors and teacher librarians as part of the human infrastructure of public schools. Where decisions to undermine these positions are already taking place, we request that the panel takes it into account and quarantines funds allocated to schools to counteract the impact of such short-sighted approaches to the salaries for student counsellors and teacher librarians. Not all Principals, given the Local Empowerment Policy, will be driven by this narrower technological focus. Funding for schools should not force future Principals, and their communities, down this narrower pathway.

A copy of The Hub’s submission to the review can be found here.

My School 2.0 needs school library info

At last, more information regarding school funding and the disparity between private and public schools.  This disparity has also shown up in surveys done of school library funding and staffing. The Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians Report should recommend that these figures also be included on the My School website.

As it is, we have some telling statistics from the Children’s Book Council survey of 2010 of 624 schools around Australia.

Anglican Schools:

Average Library Budget: $44,762.

80% of Anglican school library budgets are greater or equal to $20,000.

5 stated that their budgets are unknown. One commented: “We do not have a budget. We spend until told to stop.”

Independent Schools:

Average Library Budget: $37,220.

74% of Independent school budgets are greater or equal to $20,000.

6% of those schools had library budgets of over $100,000.

Catholic Schools:

Average Library Budget: $20,732.

39% of Catholic school library budgets were greater or equal to $20,000.

Less than 1% were $50,000 or greater.

43% were $10,000 or less. 22% were $5,000 or less.

Government Schools:

Average Library Budget: $10,606.

13% of government school library budgets were greater or equal to $20,000.

Only 2 (.5%) of the 375 schools had a budget exceeding $50,000.

66% had a library budget of $10,000 or below. 36% were $5,000 or less. 3% were $1,000 or less.

Further information can be found in the submission made by The Hub to the current federal review of school funding at http://hubinfo.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/school-funding-sub.doc  The deadline for submissions is 31 March.  Have your say on the funding, and resultant staffing, of school libraries.  Go to http://www.forourfuture.org.au/ for further information.