Friends of The Hub is a coalition of individuals and organisations
who support The Hub’s campaign for quality school libraries.
It is a collective voice calling for quality libraries for all Australian schools.
If you would like to be listed as a member of FROTH,
click here to send us an email, or leave your statements of support below. Venceremos!
Libby Gleeson, author and past chair Australian Society of
Authors
Dear Leonie,
Thank you for your email and response to my comments. I must
say I am stunned at the absence of the TL community from the
literacy debates that are ongoing in the community. You do
have supporters out there in the writing world,especially among
those who write for kids. The Australian Society of Authors
is very willing to join in advocating for you. All your professional
body needs to do is ask and we will join any attempt at advocacy.
All strength to you! Libby
Dr. Alan Bundy, President, Friends Of Libraries Australia
Clearly school and public libraries both need better investment to
enable them to work together to help produce literate, reading,
information literate and questioning young people… and that
requires much more than ill-directed and often wasted expenditure
on a pc for every student (I sometimes wonder if any educational
and other bureaucrats have ever read (or can read texts like
Professor Larry Cuban’s fairly recent and persuasive book
Oversold and underused: computers in the classroom).
Yes, I’m well aware of the Colorado and other studies which
validate the real return on investment in decent school libraries,
and in teacher librarians,at the very time we are seeing static
or declining investment in them. So strength to your arm,
and you have my personal support
and that of Friends of Libraries Australia (FOLA).
You and your colleagues may be interested to know that
FOLA’s vision is ’Better, more accessible, libraries for all
in Australia’. Although its focus is on public libraries,
in February 2007 we wrote to John Howard
and Kevin Rudd about library issues. Our letter concluded
with ’It is also a concern that public libraries are needing to help
students more because of poorly resourced and staffed
school libraries, particularly those in the government sector.
FOLA therefore would like you to consider including in your
educational policy, a commitment to two complementary, or
possibly integrated, reviews
1 A national review of the Australian public library system.
2 A national review of school libraries’
We are continuing to pursue those issues with the Rudd government.
With all best wishes for your endeavours in 2008.
Regards-Alan
steve herrick, author, poet and
Australian Literacy Ambassador
As an author who visits over one hundred and fifty school per
year, I spend a lot of time in school libraries. They are
colourful, stimulating, tolerant and calming environments.
It’s where the nation’s children feel at home; where they are
encouraged, entertained and educated by teacher librarians
and teachers together.
A nation that supports school libraries nourishes its soul.
from Rhyming boy
My earliest memory.
I was four years old and Mum had taken me to the local library.
I walked down aisles forest-tall with books. I opened a
picture book. Monkeys swung from tree to tree; tigers prowled
through tall grass; baby elephants stamped dust and chased
each other around a waterhole.
I cried when we had to leave. I screamed loudly, over and over,
until the nice lady behind the counter let me choose five books to
take home. I could keep them for two weeks.
I hugged the lady around the legs. She smelt of musk. From that day,
I’ve loved the smell of musk. And books.
Rick Susman, Managing Director,
The Booklegger bookstore, Melbourne
I’m thrilled to support you – I’ve been saying for quite a while now
that the myth of the “bookless library” may well become a
self-fulfilling prophecy without T/Ls.
Di Bates, author
The heart and soul, the very basis of literacy in a school, is its library. Without a well-resourced library – and this includes an enthusiastic, trained, full-time teacher-librarian – a school can only be a shell of what it ought to be and can be.
Di Bates http://www.enterprisingwords.com
I believe that a strong curriculum means a sound education and a well staffed school library is at the heart of a good curriculum. I fully support the work of The Hub in advocating our behalf of school libraries and those who staff them.
Do whatever you can to hold onto Teacher-librarians in schools. In many schools in New Zealand, the staffing in libraries is librarian, head of library, library manager rather than teacher-librarian. That means that we can be paid as support staff, despite whatever fancy title they endow us with, and not as teachers regardless of our training or background.
To make it worse, support staff are paid out of the operational grant which has to cover all support staff including teacher aides and admin, and also toilet paper and consumables! As my principal said to me, the reality is that when things get tight, staffing is often the only area that can be cut. And that’s in the schools lucky enough to get library staff!
Still love the work though!
from Susanne Gervay, author:
School librarians are the heart of a school providing a hub for teachers, students, parents, creating a home for literature, subjects, thoughts and ideas.
School librarians are the vital friends of kids and Australian children’s and young adult authors bringing them together – to explore our culture, promote independent thought and create a vibrant community.
OUR SCHOOL LIBRARIANS are essential for a SMART AUSTRALIA!!!!!!
Hi Georgia,
I am very excited by the prospect of more appropriate primary school libraries being built for our schools, and keen that they are also appropriately staffed by trained Teacher-Librarians.
Keep up the good work, and as the other comments above show, there is support everywhere, but sometimes the road seems difficult.
Literacy and Numeracy are recognised as important programmes, we have to show how we can augment them.
Best wishes,
Lesley Abrahams
Teacher-Librarian, Macquarie Anglican Grammar School, Dubbo NSW
Hi Lesley. Thanks for your words of support. Now if we can just get everyone contacting their local federal and state members, as so many seem to do in the US, perhaps we can also stop trends like the downgrading of TL positions to clerical or technical. Get everyone you know to write, email or phone now! Cheers, Georgia
Teacher librarians are vital to our schools.
When my children first started primary school they had a wonderful TL who instilled in them a passion for books and reading. Half way through their primary schooling, however, the old principal retired and a new one was hired. He obviously did not value the role of the teacher librarian because he took her out of the library and moved her to the computer lab – a dark, cubby hole of a place from which she soon retired. Overnight the heart of the school disappeared. The library wasn’t the vibrant place it used to be. No longer was there a TL to decorate it with projects and posters or recommend new books to the children. It became dull and drab and dusty. What message was the principal sending to the children? That books are not important, of course. Libraries are the portals to other worlds through which children can travel. They must always be nurtured.
Carol Keeble, President of the NSW Branch of the Children’s Book Council, writes in support of teacher librarians. See her column in Volume 2, 2009, News & Views, their newsletter.
http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=756
Marj Kirkland, President of the Childrens Book Council of Australia, and Board member of the newly formed Australian Children’s Literature Alliance writes to Julia Gillard about the decline in school library staffing:
http://cbca.org.au:80/advocate.htm
The Honourable Ms Julia Gillard
Deputy Prime Minister
PO Box 6022
CANBERRA ACT 2600
19 May 2009
Dear Ms Gillard,
Congratulations on the Government’s recent decision as part of the ‘Primary Schools for the 21st century’ scheme to provide financial provision for the establishment and refurbishment of primary school libraries. It is now of prime importance to stress the staffing of these libraries with trained personnel.
As yet, no such assurance of staffing has been given by the Government. Yet with teacher-librarian numbers dwindling, we believe that school library staffing is indeed an issue for public debate. Throughout Australia, the number of trained teacher-librarians in school libraries is diminishing to critical levels for several reasons such as the restructuring of schools (including the devolution of decision-making from central offices to principals), the absence of a government policy spotlight on reading as an agent for social change, lack of funding for professional retraining and the ageing of the teacher-librarian profession.
Over sixty studies in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. have provided strong evidence that well-resourced school libraries with professionally trained teacher-librarians are a key predictor of student academic achievement. To ensure that teachers are able to deliver a quality curriculum and that students develop the skills which will enable them to function independently in the 21st century, there needs to be a qualified teacher-librarian in every primary and secondary school in Australia.
Teacher-librarians:
• provide leadership in curriculum development and delivery;
• as the literature specialist, implement and promote reading programs throughout the school as well as individual free voluntary reading;
• develop a print and online resource collection that meets the needs of staff, students and the curriculum;
• teach information literacy skills in collaboration with classroom teachers so students can manage the information world with confidence and competence;
• fulfil the many other responsibilities of the qualified teacher-librarian. (See National Standards for Excellence in Teacher-librarianship: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm)
The future of Australia lies in our commitment to build a smarter next generation. Yet recent statistics show that Australia’s literacy rating is falling in comparison to other western nations. Teacher-librarians play an integral role in educating today’s youth through reading and literacy promotion. This role is far too important to lose.
Yours sincerely
Marj Kirkland
National President, The Children’s Book Council of Australia
Australian Children’s Literature Alliance Board Member
Teacher-librarian, Aquinas College, Southport
“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” Walter Cronkite
From Gary Pike, Principa, Leighland Christian School, Tasmania
As Principal of my school and as an English teacher I would like to add my support for the work teacher librarians do! Our teacher librarian was at Leighland since I started here in 1993 and her knowledge about supporting teachers and students has been a major factor in the educational services we have been able to provide to both students and staff. I appreciate what she does to go the extra mile to provide a wonderful library that in usually full of activity from 11/12 students in one area and a primary class in another area. To me a library is the central place in the school. Our TL Mrs Bev Clarke is on LSL overseas so I thought I would take the opportunity to broadcast what a great job she does and how important her role is!