Guest blogger: Michael Gerard Bauer – award-winning Australian author
Each year I visit over 40 schools, talking to students about books and writing. I spend a lot of my time in libraries and resource centres. That’s why I’m a huge fan of teacher-librarians. To me their role is one of the most crucial in any school.
Without the expertise and enthusiasm of a dedicated teacher-librarian, school libraries face the real danger of becoming sterile storehouses for resources or glorified computer labs.
At their worst, they can appear like a ‘prison for books’ – uninspiring, inviting, and a place you would only spend time, if you were forced to.
Teacher-librarians fight against this scenario. They are people who transform school libraries into places where books and other valuable resources are not just kept, but where they are made more readily accessible and where they are actively promoted and celebrated.
Show me a library full of posters, and promotions for books and authors and reading, as well as creative and eye-catching displays on all manner of fascinating areas of learning, and I’ll show you a teacher-librarian at work encouraging and fostering a love of reading and the pursuit of knowledge.
Each library or resource centre should be the lifeblood of our schools. What we need are more teacher-librarians with their unique skills and genuine love of books and learning to keep that love pumping.
For me, each placement of a teacher-librarian is money well spent, since everything I have experienced and witnessed as a frequent school visitor convinces me they are worth their weight in gold.
To see a video of Michael presenting a talk to high school students - click HERE
Fantastic article, Michael. Teacher-librarians are such important people in our school community. They bring a depth of knowledge of literature that most teachers simply can’t possess due to all the other competing demands.
By: Karen Collum on April 3, 2010
at 8:26 am