Defining our roles as school librarians

I’ve been thinking a lot about the place that librarians have in the curriculum continuum in a school, and this has led me to reading books, blogs, and websites of curriculum coaches and a few principals. 

Ms. Houser recently posted titled, “How to clarify instructional coaching roles & responsibilities.” As I was reading it, I thought this could really be beneficial to school librarians too. I’m going to modify the list a bit to fit what we do. 

1. Define what school librarians do. 

• Make a list of what you do daily, weekly, monthly, and even annually. As an elementary librarian, what people see me do is teach, and at times it may look like I’ve got a good bit of spare time. But there are so many things that go on in the background when I’m not teaching. 
• I loved that she included the question, “Where am I stretched thin?” Those times are on us before we know it, so let’s highlight them and see how we can make those times or tasks less cumbersome.
• Find a partner librarian! Everyone can benefit from a collaborator. I’ve got a couple that I talk with multiple times a day via texts. These relationships are incredibly valuable on so many levels. 

2. Meet with your principal.

This is one I’ve been talking about for years! Does your principal know what you do? Does she know how much time certain parts of your job take? What is his vision for the library and librarian at your school? At one school, the principal told me they wanted the library to be a place where students could come at any time to read. That’s a wonderful goal, but how does it happen if I’m on the specialist rotation teaching 6-9 classes each day? And this is a perfect time to discuss those “stretched thin” items. 

3.  Share with your staff. 

Now that you have your role as school librarian clarified, you can start sharing with the staff. This could be done in part of a staff meeting, PLCs, email, or in a Staff Library Digital Handbook that you create.