More than just a pretty face....
and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship
School Libraries in Canada , v.11(4) Summer, 1991 pg 26
Changing the Guard
I have come to realize after visiting a number of secondary school libraries
across Canada, that the most important tool to emerge from the electronic
revolution has not been the microcomputer at all. It has not been the
videotape or its important cousin, the camcorder that have done much to redefine
our vision of the world. It has not been the CD-ROM that has given
the microcomputer so much additional storage capacity and offered small libraries
a wealth of data they could previously only refer to. It has not even
been the impressive, sophisticated automation programs that will, perhaps,
in time, change our concepts of access and control of information.
It is more important than the Xerox machine, the slide and overhead projector,
and the laminator. It is even more important than the calculator!
This miracle, this wonder?
The electronic security system! The silent sentinel that waits uncomplainingly
by the library exit quietly, effectively monitoring the exit to the room.
This is the thing we need first! Ask any teacher-librarian to give
up their system and you would soon see the strength in this argument.
Without this tool all the other wonders become problems. This is the
most important electronic tool for without it the secondary school library
is incapable of ensuring its patrons that materials and programs that feed
on those materials are available for use. That simple assurance has
so many consequences for the teacher-librarian. Let me count some of
the ways:
1. Overnight the library ceases to be vulnerable without overt human
intervention. "The machine stopped me". We all accept the power
of the cool, impartial machine when they are applied to human issues.
(Consider the effect of radar on our highway manners.) These machines
do one thing effectively. They signal the movement of materials that
have not been properly cleared prior to that movement. They stop "unofficial
loans" or "blatant theft" depending on your viewpoint. In reality they
become invisible sentinels for the honest and challenges for the very few
who hate us (and everyone else). Overnight they change everyone's view
of the library.
2. The teacher-librarian is removed from the role of guard and resumes
or assumes the rightful position as teacher, assistant, guide and colleague.
We would never ask the principal to carry all the school’s valuables in his
briefcase or keep them in his or her desk. We would buy a safe and
install it in the office. No one would dispute that the principal is
no less responsible just because the safe exists, yet everyone would consider
the solution to be sensible. The electronic security system must be
seen as a safe in the library.
3. The school library program can proceed with all players or partners in
the process assured that materials found in the inventory do in fact exist
and could be applied to the tasks at hand. The teacher-librarian assumes
a renewed, visibly academic, role after suffering the indignities of prolonged
guard duty. Now the program can emerge as the library and the teacher-librarian
leave that control mentality. The prinicipal now will be able to see
that cooperative planning activities are fundamental to the teacher-librarian's
role - not merely consumed in clerical routines. (Security of the collection,
is sadly, not the only mechanical chore expected of many teacher-librarians,
but it is a giant step.)
4. Students will be delighted that they will be able to access the
collection in its entirety - not just the part that remains after the jerks
have taken their fill. In one large school I visited, students had
circulated a petition calling for greater surveillance of the collection!
The social costs of such action must be high. Many student councils
have attempted to offer moral suasion to the issue only to compound their
"nice" image with those who would steal. The students are released
from supervision by the machine.
5. With the need for human protection (that never worked) resolved,
the teacher-librarian can release all those valuable items stored out of
sight lest they too would disappear. Now the historical tomes, videocassettes,
periodicals, expensive reference works and family planning works can be put
out on the shelves. Audiovisual equipment can be treated and left out
for student use.
6. New materials can be acquired. Funds for new material can
be applied to current works not channeled to replace the lost inventory.
7. Teachers will be unable to make unofficial loans. Access to the whole collection will improve for every user.
The essence of all these benefits is freedom. The student will be free
to use the library and its resources without the sense of scrutiny that must
be part of the non-secured facility. Most teacher-librarians are fully
aware of the futility of attempting to monitor student lending, yet believe
that they must attempt to control this universal problem. (Remember
the Commisionaries in the University Library exits.) The teacher will
be free to involve his or her students in the whole library. The teacher-librarian
will be free to pursue the goals of the program and develop a quality collection
to support it without fear that it will simply walk away.
This electronic gadget is not cheap. It will require a significant one-time
outlay of capital for equipment, sensor strips or plates. It must be
included in the budget for the construction of all new school library resource
centres. It is very easy to develop a cost-benefit analysis for older
libraries. One simply has to record the losses for a given year and
apply that figure to the cost of the system. In most cases it will
only take two or three years to pay for the gadget! There is a Catch
22 in all of this. "If we buy the system will you apply all the money
you would have spent repurchasing the collection to the system for the next
two or three years?" Of course not! So the rationale for the
system cannot be tied to the losses and replacements but must rest on the
need for freedom. (Can we put a price on Freedom!) It must rest
on all the arguments put forward here and more. You really need a safe!
Go for it! You have nothing more to lose.
Donald Hamilton