“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”

Lloyd Alexander is responsible for this one. I think it rather appropriate as for the past 3 weeks all I have been doing is searching for the answer to 'What is a teacher librarians role in an information literate school community (ILSC)?'. And I tell you it is enough to drive anyone insane.

But I have to acknowledge during my search I learnt a lot about the teacher librarians role. I originally thought the librarians role was to, order books, borrow books, repair books, cover books and teach the occasional library/library skills lesson. To be fair though there are studies to show that the teachers perception of a librarians role is rooted in their past experiences, and this is my past experience.

I have since come to realise the the TL role is a lot more detailed than I would ever have imagined. It also highlights how the librarians I have known have not really been living up to their role. The librarians role is all encompassing! and constantly evolving. The librarian is an IT specialist, a reading specialist, a manager, teacher and much, much more.

"Libraries are becoming obsolete"

This quote is from the story covered by Fox looking into whether libraries should be closed to save taxpayers money. This is a very interesting story coming out of Illinois in the good old U.S of A! Well worth looking at. I have to say though, just because you, yourself don't use the library, that does not mean they should be closed. I found that those against libraries were those who most likely had 24/7 access to internet at home, could afford books and were not studying. I particularly like the comment that it didn't matter that libraries offered assistance with resume and applying for jobs via the internet as there were no jobs, because the government was overspending on things such as libraries. Am I the only one wondering what would happen to those applying for jobs if there were no libraries, but jobs because there was no financial crisis from over spending? How would they then apply for jobs when there are no libraries to help with the application process and provide free access the internet?
I have to say that the best bit about all is the library commissions response. After reading this I realised how many services were being offered by public libraries.