Dear Christine
You are right - you ARE a professional and we are supposed to be in
partnership with teachers. I think that you need to stick to your guns and
say to the teacher concerned that you are unable to meet her request on this
occasion. All you need to say is that you have pre-arranged commitments at
that particular time.
You do deserve professional courtesy, as we all do, and if you let this
teacher treat you as a servant then that is what she will see you as. Your
relationship will not get any better -either she is going to resent you or
vice versa.
Can I suggest that you consider sending out a letter to all the staff along
the lines of ...
Over the summer break I am going to evaluate the effectiveness and the
efficiency of the library program so that you are more able to support
student learning, teachers' needs and curriculum delivery.
Please assist me by prioritising these services that I offer in order of
importance to you as a teacher.
(List all the things you do, including all the admin stuff such as
"cataloguing new resources to support upcoming curriculum needs")
In order to have consistency throughout the school, please indicate which
sections you believe each grade should be able to select from ....... and
how many books they should have at any one time.
You do not have to show the results to anyone, but when you start back next
year you can implement things the way you believe they should be done and if
anyone quibbles you can say that you asked for input and you are acting on
that input (whether what works for you is what they wanted or not - as long
as they believe it has been their decision).
Also have a collection management and collection development policy in place
(have a look at
http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au/resource_centre/policies/policies.htm) so that
the teaching staff cannot dictate overdues procedures and so forth. Seek
the assistance of others in your district or wherever to have a
'strength-in-numbers' approach; check out ALA; ask LM_NET what is the norm
for the ages you teach and so forth. Keep copies of the documentation that
supports your changes so you can support them with data if required. "These
are the procedures followed by 90% of the elementary-based librarians in the
US" is a hard statistic to argue with.
Sometimes it is hard and it takes courage to make changes, especially with
folk who are used to the same-old, same-old, but it is much easier if they
feel they have had some input and you put it in terms of improved student
outcomes.
Good luck
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
T. 02 6205 7241
F. 02 6205 7242
E. barbara@austarmetro.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
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