Library Media Teacher

Library media teacher is an information expert who provides information directly to the school teachers
and students. In Malaysia, a school resource center is generally managed by teacher-librarians or library
media teachers as officially term. A teacher-librarian, or library media teacher, is a certified teacher who
also has training in librarianship. This is mentioned by Tan and Diljit Singh (2008) that in Malaysia, in
terms of academic qualifications, 4.8% of the library and media teachers had a Masters degree, 45.2% had
a Bachelors degree, 32.1% had Diplomas, 9.5% had an HSC/STPM qualification, and 8.3% had
MCE/SPM as their academic qualifications. According to the Canadian Library Association, CLA (2005),
teacher librarians are fully qualified teachers, who typically undertake post-graduate education in library
studies. Nevertheless, the school librarian performs four main leadership roles: teacher, instructional
partner, information specialist, and program administrator (Abrizah, 1998). Henri and Rowan (1996)
reaffirms the importance of retaining the word teaching in the title of Teacher Librarian, stating that
Teacher Librarians have a whole-school curriculum perspective in addition to their managerial
experience. This shows that library media teacher is very important in school daily operation and it has
been mentioned in a research paper Novice Teachers Perceptions of the Role of the Teacher Librarian
by Miller in 2003, Teacher-librarian is a professional teacher with a minimum of two years of successful
classroom experience and additional qualifications in the selection, management and utilization of
learning resources, who manages the school library and works with other teachers to design and
implement resource-based instructional programs (Miller, 2003). This statement supported by Tan and
Diljit Singh (2008), in Malaysia the experience as library and media teachers ranged from 0 to 14 years,
with a mean of 4.1 years.

The Roles of Library Media Teacher

Walker (1988) outlined the source of the definitive statements in the literature on the roles expected of the
teacher librarians in the educational setting. Three basics roles are: as information specialist, teacher, and
instructional consultant. However, in 21st century, all library media teachers have changed their role
according to the information environment and have to cope with new technologies (Scheirer, 2000). Bens
(1999) supported that, today teacher librarian plays many distinct yet interrelated roles in order to
accomplish goals as a teacher, as a collaborator, as a curriculum leader, as an instructional leader, as an
information expert, as an information technologist and as a program manager.
Jay and Jay (1994) discuss how the role of the teacher librarians has changed in the last 20 years.
However, the major changes are the recognition of the consultative role and changes in the teaching role
to incorporate thinking skills, co-operative learning, and literature based reading and resource based
learning. Credaro (2006) in discussing paper about the role of library media teacher mentioned that a
library media teachers job was to preserve forms of recorded knowledge, foster public education and
continue a historical mission that provided a foundation for democratic society. It was indeed a noble
brief for library media teacher in general, but inadequate in the contemporary educational context.
The Association of Teacher-Librarians of Canada and the Canadian School Library Association
established a joint committee to define the competencies necessary for effective teacher-librarians in the
twenty-first century. The project was designed to revise the qualifications for teacher-librarians and to

serve the needs of both teacher-librarians and administrators. It was based on prior work of the ATLC and
the CSLA and research findings (Association for Teacher-librarianship in Canada et al., 1998).
The Association for Teacher-librarianship in Canada (1998) listed the following as professional
competencies for teacher-librarians:
1. Places a priority on staff relationships and leadership in the implementation of change.
2. Provides leadership in collaborative program planning and teaching to ensure both physical and
intellectual access to information and commitment to voluntary reading.
3. Knows curriculum programs mandated by the province, district and school.
4. Understands students and their social, emotional and intellectual needs.
5. Has information expert in evaluating learning resources in different formats and media, both onsite and remote, to support the instructional program.
6. Develops and promotes the effective use of informational and imaginative resources in all
formats through cooperative professional activities
7. Manages library programs, services and staff to support the stated goals of the school.
The American Library Association (ALA) (2003) produced a standard document for school library media
specialist preparation. This document briefly reviews the evolution of professional standards for school
librarians over the last century, and noted that the instructional role of the school library media specialist
has emerged over the years and assumed importance.

Collaboration among School Teachers and Library Media Teachers

Collaboration is working with others and can be a key theme in building partnerships for learning
(American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and
Technology, 1998). Winer and Ray (1994) defined collaboration as a mutually beneficial and welldefined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve results they are more likely to
achieve together than alone and compared collaboration to a journey that comprises three levels of
progression: co-operation, co-ordination, and true collaboration. Lance, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell
(2001) from the State of Oregon stated that the value of collaboration between teachers and a teacher
librarian as a successful teacher librarian is one who works with a classroom teacher to identify materials
that best support and enrich an instructional unit as teacher of essential information literacy skills to
students. One aspect that was deemed to be characteristic of a strong library media program was that of
school teachers and teacher librarian collaboration. Nevertheless, students succeed where the Library
Media Specialist is a consultant to, and a colleague with other teachers (Lance, Rodney & HamiltonPennell, 2001).
Some research explores the benefits of collaboration, not only to students, but to teacher colleagues as
well. When working on units that are cooperatively planned by teachers and Teacher Librarian, students

exhibit higher levels of commitment not shown in other non-collaborative tasks. Students also benefit by
having two adult professionals present and able to assist them (Sweeney, 1996). In addition, Sweeney
(1996) mentioned that teachers also benefit as a result of engaging in cooperative planning. These benefits
include improved personal relationships among colleagues, increased energy and sense of well being,
increased satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, an exciting sense of synergy stemming from
combining and building on creative ideas, and a commitment and a desire to improve as professionals.
Russel (2002) supported that library media teacher must work in collaboration with other teachers and
school administrators to see that information skills are integrated into all parts of the curriculum. This
statement was also agreed by Intan Azura and Shaheen (2006) by saying that the teachers and librarian
co-operate because they need to share information to achieve their own goals. At this level, significant
joint planning or teaching does not occur. In their study An explanatory study of the collaborative
relationship between teachers and librarians in Singapore primary and secondary school, twenty-three
(34.8%) of the respondents agreed that working closely with the school librarian to plan lessons would
make their lessons more interesting, effective and enriching (Intan Azura & Shaheen, 2006).