Change in the Library

Written by Dr Kay Oddone, Charles Sturt University and Madison Dearnaley, St Paul’s School

Kay and Madison will present on this subject at the Capacity Building School Libraries School, 5 & 6 August 2022 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

Libraries thrive on change. Everyone has a story about the changes they have seen in their school library. Some of these stories are inspiring; tales of quickly taking up new technologies, building beautiful makerspaces, migrating to online digital resource curation platforms or pivoting to online learning and teaching. Other stories are less positive; falling library staff numbers, changes in school leadership which filter down to a less-supported library, competing with the flood of free online but less reliable resources, cuts in budget, smaller library spaces or trying to juggle the many constant demands of the library space and profession. It’s enough to make a stereotypical librarian tear her (neatly coiffed into a bun) hair out. But in reality, librarians are experts at change and readily embrace it. One must change if the library is to remain relevant, current and up-to-date in this quickly moving world.  

Reacting to change and pivoting is one thing. How can libraries and library professionals create change to make lasting impacts on their students, staff, and wider communities? 

It starts with leadership.

Librarians are leaders. Head of Library, Teacher Librarian and Librarian positions are often described as leadership roles. Not just leaders of curriculum, learning and information literacy, they are also responsible for leading the library space and collection (ASLA & ALIA, 2001; AASL, 2017, SLA, 2016). While only sometimes are school librarians or teacher librarians recognised formally in the school’s leadership structure, leadership is inherent in the role (Oddone, 2021a). Leadership theories and exploring leadership in business contexts can help to apply leadership to librarianship (Oddone, 2021b). But how does a leader enact change? 

Organisations have long been interested in the nature of change. To drive change, organisations focus on their culture; what it is, how to cultivate it and how to use it to create change (Oddone, 2021c). Organisational culture can be understood as the things people think and do, or the way things are done in an organisation, underpinned by values and beliefs (Dearnaley, 2021; Oddone, 2021c). This embeddedness is the reason why true culture change cannot be made with quick fixes. Rather it takes time and there are many models of cultural change that have been provided and studied. But what does this mean for the school library context and school library professional? Is it possible to achieve any form of change within an organisation, such as a school, that might have a lasting impact on students? 

To better understand and enact change, we turn to action research. Action research is a collaborative research process. It is a practical and relevant way to plan, act, develop and reflect upon change (Mertler, 2006). Action research enables the school library professional to capture evidence that demonstrates the role of the library and library staff beyond simple statistics. It provides a model for reflection (Robins, 2015). Your action research might start with a question. Maybe it starts with a desire to assess or improve an aspect of your library service.  

In our presentation Leading Change in the Library: An Action Research Journey, we will unpack leadership, culture change and action research and share our own experiences with action research, leaving you with practical steps to enact your own change in your library. 

References

American Association of School Librarians (AASL). (2017). School librarians as learning leaders. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/fles/content/aaslissues/advocacy/AASL_LearningLeaders_Admin_V2_FINAL_R2.pdf    

Australian School Library Association (ASLA), & Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2001). Learning for the future: Developing information services in schools (2nd ed.). Victoria, Australia: Curriculum Corporation

Dearnaley, M. (2021). Building a school reading culture - part 2 Organisational culture research. https://madisonslibrary.com/2021/10/23/building-a-reading-culture-part-2/

Mertler, C. A. (2009). Action research: Teachers as researchers in the classroom (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

Oddone, K. (2021a). Teacher librarian as leader: Lessons from the literature. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/teacher-librarian-as-leader-lessons-from-the-literature/

Oddone, K. (2021b). Teacher librarian as leader: Theories of leadership in action. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/teacher-librarian-as-leader-theories-of-leadership-in-action/

Oddone, K. (2021c). Teacher librarian as leader: Leadership in practice. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/leadership-in-practice/

Robins, J. (2015). Action research empowers school librarians. School Library Media Research, 18, 1-38.

School Library Association (SLA). (2016). The role of the school librarian. Retrieved from https://www.sla.org.uk/role-of-school-librarian.php

Join us at the National Education Summit

We will present on this subject at the Capacity Building School Libraries School, 5 & 6 August 2022 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre