Situated Professional Practice : 2006-2008

Observations and Participation

This is a record of my Situated Professional Practice programme designed for the Master of Learning Innovation (Teacher-Librarianship). The programme includes professional practice observations and participation in a selection of school library and other information service sites, and records of consultation and discussion with teacher-librarians and other information service providers.
These sites include:

1. Brigidine College Library (Secondary)

2. Sherwood State School Library (primary)

3. Department of Natural Resources (Information storage and retrieval)

The programme of observation and participation is developed across the five core units of the Master of Learning Innovation (Teacher-Librarianship).

CLN646: The Knowledge Hub: information services for dynamic learning

CLN647: Youth, Popular Culture, and Texts

CLN601: Cyberlearning: information and knowledge in a digital age

CLN603: Designing Spaces for Learning

ITN275 Information Organisation

I have also included pertinent experiences related to my engagement in:

EDN611 Professional applications of research

and in the electives I have selected to complete the academic requirements of the course:

1. CLN604: Globalisation and Educational Change

2. EAN604: Children Families and Communities


Focus for MLI(T-L) Situated Professional Practice observation and participation include the following categories:

• INFORMATION SERVICE MANAGEMENT
• INFORMATION ACCESS AND USE
• ROLE OF THE TEACHER-LIBRARIAN

I have also used the Australian School Library Association professional standards document to guide my enquiry, knowledge development and participation.
Australian School Library Association. 2004. Statement of standards of professional excellence for teacher-librarians.

Professional knowledge: learning, teaching, curriculum, information management
Professional practice: learning and teaching environments, information services management, evaluation
Professional commitment: lifelong learning, commitment, leadership, community responsibilities

1. INFORMATION SERVICE MANAGEMENT
(a) Library and Information Service Sites and Contexts

Over the course of my studies I have undertaken professional practice in two school libraries:

Brigidine College (secondary school) – Contact details: Po Box 475, 53 Ward Street Indooroopilly QLD 4068 ph: (07)3870 7225
Brigidine College is a Catholic day school for girls in Indooroopilly. It has a school population of approximately 500 girls and around 30 members of teaching staff. Brigidine has a small library that comprises of fiction, non-fiction, reference and audio-visual collections. It employs a part-time librarian (with no separate class load), a teacher-librarian (who maintains a light class load and a library aide. The library also has a small number of volunteers who help keep the library up to date with day to day management of resources.

Professional practice – Throughout the duration of my studies, one day per week was spent at the school library learning about general library procedures and the duties of the teacher–librarian. The library staff at Brigidine were very supportive of my need to learn about the role teacher–librarian and have facilitated experience in many day-to-day duties of the TL. Since April, I have been in paid employment at Brigidine (in a contract capacity that will run until the end of the third term). My responsibilities include a mixture of librarian and library aide duties.

Sherwood State School (primary school) – A state primary school in Sherwood. It has a school population of around 400 and 23 teaching staff. Sherwood S.S. has a small library comprised mainly of fiction and non-fiction resources. The library also manages the literacy resources for the school. During my time as a volunteer at the Sherwood Library they had two part-time teacher-librarians and a full time library aide. My services were particularly welcome as they had no other volunteers for library work apart from teacher-aides who were sometimes available to cover books.

Professional Practice - One afternoon per week was spent at the school library learning about general library procedures and the duties of the teacher–librarian. This library is well resourced but under-staffed. My experience with this library has been limited to assisting where I was needed (usually shelving, book room maintenance, covering etc…) rather than allowing for experience with a broader range of duties.


Much of this work has been undertaken in a voluntary capacity, and being involved in both these schools in as a parent-volunteer, work assigned to me on my weekly visits was very much dependent on what needed doing in the library at that particular time. This was particularly true of the primary school library and after a year of such volunteer work I did not return there and increased the amount of time spent at Brigidine. Thus, at times I have felt that the experience in librarianship gained from my professional practice has been rather limited. Recently, however, I have taken paid part-time work at Brigidine College and that has proved valuable and worthwhile work experience.

Prior to becoming a teacher I worked for the State Government (for a period of nine years, in both full and part-time capacity) in the Department of Natural Resources, specifically involved in the storage and retrieval of land title information. It is only in hindsight, with the benefit of the knowledge acquired through the MLI course that I have come to see this as a valuable addition to my information management repertoire.