I'd like to introduce you to our next teacher librarian. She answered our questions about her job working in a school library.

What is your role in the school library?

I support teachers and students with literacy education, I manage teacher resources, the purchasing and up dating of books both in print and on KOBO, I manage IT chromebooks and ipads, I teach STEAM, a love of books and literacy, research skills and online cyber safety units.

What do you love best about your job?

The students and the books, bringing them together is always a joy.

What age students do you work with?

I work from Preschool to Year 6

What three words that best describe you?

Flexible, Open-minded, aware

What would you do if you had more time?

Plan richer lessons that challenge students. Work collaboratively with the teachers across the school, embedded better team teaching.

What do you spend most of your time doing?

Tidying the library, followed by cataloguing and getting resources onto shelves, plus shopping for the best buys with a small budget.

What tasks are the next biggest spenders of your time?

Research and resourcing material to support teachers both online and in print, managing across sector meetings as I teach across the school.

What do you fill in the rest of the time with?

Writing curriculum material, upgrading and fixing IT problems

What are some things that you only do occasionally?

Run stocktakes, weed the teachers resource room and covering books

What is the coolest project you have worked on or the coolest thing about your work/day?

For 3 years I ran the suitability team and education strand across the school from the library and I got to take students to participate in the Parliament of Youth on Sustainability in the ACT. The whole project, the writing, researching and presenting was very rewarding for the students and allowed them to engage in real rich research and presentation work.

What’s the best thing that has happened to you in your role?

Being able to have a connection with all the students at a school across the year groups and then building on that over the years.

What made you want to be a Teacher Librarian?

I was a reluctant reader but once I could I feel in love with books and the freedom they gave your mind and soul plus working with students. I was a teacher 1st.

What is one thing you would really like someone to know about your job?

It is harder that you expect and requires a lot of flexibility to be successful.