This document summarizes the roles of library technicians in school libraries in Ontario. It outlines that most school boards no longer employ library technicians directly and that their roles include sole management of small school libraries, assisting teacher-librarians, and cataloguing for large school boards. Key responsibilities of the role include selection and acquisition of materials, processing, and collection maintenance and revitalization projects. Challenges include a lack of library staffing and curriculum in schools.

1. Library Technicians
@ Schools
a presentation to
Durham College Library & Information
Technician program
October 25, 2012
slides by Lisa Weaver, presentation by Lorna Young

2. Statistics
•
72 Publicly Funded School
Boards in Ontario
•
Over 5000 schools
•
Most Boards no longer have
Library Technicians

3. Typical Roles for Technicans
•
Sole staff member in a school library
•
Sole staff member rotating through many
school libraries
•
Assistant to Secondary Teacher-Librarian
•
Assistant to numerous Elementary Teacher-
Librarians
•
Central cataloguer/trainer

4. How school libraries work
•
Together for Learning Document [a must know]
•
Teacher-Librarian [B.Ed and Library A.Q]
•
Some school libraries are run by MLIS
•
Book exchange (aka “circulation”)
•
Prep coverage
•
Learning Commons
•
More than books [manipulatives, learning labs,
multi-language]

5. Selection of Materials
•
Teacher-Librarians select materials for
schools for:
– Curriculum
– Literacy
– Local language/population needs
– Special initiatives [Forest of Reading]
– Canadian Content
– Multiple viewpoints
– Various reading levels and formats

6. Selection Tools
•
Novelist database
•
Vendor lists
•
Canadian Book Association Reviews
•
Book lists from Central Departments
•
Trillium List from the Ministry of Education
•
Teaching Librarian
•
Teacher Librarian
•
Professionally Speaking

7. Acquisitions
Teacher-Librarians purchase resources:
•
Directly from vendors
•
Through their Office Assistant through the central
purchasing system
•
During Ministry grants, central purchases are made
•
At book fairs, bookstores, garage sales
•
Rarely online due to Ministry reporting requirements

8. Who catalogues the material?
•
Cataloguing records are purchased and
uploaded into system by central services
•
Cataloguers travel to schools and put items into
database
•
Teacher-Librarians fast-add items and central
cataloguers link to full records
– Items usually come from OCLC, ITS Marc, Bookwhere
databases, original cataloguing or from book vendors

9. Processing
•
Most items are processed by teacher-
librarians, volunteers or clerical assistants
•
Processing includes, barcodes, spine
labels, book jackets, mylar over labels and
occasionally an “inside” label with barcode
and title information

10. Role of Library Technicans at TDSB
•
Catalogue materials for 600 school libraries and 9 central
libraries
•
Lead collection revitalization projects at schools
•
Lead teacher-librarian training for the system
•
Staff the system help desk for 700 teacher-librarians
•
Write training manuals and document for system
•
Run daily system maintenance tasks
•
Lead library closing and disaster recovery processes

11. Collection Revitalization: From This ...

12. To this ...

13. Challenges
•
No school library curriculum
•
Lack of recognition for the need of professional help in
libraries
•
School libraries are currently underfunded and under
staffed
•
When the lone staff member always need a teacher in the
room to lead program
•
Lack of access to system/network
•
Vendors can provide cataloguing

14. Applying to School Boards
•
Internal application
– Usually starts as a clerical temporary working [On-
Call Office Assistant, Lunch Room Supervisor.
Cataloguer]
•
External application
– Often applying against people with a few
years of experiences, so volunteer or related
experience is essential