I'm currently up a little too late, considering that it's a school night. Now, on any other night in the past 13 years, this turn of phrase would generally indicate that tomorrow is a weekday, on which I need to get up around the time that the sun does.
Which I do.
However, tomorrow morning, I commence my new job as a library manager in a Melbourne inner-suburb high school. This is an extremely exciting step for me, as it's the kind of work that I've been moving towards since I started working as a librarian. Not that the work is a huge deviation from my previous experience - I've established my range of skills working with teenagers, focusing my knowledge on middle reader and young adult literature, managing a branch library team, running information literacy sessions, developing collections and promoting reader development in the library. This role incorporates my strongest skills and passions in the profession, and I have a good feeling that it's going to be awesome.
Of course, whilst the nature of my work will be familiar, and the needs of my clients will be familiar, there is one new factor - the environment. School. For the last month and a half, I've been focusing my professional reading on school libraries, and teacher-librarianship. I've been chatting to colleagues and associates who have been working in schools. And one thing that has struck me is that the nature of school libraries seems quite diverse. Which is unsurprising, considering that they are insular environments, with differing contributing factors, such as funding, staffing, student demographics, technological focus, etc. I've asked appropriate questions in my job interview, and had a tour of the library after being offered the position, but I'm not going to know the real nature of the environment until I've been performing the role for a period of time. This both scares and excites me.
Nevertheless, I'm very pleased to be able to once again call myself a Library Manager.
Speaking of titles, there's been some buzz around the biblioblogosphere about the AASL's recent vote to adopt the official title "School Librarian" for library professionals working in schools. It seems that the previous official title was "School Library Media Specialist", which whilst accurate in its description is not hugely evocative. There was also a move to return to the good old "Teacher Librarian", except that it doesn't address what to call the other library professionals in schools who don't teach. Would they be "Non-teacher librarian"? "School Librarian" is an all-encapsulating title that describes the environment (School) and the fact that they are an accredited professional (Librarian), both of which are evocative brands. Some feel it more appropriate to address the focus of media technology as a primary part of the librarian role, but, as always, I feel that we need to upgrade the Librarian brand by excelling in our roles, rather than giving ourselves new pretentious corporate titles, that leave people wondering what exactly it is that we do.
So, whilst the official title of my new role is "Library Manager", I am quite proud to be able to call myself a School Librarian.
