Submissions close this Friday, 16th April – for submissions into this Inquiry into “school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools”.
If you don’t already have a submission in or in process, there is another way to support the need for school libraries and librarians. This from ALIA:
“You and your colleagues and friends can register your name to be added to a short submission by completing a simple online form linked from http://www.alia.org.au/schoollibraries
Please note that names must be registered by Friday 12pm 16th April 2010 to be included in the submission. We hope to send a clear message to Julia Gillard that many many people join us in demonstrating to government the important role of school libraries.”
It only takes a moment, you don’t have to be an ALIA member and every little bit of support can only help.
Hopefully we will see some positives come out of this enquiry for our school libraries and our colleagues in the school sector.
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April 13, 2010 at 21:11
I think the issue is not so much the lack of Teacher Librarians, per se, but rather that are being replaced by non-teacher positions, which results in:
1. The employment of qualified librarians into roles that are underpaid for their level of knowledge and experience.
2. The employment of library technicians or admin officers into roles that are comparable in salary, but require much higher duties than meets their typical level.
On the first point, I think that there is certainly a place for qualified non-teacher librarians in schools. However, there should be some industrial representations to lobby for a salary that is comparable to similar positions in other library sectors.
Otherwise, either way, it’s government-sanctioned exploitation in the workplace.