The inquiry into school libraries and teacher-librarians (TLs) in Australian schools by the House of Representatives is very timely. With the economic stimulus package, Building the Education Revolution (BER), the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) element budget was $14.1 billion. The priority was the construction of new school libraries or refurbishment of existing facilities (other facilities included multipurpose halls or covered outdoor learning areas or classrooms).  As at August 2009 there was over 3000 school library projects benefiting from the BER funding for the first round (National Coordinator’s Implementation Report, February to September 2009). The second round of projects are to be completed no later than 31 January 2011 with the third round scheduled for 31 March 2011.

At the beginning of the school year of 2010 some of these new school libraries were opened. One concerning aspect was a number of these new facilities did not have a fully qualified teacher-librarian managing the facility or the new school library only had a teacher-librarian there for only a few days of the school week. In November 2009 the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) wrote to the Minister of Education requesting a review of school libraries in Australia.  The response from the Office of the Hon. Julia Gillard in December 2009 was “the management of school libraries, including resourcing and allocation of staff, is the responsibility of the government and non-government education authorities in each state or territory”.

The Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools , announced on the 10 March 2010, has certainly created a great deal of interest within the education sector and the library & information services industry. Recent media coverage has been very positive.  For example, School libraries are the lifeblood of learning – let’s not lose them by Dr Karen Brooks. Brooks’ closing statement will ring true – “…remind the powers that be that school libraries, TLs and librarians are our culture’s heart – let’s do all we can to keep it beating”.

In 2008 I contributed a chapter on ‘Managing and servicing the information needs of a digital school’ to the text, Leading a digital school edited by Mal Lee and Michael Gaffney (ACER Press, 2008).  I mentioned the need for today’s students needing to become information fluent.  “The means being able to:

• ask the right questions to identify the most appropriate search terms to effectively transact a successful search query;
• develop and apply high-level online research skills that require responsiveness to search results and utilising decision-making skills to revise the information-seeking process;
• be discerning users and understand the limitations of various search tools and the idiosyncrasies of specialised search facilities;
• check the reliability and validity of the information sourced;
• use the information ethically and know when and how to give credit to an information source; and
• actively engage in constructive knowledge creation knowing how to integrate sourced information to expand their understanding and knowledge of the world.” (p. 142)

The role of the teacher-librarian is absolutely crucial in the development of these 21st Century skills.  As Brooks states, “Librarians and TLs are the gatekeepers and mediators through which children discover the different and amazing worlds at their fingertips.”