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 = PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE PORTFOLIO - A reflection and review of the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians. =

Welcome to MyLibrarySpaces - this wiki details the experiences I have gained since embarking on my Masters -Teacher Librarianship degree. The first space was in my own workplace in 2009 - a sanctuary of peace and enlightenment: where staff members escape from the frenetic pace of the education treadmill and find solitude and space to do their marking, hold department meetings or simply select a novel to read when they have a spare moment! The second space was at the local state primary school in 2010. This was a stark contrast of resources, clients and tasks but a wonderful experience which highlighted how diverse library spaces can be. By the time I was nearing the end of this degree, in 2011 I was fortunate enough to gain a full-time acting position in the College library where I work while our Librarian went on long service leave for the term. It was during this time that I really learned about the role of a teacher librarian and could really focus on the ASLA/ALIA Standards that are reviewed in this blog.

LIBRARY SPACES - If I can choose a metaphor to describe the library in a school I believe an oak tree best fits my idea of what a library is. The trunk of the tree can be described as the buildings- the physical structure that supports everything. In some schools this trunk is sturdier than others but generally we can all recognise the "trunk" quite easily. The branches are the many different forms of information available to the modern scholar and the new leaves are like the emerging technologies and pieces of information that in our ever changing world, are temporary and finite. Something newer comes to replace these "leaves" and new information grows in its place. The teacher librarian in my metaphor is the gardner - the person who nurtures the tree in general - prunes the leaves and branches when necessary and encourages new growth when it is needed. Of course the gardener is knowledgeable and wise like the oak tree and and always around to give some good advice! I might be so bold as to suggest that our students are likened to the little bugs that come and go - some species are compatible with the host and others are just hanging around waiting for something more appealing to come along!

====**"The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun." **==== Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

Surely our libraries are worthy of such a comparison, given the unprecedented winds of change that press against them in the 21st Century.



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