The importance of support positions
Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 05:25AM In a comment to my recent post, The Librarian Bonus, Renee observes:
I agree with your suggestion. [That librarians fill the role of technology integration specialist.] I just sent your blog post to our Director of Libraries and Technology and the Asst. Sup of Technology. However, I did include my own caveat. A few years ago we lost our library assistants, and our Campus Instructional Technologists (professional level position equivalent to a librarian) were split between two campuses. This has resulted in a loss of emphasis on instruction because checking out books and troubleshooting finicky technology, etc. are competing for our attention. In a perfect world with limitless funding, I would love to see these positions restored. Reality strongly suggests that's not going to happen any time soon.
My caveat is that the district hire a library assistant/tech support position, one for each campus to address these day-to-day operational tasks freeing the librarian to truly focus on all the aspects of the job that you outline. The line between librarianship and instructional technology have blurred to the point of invisibility and like you, I believe an integrated approach would positively impact the learning environment.
What I don't think most administrators understand when cutting paraprofessional, clerical, and tech support positions is that they wind up with high cost professionals doing their mission-critical tasks instead of doing professional work. Here's my take:
From "Managing Others and Collaboration," The Indispensable Librarian, 2nd ed, Linworth, 2013
It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
Consider these two scenarios:
Each time Principal Jane walks by the library in her school, she sees a busy librarian. Jim is always fixing a printer with problems, checking books in or out, compiling overdue lists, or installing software in the lab. Jim often works late after school, takes home materials to read, and comes in during the summer to help install new computers, or process new books. Yet faculty and parents question Jane about the need for Jim’s position being a professional one.
Each time Principal Bob walks by the library in his school, he sees a busy librarian. Laura is always teaching a class, tutoring a teacher, reviewing new materials, or supervising a volunteer. Laura also works late after school, takes materials home to read, and comes in during the summer to help write curriculum or plan for staff development workshops. Faculty and parents never question Bob about whether Laura’s position is professional. No one can envision how the school can run without her.
The question librarians need to ask themselves is not whether they are busy, but as Thoreau puts it, what they are busy about. In the examples above, the librarians are working, but they are busy doing two quite different kinds of tasks.
Jim is busy doing technical and clerical work. Fixing paper jams, installing software, reshelving books, and maintaining circulation and cataloging records are all tasks that do not call for professional library expertise. Laura’s activities all revolve around teaching or selecting resources to meet school needs - professional tasks. It’s easy to make the determination which type of activity has a more long-term impact on the educational program.
Shouldn’t administrators figure out ways to straighten out the Jims of the library world? Perhaps.
But first we should be asking why a librarian might be doing clerical or technical work in the first place. To be sure, there are librarians who don’t really like to teach and who given any opportunity to do other things will gladly do so. But a more common reason we have professionals performing non-professional tasks is that there is no one else to do them.
Clerical and technical tasks are usually imperative to the day-to-day operation of the library program. Computers have to run if students and teachers are to use them. Software must be installed. Books have to be reshelved and newspapers put on sticks. New materials need to be added to the catalog if they are to be found and students in the library need to be supervised. When these things don’t happen, important things can’t happen either. It’s sort of a Maslow’s hierarchy of library needs - you can’t teach a student how to use a resource or use a search engine unless the material can be found or the computer is running.
Library programs and librarians need good support personnel of two types: clerical and technical.
Libraries need paraprofessionals (aka or secretaries or clerks) who handle things like circulating materials, processing new materials, checking in magazines, answering the telephone, and supervising students using the library independently. Again, if there is not a clerk to do these tasks they will still get done, but unfortunately by the librarian.
Libraries also need good technical support. Technicians install, troubleshoot, and maintain hardware and software. Schools too often have looked at technology upkeep as something that could be done as an extra curricular assignment by a “techie” teacher. That may have worked when technology consisted of filmstrip projectors, an Apple II lab, and a single computer at the school secretary’s desk. With the complexity of networks, the increased importance of school management systems, and the infusion of many kinds of technologies into classrooms and offices, the technology has become too mission-critical to the operations of the entire school for such minimal support. Buildings need access to a trained technician on a regular basis - preferably one housed in the school itself.
In some cases, schools are lucky enough to have volunteers who are reliable and long-term enough to do some of these tasks, but volunteers, especially parents, should be doing more important and interesting work like individual tutoring, creating special learning centers, or preparing exciting displays. Good programs cannot rely on folks whose presence on the job is discretionary performing non-discretionary duties.
So how do we afford these support positions? It seems to me they should get funding priority. If we don’t, aren’t we just paying professional salaries for non-professional work? If a building can’t afford both library professional and support staff, it should consider sharing a professional among buildings who will be doing what teaching, planning, and supervising he or she can do at each building.
The better question is how can we not afford such positions when having them gives the professional librarian time to teach students and staff critical information literacy and technology skills? Without improved learning as the library’s primary purpose, it really doesn’t matter whether the books are shelved or the computers work or not.
