Invisible school librarians?

I was searching for material for the postgrad assignment when I found an article in the School Library Journal, entitled, The Invisible School Librarian: Why Other Educators Are Blind to Your Value.

This is a ten year old American article, but the title resonates.

A lot of school librarians think they are ignored by teaching departments and senior management, but being ignored requires being seen in the first place, and I don’t think we’re even noticed sometimes. 

So why is our role not appreciated? The author, school principal, Gary N. Hartzell, had three suggestions:

1. Libraries aren’t mentioned in teacher training so they’re not considered in educational terms. Unless a teacher’s attention is dragged towards the library, they’re not likely to see it. 
2. When the general public thinks of schools, it thinks of classrooms and teachers. Librarians are not part of that scenario, and aren’t viewed as being a part of direct education. And as solo workers, Librarians often don’t get the opportunity to network with colleagues and build influence because the library is open when everyone else is having lunch or coffee.
3. We don’t make ourselves visible

So where does that leave us? I agree completely with this analysis, but especially the last one. WE DON’T SHOUT ENOUGH. We moan a lot but we don’t jump up and down gesticulating wildly and saying “LOOK AT ME!”  and we should. There is a certain Scottish reticence in this: attempt to fly high and you’ll get shot down, but if we’re doing a good job, why not say so? 

I was definitely invisible when I started in this job: I was too scared to be anything else. This job demands a huge amount from an experienced practitioner, for a fresh graduate it’s terrifying. 

I was lead to believe by the library literature that schools were on their knees waiting for librarians to walk through the door and help them. Definitely a bit naive there, but I’m not alone. 

Too many of us think people will use the library and should use the library because it’s the library. QED. 

Sorry, but I tried that and it doesn’t work.

And there are still departments around the school where the library is invisible and I have to keep on nudging senior management to remind them I’m there, but that’s part of the job. Promoting the library is actually part of my job description. To begin with, I didn’t realise exactly who I had to promote to.

So I use the website, the local press, email, and now the blog to help me shout and I’m aware that there’s a fair bit of “who does she think she is?” getting muttered behind my back.  But I also hope that I’m doing something positive about making librarians a bit less invisible.