Collaborators or Competitors?: The Roles of School Libraries, Classroom Libraries, Teachers and Teacher-librarians in Literacy Development

Abstract

The Western Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has introduced classroom libraries into both primary and secondary schools in an effort to improve results achieved in the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The Region’s Blueprint for School Improvement for the years 2009-2011 (2009) has been the impetus for the establishment of the classroom libraries but there has been little reference to the role of school libraries in the process. Yet the same research used to support discussion of the role of classroom libraries in the development of student literacy has also been used by the advocates of school libraries to demonstrate their efficacy. With the aim of the National Year of Reading (2012) to improve Australia’s literacy rate in mind, this paper investigates possibilities for maximising the impact on reading of classroom libraries through collaboration between classroom teachers and library staff rather than competition for resources.

This is a refereed article.