Session 1: A librarian’s role in the school

Introduction

The educational landscape is subject to constant change. Being aware of this and responding accordingly is, therefore, key to the success of the librarian’s role and their library. All who work in school libraries, whatever their level of qualification, will benefit from learning about ways in which they can ensure their library provision is current and relevant.

By ensuring your library’s strategies and policies are aligned with those of the school itself, you will be better placed to support your school, your colleagues, and your stakeholders’ needs effectively. In this first session, by referring to your school’s strategies and policies, you will learn how to maximise the potential of your library provision and shape your role in the school. To help you achieve this, you will need a library development plan. This will form the focus of the first part of this session.

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• understand how your library development plan can support your school
• recognise the ways in which the library can support teaching colleagues and the curriculum
• identify stakeholders and their needs.

Before you start, The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations of the course. Your input will help to further improve the online learning experience. If you’d like to help, and if you haven’t done so already, please fill in this optional start-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.