Just A Place to Put Books?

A week ago I felt significantly overwhelmed with the whole 'studying' thought. People were making posts on the interact forums talking about assignment topics, readings, blogs, podcasts and much more; and I was beginning to think that I had missed the eight ball. As an extremely organised and 'always on the front foot' type of person, the thought worried me. How so much has changed in a week; I now feel like i'm ahead with what I am meant to be doing in my subjects and feel like I have an adequate understanding about the topics. *Relief*

Upon reading Haycock's report 'The crisis in Canada’s school libraries: The case for reform and re-investment', I came across an interesting sentence:

'School libraries are so much more than rooms dedicated to storing books.'

I believe that this sentence encapsulates the vision that many, if not most of the teachers perceive at the schools I have worked at. They don't see the library in a wholistic way and they don't understand the extensive impact that the school library and the teacher librarian can ultimately have on student learning outcomes. As much as I hate to admit it, until I began working in the school library and embarking on this course, I too was one of those teachers with the same narrow-minded vision...

I am glad that I have been forced to move out of my comfort zone and take on something new. I believe that being a classroom teacher before gaining qualifications to be a teacher librarian and to see the job from both sides of the fence, will enable me to be the best teacher/TL that I can be.

So, is the library just a place to store books and other small resources? I strongly think not!