What's My Job?

I am a teacher-librarian. I know this. I love this. But, what exactly does this mean? What is my job?

I am a teacher. What does a teacher do? A teacher teachers, a teacher prepares lessons, a teacher supports students, a teacher contacts parents when needed and many other things.

I am a librarian. What does a librarian do? A librarian develops the collection to suit the population, a librarian suggests books to meet the needs of specific students, a librarian weeds the collection and maintains the collection. A librarian collects fines and checks books in and out and does shelf reading and shelving and straightening.

How do I put these two things together? To me, I have to do it all. I'm a teacher-librarian, which means that I have to focus on both parts of the job equally. I cannot be only a teacher. It's not fair for me to leave the collection in disarray while I spend all my time preparing lessons for teachers who are bringing their classes to the library. It's also not fair for me to spend all my time shelving books and reading books and neglecting the staff and students who need my help. It is a juggling act.

This set of musings came about because of a rather heated discussion I had with someone else who is a teacher librarian. She had been asked to shelve some books and to put some notices in teachers' mailboxes and this infuriated her. She strongly believed that she was being asked to be a secretary and that it was not her job to do clerical things. When I heard this, I was flabbergasted. How on earth is shelving not one of a librarian's jobs? Of course it isn't the only job, and if checking books in and out and shelving books were the only thing a librarian did then there is no need for librarians, but surely shelving is at least part of the job, isn't it?

I posed this question on Twitter, and the most important response I had was that a teacher librarian must highlight the professional aspects of the job. I understand that completely. If we cannot demonstrate our worth, why should there be teacher librarians? However, highlighting the professional aspects does not mean ignoring the other aspects. Classroom teachers do lots of clerical work. I've never heard a classroom teacher argue that they should not have to photocopy their own handouts; to me, a librarian arguing that they should not shelve books is just about as silly.

As teacher librarians, as my principal put it, our job is to maintain the library. That means doing whatever is necessary when it is necessary.

Your thoughts?