Indiana’s shortage of Swiss Army Knives affecting students

By GRACE GREEN
grace@readthereporter.com

In Indiana schools, the role of librarians has evolved to include far more than just managing books. As their responsibilities grow, the number of certified librarians available to support students continues to shrink. With roles including tech support, research guidance, and information aide, today’s school librarians are increasingly essential to students’ success.

“We’re like a Swiss Army Knife because we do a little bit of everything,” Indiana school librarian JoyAnn Boudreau said.

School librarians are often working to ensure students and teachers have the resources they need.

“Books are definitely an important part of our job,” Boudreau said. “But sometimes people forget that there are a lot of other parts of our jobs.”

As technology has become an increasing aspect of today’s education, librarians have had to adapt and be able to assist students and teachers with it.

“We’re always trying to learn more about technology and how to integrate it into curriculum, help teachers find new tools, or troubleshoot on the other side of tech,” Boudreau said.

Today’s school librarians are often the first people others turn to when they need help – not just with research or books, but with solving everyday questions students and staff may have.

“I can’t tell you the number of random questions I get on an average day from both students and staff,” Boudreau said. “We also tend to be kind of keepers of knowledge, not just research but also just about the school, like, ‘Where do I find information about this club? Who has access to this resource? Who’s the person to ask about this thing?’”

Yet despite their growing impact, the number of school librarians with the proper education to fulfill the role has steadily decreased. Many schools now rely on instructional assistants (IA) to fill librarian roles that used to require advanced degrees.

“Instructional assistants are amazing, and they are doing everything they can to keep the libraries up and running, but they don’t have certified school librarians in most buildings across the state,” Boudreau said.

Boudreau considers herself a “Teacher-Librarian” and used to be an English teacher. While she has shifted to the librarian side of things, she has maintained her teaching license and believes having that experience is imperative as a school librarian and is something IAs often don’t have a background in.

“It’s easy for me to put myself in the teachers’ shoes because I’ve done that before and I can think about what they need on their end or what sort of technology would help them and their job,” Boudreau said. “I think it just gives you a different depth of background and experience.”

Editor’s note: Click here to read the Association of Indiana School Library Educators’ (AISLE) Evaluation Rubric.

Although Indiana law requires each school to have a certified librarian, many districts bypass the rule by hiring just one for the entire district, rotating them between schools for limited periods of time. Boudreau attributes the lack of properly certified individuals to cuts in school funding, including in her own school district.

“I know that they were able to pass referendums to help keep some of their funding, but I also know that if it didn’t pass, they had a list of people that might have been impacted, and school librarians were one of the people,” Boudreau said.

According to a State Perspective Report, Boudreau says Indiana’s average number of full-time librarians per school was 0.14, making them ranked 47th out 51 states (including the District of Columbia). With Indiana trying to improve literacy through changes in curriculum and staff retention policies, Boudreau says she believes they are overlooking a key component that already supports students every day.

“They haven’t seemed to look at increasing our amount of school librarians as a way to address that problem, which I think could be a natural solution to help with increasing literacy rates,” Boudreau said.