The librarian's role in vocational education and training has been viewed by teachers and management as one of service provision. Activities which centre on finding and locating material on shelves; acquiring and managing resources; checking items in and out; and matching information needs to items on shelves constitute the backbone of the service role. The high visibility of the service role is reinforced in many TAFE colleges where the librarian, often the sole member of the library staff, will spend a large proportion of each day performing these routine tasks.
There is little acknowledgment or understanding by TAFE management or educational staff of the educational role that librarians play in contributing to the success of teaching and learning in the TAFE community. The librarian's educational role manifests itself in subtle ways that are not immediately visible to those outside this profession. Formal instruction in basic library and information seeking skills, the development and delivery of information literacy programs, improving technological literacy to ensure clients make the best use of the library's IT based resources and working in partnership with teachers to plan and develop course material are key aspects of the librarian's educational role.
The move by TAFE towards flexible delivery and open learning has major implications for librarians and their future role in TAFE. The current stereotyped perception of the service role restricts and marginalises the librarian's participation in flexible delivery initiatives because it fails to recognise the vital contribution that librarians make to the education of students who choose the flexible option as their preferred method of course delivery.
Parallels exist between the perception of the roles of the librarian at university, colleges, schools and TAFE. The literature on this topic indicates that it is the librarian's service role rather than the educational role that is acknowledged and better understood by educational professionals and administrators. Librarians in the educational sector are viewed as support service staff who respond to needs defined by teachers. They are not seen as partners in the educational process.(1) The research in this area focuses on evaluating the success of service provision. With the exception of research into information literacy, there was little evidence within the literature to suggest that attempts are being made at this time to evaluate the success of the educational role.
This article grew from the findings of a literature review that examined the role of the TAFE librarian in supporting the delivery of courses in the TAFE system. The findings published in this article both corroborate and extend the findings of Wendy Miller in her unpublished dissertation on `TAFE Teachers' and Librarians' perceptions of the role of Queensland TAFE librarians'.(2)
The TAFE Librarian's Role as Educator
The Australian Committee on Technical and Further Education (Kangan Report)(3) was a turning point in vocational education and training. The report identified the need to change community attitudes and educational methodologies and to consider and address the implications of resource based learning delivery for TAFE. This report was the first to articulate the educational role of librarians and brought issues such as access to learning resources and the future role of librarians into the mainstream vocational and educational system.
Historically, the role of the librarian within the college was regarded as having limited value when seen within the educational context of students learning a trade or applied course. Consequently libraries were resourced and staffed at levels which effectively failed to provide scope for librarians to establish or develop educational programs. Kangan(4) argued that, as the focus of vocational education and training changed beyond trade courses towards broader educational fields, librarians would need to redefine their role. He foresaw that the role of the librarian would need to change from a service role to an educational role if the support of new teaching and learning methodologies were to be successful.
The changing economic, social and educational infrastructure of Australian society provided the backdrop for successive reports by Finn (1991)(5) and the Mayer Committee (1992).(6) These reports committed TAFE to reorienting the focus of its educational strategies towards better preparation of students for employment and further education. The effect of these successive reports on the TAFE educational philosophy was to embrace the ethos of lifelong learning and to strengthen links between vocational education and training, general education and industry.
An educational role for TAFE librarians was clearly identified in the following statement in the Mayer Report, which focused on students developing the critical key competencies. Mayer stated that
The ability to access and organize information is crucial to continuing education and training and development of competence. Competence in collection, analyzing(7) and organizing information is central to all acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Within the context of these reports scope was created for librarians to refocus and to balance their roles from service provision to include their participation in the educational process.
The draft TAFE Library Guidelines (1993)(8) integrated the educational role as part of the core service provision. This coincided with changing perceptions and pedagogy within TAFE. Educational advocacy was a principle theme of the Guidelines. It committed librarians to participate in the educational process and …
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