Foreword – The Network is the Message, by Sheila Corrall

Summary

Collaboration is back on the agenda for school librarians, but with a new look and feel. Networks and networking are the keys to success for the school librarian in the 21st century. Sarah Pavey's new book is a timely reminder that the service model for libraries has changed and so have the core competencies of library work. Librarianship today involves more than developing collections, organising information, delivering services and managing facilities. Our profession is all about making connections, designing interactions, building trust and forming partnerships – in other words, librarianship is about facilitating and managing relationships. But librarians in education must now engage in these activities on a much larger stage than before, working across institutional boundaries, reaching out to local communities and putting relationships with learners, colleagues and other allies at the centre of their practice. The Networked Librarian gives us the blueprint for success in a continually evolving educational landscape.

Collaboration is often claimed as a core value of librarianship. University librarian Jim Neal says, ‘Cooperation is part of the professional DNA of libraries’ (2022). And indeed we have a long history of libraries and librarians co-operating through resource-sharing and information networks. In the past our culture of collaboration was a strategy of last resort when there was no other way to get hold of hard-to-find material. Then we found there were everyday tasks that could be performed at a higher standard and lower cost by working with others via co-operative cataloguing and purchasing consortia. Librarians in education also realised the benefits of collaborating with subject teachers, and not just in support roles as reference specialists or information consultants – teaching librarians expect to be accepted as professional peers and equal partners in the learning process from curriculum design to classroom instruction and assignment help.

A huge amount has been written on teacher−librarian collaboration with work published in magazines, books, journals, conferences and other outlets. The literature contains notable scholarship that has gained attention beyond the school library arena, particularly the taxonomies and models of David Loertscher and Patricia Montiel-Overall, which have evolved and developed over several decades with support from professional associations and government agencies (Loertscher and Zepnik, 2019; Montiel-Overall and Grimes, 2013).