Building a Knowledge Bank of Critical Literature for Australian and New Zealand Teacher-librarians and School Libraries

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of Stage One in the development of a new resource about school libraries and teacher-librarianship in Australia and New Zealand. This new advocacy, research and information tool was produced by a team of academics from the School of Information and Communication Studies, Charles Sturt University. This team have expertise in education, librarianship, and teacher-librarianship. Curating over 100 years of resources for, and about teacher-librarians and school libraries in Australia and New Zealand, Stage One of the Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries (KBANZSL) is a point-in-time guide and record of critical reports, books, papers, and other resources about Australian school libraries and teacher-librarianship. It is intended to support researchers, administrators, practitioners and advocates of school libraries and teacher-librarianship by recording literature in the field in a single location. Details of the project's scope, development and parameters are discussed, and examples of the intended final outputs are provided. The overall project addresses an identified gap in the research around teacher-librarianship in Australia and New Zealand. An opportunity to build on this current research exists, with the intention that Stage Two of the project will extend the resource into the online environment.