The Librarian Influencer of the Week is Darryl Toerien. He is a school librarian in the United Kingdom and leads an international inquiry learning group called FOSIL. Click here to listen now!
Here are some librarian influencer tips Darryl shared:
Pursue a professional library certification if you do not have one.
We don’t simply provide resources to our patrons. School librarians focus on the process of learning through the resources we provide.
Video creation was a skill many librarians developed during the pandemic. This skill should carry over to post pandemic times and continue to transform aspects of our service.
Darryl introduces us to FOSIL (Framework Of Skills for Inquiry Learning).
Darryl worked to adapt Dr. Barbara Stripling’s Information Fluency model for use internationally. You can hear her discuss her model here.
The IFLA School Library Guidelines state that the school library is integral to the educational process. However, this is not the day-to-day experience of many, if not most school librarians, and Darryl’s professional career has been directed at understanding why.
Chapter 5 of the IFLA Guidelines describes the programs and activities of school librarians. The basic tenets include:
Literacy and reading promotion
Media and information literacy instruction
Inquiry-based learning models
Technology integration
Professional development for teachers
Instructional role of a school librarian
Darryl believes that an education in which the classroom does not lead inevitably and essentially to the library, as Norman Beswick puts it, is impoverished because teachers and librarians aren’t working together. Only when we work together will we have prepared students for the future.
You can connect with Darryl Toerien at:
Twitter:@TheFosilGroup
Website: The FOSIL Group (https://fosil.org.uk/)
Email: darryl@fosil.org.uk
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