Who is ready to be the School Librarian with a vision in Serbia?

How to Empower and Gather School Librarians through the activities of the Serbian Association of School Librarians

Abstract

This paper aims to show the current position of the school librarians in Serbia, including proposals in a way that can be improved. The paper includes reviews of the individual activities of Serbian Associations of School Librarians (SASL), which, from the establishment in 2006 has attempted to empower and gather school librarians, unfortunately, without a success.

               The position of school librarians in Serbia today is often marginalized, but librarians themselves are partly responsible because they have not imposed themselves as leaders of educational- practice in improving the quality of teaching in their schools.               The position of school librarians was further exacerbated by the regulations of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, passed in 2015, because they reduced the number of librarians in elementary schools, and in 2018 in secondary schools, too. The basic problem of the state, the negative natural increase and the poor demographic situation, caused a long-term decrease in the number of students, and thus also contributed to the reduction of the number of teachers who became technological surpluses.               That problem was often solved by taking several teachers into the school library and given them a part of the librarians' standard. In this way, on one side, we have librarians without too much interest in the work of a school librarian, and on the other we have librarians who have been unemployed.                How can, in such working conditions, school librarians in Serbia can be encouraged to work autonomously and interactively, empowered or motivated to improve their own quality of work?               Each school librarian should receive concrete testimonies for continuing self-evaluation processes that show, confirm, illustrate and document his weaknesses and shortcomings, but at the same time emphasize the quality and good patterns of the set goals. He needs to see specific needs and create specific conditions in the library in which he works, in order to be able to work more successfully.               A school librarian should encourage, exploit, and browse through the media good ideas, visions and strategies in order to popularize the book, reading, the culture of using the library, since creating an active user creates an active consumer of a culture that will always recognize the true value of the book, knowledge, information and libraries.               The most important thing is that a school librarian, following the vision that leads to success and recognition, realizes that he needs to gain the trust and reputation on the basis of his continuing work.               Part of the recent activities of Serbian Associations of School Librarians stimulates, engages and brings librarians together, working with teachers, parents, members of the local community, activating pupils for reading, as well as researching, expressing and affirming creativity.                By strengthening own professional capacities, gathering and empowering, a school librarian should realize that he can transform himself into a leader in the realization of cultural activities, not just in school, but also in the local community, even at the state level. 

Key words: school librarian, extracurricular activities, creativity, cooperation, knowledge quality, marketing of school library