Definition of a School Librarian

As I read through this week's articles, the authors all seemed to be calling for a reworking of the definition of what it means to be a school librarian.  I'm wondering if school librarians started out with intentions such as those listed on the School Librarian's Bill of Responsibilities, got sidetracked somewhere along the way, and are now going back to their original intent?  Or if school librarians are just now coming up with an entirely new perception of their job descriptions?  Are school librarians always attempting to redefine themselves in an effort to help their students and stay current, or is this attempt entirely new? 

In any case, school librarians are attempting to redefine themselves and their work, and why are they attempting to do so? - perhaps it is an effort to keep up with new technology.  Such new technology offers a multitude of ways in which to access information, which students often have easy access to.  School librarians view their jobs as important in order to guide students in their use of technology by "supporting multiple paths to understanding," "fostering the free exchange of ideas," and "providing open access to unrestricted resources for intellectual growth and personal enrichment."  Technology makes skills such as these much more useful and necessary in today's world.

Also, there is educational theory. I do not know much about educational theory as a hopeful future public librarian, but the educational classes I have taken have all emphasized the importance of active learning by engaging students rather than giving them busy work.  These many skills from the readings for today certainly support this current educational theory: "cultivate creative and critical thinking," "value experimentation and risk-taking," and "promote questioning and curiosity."

There's the idea of learning from and collaborating with others.  Students should learn from each other as a result of librarians successfully collaborating with teachers.  However, I was struck by the Bad Business Practices from the Zmuda and Harada article, which stated that you must make sure not to define success by the number of staff members you collaborate with, but rather by the quality of that collaboration.  In some ways, I would argue that you can determine success by how many folks you collaborate with.  The more you reach out to teachers, the more likely they are to trust you and collaborate with you.  Of course, the quality of collaboration is still important.  Going along those same lines, the article also says that success cannot be defined by helping students find what they are looking for, but again, I think success can in part be defined by helping students find a book they want to read for pleasure, or helping them locate resources.  Helping students find materials is important in addition to helping them learn from those materials.

Last, but not least, is the attempt to redefine school librarians more for the use of the school librarians themselves, or for the teachers they work with?