It is almost taken for granted that the goal of Librarianship is to serve the needs of the communities that utilize the library. However, that concept raises the question of how exactly librarians should serve those needs. Do librarians decide what is best for their communities? Do they select books and materials that they specifically deem valuable? Or does the community get a say in what exactly will satisfy its needs? Rather than separate the librarian and the patron, we should instead look at them as part of the same community, where both the opinion of the library and the opinion of community come together to create a space where both views have equal weight.

In their article “Transformative Library Pedagogy and Community Based Libraries: A Freirean Perspective,” Martina Rielder and Mustafa Yunus propose the idea of the “Transformative Community Based Library (TCBL)”.[1. Rielder, M and Yunus, M. (2010). Transformative library pedagogy and community based libraries: a freirean perspective. In G. J. Leckie, L. M. Given and J. E. Buschman (Eds). Critical theory for library and information science. (pp. 89-99). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.] They write:

The TCBL model identifies libraries as democratic and educational sites for a community of learners who construct library practices as an interactive process between the present and the future of the community. It therefore encourages library visitors to reflect critically on the information provided, not simply as individual learners but as politically aware members of a community. (201o, p.93)

The TCBL is based on the Paulo Freire’s model of education, presented in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which bucks against the traditional “banking” model of education where teachers communicate set knowledge and students memorize that information in order to repeat it back.[2. Freire, P. (1968). The pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. Reprinted in 2000.] The Freirean model of education proposes that teacher and student work together in the learning process, that the student has a base of existing knowledge that can be expanded on by the teacher, and that the teacher is capable of learning from the student. For example, a traditional classroom might be solely lecture-based, but a Freirean classroom would be seminar/discussion based, putting student voices on the same level as that of their instructor.

While Freire was specifically talking about the classroom, it is easy to see how the banking model vs. the Freirean model applies to libraries. A banking approach to Librarianship would be a library where all decisions are made by the library, and the community is merely presented with materials that has been deemed worthwhile for said community. The community uses only those materials, and little growth occurs. Meanwhile, the Feirean approach to Librarianship would be the TCBL, a library where there is a constant dialogue between the library and the community, resulting in a library that fully serves its community and provides community enhancement. The TCBL recognizes that the patrons and the community are integral parts of the process of library development, and that libraries have the ability to be centers of community empowerment and transformation.

Rielder and Yunus seem to speak more about the TCBL as a library that serves a larger community, such as a neighborhood. However, the TCBL model can be applied to many different fields of librarianship and many different kind of communities. One such field that would greatly benefit from the TCBL model is the field of School Librarianship, particularly school libraries that serve primary and secondary schools.

School libraries are supposed to be spaces that not only enhance the curriculum and provide guidance on the appropriate use of information, but also spaces that foster a real love of learning and reading. Three of the nine Information Literacy Standards set by the American Association of School Librarians refer to this goal, stating that the students up to standard should: “pursue information related to personal interests”, “appreciate literature and other creative expressions of information”, and “strive for excellence in information and knowledge generation” (1998, p. 8-9).[3. The American Association of School Librarians and The Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (1998). Information power: building partnerships for learning. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.] Yet, many libraries, particularly secondary libraries, are not always utilized in ways that would help students to meet these standards. In fact, many students see the library as a place to spend a free period or avoid rather than a space they can use to enhance their education, let alone find material to be used outside of the classroom.

Why is this? Perhaps it is because many school libraries do not necessarily feel like community spaces to students. The library’s collection may only contain books that pertain to the curriculum, or may only have books that the librarian deems appropriate for the students without student input. The Library Media Specialist may barely interact with the students. I recall in my own high school library that while I spent a lot of time there doing homework, I don’t think I ever exchanged more than a few words with my high school LMS. She was completely separate from her students. This kind of library, like the banking model of education, may be adequate for providing set knowledge to the community (coming from the school district, state standards, curriculum needs, etc.), but it does nothing to really help its core community (the students) learn and thrive. It attempts to serve a community that it is disconnected from, and so it fails.

However, a library that follows the TCBL model, and really partners with its students, has the ability to actually succeed in its goals to promote information literacy and passion for reading and learning. If students feel that they have a voice in the development and management of the library, it stops being a space that they can be in and becomes a space that they take ownership of. Rielder and Yunus write “If learning involves the ability to negotiate new meanings and become a new person, it requires a space, a community, a counter public within which learners can engage with others in joint practice” (2010, p.95). In the context of the school library, the students have to feel like their library truly represents their needs and their interests, not just the needs and interests that the school district says they’re supposed to have. This type of library is what really drives learning outside of the classroom and strengthens a students education.

There are Library Media Specialists who are developing libraries that really do represent their communities needs and interests, with strong results. For example, the School Library Journal recently reported on the LMS at Chicago’s Wendell Phillips Academy High School: K.C. Boyd. When Boyd first started teaching as the LMS at Wendell Phillips, the school library was underutilized by the student body. Boyd had to “drag kids” into the library, but now the students come willingly and the library is one of the most popular spaces in the school.[4. Daz, M. (2014). Chicago hope: high school librarian k.c. boyd. School library journal, October vol. Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/2014/10/librarians/chicago-hope-high-school-librarian-k-c-boyd/] How did Boyd accomplish this? By paying attentions to what her community, her students, needed from the library and shaping the library around those needs.

Boyd began to purchase manga, poetry, supernatural stories, and street lit for her library because it was what her students wanted.[5. Ibid.] School Library Journal’s Mahnaz Dar notes that many educators may shy away from the street lit genre, but Boyd has proved that it has an important place in her library. Dar writes:

Boyd’s willingness to purchase these titles shows a deep understanding and perception of her community. Many of her students come from neighborhoods where violence or crime is common. She can warn them against risky or dangerous behavior, she says, but “if they read a story with characters in similar situations, that story sits with them much more than what I would ever say. Street lit feeds into the social and emotional issues my students are dealing with.”[6. Ibid.]

Boyd, as an LMS, has created a library where the students are active participants in how their library runs, how collections development works, and how they learn and engage with information. Like a teacher might work with a student in the Freirean model of education, Boyd recognizes that she must help her students shape their own education process rather than tell them what their education process will be. Boyd’s library, which matches the description of the TCBL, has proved to be very effective. The school’s ranking has improved, ACT scores are higher, and the Class of 2014 collectively earned $2.3 million in scholarship funds.[7. Ibid.] While, of course, there are other factors in play, and Boyd is not solely responsible for these changes, she certainly plays an important role in her school’s improvement by managing a library that represents and incorporates the student community.

The Transformative Community Based Library model is extremely beneficial to school librarianship, especially since the model has its roots in education theory. If the field of classroom education wants to move away from the banking model, why shouldn’t the school library follow suit? Library Media Specialists, like Boyd, have shown that the TCBL model is effective, and better helps students achieve information literacy standards. There will be barriers like budgeting, district regulations, and administrative support, but overall, if schools adopt the TCBL model, they will better serve their community and provide real enrichment for their students.