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The Role of School Librarians and Subject Teachers in Information Literacy Education An analysis of the gaps between the expected roles and actual practice

Information literacy education is one of objectives of school curriculum in Japan. School Librarians are expected to play an instructional role in the inquiry learning. Library instructions which have been worked on for many years cover all phases of inquiry learning such as planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating. It includes various types of knowledge, skills, intellect, and attitudes. However, the results of interviewing 11 school librarians and 14 subject teachers have revealed that librarians actually teach no more than a portion of the contents that fall under the library instruction. The content primarily taught by librarians, and most subject teachers expected librarians to teach, is the traditional information skills, such as locating Information, using books, taking notes and showing references. School librarians should reconsider their expertise on information literacy education and share more responsibility with teachers to improve student learning.


The expected instructional role of school librarians
The School Library Act of Japan (1953) states that when managing school libraries, 'pupils or students should be taught to use the school library and its materials.' Based on this, school librarians assume responsibility for providing the library instruction.
The term 'School Librarian (SL)' as used in this paper includes two professions: the Teacher Librarian (TL), as a qualified member of the teachers and the School Library Staff (SLS), as a staff member who performs the school library's clerical work. In Japan, while it is common for these two professionals to work together, or for one of them to manage the school library unilaterally, each of them is required to provide instruction and assistance on information searches and usage.
For example, the "Association of Supporters of Children's Reading" established by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) recommends in its the Best Usage of School Libraries (Report) that 'Teacher Librarians should use different media, such as printed and digital materials, in teaching how to use the school library, determining the teaching plan, and conducting lessons by Teacher Librarian themselves to heighten information literacy of students' (MEXT, 2009).
Similarly, in another report by the Ministry's advisory committee, the Strategies to Improve the Roles, Clerical Work, Qualifications, and Abilities Expected of Future Staff Responsible for School Libraries (Report) , one of the duties of the SLS is 'guided instruction,' which includes providing 'advice on searching for, gathering, recording, and editing information ' (MEXT, 2014).
Summarizing this, SL are required to not only collect and provide materials, but also to contribute to the development of the educational program through the educational activity of providing the library programs.

The contents of 'School Library Instruction' in Japan
Library instruction is also called information literacy education or learning how to learn, and refers not only to the ways of using the library or its materials, but also to educational activities that aim to cultivate the knowledge, skills, intellect, and attitude required for the process of inquiry learning. However, in contrast with subjects whose educational content is specified by The Course of Study, there are no national criteria on the specific content for library instruction, which is not clearly located in the education curriculum.
Previously, MEXT and the School Library Association (SLA) had both created respective guidelines on the library instruction. However, the MEXT criteria have not been revised since the Usage and Instruction on School Libraries in Elementary and Junior High Schools of 1983, and neither has the SLA standard been updated since the Standard on Instructing Learning Using Information and Media in 2004. Thus 115 books on the school libraries issued between 1997 and 2014 were used to confirm the content listed under the library instruction, it became clear that the knowledge and skills for study covers as many as 25 categories including 119 items (Table 1). These items cover all phases of inquiry learning such as planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating; and educational activities related to various types of knowledge, skills, intellect, and perspectives.
The contents of the library instruction was revised according to the Course of Study of 1998 and 2008 in the context of an expansion of the support for the overall learning process. On these occasions, "the Period for Integrated Studies" to practice inquiry learning and subject "information" were newly established as concepts, and the new overall objectives of school education were to cultivate information skills and to teach methods of learning. As a result, it became relatively simple to situate the teaching of information seeking and using within the curriculum, and opportunities were created for SL within the overall inquiry process.
Similarly, since 2000, Japan has been paying heed to Western standards and models such as America's School Library Standards (Information Power and Standards for the 21 st -Century Learning in Action); the Focus on Inquiry (Alberta Learning, 2004); the information search process model (Kuhlthau, 1993); and the Big6 Skills (Eizenberg and Berkowitz, 1990). The number of SL who perceive the library instruction as an educational activity that encourages higher-level thought within inquiry learning has increased, which is thought to be one reason that for the increase in the number of items covered as well. (

Information literacy education within subject education
The current Course of Study explain the knowledge and skills necessary for the inquiry learning in relation to subject content. Hence, several of the learning activities shown in Table 1 are actually taught by subject teachers during subject classes. Then, textbooks and 'teacher's manuals' were analyzed to confirm the subjects that deal with the 119 items in the library instruction as well as the manner in which they are handled.
First, sections corresponding to each category in Table 1 were extracted from the 66 main textbooks of three elementary school subjects (Japanese, Social Science, and Science) and five junior high school subjects (Japanese, Social Science, Science, Math, and Technology), and the types of practiced learning activities therein were confirmed. The results revealed that even though all 25 categories were addressed by one of the subjects, some of the 119 learning activities in the categories were not addressed by any of the subjects.
Furthermore, the teacher's manuals accompanying the textbooks were used to confirm the types of knowledge and skills instructed by the subject teachers. The results clarified that some of the knowledge and skills contained in the library instructions were not covered by the subjects.

The practice of SL and subject teachers in junior high schools
As shown in Chapter 2, library instruction focuses on the process of inquiry and covers the knowledge, skills, intellect, and attitude necessary at every phase, ranging from planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating information. However, as SL do not have classes on their own, it is unrealistic for them to teach all these items. The content instructed under a subject depends on the subject, and the teaching items that cannot be taught as part of the subjects must be prioritized. As shown in Chapter 3, some items in the library instruction are not covered by the textbooks, and therefore, a division of roles between subject teachers and SL is theoretically possible. It is also possible to indicate the items that must be preferentially taught by the SL. However, the validity of the division of roles described in books and its feasibility requires investigation that takes the reality of the situation into account.
Interviews of junior high school teachers and SL were conducted, and the division of roles between the two was analyzed. This study posed the following research questions: (1) What do SL teach within inquiry learning, and how are their roles shared with subject teachers?
(2) What type of instruction do subject teachers expect from SL?
(3) Which elements affect the division of responsibilities?
The study focused primarily on school libraries that reported their practices over the last five years in the School Library magazine. Ten such schools were selected, taking into account the public and private backgrounds of the schools and their subjects for ensuring a balanced sample (Table 2). At each of the schools, the contents of the lessons that involved the use of the library were investigated along with the items taught in the lessons by the subject teachers and SL (Teacher Librarians or School Library Staff) in-charge.
( First, the applicable course units of the 'teaching plan' and 'teaching materials' were obtained, and the learning activities performed by the students in the lessons were arranged chronologically. A list of the knowledge and skills required for each activity was created.
Subsequently, around semi-structured interviews of sixty to ninety-minute duration of the subject teachers and SL who delivered the lessons were conducted. The interviews confirmed the pre-arranged learning process and sought to discover whether instruction about the knowledge and skills required therein was being provided by the subject teachers or the SL.
When necessary, the methods of instruction, rationale of the division of responsibilities, and the atmosphere among the students were also questioned, and they were also asked to comment freely.
All the interview records were transcribed, after which each section that mentioned how roles were divided was extracted and categorized according to the categories of the library instruction ( Table 1). The contents of the opinions were then analyzed and sorted respectively into 'teaching,' 'requesting teaching,' 'wanting (having) to teach,' 'not teaching,' 'unable to teach,' and 'taught in another subject,' and were then arranged as shown in Table 3.
Comments thought to indicate the background and factors related to the division of roles were summarized separately.

Results and discussion
Based on the results of interviewing 11 school librarians and 14 subject teachers, this chapter discusses the items mentioned by more than half of the interviewees.

The division of roles between SL and subject teachers
There are four types of results of the interview.
(1) SL and teachers divide the instructions necessary for the inquiry learning (2) SL and teachers provide the same content, no noticeable difference could be detected (3) SL provide the primary instruction (4) Teachers provide the primary instruction.
First, the items for which SL and teachers have the same aims, and focus on different knowledge and skills in the instruction are as follows.
The item '02 Selecting Topics,' is taught by SL and teachers together, but while SL teach how to 'decide on a topic after preliminary search such as using an encyclopedia' or 'narrow down topics using a worksheet such as a mandalart,' teachers use methods such as 'providing limited topics in advance' or 'encouraging students to provide examples of their interests.' On the other hand, several subject teachers also responded that they do not provide instruction on how to select a topic, and that they encourage students instead to decide on a topic freely, and do not go beyond providing individual advice and attention when required.
Regarding item '11 Using Electronic Materials,' subject teachers urged caution when using Wikipedia, and encouraged students to use recommended websites. Although SL provided similar instruction, some said that they taught students how to use search engines. In the context of computer operation and ID/password management, several SL responded that it was taught by teachers of Information and Computer Science.
Item '15 Evaluating' is taught similarly by SL and subject teachers, and its contents dealt primarily with the need to confirm the authenticity of internet information, as well as using multiple materials. However, while subject teachers paid particular attention to internet-based information in their instruction, SL tended to provide instruction about printed materials such as books and newspapers as well.
Next, the items which were not different between the SL's instruction and teachers is as follows. For item '22 Creating,' both types of professionals teach report composition and formatting. Several subject teachers said that they encourage visual devices when creating posters, but this is limited to adding color and formulating headings, and does not extend to topics such as layout rules. Several SL and subject teachers responded that they did not or could not teach this item.
Furthermore, the items primarily taught by SL are '04 Locating Information,' '06 Developing an Information Retrieval Plan,' and '19 Analyzing.' Several of the subject teachers also responded that either the "SL teaches" these items or that "they would like SL to teach them,".
So these items are considered as the SL' teaching domain.
Several responses indicated that '16 Taking Notes' is taught by SL and subject teachers alike. Accordingly, observing the content of the instruction mentioned in the respective opinions reveals that SL taught how to record on information cards, cite sources, view colophons, and show references. Although subject teachers responded that they advise students to cite their sources, there were no cases of them proving instruction on how to view bibliographic information, or of creating worksheets for students to cite their sources voluntarily. Several of the SL have the impression that teachers "do not teach how to take notes," but this is because the instruction provided by subject teachers does not extend beyond mere speaking. When comparing the content taught by both types of professionals, it is accurate to say that taking notes can be considered primarily as an item taught by SL.
On the other hand, '21 Writing' is primarily thought to be taught by subject teachers. Within this category, SL are thought to teach the formal rules for citations, while methods of summarizing, writing sentences logically, and essay composition are thought to fall under the domain of subject teaching. However, there is a general awareness between both types of professionals that the Japanese language as a subject is responsible for this; all the subject teachers who responded that they did not teach this item teach a subject other than the Japanese language. Similarly, SL who responded that they taught in the library were also qualified TL with a license to teach Japanese.

Differences in awareness between TL and SL
Among interviewees, there are six TL and five SLS. According to this attribute, two items revealed differences in the instruction and perception of both categories.
First, while all the TL responded that they taught '15 Evaluating materials (information),' less than half of the School Library Staff said the same about this item. Similarly, with one exception, all the TL taught '21 Writing with information,' but none of the SLS said they taught this (

Expectations from particular subjects
Several teachers who held lessons that introduces inquiry learning noticed that they have to teach a greater expanse of knowledge and skills than initially anticipated and found it difficult to cover them all within a single unit. For example, a Social Studies teacher (T02) said, "In Two items are expected to be covered under particular subjects. One is computer operation and ID/password management under the item '11 using electronic materials.' SL provide instruction on evaluating websites and using search engines, but they expect computer operation and security to be taught under Information and Computer Science.
Another is the item '21 Writing with information.' As mentioned in Section 5.2, SL and teachers of subjects other than the Japanese language expect this to be taught under the Japanese language, and Japanese language teachers also recognize the need to teach this item.

Conclusion
One of the objectives of Japan's current school education is to incorporate inquiry learning and promote education in information literacy. The library instruction that has been handled for several years by SL shares common objectives with school curricula in its aim to cultivate the knowledge, skills, thought, and attitudes that inquiry learning requires.
The library instruction focuses on a broad domain, ranging from planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating of information. The knowledge and skills taught are also wide ranging. However, the results of an interview survey of the roles of SL and subject teachers within inquiry learning demonstrated that SL actually teach no more than a portion of the items that fall under the library instruction. From the opinion provided by the SL, three elements could be identified as to why the items taught covered only a portion of the expected content, namely, the physical and temporal limitations, the perceptions of subject teachers about instruction on library usage, and systematic problems within the school library profession.
For example, if sufficient teaching hours to address inquiry learning cannot be guaranteed, and school libraries are not equipped with internet-accessible computers, teaching the necessary knowledge and skills would be difficult. And several subject teachers do not even consider it necessary to teach specific knowledge and skills related to information seeking and using, as they tend to plan lessons that encourage students to conduct research and write 'freely.' Furthermore, TL who are also subject teachers cannot take additional time for classes that conduct exploratory studies, and School Library Staff who are not teachers tend to be hesitant about stating their opinions on the content and methods of classes and on teaching with the subject teachers. Effective usage instruction is therefore not being practiced.
Similarly, when looking at the division of roles on paper and comparing the items that SL actually teach, the three items 'book subjects,' 'types and characteristics of research methods,' and 'selecting appropriate media for an purposes' are not covered in textbooks and can be considered content specific to the library instruction. However, other items are included in the subject content of textbooks and teaching manuals. In other words, some items among the knowledge and skills that should be covered by subjects are not (or cannot be) actually taught by subject teachers, and it can be assumed that the items taught by SL are different from the results of the textual analysis.
The books on school libraries do not discuss in details; the person who teaches and the way how he/she teaches, but brings together various types of knowledge and skills related to information searches and usage which are posited as the content of the library instruction. It should be essential to consider new 'criteria for the library instruction' in order to organize the various items from the point of view of the division of roles between SL and subject teachers, and to bridge the gap between ideals and reality.