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The Role of Teacher-Librarians and Information
Literacy: A Case of Four MARA Junior Science
Colleges in Kedah, Malaysia
Mohammad Fazli Baharuddin1 and Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad2
Faculty of Information Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
fazli811@puncakalam.uitm.edu.my, mohd.sharif@gmail.com
Abstract— This paper discusses the results of a study being
carried out in four selected MARA Junior Science College
(MJSC) in Kedah, Malaysia who are teaching various subjects. It
focuses on teachers' perception on the roles of teacher-librarians.
The instrument used was adapted from a questionnaire
developed by Council on Teacher Education (C.O.T.E). From
200 questionnaires distributed, 157 questionnaires were returned.
The results of the study revealed that, teachers overall agreed
that teacher-librarians is an important part of the instructional
team in their class. In order to improve students’ achievement
and develop effective collaboration with classroom teachers,
teacher-librarians must become part of the instructional process.
It must be used by all teachers to increases the quality of learning
in the classroom to benefit all students.
Keywords— Teacher-Librarians; school library; teachers’
perception; Information Literacy; Malaysia
I. INTRODUCTION
Schools today are focusing in developing information
literacy program for their students. In order to implement
lifelong learning among students, teacher-librarians also
known as library media teacher should collaborate with school
teachers in lessons planning [1]. This is also consistent with
The American Association of School Librarians Standards for
the 21st Century Leaner mentioned that school libraries are
essential to the development of information literacy and
learning skills [1]. However, are teacher-librarians capable and
competence to perform their roles towards information
literacy? Do all school teachers realize and understand about
the roles of teacher-librarians? What are the teachers’
perceptions towards the role of teacher-librarians? The Library
Association of Malaysia feels that if it is to be cost effective in
supporting quality education, the person in charge of the
library must be a person above of average capabilities who has
a considerable degree of expertise in the fields of both library
science and education [2].
In Malaysia, beginning 2006, the government has started
entrusting qualified teachers as teacher-librarians in every
school [3]. The roles of teacher-librarians are very significant
in every school. This is the way they can help in developing
information literate person. Teacher-librarians are also
information experts who help in developing information
literacy skills among school students by cooperating with
other school teachers to make sure learning become more
effective and efficient including cooperating in administrative
operation. The Association of Teacher-Librarianship of
Canada point out that the role of the Teacher-Librarian in the
21st Century is to provide leadership in collaborative program
planning and teaching to make sure both physical and
intellectual access to information and commitment to
voluntarily reading [4]. The roles of teacher-librarians do not
only focus on students but are also responsible in helping
school teachers in the learning process and lesson planning.
School teachers cannot limit their sources of information such
as textbooks only. An innovative approach, termed “resource-
based learning,” was introduced into school library literature
that instruction must provide access to a variety of media
formats and technologies [5]. There are many sources that can
be as lesson tools either paper or electronic format. Lesson
planning involves teachers in interpreting and transforming a
significant range of information to specify learning exercises,
schedules, teaching and learning resources, means to control
the class, and learning objectives [6]. Therefore, the teacher-
librarians have to assist teachers in achieving all of these. All
the questions can be answered by investigating the teachers’
perception on the role of teacher-librarians. After review of
teachers' perceptions, effective and efficient collaboration can
be established to create information literacy skills among
school students.
This paper focuses on teachers’ perception of the roles of
teacher-librarians in selected MARA Junior Science Colleges
(MJSC) in Malaysia. MJSC known as Maktab Rendah Sains
MARA (MRSM) are boarding schools built by the Majlis
Amanah Rakyat (MARA) in almost every state in Malaysia.
There are 42 MJSC nationwide with 38 in peninsular while the
remaining four are in Sabah and Sarawak. In this study, four
MJSC had been selected and they are Merbok, Pendang,
Kulim and Kubang Pasu. The responsibility of teacher-
librarians was important in education process. When school
teachers and students do not understand the role of teacher-
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librarians, it will become difficult to implement learning
process that is effective and efficient.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Teacher-librarians
Teacher-librarian is an information expert who provides
information directly to the school teachers and students. In
Malaysia, a school library is generally managed by teacher-
librarians. A teacher-librarian is a certified teacher who also
has training in librarianship. In Malaysia, in terms of academic
qualifications, 4.8% of the teacher-librarian had a Masters
degree, 45.2% had a Bachelor’s degree, 32.1% had Diplomas,
9.5% had an HSC/STPM qualification, and 8.3% had
MCE/SPM as their academic qualifications [7]. Teacher-
librarians are fully qualified teachers, who typically undertake
post-graduate education in library studies [8]. Nevertheless,
the teacher-librarian performs four main leadership roles:
teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and
program administrator [9]. Also supported that the importance
of retaining the word “teaching” in the title of Teacher
Librarian, stating that Teacher Librarians have a whole-school
curriculum perspective in addition to their managerial
experience [10]. This shows that teacher-librarians is very
important in school daily operation and it has been mentioned
in a research paper “Novice Teachers’ Perceptions of the Role
of the Teacher Librarian”, teacher-librarian is a professional
teacher with a minimum of two years of successful classroom
experience and additional qualifications in the selection,
management and utilization of learning resources, who
manages the school library and works with other teachers to
design and implement resource-based instructional programs
[11]. This is statement supported that in Malaysia the
experience as teacher-librarians ranged from 0 to 14 years,
with a mean of 4.1 years [7] [20].
B. Roles of Teacher-librarians
The source of the definitive statements in the literature on
the roles expected of the teacher librarians in the educational
setting [12]. Three basics roles are: as information specialist,
teacher, and instructional consultant. However, in 21st
century, all teacher-librarians have changed their role
according to the information environment and have to cope
with new technologies [13]. Today teacher librarian plays
many distinct yet interrelated roles in order to accomplish
goals as a teacher, as a collaborator, as a curriculum leader, as
an instructional leader, as an information expert, as an
information technologist and as a program manager[14].
Previous study also discusses how the role of the teacher
librarians has changed in the last 20 years [15]. However, the
major changes are the recognition of the consultative role and
changes in the teaching role to incorporate thinking skills, co-
operative learning, and literature based reading and resource
based learning. The study about the role of teacher-librarians
mentioned that “a teacher-librarian’s job” was to preserve
forms of recorded knowledge, foster public education and
continue a historical mission that provided a foundation for
democratic society [16]. It was indeed a noble brief for
teacher-librarians in general, but inadequate in the
contemporary educational context.
The Association of Teacher-Librarians of Canada and the
Canadian School Library Association established a joint
committee to define the competencies necessary for effective
teacher-librarians in the 21st century. The project was
designed to revise the qualifications for teacher-librarians and
to serve the needs of both teacher-librarians and
administrators. It was based on prior work of the Association
for Teacher-librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canadian
School Library Association (CSLA) and research findings [4].
Following can be described as professional competencies
for teacher-librarians [4]:
1. Places a priority on staff relationships and
leadership in the implementation of change.
2. Provides leadership in collaborative program
planning and teaching to ensure both physical and
intellectual access to information and
commitment to voluntary reading.
3. Knows curriculum programs mandated by the
province, district and school.
4. Understands students and their social, emotional
and intellectual needs.
5. Has information expert in evaluating learning
resources in different formats and media, both on-
site and remote, to support the instructional
program.
6. Develops and promotes the effective use of
informational and imaginative resources in all
formats through cooperative professional
activities
7. Manages library programs, services and staff to
support the stated goals of the school.
A standard document for school library media specialist
preparation has been produced [17]. This document briefly
reviews the evolution of professional standards for teacher-
librarians over the last century, and noted that “the
instructional role of the school library media specialist has
emerged over the years and assumed importance” [17].
III. BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
Maktab Rendah Sains MARA or MARA Junior Science
Colleges (MJSC) are boarding schools built by the Majlis
Amanah Rakyat (MARA) in almost every state in Malaysia.
MARA is a statutory body with its own financial system to
help ensure the success of education and the development of
Bumiputeras. The first MJSC was established in 1966 in
Seremban as an effort to achieve the goal of MARA in
training and education. There are 42 MJSC nationwide. 38 in
peninsular while the remaining four are in Sabah and Sarawak.
In this study, four MJSC had been selected and they are
MJSC Merbok, MJSC Pendang, MJSC Kulim and MJSC
Kubang Pasu. MJSC prides itself in innovative curricular
experimentation drawn from best practice of schools,
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particularly those of the United States. Each school is well
endowed with state of the art classrooms, laboratories and
school libraries. This research was limited to a sample of
school teachers from selected MARA Science Junior College
(MJSC) in Kedah only. Each MJSC are divided into four
departments that are: -
1. Department of Social Science
2. Department of Science
3. Department of Language
4. Department of Mathematic.
Quantitative method has been chosen because this research
is confirmatory rather than exploratory. A questionnaire was
developed with the aim of collecting data The questionnaire
was designed by adapting questionnaires developed by [18]
and several previous researches relates to this topic. Among
them was the questionnaire developed by McDonald (2006) in
his research on “The Role of Technology in Interactions
between Secondary School Library Media Specialists and
Teachers”. The questionnaire was modified in order to suit to
this study.
A pilot study has been conducted and the questionnaires
were distributed to fifteen teachers at secondary school in
Kedah. Finally, the questionnaire had been distributed to the
200 (N = 200) respondents from four selected MJSC.
However only 157 (n = 157) were returned and processed.
Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social
Science (SPSS) version 17.0 for Windows.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIO N
From 157 respondents, 43 (27.4 %) of the respondents
were from MJSC Pendang and MJSC Kubang Pasu. 41
(26.1%) from MJSC Kulim followed by MJSC Merbok which
comprised 30 (19.1%). The majority of respondents 92
(58.6%) are female teachers and 65 (41.4%) are male. In this
study also indicates that the majority of respondents 153
(97.5%) have a Bachelor’s Degree while, 4 respondents
(2.5%) possesses Master’s Degree. Majority of teachers 77
(49%) are below 29 years old, followed by 56 respondents
(35.7%) are between 30 to 39 years, while 24 respondents
(15.3%) are between 40 to 49 years. Results in Table 1 shows
that 18 (11.5%) of respondents teaches physics, followed by
chemistry and general science 17 (10.8%). English teachers
are 16 (10.2%) of respondents, followed by 15 (9.6%) of
respondents are teaching Islamic Education, while 14 (8.9%)
respondents are teaching Mathematic and the lowest number
were art teachers 9 (5.7%).
No Subject Frequency %
1 Physic 18 11.5
2 Chemistry 17 10.8
3 Science 17 10.8
4 English 16 10.2
5 Islamic Education 15 9.6
6 Mathematic 14 8.9
7 Biology 13 8.3
8 Accounting 13 8.3
9 Bahasa Melayu 13 8.3
10 History 12 7.6
11 Art 9 5.7
TOTAL 157 100%
Table 1: Teachers’ Teaching Subject
V. THE ROLES OF TEACHER-LIBRARIANS IN
INFORMATION LITERACY
Through a set of questionnaire that consists of questions on
the role of teacher-librarians, it contained ten questions
including level of respondent understanding on the roles of
teacher-librarians, respondents’ perception on the ability and
skills of teacher-librarians, what teacher-librarians do in order
to support teachers and students such as participates in school
and district curriculum development and consults teachers in
seeking information for lesson plan, and respondents’
perception on how important are teacher-librarians within the
school.
As in Table 2, the highest responses 69 (43.9%) of
respondents agreed teacher-librarians has an ability to apply
appropriate standards guidelines to develop and evaluate
school library collection and services. The findings also
showed that most of respondents 75 (47.8%) agreed on the
role of teacher-librarians to assist students in identifying and
assessing information in the school. Only 12 (7.6%) of
respondents strongly disagree. Most of the respondents 72
(45.9%) agreed that teacher-librarians informed teachers,
students and administrators about new materials and services.
Data showed 56 (35.7%) of respondents agreed that teacher-
librarians participated in school and district curriculum
development and assessment. A positive number of
respondents 67 (42.7%) of the respondents agreed that
teacher-librarians assist teachers in seeking information for
lesson plan. Majority responses from the teachers agreed that
the teacher-librarians implement their roles. This indicates that
the teachers know about the role of teacher-librarians. This
was supported that the teachers know but were not sure of the
role of teacher-librarians because of the lack of collaboration
between them [11]. The findings were identical to a study in a
research that aimed to determine the essential competencies
and the education required for teacher-librarians to perform
their role [9].
Respondents believed that teacher-librarian is an
information expert. From the survey 70 (44.6%) of
respondents agreed and 67 (42.7%) of respondents believed
(agree) that teacher-librarians play important roles within the
school. This finding is identical to a research designs by [19].
Nevertheless, some of the respondents 61 (38.9%) also agreed
that teacher-librarians need to have specific skills to perform
important roles within school and 69 (43.9%) respondents
agreed that teacher-librarians has the ability to assess the
information needs and interests of teachers and students. The
data has been shown in Table 2. SA = Strongly Agree, A =
Agree, N = Not Sure, D = Disagree, SD = Strongly Disagree.
STATEMENTS SA A N D SD
1. Teachers’ 7 49 69 31 1
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understand
about the
roles of
teacher-
librarians.
(4.5%) (31.2%) (43.9%) (19.7%) (0.6%)
2. Teachers’
perception
on ability of
teacher-
librarians to
apply
standard
guidelines.
17
(10.8%)
69
(43.9%)
37
(23.6%)
27
(17.2)
7
(4.5%)
3. Assist
students in
identifying
and
assessing
information.
22
(14%)
75
(47.8%)
27
(17.2%)
21
(13.4%)
12
(7.6%)
4. Informs
teachers,
students and
administrato
r about new
materials
and services.
21
(13.4%)
72
(45.9%)
33
(21%)
22
(14%)
9
(5.7%)
5. Participates
in school
and district
curriculum
development
and
assessment.
22
(14%)
56
(35.7%)
46
(29.3%)
28
(17.8%)
5
(3.2%)
6. Consults
teachers in
seeking
information
for lesson
plan.
20
(12.7%)
67
(42.7%)
29
(18.5%)
28
(17.8%)
13
(8.3%)
7. Teacher-
librarians as
information
expert.
28
(17.8%)
70
(44.6%)
29
(18.5%)
18
(11.5%)
12
(7.6%)
8. Teacher-
librarians
play
important
roles.
34
(21.7%)
67
(42.7%)
25
(15.9%)
27
(17.2%)
4
(2.5%)
9. Need to
have
specific
skills to
perform
important
roles.
54
(34.4%)
61
(38.9%)
11
(7%)
21
(13.4%)
10
(6.4%)
10. Ability to
assess
information
needs and
interest of
teachers and
students.
19
(12.1%)
69
(43.9%)
44
(28%)
18
(11.5%)
7
(4.5%)
Table 2: Roles of Teacher-Librarians
VI. COLLABORATION BETWEEN TEACHER-LIBRARIANS
AND SCHOOL TEACHERS
This set of questions had been designed to investigate the
collaboration between teachers and teacher-librarians and how
effective is the collaboration. This section also consisted of ten
questions including what teacher-librarians do in order to
develop collaboration; encouragement by principal for
teachers to plan with teacher-librarians, and teachers’
perception about collaboration.
From Table 3, the results showed that 79 (50.3%)
respondents agreed that teacher-librarians are part of the
instructional team for the class. Respondents believed working
wing teacher-librarians would improve students’
achievements. Furthermore, they believed (agree) that
working with teacher-librarians would improve students’
enjoyment of learning. Interestingly, in this study, it was
found that the perception of teachers in terms of collaboration
received the highest responses with 71 (45.2%) respondents
agreeing that working with teacher-librarians would improve
teachers’ teaching skills.
The results also found that 58 (36.9%) respondents agreed
that teacher-librarians have an important place on the agenda
of staff meetings. Furthermore, 50 (31.8%) respondents agreed
that the principals encourage teachers to plan with the teacher-
librarians. This finding supports previous studies by [21] [22]
when they reported that the principals were satisfied with
teacher-librarians and used direct communication to get
services by teacher-librarians.
STATEMENTS SA A N D SD
1. Teacher-
librarians
part of
method
instructional
team.
16
(10.2%)
50
(31.8%)
46
(29.3%)
35
(22.3%)
10
(6.4%)
2. Working
with teacher-
librarians
improves
students’
achievement.
24
(15.3%)
79
(50.3%)
36
(22.9%)
10
(6.4%)
8
(5.1%)
3. Working
with teacher-
librarians
improves
students’
enjoyment of
learning.
35
(22.3%)
64
(40.8%)
37
(23.6%)
13
(8.3%)
8
(5.1%)
4. Working
with teacher-
librarians
improves
teachers’
teaching
skills.
33
(21%)
71
(45.2%)
29
(18.5%)
18
(11.5%)
6
(3.8%)
5. Teacher-
librarians has
important
place on the
agenda of
staff
meetings.
25
(15.9%)
58
(36.9%)
44
(28%)
18
(11.5%)
12
(7.6%)
6. Principal
encourages
teachers to
plan with the
teacher-
librarians.
18
(11.5%)
50
(31.8%)
47
(29.9%)
32
(20.4%)
10
(6.4%)
7. Teacher-
librarians
2013 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications
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encourage
teachers to
use a range
of resources
beyond the
textbook.
23
(14.6%)
55
(35%)
44
(28%)
26
(16.6%)
9
(5.7%)
8. Develops
appropriate
services for
teachers
according to
goals and
objectives of
teaching.
19
(12.1%)
56
(35.7%)
47
(29.9%)
22
(14%)
13
(8.3%)
9. Often plan
lesson with
teacher-
librarians.
13
(8.3%)
42
(26.8%)
38
(24.2%)
37
(23.6%)
27
(17.2%)
10. Consults
with teachers
incorporating
information
materials and
skills into the
classroom
curriculum.
12
(7.6%)
48
(30.6%)
50
(31.8%)
33
(21%)
14
(8.9%)
Table 3: Collaboration of Teacher-Librarians and School
Teachers
VII. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of the study revealed that, teachers overall
agreed that teacher-librarians is an important part of the
instructional team in their class. The role of teacher-librarians
should be informed to all teachers to ensure that these roles
can be implemented. This can be made clear where the
teacher-librarians have been given a special place in the
agenda of the meeting. Therefore, teachers should know the
role of teacher-librarians.
Roles of the teacher-librarians such as assisting students in
identifying and assessing information in the school library,
informing teachers, students and administrator about new
materials and services and consult teachers in seeking
information for lesson plan. It must be used by all teachers to
increases the quality of learning in the classroom to benefit all
students.
Teacher-librarians must carry out research in order to
understand and know the interest of teachers and to find ways
on how to attract them to use teacher-librarians services.
Research into the experiences of individual teacher-librarians
would be valuable; so too would be closer examination of
teacher-librarians’ views of themselves in relation to their
roles and responsibilities.
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