Will TL-free schools of the future really keep their old dusty books in a locked cabinet, or will some savvy entrepreneur sell them as rare books on eBay, and use the money to buy something more valued by the school population?

If schools think they can get by with library technicians “minding the books”, then that is exactly what they will do.

If teacher librarians ensure that they are always at least one step ahead of their teaching colleagues regarding information skills, higher order thinking, the effective use of IWBs, ICT and Web 2.0, and can prove, through evidence-based practice, that they do, in fact, make a difference to students’ achievement of outcomes, then schools will be fighting over themselves to engage/retain the services of a trained teacher librarian.

A word of caution, though: Equity is probably more easily achieved by scaling back NSW’s situation to match other states. So let’s not plead for equity too loudly. We need to send our messages – via our actions – to the people who will ultimately have the choice (if granted that choice) as to how to spend a school’s budget: the principal of each NSW school.

Principals who value the work of teacher librarians will always want a trained teacher librarian on hand. However, if they meet a teacher librarian who doesn’t rise to the standard they are looking for, maybe they will think a library technician will at least save a little money.

The hard work never ends. TLs can’t rest on their laurels. ICT keeps evolving and improving itself. And so must we. Or we fall into obscurity, like a Betamax video recorder or one of those portable telephones that resembled a house brick.