Page 37 - Volume_14

Jurnal PPM: Journal of Malaysian Librarians
Vol. 14, 2020

Media) and librarians to pursue a master’s degree in Teacher Librarianship with the aim
of preparing teacher librarians with the skill and competency to support teaching and
learning in schools.

LIBRARY MEDIA TEACHERS IN MALAYSIA
Based on literature by Zaiton Osman (1993), the first teacher-librarian training course
was initiated in 1962. A batch of thirteen teachers underwent training for one year to
become qualified teacher-librarian trainers in a Training of Trainers programme after
which they were to train subsequent teacher librarians. In 1963, the course was replaced
by several short-term weekend/and vacation courses due to the lack of funds. In 1972, a
compulsory course on 'Library Utilization' at all teacher-training colleges was included
for all teachers and this continued with a curriculum that underwent several revisions to
accommodate changing concepts and development over the years. In 1975, there was a
one-year training course for teacher-librarians at the Specialist Teachers Training
Institute.

The education system in Malaysia is supported by school libraries with the goal of
providing quality resources for education. It is compulsory for every school to have a
school library. There are a total of 10 208 schools in Malaysia - 2 436 secondary Schools
and 7 772 primary Schools (Ministry of Education, 2019). According to Circular
No.3/2005 (Director General of Education Malaysia, 2005) in present-day, ‘Library
Media Teacher’ (LMT) is the official term used in Malaysia for school librarians who
are teachers, academically qualified and professionally trained in the discipline of
Education. They are also subject teachers, familiar with the school curriculum (Nor
Hashimah, 2007). Once their service is confirmed with at least three years of teaching
experience, they are eligible to be appointed as school librarians. They are selected
teachers entrusted with the responsibility of managing as well as developing school
libraries for teachers and students. (Abrizah, 1999). As the LMTs are appointed from
among teachers, they may need to allocate and manage their teaching responsibilities as
well as manage the school library despite a lack of comprehensive library management
competency (Husain and Shamila, 2020). Literature has shown that many of them may
have little or limited knowledge in Library and Information Science (LIS) (Raja
Abdullah & Saidina Omar, 2003) or are without Teacher Librarianship qualifications.

Normally, they would be recommended to attend the Basic Thirty–five Hours SRC
Management Course followed by the Advanced Forty-five Hours SRC Management
Course prior to or after their appointment as school librarians (Abrizah, 1999). The
highest qualification may be a Masters’ degree in LIS or Education Technology or
Information Science Studies. The criteria are flexible. Although these school librarians
33