Gatekeeper and Keymaster

As the School Library has been rebranded into the Learning Commons, a change in the role of the Teacher-Librarian has become necessary. No longer the Gatekeeper of information in a stuffy, quiet library where users can’t self-select or use the resources, the new TL needs to be a Keymaster. (Apologies to Ghostbusters for the terminology.)

A Gatekeeper is in the business of protection, prescriptivism, and guardianship. A Keymaster is in the business of empowerment, access, and free use. A Gatekeeper deals in scarcity; a Keymaster in abundance. A Gatekeeper decides who, when, and how access will be granted; a Keymaster decides how to make materials more and more accessible. The Gatekeeper allows access on an individual basis; a Keymaster can make a single resource available to multiple users at the same time. A Gatekeeper retains a single point of view; a Keymaster encourages plurality and diversity. A Gatekeeper is akin to a feudal lord, restricting access to his land. A Keymaster is akin to the keeper of the commons from which we get the term learning commons, a plot of land that is designated for community use.

If I pull out the keywords from above, that gives us some direction begin our goal-setting:

• empowerment
• access
• free use
• abundance
• multiplicity of uses/users
• diversity and plurality
• community use

The goals of the SLLC, in order to reflect the 21st-century value of freedom of information (access), should be to empower users to find/use information, to improve access on the information-side rather than user-side, to allow freedom to browse, to employ multiple sources and types of references for broad and overlapping user groups, to employ and encourage multiple points of views and diversities, and to make the library a cornerstone of the community.