The Australian School Libraries Research Project

Australian School Libraries Research Project Report 1: A snapshot of Australian teacher librarians

Experience as a TL and as a teacher

Even though TLs are an aging demographic, nearly one quarter (24.875%) of all TLs in this survey have less than 5 years experience in the job, with 11.276% with less than 1 year in the job. WA and QLD have the most TLs with less than a year’s experience. NSW has a large number of TLs with less than 5 years experience.

Figure 10: Australian TLs: Years of TL experience, all schools

Figure 11: Australian TLs: Years of TL experience, by state, all schools

Figure 12: Australian TLs: Years of TL experience, by school type

Nearly one quarter (24.212%) of TLs in this sample have no prior classroom experience, with a further 9.784% with less than 2 years experience in the classroom. This accounts for almost a third of the TLs in this sample. However, 32.835% of TLs have 10+ years of classroom experience.

Figure 13: Australian TLs: Years of teaching experience, all schools

Figure 14: Australian TLs: Years of teaching experience, by school type