Are you a school librarian tasked with laminating everything for the entire school? If not, you might be surprised that this is absolutely a thing. Two of my three libraries in Texas required the school librarian to be “in charge” of the school laminating machine.
In many cases, the school librarian is also the only person allowed to touch the school laminator.
But… why? Is laminating so complex that it requires a Master’s Degree and teaching certification to operate? Are school librarians born with an innate gift for handling laminate rolls? Is there some secret laminating course we take during our degree program?
The answer is a resounding NO.
NO.
Seriously. NO.
Despite my personal reign as the laminator queen in two of the three schools I’ve worked at, I do not think this should be the norm.
Today, I’ve got five reasons why no school librarian (certified or otherwise) should be crowned the school’s laminating guru. This post is meant to back you up, so please feel free to send a link to your school admin.
I acknowledge that the more people who use a laminating machine, the more likely it is to break. I agree with schools that designate only a few people as school laminators. A broken laminator can be costly and take days or weeks to be repaired.
Y’all, this person should NOT be any certified, degreed personnel. It’s absurd to think that an adult with a high school diploma or GED cannot be trusted to navigate a simple, one-function laminating machine. They can drive a car to work, but a laminator is off-limits? Make that make sense.
I did not take any courses on laminator maintenance in grad school. How do you think I learned to be the laminator queen? Someone showed me a few things, and I figured out the rest. Any paraprofessional qualified to run a copy machine can also run a laminating machine.
The role of the school librarian can vary widely from school to school. We are there to support student learning. We are there to collaborate with teachers. We are there to manage library materials. We are there to promote student literacy.
When we have to laminate everything for the school, which I had to do in two schools, it takes time away from these other duties, which are far more important than laminating.
School librarians are very busy. Even when you pop in and it happens to be quiet right then, we are still busy, just as teachers are when they are on their conference period. What you see at a given time is only a tiny fraction of what we do everyday.
When I was in the elementary Specials rotation, I had 130+ students in the library every single day. And that was just for the Specials classes I taught. It doesn’t count the other students, parents, teachers, and administrators who popped in throughout the day.
When I was a middle school librarian, I was not on the Specials, but it was still plenty busy. I saw all ELA classes every two weeks for a full class period. In that two-week period, I followed the ELA teacher’s schedule for each day a teacher was scheduled. There were 11 teachers who taught ELA in our school. Some taught 6 ELA classes, which meant I taught 6 ELA classes that day. Others might only have 3 or 4 classes in a day, but I got them for the entire class period on those days.
So out of 10 days in a 2-week period, I saw the classes of 11 ELA teachers.
And that is only ELA. I had two teaching areas in the library, and I frequently hosted two classes at the same time. I would bounce back and forth between the two classes.
No, I didn’t have papers to grade, but I did have shelving, which could easily top 200 books each day. The library was also open during lunches and every morning. We also had a handful of students after school.
So when did I have time to laminate anything? Answer: I didn’t.
Most schools have only one school librarian, and some don’t even have that. How wasteful of the librarian’s time and expertise to have us managing something as unimportant as laminating paper.
I will also echo this for paraprofessionals running school libraries solo, or even under the guidance of an off-campus librarian. Laminating can be time-consuming. Whether certified or not, library personnel should be working with students and teachers, not laminating for an hour in the back room.
Laminator repairs and supplies are expensive. Sometimes those expenses are taken from the library’s budget, which is already stretched thin. We should be using those funds for books and library resources, not plastic film.
Laminating supplies and repairs should be covered by the school’s general supply fund or departmental budgets. This would encourage more thoughtful use by teachers and ensure the library’s budget is reserved for its intended purpose. There’s no sensible reason for laminator costs to fall under the library’s financial responsibility.
When the school librarian is tasked with running the laminator, it can lead to the perception that our role is primarily clerical. How often have we heard comments like, “You need a Master’s Degree to be a librarian?” or “You’re a certified teacher?”
The reality is that school librarians often face misconceptions about our responsibilities and qualifications. When we’re consistently seen doing tasks like laminating for the entire school, it’s easy for others to view us as support staff rather than professionals in education and information management.
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