Robin Moeller was drawn to teacher librarianship while she was an undergraduate at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI).   When a school library studies graduate student told her what teacher librarians actually do—“not just yell at students and act as the keeper of books”—she was hooked.

She earned an undergraduate teacher librarian minor and a master’s degree in school library studies at UNI.  While working on her master’s thesis on female archetypes in fantasy young adult (YA) novels, she discovered she thoroughly enjoyed scholarly research.

As a high school teacher librarian in Kansas City, Missouri, she invested in building relationships with classroom teachers and encouraging them to collaborate with her.  She cultivated student use of the library by starting a student book club and hosting a library open mic night. “I became a very active member of the school community, both in the classroom and out,” Moeller explained, “and I think those experiences helped greatly to open doors to other opportunities to work with teachers, administrators, and parents.”

During Moeller’s fourth year of teaching, UNI school library studies professor Barbara Stafford prompted Moeller to continue her studies by sharing an opportunity for teacher librarians to pursue a doctoral degree at Indiana University.  “Although I didn't feel ready to leave my position as a teacher librarian, I felt that my love of teaching and research could be combined in a career as a professor,” said Moeller.

Now an associate professor of library science at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Moeller trains the next generation of teacher librarians. Her research focuses on visual representations of information, particularly graphic novels, and how they are used by youth and schools. She keeps tabs on current research throughout the field as the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Research Committee chair.

Moeller encourages teacher librarians to frequently communicate with teachers, administrators and parents about the school library and the role of the teacher librarian.  She said this will “gradually create an environment in which stakeholders think, ‘how would we be able to do (fill in the blank) without the teacher librarian?’”   At the same time, she reminds new teacher librarians to not get overwhelmed and to accept that fact that new things won’t work perfectly the first time: “trying is the important part.”