Along with the growing culture of inquiry, a culture of collaboration between teachers and the school librarian is important if we are making space for curiosity and creativity. How can we, as school librarians, help students build upon their natural curiosity about issues and ideas through inquiry as they master skills and develop dispositions that can support taking risks and innovating? Just as the learner's experience should feel challenging even uncomfortable at times while also engaging and valuable, so too the collaboration between teachers and librarians will include these same elements. As with the inquiry process itself, co-developing a project brings into play feelings and thoughts that will affect the collaboration efforts.If we accept that collaboration is the foundation of success with the Inquiry Model then consider this; collaboration does not look the same for every teacher. Some are quite comfortable going all in and turning over aspects of the teaching and learning to the librarian. They enjoy co-developing a project or learning challenge and are flexible in terms of making changes as the process dictates. Others will be comfortable working with varying degrees of collaboration, co-development of projects and co-teaching. The goal is to meet each teacher where they feel comfortable, start slowly and take small steps if necessary.
When asking teachers how we, as school librarians, can help in the Inquiry Process we must be direct and specific. Questions such as "what do your students need" are much better than the amorphous "let me know how I can help." By encouraging both students and teachers to engage with inquiry-based units, assessment can take place through a diversity of outcomes. Librarians can co-assess these outcomes, providing for a much richer experience for the learners and the teachers! Patience and persistence should help develop a culture of inquiry and true teacher/librarian collaboration.