In a rapidly changing information society, with science and technology assuming increasing importance, schools for the 21st century are facing new challenges. The School Library provides essential information to functioning successfully in nowadays knowledge-based society, giving students the necessary skills to succeed. The IFLA/UNESCO school library guidelines (2002) define the mission of the school library: “...equips students with lifelong learning skills and develop their imagination, thereby enabling them to live as responsible citizens”. Research suggests that School Library programmes and resources play a vital role in the development of information-literate students, and that school librarians have to work together in a new paradigm.

The Oporto’s school libraries network (RBEP) contributes to improve the work of school librarians. RBEP is a Portuguese innovating Community of Practice involving more than two hundred schools in a network platform, sharing practices, catalogues, publishing news concerning their school activities, assessing school curriculum, and working together to improve their school libraries. The members of this community, the “rbepianos”, as they are called, essentially school librarians but also other entities, developed a professional identity contributing to the success of this community.

In this paper we will present some relevant results from a study concerning the RBEP as a community of practice and school librarians’ identities. The aims of the study are: to characterize the RBEP as a Community of Practice; to know what the school librarians involved in this Community of Practice think about it, and finally to identify the changes occurred in their identity. This paper focuses on the impact of this Community of Practice on the school librarians and how the community can contribute to improve the school library.

The theoretical framework concerning Communities of Practice is based on Lave and Wenger (1998). According to Wenger (2006) the concept of Community of Practice (CoP) describes “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. These communities can be created specifically with the goal of gaining knowledge related to a particular domain through a process of sharing information and experiences. This group of practitioners, in an informal network, has an opportunity to work and learn together on the topics of libraries, and to develop themselves personally and professionally. The domain, the community and the practice are crucial characteristics to define a Community of Practice. Membership implies a commitment to the shared domain, which defines the community’s identity. Also in pursuing their interests in this domain, members engage themselves in the activities and discussions and help one another while sharing information. They develop a “shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems – in short a shared practice”. Therefore it is the combination of these three elements that contributes to a Community of Practice. 
The theoretical framework concerning school librarians’ professional identity is based on Dubar (1991) who defines professional identity construction as a double transaction, the internal one and the relational one.

References Dubar, C., (1991). La socialisation. Construction des identités sociales et professionnelles, Armand Colin. Glaser, Barney G. & Anselm Strauss (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Co. IFLA/UNESCO (2002) The IFLA/UNESCO school library guidelines, Retrieved January 12, 2010 from: http//archives.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/sguide02.pdf Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press. RBE – Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from: http://rbe.mim-edu.pt RBEP – Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares do Porto. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from: http://194.79.88.139/rbep/ Wenger, E. (2006) Definitions, Etienne Wenger Website, Retrieved January 12, 2010 from: http://www.ewenger.com/theory