Month: November 2021

ETL402 2B.1a: Representing Indigenous Voices in Our School Library Collection

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  • To what extent are indigenous OR multicultural voices represented in your school library or local public library collection?
  • Do you have an unstated or stated selection criteria in the provision of this type of resource?
  • Name children’s texts (2) that you could recommend as important additions to support either:
    • Cross currriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures or Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia or another indigenous group relevant to your location or context
    • General capability of Intercultural Understanding

To determine the extent to which Indigenous voices are represented in our school library, I searched through our Oliver catalogue. 

A search using the subject “Aboriginal” received 611 hits while the subject “Indigenous” received 57. There were 28 results for “Torres Strait Islander”. A search for “First Nations” only turned up 3 results. However, the three results for the First Nations search were far more recent (2017-2021), whereas the majority of the results for the others were outdated, perpetuating negative stereotypes or using insensitive terms. For instance, several resources were listed under NON305ABO (if I’m cringing, I can only imagine how our students feel when they see that word!), while the oldest resource was from 1972 and used the term ‘Aborigines’. Results for resources on the local Gundungurra, Dharawal, and Darug peoples were likewise limited. The subject search “Aboriginal peoples – Fiction” produced 35 results dating from 1983-2021.

These searches revealed that our library hosts a mix of fiction, nonfiction, picturebook, and audiovisual resources in both our physical and digital collections. A subject search for “authors, Aboriginal” received only 7 results and confusingly included The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan, which suggests that our SCIS records are perhaps not up-to-date. 

Looking at the lists of texts and authors in the above searches, I conclude that our collection is largely outdated and seems to prioritise white representations of Indigenous cultures, histories, and experiences. As far as I have been able to determine, the school library does not have a collection development and management policy, let alone a selection criteria which guides the inclusion of relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources. I am in the process of completing ‘ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum’ and will hopefully soon be in a more informed position to construct such a policy for the library. 

Some more recent texts which I’ve added to our collection and could support the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures are:

Sally Morgan. Sister Heart. 

  • This short verse novel details the experience of a young Aboriginal girl who is stolen from her family. This would be a fantastic cross-curricular resource for Stage 4 or 5 students. These teacher’s notes differentiate the text for older and younger readers: http://static.booktopia.com.au/pdf/9781925163131-1.pdf 

Anita Heiss. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia.

Bruce Pascoe. Dark Emu and Young Dark Emu.

  • A controversial reconsideration of pre- and early-colonial Aboriginal Australian culture and farming practices. It would be interesting to consider the historiographical debates presented by contrasting it with Sutton and Walshe’s recent Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate. There’s a comprehensive teacher’s resource aligned to the Australian Curriculum available here: https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/dark-emu/ 

ETL503 2.1: Developing Collections

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  • Discuss how the teacher librarian’s expertise and role is different from that required by all teachers.
  • Share ideas on how teacher librarians might effectively collaborate with the school community in the selection of resources in a school with which you are familiar.
  • Consider also how to engage your learners in selection of resources for their school library.
  • Who should have the final say on what is included? Why?

From my understanding of the readings set for this module (and my personal experience working in a high school library), there are a number of ways that the teacher librarian’s role and expertise differs from the expectations of all other teachers. The main three that I can tell are:

a) that the TL’s role is poorly defined and seems to be whatever the school requires, whereas a classroom teacher is working from a clearly defined curriculum document;

b) that the TL’s curriculum knowledge spans multiple subjects, general capabilities, and cross-curricular priorities, whereas in the secondary setting most classroom teachers might only have knowledge of two subject areas (and most likely only work within one); and

c) that TLs are in the privileged position of seeing students across different subject areas throughout their time at the school.

As a result, TLs are uniquely placed to know the diverse interests and capabilities of their students and can use their wide-ranging curriculum knowledge to develop collections to support the needs of their learning community.

However, it takes a village to raise a child and schools are no exception. I inherited a library that still has content from when the school was founded in 1976, which means that there is a lot of material that I simply don’t know about or that is irrelevant to the changing needs of today’s teachers and learners. One way I will get my head around this is by conducting a stocktake in a few weeks time, followed by a review of the physical resources once this subject is completed.

I have also collaborated with members of my school community by sending out a survey to staff asking if they had any recommendations for our library collection, and as a result I was able to stock up on relevant learning materials that will better support the staff as they implement their learning programs. I’m in the process of collecting the units of work for each faculty so that I can design displays and curate resources to help staff and students with their work.

Our library is sadly closed to students due to Covid restrictions and our finances had to be finalised in week 2 of this term so no more purchases can take place this year, but next year I plan to form a library committee with students who can help recommend books and other resources that they and their peers might enjoy and find useful. I feel that this will be useful especially with the development of our manga collection (one of the most popular in our library) since I’m not entirely up to speed with the different series that our students seem to love.

One final way that I’m collaborating with my school community is to build a digital space to complement our physical space. I’ve worked hard this year to build a virtual library using Wheelers ePlatform and promoting it via the school’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts. Next year I’d love to build more excitement and increase student ownership of the library collection by creating ‘unboxing’ videos which showcase our new purchases.

While I believe that libraries should be largely democratic, the final say will be mine. While staff and students can request resources and should definitely have a role in shaping a library that is relevant for them, the expertise and responsibility ultimately lies with the Teacher Librarian. After all, I’m the one who will cop the blame if there are any complaints, and therefore I’m the one responsible for creating a collection development and management policy that can justify purchases and stand up to potential challenges. It’s all well and good for a staff member to request that we stock the Outlander series (true story!) or for students to want more copies of the raunchy Food Wars series (it’s amazing how much our teen boys love these images 😂) but if it doesn’t serve the teaching and learning needs of our school community then I have to be prepared to reject these requests. A well-developed collection development and management policy can be a crucial tool in situations like these.

ETL402 2A: Introduction to Children’s Literature

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As an English teacher, I am already quite familiar with children’s literature and the benefits of reading for pleasure. Nonetheless, it has been interesting starting this subject to consider recent research and trends in this area.

One thing mentioned in the research that I can definitely back up with anecdotal observation is the trend for interest in reading for pleasure to drop off between the ages of 9-12. The research mentioned that this could be because of competing demands on children’s time as they get older and a growing sense that reading for pleasure isn’t valued as a leisure activity, especially in contrast with competing entertainment platforms such as the internet and gaming. I also think that for many students their identity as ‘non-readers’ and the perception that reading is something ‘nerdy’ only done by a specific type of person has been established by the time they hit high school. This issue seems to be compounded by the limited amount of books relevant to struggling teen readers (especially boys!). If a student has a lower reading ability in high school they are often limited to texts where the content (characters, events, themes) is more relevant for a younger audience; it would be nice if publishers recognised the need for age-appropriate content and cover designs on easy-to-read books. This is perhaps one area where the flexibility of ebooks and audiobooks could be highlighted by school librarians as a potential solution for students who perceive themselves as ‘struggling readers’.

Also supported by my own observations are the statements in the research about the continued popularity of series fiction. The students who regularly borrow from our school library are often borrowing texts from the same authors or series, which shows that once you hook a reader with a specific set of characters or world they are more likely to continue to engage due to the comfort of familiarity. Many of our manga series such as My Hero Academia,  Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Fairy Tale are incredibly popular and many of the students read them as a friendship group, which increases their cultural capital within that group. Teacher librarians could capitalise on this by promoting Book Clubs where students and staff read from a curated book list and discuss their experiences of reading these texts. These book clubs can also serve the purpose of reframing student perceptions about who counts as a ‘reader’. Series fiction is also incredibly popular, with titles such as the Wings of Fire and Arc of the Scythe series providing students a chance to engage with an imagined world over the course of several books. Teacher librarians can capitalise on the popularity of these texts by promoting fan-fic activities and through displays recommending their next reads based on their previous favourites.

It can be hard to keep up with trends in children’s literature. One strategy that teacher librarians can utilise is to follow websites and blogs such as Goodreads and Booktopia. Another is to use technology and social media platforms as a way of tracking popular resources, such as the #booktok or #bookstagram tags. A third is to regularly visit bookstores and local libraries (either the physical location or their online space) to see which books are popular right now and engage with the people selling and promoting these resources in a different setting. Most important is the need for teacher librarians to carve out time for their own reading of these texts. Not only will this allow us to engage in meaningful conversations with our students about these texts (increasing our own cultural capital i.e. ‘cool’ factor with certain groups of students!) but it will also allow us to show that reading for pleasure is a valuable activity that should be likewise valued by our school community. It’s hard for us to advocate for the importance of reading for pleasure if we aren’t taking the time to walk the walk (or read the read, as the case may be).

ETL503 1.1: Definition of Collection Management and Collection Development

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So here we are again, ready for another session of study! This week in ETL503 we’ve been looking at the idea of ‘collection management’ and ‘collection development’. What’s the difference?

ALIA (2017) notes that the terminology surrounding collection development and management have changed since 2007 due to changing technologies and the impact this has had on library services. Gregory (2019, p.1-2) emphasises the increased complexity of collection development and management in a rapidly changing information landscape.

Johnson (2018) states that when librarians use the terms ‘collection development’ and ‘collection management’ that they are referring to all the activities involved in building and managing library collections, including physical and electronic resources. She distinguishes that ‘collection development’ refers specifically to “the thoughtful process of developing or building a library collection” (p.1) to meet the specific needs of the library community, while ‘collection management’ refers to the treatment and handling of the collection once it has been developed, though these terms are often used interchangeably.

Gregory (2019) defines collection management as “the process of information-gathering, communication, coordination, policy formulation, evaluation, and planning that results in decisions about the acquisition, retention, and provision of access to information sources in support of the intellectual needs of a given library community” (p.xiii). Collection development, on the other hand, “is the subpart of collection management that has primarily to do with decisions that will result in the acquisition of materials” (p.xiv).

I work in a NSW DoE school. I haven’t found a specific definition of ‘collection development and management’ for this context, but the Handbook for School Libraries (NSW Department of Education, 2017) features a section on the provision and management of resources. This handbook outlines that one of the teacher librarian’s key roles is to manage the school’s collection of resources by “selecting, developing, organising and managing information sources, services and appropriate technology to meet the educational, cultural, recreational and professional needs of the school community” (p.8).

 

Sources:

Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA] (2017). “Manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres (2nd edition)”.

Gregory, V. L. (2019). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections: an introduction.

Johnson, Peggy (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management.

NSW Department of Education (2017). “Handbook for School Libraries.”