An MTL journey
It has been a little too long between blog posts and the topic of visiting libraries in new cities is a fun topic to get started on in 2024. During the long summer break I did quite a lot of travelling. Flying first to St John’s, Newfoundland on the far east coast of Canada, I…
Near each term’s end, our long-serving library assistant begins gathering resource boxes to support learning for next term. Increasingly, few of these, mostly, non-fiction books are taken. This causes frustration and anxiety for her. She expresses concern that students will have no classroom resources to support their learning. It has led us to conversations about…
In supporting primary students in their research tasks, one of the most common frustrations and observations shared by the classroom teacher and I involves the lack of deep reading by students in digital media. I am a little ashamed to admit that it took me a couple of years to realise that this lack of…
How does a student’s developmental stage impact their information behaviour and what is the influence of this on the role of the TL? Record your understanding on a new blog post. It should come as no surprise or revelation that the developmental stage of students must be considered when setting information literacy learning goals and experiences.…
This reflection has been prompted by reading LaMarca and Manning’s (2007) article on the library as an essential learning environment has clarified how I might view and understand the seveal points of frustration which staff and students are experiencing in new architecturally designed and award winning library space. Despite a lack of background in design…
There are seveal different groups promoting visions (often very much alike) and name changes to libraries under the banner of innovation and adaptation to a very dynamic information landscape. Yet, these name changes are not necessary and often seem more concerned with publication than with library business. Library business is often already doing just what…
As is the case with many areas of library science of which I have worked clumsily around and within over the last few years, my knowledge and understanding of library collections was nebulous at best. Nebulous in that they were vaguely considered and nebulous in definition: a loosely formed mass of inherited material under my…
Both Wade and Takeda see a positive future for school library collections and collection development where the teacher librarian and the school community was able to create a clear vision of what collection development is about and to adapt and change with developments in information technology. Wade’s article from 2005 is, at times, surprisingly…
It is hard for me to begin any blog post without relating the topic back to my previous experiences acting as a teacher librarian for several years. On the matter of collection policy and procedure, it took me about 5 years before I understood why I really needed these and first attempted to write a…
The following two questions have been posed for reflection in relation to school library budgets and the TL: Should teacher librarians have the responsibility of submitting a budget proposal to fund the library collection to the school’s senior management and/or the school community? Or should such proposals come from a wider group such as a…
