I am a teacher librarian in a semi-rural K-12 school of about 750 students. I have a lot of contact with the Junior School students and staff but very little contact with the high school students or staff. Ever since ETL503, Resourcing the Curriculum, I have been reflecting on how I can engage the older students and work to meet their curricular needs. Unfortunately, there is a view among the high school students that the library is for little kids and everything the older cohort needs is on the internet.
Research shows that students will use library resources more frequently when librarian instruction and staff direction point them to what the library offers (Perruso, 2016). My personal experience backs up this research as I have benefited academically from using the library, receiving assistance from librarians, and study skills workshops. The difficulty in my school is getting staff and students to start making that shift to using the library’s resources. I found Holly Godfree’s discussion about the way she uses her school website to connect with students helpful. Using the library website is the direction I would like to pursue in my school as a starting point to engage the older students.
I plan to use her strategy of using focus groups of students to direct and refine the website content (Godfree, 2023) so it is relevant to them, and they can have ownership of it. I would also like to use the website to engage with the high school staff as a lead-in to collaboration. There is currently a ban on students’ use of ChatGPT in my school. After listening to Stephen Harris, I would like to develop my understanding of how students and staff can use artificial intelligence and develop my prompting engineering skills (Harris, 2023) so that I can help lead staff and students in 21st century skills.
References
Godfree, H. (2023, 11 September). VSV 202360: Teacher librarian, Lake Tuggeranong College. https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/JlsKsmyxo9Vw0aypUTbaSHyxJ18Q6Ue3aRWw8TyLtQ71Km9ayM_6RE4M8vyC8Zin.wGb8TXzmmsJVwVH7
Harris, S. (2023, 11 September). VSV 202360: Public librarian, Bundaberg Regional Libraries. https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/oZMIRdTmIeSFIL75K8nhSGIw52MzMS_Ztno_l5ocbvwW_YNKEj6PD3np2Ef3UVjU.JR8aapu7pRHTL0yi
Perruso, C. (2016). Undergraduates’ use of Google vs. library resources: A four-year cohort study. College & Research Libraries, 77(5), 614–630. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.5.614