April 8

Collaborator, Steward and Thinker

 

Collaboration, stewardship and Thinker, these components are key to securing a better budget for your library. Take the story below and see what you think. Sara was a TL in training at a large secondary school and while she wasn’t the head of the department she did have some influence. Sara had been undertaking a lot of professional reading and decided that her library required a facelift, it was looking rather uninviting. Taking on the role of collaborator Sara began with talking to the libraries users, she started with the students. She questioned them on their current use for the library and how well it suited their needs. Sara then spoke to teaching staff, to discover their thoughts on the current layout and collection of the library. Did others agree with her? Did the library, in other peoples opinion need a shake up? It turns out they believed it whole heartily. Sara, then did her research, she became a steward. Sara then came to conclusions and detailed them, along with proven data to back up her statements. Sara started to request purchases based on her data. She slowly built her reputation not as a spender but as one who takes all facets into consideration, spending wisely. Eventually a position came available for a new person to sit on a curriculum advisory board, Sara applied and was accepted. She was able to learn about how the school allocated its budgets. Sara made connections and became a thinker, she was eventually able to have say in the library budget, suggesting from a strong position why the budget she be increased. Can I be Sara? One day maybe.

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April 6

Scoop.it

Having discovered Scoop.it a few months ago while trying to find ideas for the design of our new school librray.  I have enjoyed currating various articles  that suited my needs. Scoop.it is relativly easy to use and navigate around. Though the draw back I am currnetly faced with, is the need to pay for a subscrition to the service. With the free access you can only have one subject area and you have limited ability to tag your scoops (articles). As I continue to delve into my masters to become a TL I have broadened my requirements for what I’d like to search for and therefore Scoop. I have yet to look into costs for subscription and have genreally been using Google Keep for found articles, though it doesnt ahve the same ease of curation that Scoop.it does. I will have to make a dession soon though…stay tuned.

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April 6

Fiction vs non-fiction

A school can only have a finite budget for resources for the library. The question on where to spend that budget falls to the acquisitions officer at my school. He suggests books and the TL approves or disapproves his suggestions. I am fortunate enough to be able to make purchasing suggestions occasionally. What I have found though is a tendency to purchase fiction titles over non-fiction. I don’t know whether this is purposeful – though I guess it must be. Our reader base generally prefer fiction titles, though it should be noted that most of these readers are at the junior campus, our senior students don’t read for pleasure as a whole. I have conducted student research into various non-fiction titles, such as biographies and true life event stories, before suggesting titles based on these areas of interest. The acquisitions offer and TL were more than happy to make these purchases, though the books themselves have not seen many borrowings since their purchase. There is not a tension as much as a belief that the readers at our school that read for pleasure lean towards fiction.

 

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March 25

Budget management

Term 3 rolls around quickly in a secondary school. The subject choices for next year are cemented, the faculty heads are busily revamping their areas. It’s time to research text books for the coming year. Is there a new version available? Can we get a copy brought in to peruse for suitability?  Are there other unexplored options? A teacher librarian (TL) needs to be a steward of these endeavours. Reviewing facilities suggestions and weighing then up against other texts they may have no knowledge of. Giving the teachers options.

Non-fiction and fiction books, well that’s more fun. The best day every month is the arrival of the Lamont standing order and the catalogues from our various suppliers. Perusing these books, I work alongside our acquisitions officer, determining what readers the books will suit. Is the book one our students have requested? Is the author one our students respond too? Is it part of a series? What is its target age group? What numbers do we currently have of books in that genre? Do we need more? So many questions to ask ourselves as we browse the books. We discuss our choices with each other, involving the other TLs where necessary.  If it’s one that has been suggested, we generally purchase on release – as long as its age appropriate. Being  a Catholic school, there are some areas we stay away from, mainly dark magic, witch craft, vampires etc.

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March 24

Endangered Species?

School librarians are far from being an endangered, the surging influx of technology related information means that they are more vital than ever before. Students need a person who can help them make sense and assess the often overwhelming quantity of resources, tools and programs (Bonanno, 2015). Though it is crucial that the Teacher Librarian (TL) continue to maintain their skills through professional development so they can keep up with the changing technology landscape. If they fail to do this they are ensuing their role will become ‘invisible’. Bonanno (2015) reflects on the invisibility of the profession in her article A profession at tipping point, she suggests that the only way forward is to keep up to date with happenings in the education sector. Sound advice for any TL in training.

 

Reference

Bonanno, K. (2015). A profession at the tipping point (revisited) Access(March 2015).

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March 7

Australian Schools Copyright Collection (ASCC) 2019

Today I attended a coordinators training session in Melbourne for the Australian Schools Copyright Collection (ASCC) for 2019. Three weeks ago I didn’t realise this was a thing, today however I know different. Did you realise that though as schools we have a statutory education licence that enables us to use substantial amounts of copyright material? That the money for the licence sits in a revenue fund? Approximately 80 million dollars annually is collected. The revenue board then distributes this money to the material licence holders. The issue is, is that they can’t distribute the money to the correct people unless we as schools inform them of what were are actually copying, printing and scanning. Apparently this is done by survey.

125 schools in Victoria are selected every year to undertake this survey and the results are then scaled. The survey could be considered quite onerous on first look though. Schools participating are required to log every photocopying, scanning and printing job they do for school. ‘Jobs’ are either published or unpublished works. I won’t detail here what the breakdown is of each of these, but it can be a tad confusing.

To log these ‘jobs’ a teacher, after determining if it’s a published or unpublished piece of work, needs to fill in a form. Unpublished work just needs to be signed and dated with the amount of copies. While published work needs to have a whole sheet dedicated to it, that the teacher (or admin staff) must read and check off relevant sections, before attaching a copy of photocopying and a copy of ownership, for example ISBN. This is done for a whole term.

Now I was thinking how I can get the staff at my school to add this task to their workload. I guess it’s simple in the end. It’s the only way people will get paid. Without this survey, the owners of materials don’t get an income. It’s only fair that they benefit from our use of their product. This is not to say I’m looking forward to term 2 when this survey will run but I can see the value in it.

If you would like to read more about the Statutory Education Licence you can visit this website www.copyright.com.au/licences-permission/educational-licences/

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March 3

Understanding the role of a TL in schools

Before I started on my journey to become a Teacher Librarian (TL) I saw the role as a bonus position, not one that was essential to the smooth operation of a school. This impression of a TLs worth was impacted by the schools I worked at; none had a TL employed, all had a library space of some kind and only one employed a librarian. What I have come to realise upon reflection, and now being employed at a school that has two TLs, is that these schools were selling themselves short. They mistakenly believed they were saving money on their budget by cutting a non-essential position. A school with a Teacher Librarian employed is more likely to have higher NAPLAN scores than those without one, this according to a study from the School Library Association of Queensland in partnership with the Children and Youth Research Centre (Hughes, Bozorgian, Allan, & Dicinoski, 2013). When funding for a TL is in place the whole school benefits from higher literacy levels.

For me, the TLs role is one of not just increasing student literacy, though this is extremely important, it also comes with a host of other benefits. For the students who don’t enjoy the sporting field, the library can provide a quiet space to read, play a game or just sit, enjoying the space with others of common interests. A nice environment for those students who suffer mental health issues, such as anxiety, where going in to a large open area such as a school yard is overwhelming. A TL can assist in curriculum planning with other staff, curate resources, work with leadership to promote the school vison, and teach research skills. In this day and age it’s impossible to teach a child everything they need to know, we need to teach them how to find the information for themselves and for this they need research skills. Teachers are experts in the content of their faculty, Teacher Librarians are experts in the process of how to research.

The recent campaign Students Need School Libraries, is working to promote the vision that every student should have access to a well-sourced school library staffed by qualified staff (Students need school libraries, 2018). The campaign is striving to increase the community’s awareness of the essential role of the school library. Their main argument is one I whole heartily agree with, that is students need school libraries.

My current understanding of the role of a TL has changed significantly from where it began. TLs make a teacher’s life easier, they provide access for students and teachers to the resources they need, they teach them how to find those resources more efficiently, and they help them organise that information once it’s located (Students need school libraries, 2018). On top of this the role of a TL is one almost of a caretaker, one that is easily located amongst the pleasant environment of a library.

 

References

Hughes, H., Bozorgian, H., Allan, C., & Dicinoski, M. (2013). School libraries, teacher-librarians and their contribution to student literacy development in Gold Coast schools. Retrieved from Brisbane, QLD: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/60260/38/60260b.pdf

Students need school libraries. (2018).  Retrieved from https://studentsneedschoollibraries.org.au/our-mission/

 

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March 3

Copyright using Creative Commons

Copyright in Australia protects the creators of the materials rights (Council, 2017b). That is, the right to have a say in how their material is used or altered. If these rights are infringed upon; used without the owner’s permission, then this is seen as breaking a copyright law (Council, 2017a). Many creators are happy to share their materials with others, within reason, for this Australia has Creative Commons (CC). CC provides an avenue for creators to give their permission for their materials to be shared, reused and re-mixed, legally (Australia, n.d.).

References

Australia, C. C. (n.d.). About. Creative Commons Australia. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org.au/about/

Council, A. C. (2017a). Infringement: Actions, Remedies, Offences & Penalties. Retrieved from Australian Copyright Council: www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/Infringement__Action__Remedies__Offences___Penalties.aspx?WebsiteKey=8a471e74-3f78-4994-9023-316f0ecef4ef

Council, A. C. (2017b). An Introduction to Copyright in Australia. Retrieved from Australian Copyright Council Website: www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/An_Introduction_to_Copyright_in_Australia.aspx

As a side note on Thursday the 7th of March, I will be attending the 2019 Australian Schools Copyright Collection (ASCC) copyright survey – Train the Trainer session.

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