January 24, 2019
by judyo54
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Reflection on information literacy and the role of the TL in school

Reading about information literacy (IL) is intense! The more I read the more I think it is essential to have an understanding of where my pedagogical approach to IL comes from and how this may have to be adaptable in order to cater to the different needs of students and staff.

These readings have confirmed my thoughts about the importance of literacy as the foundation and keystone of learning and understanding and I have learnt that the meaning of literacy can depend on many variables. In addition, I now realise the complexity and depth of meaning that can be associated with the term ‘information literacy’ and I am even more aware of the difficulties that learners will encounter with IL if they have a poor foundation in literacy. I have much more understanding of how IL skills form the basis of higher order thinking, problem solving, lifelong learning and the ability to participate as a responsible citizen.

I am aware of the difficulties of teaching students digital skills. Students I have taught made many assumptions about their use of technology and had little interest in listening to or learning about new possibilities. They had limited patience when using search strategies that did not include google and I found very few students willing to find more than one website that was useful for the task, when they were asked to find three appropriate sources. They seemed to adopt a ‘get the job done as soon as possible’ attitude which does not lend itself to being able to develop a deeper understanding of knowledge or concepts.

This course has emphasised the role that TLs should play in the delivery of IL skills and has made me think about the methods and approaches I can use in the classroom. With the emphasis increasingly on preparing students for the 21^st century, I am concerned that students lack understanding and are disinterested in learning skills that they will need for the workplace. Given that collaboration, thinking skills and problem solving are key components of future employment, many students are not prepared and are ignorant of what they need to know. It has made me more determined to collaborate with as many teachers across the faculties to introduce skills at every opportunity and to structure programs of guided inquiry within research tasks as much as possible.

December 10, 2018
by judyo54
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Summary of Karen Bonanno’s keynote address at ASLA conference 2011

Karen Bonanno makes very interesting points about the future of the Teacher Librarian profession and how TL’s need to embrace dynamic change and adopt strategies to promote the unique role and responsibilities that are essential for survival in a changing environment.

She outlines a ‘five finger’ (Bonanno, 2011) strategy that promotes a personal ‘brand’ (Bonanno, 2011) and that establishes outcomes by focusing on specific goals that should be pursued until successful.

Karen provides a realistic assessment of the role that has been described as ‘invisible’ and encourages TLs to understand the landscape they are currently operating in to be able to be effective, relevant and competent professionals that are sought after rather than becoming an endangered species.

Bonnano, K. (2011, March 2) A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/31003940

December 1, 2018
by judyo54
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the working week

This week

I have had a few weeks when the library was very quiet – we are an exam space for students who need support so we are basically shut down several weeks at a time – this is one of the issues that have to be dealt with under the heading of ‘dedicated space’!

This week I have worked on a few tasks:

planning a lesson for year 7 on research skills – pd 5 on a friday – not much hope!

I tried the cut up reference – book and online – that they had to assemble and then an exercise on looking at fake websites and applying the CRAP test – not much interest but no major problems with behaviour with this class this time.

I have worked with the science department this week with their year 10 enquiry task – I realise that we need to add websites to our catalogue and I have subscribed to Cosmos, National Geographic and New Scientist – no point buying text books any more really.

I have spruiking the ebooks on the Wheeler platform but not many takers but a lot of requests for books they don’t have

I finally tidied the fiction section – non fiction next week – could probably weed a lot more

Watched some year 7s using a great program that creates picture books and allows them to add text

Searched and printed some articles for senior history using state library nsw eresources – have asked senior teachers to get their students to join up

Explained to a few senior students the notion of the deep web, invisible web and the iceberg with google at the top

Read Skellig – one of the english texts that most year 7/8 students read – lovely book and understand why they read it

Also read Parvana – Debbie Ellis a fantastic writer around asylum issues

Also read Wimpy kid and laughed – I understand why boys like Jeff Kinney

Finally finished supervising all the Open High School students language exams – our chinese students struggle with understanding enough language to learn their beginners Japanese course – constant calls from the OPHS about lack of progress

November 25, 2018
by judyo54
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what is information?

What is information?

This is such a dense and interesting topic though I confess I am getting a bit lost in some of the readings! I found some of the initial discourse in ‘Information and its philosophy’ (Cornelius, 2004) a tangled analysis of Floridi’s work who identifies that Librarian and Information Science is applied PI.’ (Cornelius, 2004, p. 377).

Case’s discussion on information (Case, 2006, p. 44) provides many definitions of information from a variety of researchers who describe similar structures in the definitions of ‘information’. Dervin, Ruben, Buckland and McCreadie & Rice each have three or four ‘categories’ or ‘orders’ in their definitions demonstrating that there information is too complex to have only one definition or understanding (Case, 2006, p. 44). Many of these authors’ definitions have a human factor or social construct as part of their sense of the term.

In the discussion in this article about problematic issues in defining information, I was particularly taken by the idea of information that is ‘not present’, Norretrander, (as cited in Case, 2006, p.58) is still relevant to the receiver who understands the message. His example of, ‘no news is good news’ means that by not receiving any ‘information’, a message has been conveyed. This example is part of the bigger discussion about whether information is made of distinct elements or is it a process?

I thought a lot about the idea that information does not need to be perceived or understood to exist. Stonier (as cited in Case, 2006, p.59 ). This struck me as similar to the butterfly flapping wings in the forest…..

Cornelieus (Cornelius, 2004, p. 386) concludes that it is important to have an interpretation of information that requires a recipient and addresses, ‘our purpose, our practices and the social context of information’.

My understanding of information

Information has many definitions. It can mean the smallest piece of technology or data. It is capable of making change and even making a difference sometimes. A recipient of a piece of information may or may not know they have received information and the sender may not know the information has been sent or has not intentionally sent it. Information can be physical or digital or exist in thoughts (psychological). The same information received by more than one person can be interpreted in different ways – judges at court hearing the same evidence can make different individual judgements and doctors seeing the same patient can make different diagnoses. Information can: be gathered and can have ‘behaviour’ and seekers and users. It can also have usage, sources and experts.

I like the final comment that says we should not be really concerned with trying to find the one definition of information but concentrate more on the different concepts of information, Artandi (as cited in Cornelius, 2004, p. 386) and the argument for treating information as a primitive concept – one that doesn’t require a restricted definition.

References

Case, D. (2006). The concept of information. In Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs and behaviour, pp. 40-65. 2nded. Burlingham: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. ebook, CSU Library

Cornelius, I. (2004). Information and its philosophy. Library Trends, 52(3), 377-386. CSU Library.

November 22, 2018
by judyo54
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TL – on the job

Now I think about what I do in relation to the course I had better make a note of it!

Yesterday I was on my own – I usually have an assistant. This may seem like a luxury but as text books at this high school are leant through the library system we have constant students borrowing and returning text books. Yesterday I taught plagiarism to two year 7 groups and worked with a group of senior students studying Legal Studies to access great websites such as Bocsar (https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/) and ANROWS (https://www.anrows.org.au/) and the fabulous eresources at NSW State Library. Students were interested and engaged at looking at relevant and valuable academic resources. I spent half an hour unjamming the printer and cataloguing books that had suddenly arrived without barcodes as well as covering them in plastic.

Today I worked with two science groups (my suggestion) to try an inquiry type approach to learning. Science teachers on board and they gave the students an interesting article to read that they had to make bullet points from. Students seemed engaged and busy. First attempt at this whole group approach but makes teaching more interesting and hopefully more relevant and accessible to all students.

November 19, 2018
by judyo54
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Understandings of the role of the TL in schools.

I was a librarian before I became a teacher. I worked as a librarian in a busy public library in the UK and later as the information manager/research librarian for a domestic violence research unit at UNSW, https://www.anrows.org.au.

When I completed my teaching qualification, I had not planned to teach for long and was looking to work in a school library at the first opportunity. I was always a little curious as to what the role would actually entail and how it would align with my previous knowledge and experience of libraries as well as my expectations of what I would be doing. I imagined that a lot of the time would be spent with students working on reading, especially promoting the love of reading and literacy, as Neil Gaiman states that reading is, ‘one of the most important things one can do’ (Gaiman, N & Riddell, C 2018, para 1).

In some school libraries, there is collaboration between the IT staff and the librarians who manage the library systems and technology located in the library. In many school libraries, the teacher librarian is the leader in using and teaching digital resources. (Webb, S., 2015, p. 29)

All libraries require assets management of resources such as computers, laptops, printers, headphones and ipads and other assorted resources and librarians are often responsible for managing space, hosting events and storage and maintenance of media. I assumed that this management aspect would be part of the job.

I taught as a HSIE teacher for three years before I started my first teacher librarian position. I became immersed in classroom teaching and from this experience, I realised how little time teachers have to think of anything but the syllabus and planning the next lesson. As a new teacher, I spent hours searching for good resources to use in the classroom. I decided that as the school librarian, my priority would be to consult with faculties to generate useful and relevant teaching materials.

As part of my lessons with senior students, I had often demonstrated how to search and retrieve e-resources from the NSW state library, using their dedicated HSC resources, and, based on the response from these students, I knew this was an area that I could develop as a teacher librarian. (https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/eresources/)

I also realised that while I was teaching, I used the library as a teaching space but rarely used the resources. This was an important realisation for me and I knew this perspective would underpin how I approached collaboration with faculties. I did however support and attend the variety of groups and clubs that used the library as their cultural hub and looked forward to developing these co-curricular events.

I know from my experience that there is a wide variety of roles that can be performed by the teacher librarian in schools but this is often shaped by the school budget and the culture and context that underpins the school and also the skills that each teacher librarian brings to the job. Each school has its own expectation of what the role of the teacher librarian will be while teacher librarians are a diverse group with a wide spectrum of experience and skills, training and ability.

References

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018). Anrows. Retrieved from https://www.anrows.org.au

The Guardian.com. (2018). Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell on why we need libraries – an essay in pictures.Retreived from https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/sep/06/neil-gaiman-and-chris-riddell-on-why-we-need-libraries-an-essay-in-pictures

State LIbrary of New South Wales, (2018). eResources. Retrieved from https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/eresources/

Webb, S. & Ray, M.C. (2015). Teacher Librarians: Mavens in a Digital World. School Administrator, May 2015.
Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/pageturnpro2.com/Publications/201504/3167/65468/PDF/130743784049770000_SAMay2015FullMagFlipBook.pdf

November 18, 2018
by judyo54
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Assessment 1 Part B Blog post

Very interesting when you start blogging – I have been clicking around this site a lot today trying to figure it all out! In addition, I was writing the blog for assessment and rewritten it so many times now I have to let it go. So hard to pick the correct tone and content – hopefully it gets easier!

November 18, 2018
by judyo54
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Resourcing the curriculum

early thoughts

I am looking forward to working through this module – very useful when you are actually working in the job – feels so relevant unlike many other courses I have done. It also makes me feel like a real professional – I’m learning and researching and practising !

November 12, 2018
by judyo54
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first thoughts

One of the prerequisites of obtaining a permanent position in NSW Department of Education as a Teacher Librarian is having the qualification of/or being enrolled in a nominated Teacher Librarian course.

I was a librarian (ALIA eligible) before I became a teacher, working for research unit and managing a website. I then qualified as a HSIE teacher, working in secondary schools in Australia and the UK since 2011. I have also worked as a teacher librarian in the private and state systems and I am currently employed as a teacher librarian in the north shore on a temporary contract. I am looking forward to upskilling myself and learning how to do the job better through studying this course and hopefully, this qualification will provide a permanent position.

Current TL duties

As well as running the library, I teach year 7 research skills which is a struggle sometimes given that I only see them once a fortnight – sometimes less when school trips, sports day, assemblies, exams etc get in the way. I have realised that it is hard to teach students you do not see regularly or have a proper relationship with. Today we were learning about plagiarism. Students were not allowed to use laptops as I had made a worksheet (always an experiment when you start from scratch!). They were bored quickly and when asked to write the meaning of plagiarism in their own words (having been given a statement and had a discussion) many reached for their laptops to give them the answer! It is challenging teaching these skills to young students – they don’t see the need to know this information or have these skills.

I also take year 9 once a fortnight for Learning Journeys. Students reflect on their year in each subject and put together a porfolio that demonstrates their thinking. Student reflect on three assignments – two good and one not so good and think about what went well and not so well and why. Tricky for these teenagers but quite useful as they present to a panel of three people – a year 8 student, a teacher and a community member. I am organising this all day event.

Today year 12 returned their text books – all issued, theoretically, through the library. Of course, as student returned books many students claimed they had returned their books already to teachers – and many students returned books that were not issued in their name etc etc.

I started the year with 1500 overdue books – we are down to just over 600 – many of which are the year 12 student missing, lost, ‘returned’ textbooks.

The best part of my current job is working one on one with senior students to find appropriate resources and to encourage them to read and think and read again while looking at good sources of information.

I have worked as a research librarian in a university setting so I do feel I have an understanding of this side of the work but this is certainly only a small part of the job.

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Thoughts on working and studying as a TL