A whole new world (Assessment 2 – Part 2)

October 3, 2021Nina 1 Comment

Working out how to support my whole school community in the myriad ways that a good teacher librarian (TL) should is something that has worried me… until now.

This subject has shown me how to create re-usable learning objects so that it is possible to build and adapt a repository of school-based resources over time. This would include research guides, documents and templates that support the development of information literacy skills, and video tutorials (Kempinger, 2021a) that show how libraries can help.

Collaboration not isolation

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Until I reached out to a colleague to discuss ideas about an actual unit of study, I was directionless and confused. The ability to tailor a research guide to a specific purpose highlighted the need for content curation and not simply content collection. Choosing quality content, evaluating it before including it and providing annotations to explain why it has been included, means that the user can feel confident that it will be suitable (Oddone, 2020).

Couldn’t do it without technology

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

Unfortunately, my school library does not have a robust online presence. This is something that needs to be prioritized if we want to work smarter and not harder. A library homepage that links to subject-specific research guides, researching templates, how-to instructions, and video tutorials creates consistency; something that teachers and students can trust. As South (2017) says, we want students to experiment without a fear of failure and the ideas outlined above can support this.

TLs are experts at evaluating resources for their suitability and know to consider a range of factors when selecting resources. The readability thread started by Gill (2021) is a great example of how online tools can be useful but teacher judgement needs to be applied when choosing resources for students.

Online vs print

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Although there are a few useful references on the shelves in our library, we cannot compete with the variety that is available online(Kempinger, 2021b). But, can we simply send students online to find information?

While students are likely to be able to complete a google search, they are unlikely to be able to gauge the accuracy and reliability of the information they find. In order to support the development of information literacy skills, TLs need to ensure that they work with teachers to create useful and consistent processes that are embedded into the curriculum. These can then provide scaffolds for students within research guides; which is preferable to them finding their own unstructured methods (Gilbert, 2019).

The library website also needs to show best practice. It cannot be assumed that students understand how to effectively and respectfully use the broad range of tools that Web 2.0 has to offer. TLs can model “exemplary use of social media, search engines, and collaborative research strategies” (O’Connell, 2011) when working with both students and staff.

Accessibility

Image by cris renma from Pixabay

Finally, my eyes have been opened to WCAG (W3C, n.d.). It is one thing to be aware of accessibility and another to actively strive to understand and achieve it. By ensuring that learning objects produced by or in collaboration with the library are compliant, a conversation about the choices we make can be started. If we know how to make it easier for everyone to access learning, why wouldn’t we do it?

References

Gilbert, K. (2019, May 3). Libguides: In workflow, discovery, behaviour and space. Synergy, 14(2). https://slav.vic.edu.au/index.php/Synergy/article/view/v14220165

Gill, L. (2021). Online access. ETL 501 forum module 2: Print versus digital information sources. Response in Discussion Forums. CSU. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/forum?action=list_threads&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241167_1

Kempinger, N. (2021a, September 19). Flip or flop? Passion for learning. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/kempinger/2021/09/19/flip-or-flop/

Kempinger, N. (2021b, August 1). Are reference sections going extinct? Passion for learning. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/kempinger/2021/08/01/are-reference-sections-going-extinct/

O’Connell, J. (2011). Web 1.0 to Web 3.0: A wolf in sheep’s clothing or a new culture of learning? Technology and teaching practice. https://teachwithict.wordpress.com/2011-symposium-the-communicative-affordances-of-online-tools/web-1-0-to-web-3-0-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-or-a-new-culture-of-learning/

Oddone, K. (2020, April 3). Digital content curation: How to do it right! SCIS. https://scis.edublogs.org/2020/04/03/digital-content-curation-how-to-do-it-right/?sbe-followsubs=true

South, S. (2017). School libraries as incubators – where good ideas hatch! Scan, 36(1). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-36–2017/school-libraries-as-incubators-where-good-ideas-hatch-

W3C. (2019, July 11). Introduction to web accessibility. Web Accessibility Initiative. https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/

Why aren’t we blogging already?

September 18, 2021Nina Leave a comment

Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

This module is helping me to understand the versatility of blogs. Up until this time, despite my experiences, I have viewed blogs as journals and thoughtful meanderings that are primarily there for people to share their thinking on specific topics with those who have similar interests. What a missed opportunity!

Due to this closed way of thinking, I have never really considered the ways that I can utilise a blog within the context of my school. After reading two online articles by Kathleen Morris, I am excited to experiment. As a TL, I see potential for a library blog that could incorporate or link to profession learning and specialist subject area blogs. As a practicing teacher, I am interested in a class blog that incorporates a specialist subject area blog as well as student blogs and collaboration. Time and current work demands mean that I need to be realistic and strategic in where I start this exploration. My teaching load is predominantly in English and, for this reason, it makes sense to begin here. Spending so much of the past two years teaching remotely has also meant that having an innovative and engaging space for students is something that I am constantly on the look out for.

Ideally I would want to build a blog that expands over time. Knowing that it is not possible to “do it all” forces me to consider the steps to take to make this project more likely to succeed and become a way to support student learning. Morris (2018) refers to blogs as a “sweet spot” that allows the teacher to work with and mentor students as they are building skills and understanding across a wide range of literacies and competencies. This really resonates with me as my own experience would suggest that student growth is highest when they have opportunities to work in collaboration with peers and the teacher on authentic activities.

The steps that I intend to take:

Set up a class blog for year 9 English (I have two year 9 English classes and I hope that this will lead to cross-class communication and collaboration). Focus on administrative information and advertise to my students and their families.
Begin to showcase work that is occurring in the classroom and encourage class community comment.
Incorporate subject area content and use this to support student skill development around finding information
Incorporate student/student and student/teacher collaboration
Reflect throughout the process and gather feedback from students and parents. Make adjustments as required.
Present to staff in the school and offer PD and to work collaboratively to support others in this pursuit.

References

Morris, K. ( 2020, February 11). The top 10 ways blogs and WordPress are used in schools. The Edublogger. https://www.theedublogger.com/blogs-wordpress-schools/

Morris, K. (2018). Why teachers and students should blog: 18 benefits of educational blogging. Primary Tech. http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2013/03/08/the-benefits-of-educational-blogging/

Are reference sections going extinct?

August 1, 2021Nina Leave a comment

School library reference sections seem to be getting smaller and smaller (at least in my experience). What I remember as a small room filled with books not to leave the library when I was in high school turned into a large shelf of books when I became a teacher and is now less than one shelf housing what look like texts that are being kept for nostalgia rather than usefulness.

Most resources can be found in a digital format and most students will go straight to Google when looking for information. We have noticed in our school library that the only time students show an interest in the print reference collection is when they need to bring a dictionary into an exam. Farmer (2014) brings up some interesting points around whether or not digital reference materials are better than print.

Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash

COST

Budgets are always tight in school libraries. This means that the choice to move to digital reference materials needs to be carefully considered. Online reference materials tend to come with a yearly subscription cost and may also require a setup fee. Although the resource itself may be amazing with hyperlinks, internal search engines, multimedia features, and constant updates to the information if it leaves little to no room for other spending, it will not be worth it.

Photo by Juli Moreira on Unsplash</a

VALUE-ADDING

It is also really important to consider which digital resources will work for your school. A resource that simply replicates the print text is not a useful tool to invest in.

It may be better to invest teaching time into supporting digital literacy in teachers and students so that they are better able to use what is freely available to them through public library systems or for all.

MAKE BEST USE OF WHAT YOU HAVE

Every library has different needs and different capacities to bring in digital content. Work out what your students want. Look at what you have. Fill knowledge gaps through education and continue to reflect, not be too precious about the ideas that have not worked out and keep updating to support the needs of your specific community of users.

Reference

Farmer, L.S.J. (2012). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.

Developing my understanding (Assessment 2- Part B)

January 26, 2020Nina 1 Comment

What an eye-opener this subject has been! I remember approaching my own school library to ‘check out’ (pun intended) our Collection Development Policy (CDP) only to find myself caught up in an argument that had been running for many years around who is responsible for such a document.

Mother and daughter having an argument

“Mother and daughter having an argument” by Tambako the Jaguar is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

This policy does not currently exist for my school and this answered a few questions for me around how our library is used and viewed by both students and teachers (Kempinger, 2019a). Without a clear CDP, how does the school community understand the reason for the collection’s existence and the principles that govern it (Australian Library and Information Association, 2017)?

I’m going to unpack this through personal examples based on the following aspects of a CDP (this is not a full list):

The nature of the users & Collection evaluation
Selection criteria
Development of the digital collection
Acquisitions
De-selection

The nature of the users/Collection evaluation

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

My school is diverse (Kempinger, 2019b) and this needs to be at the centre of a CDP. We have a large number of international and EAL (English as an additional language) students who need to be catered for. I don’t often see these students in the library and suspect it is because there is little in there to tempt them. Our students come from a broad range of circumstances and their reading levels and engagement range from little ability and no engagement, through to voracious readers who can comprehend complex texts and think critically about them. All students need to be able to access both content and entertainment and this can be assured by acknowledging their diversity within the CDP (Morrisey, 2008).

Selection criteria

Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay

Having a CDP with clearly defined selection criteria means that there is a rational process in place that supports the priorities of the school (Debowski, 2001). Having spent years in large staff rooms, I have heard many complaints about various aspects of school policy. What I had failed to realise was that I was also hearing complaints and concerns about the lack of a CDP! Some examples include:

“Why does English always get what they want?”
“I took my class to the library for research only to find that the topic we are studying only has one resource on the shelves!”
“My low literacy kids have no resources they can understand.”
“One of the books a student borrowed from the library is set out in such a confusing way that it took me and two aides ten minutes to interpret one page!”

If the Teacher Librarian (TL) works together with administration and staff to create a CDP, it will be based on the curriculum, as well as the needs and interests of the school community (IFLA, 2015).

Development of the digital collection

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

Perhaps because of the lack of a CDP, my school has no centralised digital resource plan despite the fact that technology is constantly changing the way people view, use and create knowledge (Newsum, 2018). Although our school does use a range of digital resources, only those who use them seem to be aware of them and they are not always managed through the library.

Edrolo (used by senior teachers in a range of subject areas and managed by the curriculum leader with no input from the library)
Reading List (managed by Head of English)
World Digital Replica (managed through the library- trialed in 2019, staff surveyed and opted to keep it in 2020 but was not budgeted for and is therefore possibly unavailable for this year)
E-books- this is an area that I am keen to explore (Kempinger, 2019c) (none available currently through the school apart from a link to Project Gutenberg on the library website)
Useful websites for teachers and students are sometimes embedded in curriculum documentation or shared with students via Compass
Databases (there are links to the A-Z government services (broken), Reuters, Vic law handbook (broken), and the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the library website)

A consistent approach is clearly needed to ensure that all resources are managed and assessed against the same criteria that are underpinned by the priorities and goals of the school (IFLA, 2012). A centralised approach would also make searching for specific resources manageable (Newsum, 2018).

Acquisitions

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

While it can be important to have more than one person involved in acquisitions, to avoid self-censorship and conflict of interest (Morrisey, 2008), the acquisition process needs to be clearly outlined within a CDP so that there is a procedure to follow. Our library is experiencing tensions at the moment due to a lack of this exact process. There are two staff members (one TL and one Library Administration Assistant) who both have budgets and acquisitions in their job descriptions but no CDP to help them differentiate roles within the process. This has resulted in duplicate and unnecessary purchases, running out of funds and a general sense of frustration. School administration has been working with these staff members to try to come up with a solution without realising that a CDP is what is needed.

De-selection

Image by Pusteblume0815 from Pixabay

Towards the end of 2019, our library re-located into a new building with much less shelf space. De-selection (or weeding) was one of the biggest challenges; again because there is no defined criteria or process. The library staff did not want to weed an entire collection so they asked teachers to come in and make decisions. What one teacher was keen to remove, another felt a personal connection with. Multiple copies of the one text were kept because teachers could not agree on which was the best cover art. Books on topics that have not been in the curriculum for decades were kept ‘just in case’. A CDP that helps staff to understand that schools are not archives would make this process manageable (Vnuk, 2015).

So, I know what my priority will be when I return to school in a couple of days. Use the ‘watch and wait’ (Kempinger, 2020) approach I was planning to use, but fill this time by developing a CDP that fits my school community and is supported by reputable literature. Bringing this to school administration and the library staff will help to start the journey to resolve some of the current issues while providing a framework for all current and future staff to work with.

References:
Australian Library and Information Association. (2017). A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres: 2nd edition. Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/ALIA%20Schools%20policies%20and%20procedures%20manual_FINAL.pdf

Debowski, S, (2001). Collection program funding management. In K. Dillion, J. Henri & J McGregor (Eds.). Providing more with less: Collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.) (pp. 299-326). Retrieved from https://doms.csu.edu.au/csu/file/b9feaf8b-3c64-48cf-a5f2-ba87f023bc47/1/debowski-s.pdf

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions School Libraries Section Standing Committee. (2015). IFLA school library guidelines. Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-library-guidelines.pdf

Kempinger, N. (2019, December 11). Experiments [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/kempinger/2019/12/11/42/

Kempinger, N. (2019, December 11). If you build it, they will come… [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/kempinger/2019/12/11/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/

Kempimger, N. (2019). Online access. Forum 1.2. ETL503 discussion forums. CSU. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_38050_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_74553_1&forum_id=_169572_1&message_id=_2591881_1

Kempinger, N. (2020). Online access. Forum 5.1. ETL503 discussion forums. CSU. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_38050_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_74553_1&forum_id=_169584_1&message_id=_2651290_1

Morrisey, L.J. (2008). Ethical issues in collection development. Journal of Library Administration, 47(3-4), 163-171. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=ffee0665-df74-4983-a7b2-cef657e22648%40sessionmgr4007

Newsum, J. M. (2016). School collection development and resource management in digitally rich environments: An initial literature review. School Libraries Worldwide, 22(1), 97–109. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=d05f4a6d-22d2-4b37-a361-9525d45d97ad%40pdc-v-sessmgr04

Vnuk, R. (2015). The Weeding Handbook: A shelf-by-shelf guide [Chicago, ALA Editions]. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzEwMDQ5MTNfX0FO0?sid=eb279be8-2cf1-42cb-a593-504552c4da27@sessionmgr101&vid=0&format=EB&rid=1

Catch Up Victoria!

December 12, 2019Nina Leave a comment

When asked to look into online content curation, I turned to a platform I am familiar with- Pinterest. I have used this online space as a source of inspiration many times and decided to look at how the State Library of Victoria might be using it.

I was excited to see what interesting tidbits and book recommendations I might find… and then disappointed to see that there was nothing. Their only presence on Pinterest is on boards hosted by fans of libraries.

So, I decided to go big or go home and searched for the New York Public Library (NYPL), and boy howdy, do they know how to use Pinterest to their advantage!

Apart from having a direct link to their website and 3.2 million followers, they have 30 boards about a variety of topics. My favourite board is titled #ireadeverywhere which contains pictures of (yep) people reading everywhere. The hashtag prompted me to check for an Instagram account and was happy to see that I can start following them there as well.

Alongside the many boards promoting reading and new books, there are several boards dedicated to showcasing the images from the NYPL digital gallery and examples of film and art that use libraries as a backdrop to help tell a story.

NYPL also use this platform to inform patrons about upcoming events, to promote libraries and reading, and to showcase teaching resources.

In this example, I could see the potential of websites like Pinterest to showcase and promote libraries.

Passion for learning

Teacher Librarianship

Widgets

Search

online