As I start a new year and a new subject there are many new things I am already learning.
It was interesting to re-read about the preferences of printed books. Most students prefer a book because they can feel it, there is less eye strain, there are less distractions and they like the smell and experience of reading a physical book (Schaub, 2016). Many students have tablets but don’t actually read books off those devices. I would like to see what the impact of remote learning will have on students in years to come as for lower primary students the only option we had was to read books online during lockdown. I really like the quote from a student in the Copyright Agency Blog post (2017) that they “prefer print books because they look nice on my shelf and you can have them forever – you also don’t need WIFI.” This is so true on many levels – I am so proud of my book collection and my favourite author takes pride of place on the middle shelf.
Looking into the definition of the library collection proved to be more difficult than I had thought. Searching comes up with lots of policies and frameworks for libraries. It was good to have a look through and I would like to investigate what our own school policy and definition entails.
Watching the TEDX video (Marshik, 2015) about learning styles has certainly changed my thinking. We shouldn’t put students into boxes and say that they can only learn one particular way. We have to change our teaching to allow them to learn in different ways. If something doesn’t work, try something different – teachers need to be adaptable.
After reading more about the role of the teacher librarian I am very quick to look at what our teacher librarian does and think that there are certainly aspects I would like to change when I am in the role. Having a ‘team’ or others to help with the collection is a great idea. It can give others opinions rather than just being the one person. This year I purchased my own books for some Big Write topics because I didn’t want to use an online version but I feel these should be in the library for teachers to use and that is something that I would eventually like to further develop. I offered to donate some books to the library but was told “I don’t know where they would fit in the collection” I thought this was a really shocking comment and felt really disappointed that it appeared to be a very controlled collection.
I am looking forward to this subject so that I can learn how to best develop a collection that will best serve the students that we teach and work with teachers to help them teach.
Copyright Agency. (2017, February 28). Most teens prefer print books [Blog post]. https://www.copyright.com.au/2017/02/teens-prefer-print-books/
Marshik, T. (2015). Learning styles & the importance of critical self-reflection. [YouTube]. https://youtu.be/855Now8h5Rs
Schaub, M. (2016). 92% of college students prefer print books to e-books, study finds. Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-92-percent-college-students-prefer-paper-over-pixels-20160208-story.html