On my way to the book corner

During this module, there appears to be resources available in order to ensure the library is organised and this in part is essential to the library running well. 

The process of cataloging was interesting. Many years ago, when I was working in the library I was shown and particularly enjoyed putting new books into the system. To now see the background information and the how and why we catalogue gives further understanding of the process. 

Investigating the website Trove, I was impressed with the presentation of the search results. I searched the topic ‘family’ and all the results are grouped into their categories, which in turn makes it easier to find what you might be looking for in comparison to Google, which just lists all the results in order. 

I would like to look further into how our school organises digital content. Our current TL only deals with the primary students but how do the secondary students and teachers use and organise this content. Are they left to their own devices, or does each cohort share and organise together? 

It is only Week 4 and I am certainly feeling a little overwhelmed and out of my comfort zone with regards to all this new information. Hopefully this will change and make more sense when I can put what I am learning into practice. 

After completing the first module for this subject it appears that it will roll on nicely from ETL503. This subject will focus on the field of Information Organisation.

One of the first questions that was asked was ‘Why is it necessary for a school library to organise information?’ Without some form of organisation our students and or teachers wouldn’t be able to find the resource that they were looking for. And when we go to put the resource back on the shelf, how would we know where to put it? It would be a total mess and nobody would know where anything was. This would also relate to online resources and having previously learnt about resource lists, this is a great way to keep resources organised whenever a teacher requires it.

The module states that the teacher librarian’s role is “to ensure that appropriate and efficient means of retrieving the information held within the collection are in place and meet user needs” (Rowe, 2022).

After reading chapters 1,2 and 4 of the text, there is lots of descriptions about information resources and in particular ‘metadata’ which is essentially data about data but it is only effective if people understand it and use it.

It was interesting to read how over a period of eight years, the rise of the metadata librarian and the fall of a cataloguing librarian. This may apply in bigger or more commercial libraries where this is predominately their job. A library technician in a school may be involved in more than just cataloguing. I know in our library, they are partially involved in the deciding and purchasing and also the budget. There is also the borrowing and returning of books.

I am always a little apprehensive about the start of a new uni subject but the fact that this one follows on from the subject I completed last semester, it will be rather interesting and may give further information into the role of the teacher librarian.

Looking ahead to the future, it can be hard to determine what they will be like exactly. 

After watching Blended Library from the University of Konstanz, it was pretty interesting what can be achieved with the incorporation of technology. Would school libraries head in this direction, I’m not sure. Would I like them too, maybe. Maybe it would help the secondary students use the library more than they would. 

Our library collection is like the phoenix stage (Wade, 2005). It is existing and when the current TL leaves, a new one will take over. This will hopefully lead to the incorporation of new organisation and teaching the students new skills. 

In ten years time, I think there will still be library collections. Picture books will still be essential for the lower primary children. Non-fiction books are still essential for students’ learning to research. Research is an important skill to have and if you expect students to complete everything digitally then is that causing more harm than good, especially when it comes to students attending university? My favourite authors are still writing books and publishing them in hard copies, and whilst this might appear as old school, I don’t think they are going to change their ways – so there is always going to need to be a shelf for their books in a library. 

It’s hard to say what factors will determine the future of school library collections. I think the main factor is people’s perception of the library. There is a teacher that has said TL’s do very little work and this is alarming as they don’t understand the role of or utilise the TL to full potential. Will it depend on whether the principal is for or against the library which will determine the budget? How hard is technology going to be pushed into the library environment? Since I am not currently in the role, I am not fully aware of all the factors that relate to the library situation. There are so many variables that it might be a case of we will have to wait and see.

Wade, C. (2005). The school library: phoenix or dodo bird? Educational Horizons, 8(5), 12-14.

HCi Group Konstanz. (2014, August 1). Blended library [Video file].

There seems to be so much to get your head around when it comes to library policies. The two main ones being a development policy which is the responsibility of the teacher librarian and the collection management policy which is more of a collaborative work between the library staff and administration. 

Both are vital in the work that we undertake in the library setting. At BCC, we have parts of the policies but they were written back in 2009 and haven’t been updated since. It appears to be the one document that covers: staffing, daily housekeeping, collection development, budget, cataloguing, processing, circulation, stocktake, donations and copyright. There is also a challenged resource guideline and form that can be filled out and the process taken if that was to arise. The problem faced is that the policy and guidelines currently followed are in the current TL’s head and perhaps she doesn’t have the time to update the policy. My hope is that I can work with the TL and be involved in updating these policies so when she decides to retire, the policies are already in place and can continue to be reviewed and implemented. 

Censorship is another issue that can influence what books are bought and placed on the shelves. It is certainly important to put your own views aside and ensure that topics cover both sides (where possible). I find that primary school topics would be easy to cover, but secondary is where I feel I would struggle – mainly because this is not my area. Collaboration with the secondary teachers would be necessary to ensure the right books and topics are being placed on the shelves and students are able to access them.

Since completing Assignment 1 for ETL503, I really feel that teachers aren’t sure of what is available at the library. Just like we completed for the assignment – one of the aspects I would like to implement is a list of resources that would be good to use for the topics covered in each year level. This would give the teachers better access to the library and the resources available. I know that this would take time but I feel it would be of much benefit.

There is so much that was changed and updated since I last looked into copyright. Change and updates are a good thing in moving forward as the rules and regulations can make it easier (hopefully) to follow and apply. 

With the enhancement of technology there are many different licences that cover what we are able to research and present in the classroom. When I was first teaching if we wanted to play a video we were told that it had to be in our planning and then it could be justified that we were able to have the students watch it. Today with the Co-curricular licence we are covered. 

It was always the rule that we could only copy 10%, and whilst this still seems to be a good guideline, there is now a little bit of leeway in that you can copy a little more provided it doesn’t cause harm to the owner. There are certainly more changes with copying in that if a book is out of print or unavailable to buy, you can certainly copy more. 

Something to certainly remember and get into the habit of doing is providing attributions. This is something that all teachers should be encouraged to complete so that if the school gets audited, it may make the process easier. The Smart Copying website is a handy website to refer to when needing to find out information about copyright. 

Creative Commons has changed the way we are able to use images. It is a great way to find an image whilst giving credit to the person who took the image. I was able to use quite a few images for my assignment in ETL501 in 2021, so I was familiar with the process and how to credit the author. This is not something that we would use in Prep to Year 2, but I can see its value in teaching older students how to use this correctly and not having to reinvent the wheel. 

When it comes to the school collection there are many things that need to be considered. 

The budget. No one really likes talking about money but in this case it is a vital part of the library and what we can and can’t do. I found it interesting that you can’t compare two libraries because different payments and items assigned are going to be different for each library. Lamb and Johnson (2012) explain that a teacher librarian has to be a collaborator (works with others), steward (leader and doesn’t spend everything at once) and a thinker (knowing what is available). These are something that I will remember, as being in charge of a budget can be a very daunting task. I am curious if our current teacher librarian conducts an annual report. This seems to be a great way for the school leadership to understand what goes on in the library and where the funds go. It might also help them to realise what a vital part the library plays. 

Again, collaboration is the key when working in the library. I see this as an important part of knowing what resources the teachers need and knowing that the resource will be used. There is nothing worse than spending money on a resource that won’t get used. This is something that needs to be improved in our school. There is currently no collaboration between the TL and teachers and what resources would benefit the work we complete in the classroom. 

When it comes to ordering and suppliers, this process seems to be quite overwhelming and I will need to gain more understanding in the future and even see how it works within the school library. The discussion of physical versus ebooks seems to continue (in a good way) and there is so much to understand especially when it comes to ebooks. It certainly is not an easy decision and my opinion at this stage is you have to go with what works for your library and budget but you must be open to new opportunities. We can always seem to be doing the same thing, just because that is how it always has been.    

I would be keen to know about how our online items are recorded. In the Prep to Year 2 area our online readers and other online programs are managed by our coordinator and I don’t think the library would have any say about this. Is this something that needs to change and should the library be included? I know that we have access to Clickview but they is monitored by the library technician and she works closely with IT. More aspects to think about and investigate.

Lamb, A. & Johnson, H.L. (2012). Program administration: Budget management. The School Library Media Specialist. 

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