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ETL512: Assessment 6: Professional Reflective Portfolio

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Part A: What makes an effective Teacher Librarian?

Effective teacher librarians are curious, interested and interesting. They wonder, wander and guide students and colleagues through their own wonder/wanderings. Effective teacher librarians blend their understanding of the nature of learning and the structure of the curriculum to maximise learning for each student both in the moment and in the future. Effective teacher librarians maintain current knowledge of available resources suitable for their communities and facilitate access for the right learner at the right time. Teacher librarians aim to provide both a physical and intellectual space for the exploration of all kinds of literacies, rigorous academic exploration, community engagement and mindful recreation. The activities undertaken and promoted there should support that aim. Effective teacher librarians are leaders as well as managers, innovators as well as guides and mentors as well as students. It is in the balance and interaction between all these attributes that the magic may be found.

The Daring Librarian Mission

Jones, G. (2018). The daring librarian mission. https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/01/how-to-be-teacher-librarian-rock-star.html

The graphic to the right, by Gwyneth Jones from her blog, The Daring Librarian, resonates with me because it puts into simple language the aims to which teacher librarians should aspire.

Part B: Critical Evaluation of Learning

Introduction

I am glad to have undertaken my studies slowly and steadily over the last three years because it has allowed me plenty of time to consider, reflect on my learning, put theories into practice and change, evaluate and refine ideas along the way. I wrote the first post on my ThinkSpace blog, Embarkation (Hahn, 2019, July 8), immediately before beginning my first semester of study so that I might look back from this end and reflect on my thoughts and impressions and how they have changed. In that post, I identified the “vital role a good teacher librarian has in developing the students’ love of learning, appreciation of literature and ability to really think about the information they are gathering” and that “it is also vitally important for TLs to make their available services and skills known and visible to their colleagues, especially their newer colleagues who might benefit most from the leadership and guidance a really good TL can provide”. I had, at that early stage, identified two key elements of the role of TL: developing lifelong love of learning and literature, and advocacy through leadership. I still believe these to be important, but I missed possibly the most vital: forming relationships: relationships with and between colleagues, students and leadership, relationships between people and information and relationships between people and lifelong learning.

Theme 1: Lifelong love of learning and literature

From the outset of my studies I was surprised by the need, expressed multiple times over several subjects, to defend the use of fiction in the curriculum. This surprised me because the place of fiction just seemed so obvious to me – it was like needing to justify the place of oxygen in the air. I have learned since, however, that it is not so obvious to everyone. Reading fiction helps students to develop empathy, explore unknown activities, places and situations safely, and to experience the world through someone else’s eyes. Rita Carter, in the Tedx Talk embeded below, explains succinctly and in everyday language this very concept in a very accessible way.

Journalist Rita Carter on why reading fiction is good not only for individuals but for society as a whole. 28 June, 2018

Lesesne (2003) and Schneider (2016) both write eloquently about strategies teacher librarians, among others, can use to help students become lifelong readers and therefore lifelong learners, citing three main skills needed: knowledge of the student, knowledge of the books and motivational skills to bring the two together. These topics were addressed in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum and ETL402 Literature across the Curriculum – two subjects I found to be especially useful in my work as a teacher librarian. The creation of annotated bibliographies is something I have done many times over the last three years and expect to continue.

Link to reading list in Oliver for Geography resources for Stage 2. Scan or click to view.

Recently, I have discovered the Reading Lists tool within our Library Management System, Oliver, that can be used for this purpose, keeping the information accessible to staff at all times. Using this tool, I have been able to create topic based recommended reading lists for both students and staff to use, linking the resource records directly and allowing users the benefit of tools such, reserve, request and review options as well as the ability to link items directly into their Google Classroom. I have included an example of this, created for a Stage 2 Geography unit of work, Places are Similar and Different. Use of these tools relies on the ability of staff to access it. This has involved offering staff training and refreshers at planning days and staff admin meetings as well as personal tutorials at a point of genuine need when staff come to the library seeking such information, and teaching students how to use the tools during their library lessons each week.

ETL501 The Dynamic Information Environment offered the opportunity to learn not just about creating physical spaces for learning, but also creating digital spaces for learning. I found the development of Library Research Guides to be particularly valuable. I have been creating such guides for a while, but this subject taught me a new way to go about it, making the resources so much more useful and valuable to students and staff alike.

Link to Invasive Species LRG

Visit Invasive Species LRG, created before ETL501

Link to Earth's Environments LRG

Visit Earth’s Environments LRG, created following ETL501

I have included below two examples: the first from before I undertook ETL501 and the second from after.  The linear, guided manner in which the later one is designed, along with the inclusion of items such as a glossary, recommended search engines and a feedback form for users to supply their suggestions and thoughts are things I had never considered prior to undertaking this subject. The later of these LRGs along with several others created since to support Stage 2 and 3 units of work have been received to much acclaim by staff that use them and have received thoughtful and constructive feedback allowing me to continually improve the quality of resources I can offer through the library. Staff have commented particularly about the integration of information literacy skills and how they include resources that teachers would not have considered on their own.

The idea of ensuring resource guides included resources that teachers and students would have been unlikely to find on their own was first introduced in ETL402 Resourcing the Curriculum, and reiterated in many other subjects I have taken throughout my studies and I recently had the opportunity to see this idea in action at a public library while on professional placement. The outreach librarian was selecting resources for patrons who had opted for the home delivery service available to less mobile members of the library. She too was keen to include in the selection a resource that the patron would hopefully like, but may not have chosen themselves. She used tools such as the Tourist Map of Literature

Screeb grab from the Tourist Map of Literature

Click to visit the Tourist Map of Literature

website (pictured to the right) to find authors similar to those the patron had read and enjoyed previously. This is a tool I am now using in my practice as a teacher librarian.

In order to ensure there are resources available to suit the needs of the school community, it is necessary to have in place a strong collection development policy, including a procedure around selection and deselection. This concept was first introduced in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum and has been developed during other subjects along the way. When I first began work as a teacher librarian in my school, I came to see that the collection was out-dated, old and in poor condition. As a result, usage of the library resources was limited. I have taken the ideas learned especially in ETL402, ETL501 and ETL503, to begin updating the collection. During my study, I was introduced to the idea of using analytical reporting to judge the health of the collection. I decided to implement this in my library, discovering quickly that the average age of the collection was over 20 years – this did not surprise me, unfortunately. I knew that the first task was to undertake a weed of the worst offenders. I established a ‘shelf of shame’ in my office consisting of items removed from the collection far too late to remind me of the need to weed and I have found it a useful tool to share with others when they question why I am “getting rid of so many books”.

A witty mnemonic explaining the criteria used for deselection of materials in a school library: F -Does it foster a love of reading? R - DOes it reflect your diverse population> E - Does it reflect an equitable world view? S - Does it support the curriculum? and H - Is it a high quality text?

Image by Jennifer LaGarde
www.librarygirl.net
Shared under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)

I have included to the left a graphic from the blog of Jennifer LaGuarde (2020, April 30) explaining her approach to weeding. It resonates with me as it puts into positive language the desirable features of school library collection against which candidates for weeding may be compared.

Theme 2: Advocacy through leadership

ETL 504 Teacher Librarian as Leader introduced terms that can be used to describe phenomena previously observed – developing a deeper understanding of the styles of leadership available and the effect of each. Having the language to discuss and describe these concepts helps to nuance my understandings. In this way, I can be more deliberate in my choices around which strategies I employ in different circumstances and also to recognise and support the choices made by other leaders in my workplace.

Just as it is important for teacher librarians to provide a safe “third space” (Korodaj, 2019) for students, it is important to also provide this for staff. Change leadership (and I deliberately choose the word leadership rather than management) has been a feature of the work of schools in recent times – through the pandemic and the resulting pedagogical changes, as well as with the introduction of new syllabus documents in NSW schools and the challenges faced by many schools with staffing and casual relief. Many colleagues have expressed to me that, while they understand the features of the new syllabus documents, and appreciate the changes they are to make, they need more professional development in what it all looks like in reality. These conversations have taken place in the “cone of silence” – When the library office door is closed, information shared and discussed does not leave the room. By creating this safe space for staff, I aimed initially to give them a place to vent. It also allowed me to learn about what they need and how I can support them for the betterment of student learning. In my blog post, Module 3.1: Stress (Hahn, 2021, March 20), drawing on the work of Cross (2015) and Clement (2014), I explored how servant leadership such as described above and by Burkus (2010), might help to alleviate some of the stress teachers encounter. A secondary objective of this work is to help colleagues recognise, value and support contributions of the library to the life of the school, thereby activating third-party advocacy in the manner described by Kachel et al (2021).

The school library and teacher librarians are in the privileged position of having a big-picture view of the curriculum, activities and events of the school as a whole and can place them in the context of the school’s strategic plan thereby identifying areas of common interest to different groups within the school and invite them to collaborate. This relies, however, on teacher librarians actively seeking to be involved in the teaching and learning cycle of the various teams across the school, the danger lying in the alternative, described by Sturge (2019) as “a revolving door of classes” (p.26) wherein teacher librarians become isolated, and miss opportunities to address issues of information literacy at a point of genuine need – that is, finding authentic moments to address skills and knowledge contained within the Information Fluency Framework when they are actively needed by students to complete tasks required for other subjects. It is in this real-world use of skills that true life-long learning can occur. Because of this, it is vital that teacher librarians employ their instructional leadership skills and teacher leadership skills in order to mobilise and activate colleagues and others in advocating for the library, much in the manner described by Bonanno and Moore (2009). An excellent example of this is found in the Students Need School Libraries campaign started and headed by Holly Godfree. This group provides, among many resources, flyers and promotional materials that are made available for teacher librarians to share with their communities, assisting teacher librarians to harness the advocacy power of school communities in support of their library program.

Instructional leadership has been a feature of my work in recent times, especially around the use of technologies to support educational access by students with learning difficulties and additional needs. By adjusting my fixed timetable in collaboration with interested class teachers, I have been able to provide team-taught lessons introducing and utilising assistive technologies such as Immersive Reader with all the students in a class, demonstrating for students how and when such technologies may be useful to them, at the same time demonstrating to teachers how employ universal design in conjunction with the available tools to allow all students to engage with curricula on an equal basis. By working specifically with targeted, interested teachers, I have been able to harness their connections and relationships to further advocate for the services and skills a strong library program can provide.

Theme 3: Relationships

A colourful rug defines the space while brightening it up

Brighten and define the purpose of areas with rugs

The Third Space is also vital for students. In ETL 501 The Dynamic Information Environment, I explored the development of effective spaces both physically and digitally. One of the main take-aways from this subject was the need to consider how the designed spaces impact and are impacted by the people who use them. I had not previously considered that, by providing group vignettes, hidden individual reading areas, large open whole class spaces and interactive displays could encourage students to behave and interact differently with the information they are using. To this end, I have added to the library I work in, rugs that define the purpose and use of different areas, a variety of types and groupings of seating, flexible work table orientations,student work examples and wall displays that teach. I am still working on rearranging shelf configurations and technology storage to maximise use and availability.

I approach interactions with students with humour where appropriate to encourage them to see me as approachable; high expectations of behaviour so that I avoid unnecessary unpleasantness; openness and patience to encourage students to talk to me about their needs and thoughts. I provide interesting activities at lunchtime in a climate controlled environment to encourage students to come into the library voluntarily and view it as a pleasant and desirable place of interest. In this way, I hope to engender a belief that the library is a welcoming, interesting place in which ideas and information can be explored and discussed in a rigorous but non-threatening way. The lego building vignette pictured to the right is used at lunchtimes.

A collaborative puzzle area with a wall that teaches

The collaborative puzzle

Students are invited to build on to constructions made by other students in previous sessions. Once firm boundaries were established around the protocols for use of the space, students have been engaging positively and enthusiastically at lunchtimes. They are (mostly) able to leave it alone during class time and a helpful side effect has been drawing student’s attention to the sometimes neglected early chapter book collection housed around the lego area. This has seen circulation of this collection rise by 23% in the 6 months since establishment of the lego area.

A group of students can work collaboratively on lego projects

Community building activity: collaborative lego construction

Jigsaw puzzles (pictured to the right) have also been used for collaboration and community building among students. It is my intention that these collaborative activities will encourage disparate groups of students to engage in shared activities, getting to know each other better and learning to engage positively with students from other backgrounds and interest groups, contributing to the development of a cohesive school community that forms part of the school’s medium to long term goals. An additional advantage has been providing activities and environments that promote wellbeing for our students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Saggers & Ashburner, 2019). Puzzles are selected based on the special interests of these students and well-ordered, usually quiet and minimally stimulating areas are used to provide these students with an environment they can use to calm and re-regulate themselves as needed. This encourages all students to see the library as a peaceful, interesting and pleasant place to learn and to practise interacting with others. Visual cues, noise-cancelling headphones and positive, calm relationships are also used to engage our students with ASD.

Part C: Developmental Evaluation

The ALIA/ASLA Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (ALIA, 2004) provides the professional knowledge, practices and commitments that teacher librarians should strive to achieve. A key development in the professional knowledge area during my studies has been the introduction of the

Information_fluency_framework which aims to “articulate the work of the teacher librarian (p.4), drawing together elements of the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities and NSW Syllabus documents to make plain for all school staff and leadership the skills and understandings that teacher librarians teach and where they fit in the curriculum. This important document, recently released and only pertinent to NSW schools, has not been a part of my studies at all. As a result, I have needed to identify and source professional learning opportunities outside of the University, such as PLCC After Hours Professional Development, spearheaded by Gina Krohn (see left). Continual engagement with professional networks of teacher librarians and alumni groups is vital to identifying opportunities to continually develop my skills and understandings around pedagogy and curriculum developments. An area I would like to focus on in the near future is utilising educational technologies to enhance teaching and learning opportunities, with a specific focus on developing the skills of kindergarten to year 2 students and their teachers.

ALIA-ASLA Standard 3.4 Community responsibilities requires teacher librarians to participate as members of professional communities. Over the last three years that I have been studying and working as a teacher librarian, I have joined several network groups, both formal, such as becoming a student member of ALIA (which I will continue into a professional membership once I graduate) and joining the Teacher Librarian Network in Northern Sydney through my employer, and informal, such as joining social media groups for Teacher Librarians both in NSW and around the country and world. I have found there the most supportive and collaborative group of colleagues I have found so far in the education industry. This spirit of cooperation and collegiality is something I strive to replicate and actively promote in my workplace.

Standard two requires teacher librarians to provide exemplary information and library services. Recently, my school held a festival of reading for Education Week. I was able to demonstrate and explain to parents and staff alike the services I offer as teacher librarian. I was able to demonstrate some of the Library Resource Guides developed to support collaboratively taught units of work in Stage 2 and 3, show teachers and parents how to access the Library’s digital collections from their mobile device and explain the reference and information services available in the Library.

Descriptions of the role of teacher librarians

Backing board used as a conversation starter at the Festival of Reading

Pictured to the right is the backing board used during this presentation. I did not specifically refer to it, but used it to draw attention to the role of the teacher librarian and to provide conversation starters with parents. This was a highly successful morning and one of the immediate benefits I can see is dramatically increased circulation of our digital collection, and three new requests for collaboration from teachers who have not previously engaged with library services. An area I would like to develop more within this strand of the professional standards is evaluation of the library’s collection. To this end, I have enrolled in a course offered by Softlink (providers of Oliver Library, our LMS) that will address use of analytical reporting in the school library. Other sources of ongoing professional learning are SCIS Professional Learning Webinars and Primary English Teachers Association Australia courses and conferences which often offer content relevant to teacher librarians.

References

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. https://read.alia.org.au/file/647/download?token=6T4ajv0c

Bonanno, K. & Moore, R. (2009). Advocacy: Reason, responsibility and rhetoric. https://kb.com.au/content/uploads/2014/08/Keynote-Advocacy.pdf

Burkus, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. In DB: David Burkus. http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Clement, J. (2014). Managing mandated educational change. School Leadership & Management, 34(1), 39-51. https://doi: 10.1080/13632434.2013.813460

Cross, D. (2015). Teacher well being and its impact on student learning [Slide presentation]. Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia. http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf

Jones, G. (2018). The daring librarian mission. https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/01/how-to-be-teacher-librarian-rock-star.html

Kachel, D. E., DelGuidice, M. & Luna R. (2012). Building champions in the school community. In D. Levitov (Ed.), Activism and the school librarian: Tools for advocacy and survival. (pp. 85-98). ABC_CLIO, LLC.

Korodaj, L. (2019). The library as ‘third space’ in your school: Supporting academic and emotional wellbeing in the school community.Scan, 38(10). https://doi.org/10.3316/aeipt.226270

LaGuarge, J. (2020, April 30). BFTP: Keeping your library collection smelling F.R.E.S.H! The Adventures of Library Girl. https://www.librarygirl.net/post/bftp-keeping-your-library-collection-smelling-f-r-e-s-h

Lesesne, T. (2003). Making the match: The right book for the right reader at the right time, grades 4-12. Stenhouse Publishers.

Saggers, B. & Ashburner, J. (2019) Creating learning spaces that promote wellbeing, participation and engagement: Implications for Students on the autism spectrum. In Hughes, H., Franz, J. & Willis, J. (eds.), School Spaces for Student Wellbeing and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6092-3_8

Schneider, J. J. (2016). The right book for the right reader at the right time. In The Inside, Outside, and Upside Downs of Children’s Literature: From Poets and Pop-ups to Princesses and Porridge (p. 98-158). https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/childrens_lit_textbook/6/

Sturge, J. (2019). Assessing Readiness for School Library Collaboration. Knowledge Quest, 47(3), 24–31.

ETL501: Critical Reflection

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I undertook ETL501 in order to understand more about effective design choices. My school is currently modernising our library space (Hahn, 2021, July 3). Assessment 1 allowed me to identify solutions to the pain points. Main changes now planned are the creation of distinct zones and use of half-height shelving to delineate those spaces and to act as traffic-management devices. Nicole Bolden (Bolden, 2021, September 21) suggested that signage should be prioritised: a solid idea because, not only does it allow library users to locate the resources they need, but the process of creating it also assists the new TL to become more familiar with the collection – a vital understanding to develop, teamed with an understanding of the needs of the school community.

Resource selection for my Library Resource Guide needed to be teamed with presentation. I needed to consider how to present content in a way that is open enough to encourage emerging independent inquiry skills, but structured enough to provide quality, engaging resources for content learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015). In order to achieve desired depth of understanding, I needed to significantly narrow my scope of content. Some students would have limited independent reading skill. This presented significant challenge. Using the readability tester from Webfx, I was repeatedly reminded that, often, texts present more challenge to students than expected, highlighting the difficulty students have in negotiating the online (and print) environment, underscoring the importance of digital curation in the role of TL (Cherrstrom & Boden, 2020). By including commentary on difficulty, expected content and suggestions for integration of new knowledge into existing schemas, skills of source selection, analysis and critical thinking were developed.

While inquiry learning aims to develop skills for independent and lifelong learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015), most students in Stage 2 could be expected to need significant teacher support. Consequently, I chose to create my Library Resource Guide to include information for teachers and to present sources that would provoke discussions, allowing the teacher and TL to model and explicitly teach needed skills. Scaffolding and developing information literacy skills is a vital component of the role of the TL (Aisah et al, 2018) and so, as well as narrowing the content focus of my Guide, I also narrowed the information literacy skills taught to allow students to deepen their understanding and familiarisation with each skill in order to overcome the superficial use digital resources described by Coombes (2019).

Creating digital learning resources is an important aspect of the work of a TL. In the Module 5.2 forum, I commented that specialised and nuanced subject knowledge required to create effective research guides for secondary libraries is different to primary school libraries, where the subject content is less technical. This is not, as Jodie Lednor (Lednor, 2021, October 1) suggested, to say that secondary TLs cannot or should not create such resources, rather articulate the importance of collaboration with subject specialists. One of my 2022 learning goals is to develop my skill in reference interviews. I believe these techniques could establish exactly what a teacher requires students to do and understand as a result of their inquiry, and therefore guide the development of resources. Ross et al (2019) offer guidance on this topic and I look forward to implementing their strategies and learning others during ETL507.

References

Aisah, M. A., Abrizah, A., Idaya Aspura, M. K. Y., & Wan Dollah, W. A. K. (2018). Development of an information literate school community: Perceived roles and practices of teacher librarians. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 23(2), 63–75. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.22452/mjlis.vol23no2.4

 

Bolden, N. (2021, Spetember 21). Effective Information Service. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241160_1&message_id=_3804327_1

 

Cherrstrom, C. A. & Boden, C. J. (2020). Expanding role and potential of curation in education: A systematic review of the literature. The Reference Librarian, 61(2), 113-132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/02763877.2020.1776191

 

Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy, 7(1), 31–40. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/10.3316/aeipt.178236

 

Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century, 2nd Edition . Libraries Unlimited.

 

Lednor, J. (2021, October 1). Re: Creating Resources. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241159_1&message_id=_3808932_1

Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K. & Radford, M. L. (2019) Conducting the reference interview: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians, 3rd edition. ALA Neal-Schuman. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=5850100

WTL501 – Module 2.1 – Reference Materials

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Farmer (2014) provides a guide to the development of the reference collection in American schools. It is clear that the information is specifically targeted towards American schools, however it is still relevant to Australian school librarians. Farmer suggests that librarians should be careful to select materials that contain American spellings and measurements, which is also true of Australian librarians, though, of course, including English spellings and decimal measurements.
Farmer points out the necessity of keeping the collection current and the fact that many reference titles are quickly out-of-date. Many school libraries do not have the funds to be updating these volumes every year, if, in fact a print update is available. While it is important to provide current reference materials, this is not an indication that older versions are not useful in a school for purposes other than locating factual information. Primary school libraries provide materials used to teach students about textual features such as indexes, contents pages, bibliographies, directories etc and this does not always require up-to-the-minute accuracy and currency, though it would be an added bonus if this was also the case. This has to be balanced against the competing needs of other curriculum areas the budget must cover. Recently in my school library we attempted to purchase class sets of updated atlases of the world. The most up-to-date edition we could buy in print form was from 2009 and contains suggestions to readers that they consult the online version for updates. We decided to purchase them anyway as it is deemed important to provide class sets of print copies for the purpose of teaching map-reading skills as well as textual features of atlases and reference books more generally.
Farmer suggests that it is important to consider hardware and software requirements when selecting digital reference materials. While this is certainly a concern, it is one that needs to be addressed not only from the point of view of the library computers, but also the universal usage by library users at home who may be using any number of different operating systems, old or new hardware with varying amounts of processing oe display power. In recent times, many reference material publishers have made their products available on a number of platforms and in a variety of formats such as websites, mobile or responsive websites, apps, cloud-based streaming services etc, that do not necessarily rely on the user having the most up-to-date technology available. This is important for patrons accessing content remotely, but also means that these services are in direct competition for student attention with sites such as Wikipedia, meaning that the educational programs offered by the library need to be on point in this regard.
In addition to the resources listed by Farmer and Alderman (2014), Australian school libraries might consider providing syllabus documents and professional readings collections in the teachers’ reference collection and conversion charts of common measurements and spelling differences between traditional English and American English. They might consider language references for First Nations languages and cultural materials.
A thought occurs that, as print-based materials are out-dated so quickly, digital resources should have an advantage. Perhaps signage and advertisements for these digital materials should be displayed in the reference area of the library. Perhaps teacher librarians should be including specific lessons about how these materials can and should be used in the library program, especially in primary schools where more students are likely to experience regular contact with the library through the RFF program.
Farmer, L. S. J. (2014). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.
Alderman, J. (2014). What is a reference collection? LIS1001 Beginning Library Information Systems & Strategies. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=bliss

CSU Library

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Go to the CSU Library and explore the library site. How does this library change information sources to information resources? Record 5 items in your notes and consider relevance in the school library context.

 

I am unable to access the physical CSU library due to location, so i evaluated the library website. As CSU is a university with a special interest and skill in distance education, I feel that this is an appropriate method of observing the services offered to distance students like myself. I have grouped my observations into 5 groups:

  1. organisation of information sources by subject
  2. educational offerings such as tutorials and workshops
  3. book-based and digital resource lending
  4. Ask A Librarian service
  5. community services such as access for high schools and alumni

The CSU library offers students studying particular subjects curated readings that are searchable by subject as well as by topic, author and keywords. This service includes reserve and e-reserve, reading lists, industry specific database access, but also includes teams of librarians dedicated to particular disciplines. The CSU library employs:

These teams are responsible for selection and deselection and curation of discipline-specific resources. Employing focused teams of specialist librarians allows the library to ensure it is providing the most comprehensive, up-to-date, relevant resources for students and academic staff. These teams can collaborate with teaching staff on course development and resource provision to ensure the collection is as relevant and current as possible and meets the needs of students and academic staff alike. In school libraries, this is done on a much smaller scale. Usually the teacher librarian collaborates with class teachers or subject teams to do the same job as the faculty teams at CSU library: ensuring teachers and students have access to current, relevant resources.

The CSU library offers students workshops, tutorials and recorded webinars on aspects of information literacy, including assignment writing advice, research assistance, digital citizenship advice etc. Students can access this information at point of need or can peruse more general subjects at their leisure. In the school library, these skills are often taught in library lessons or during one-on-one student assistance or booked classes. In high schools, it may be appropriate to include some similar resources on the library website.

The print and digital collection is made available to students and staff of the university through the Primo interface. Using authorised access points along with browsing options, library users can discover resources that suit their needs and can request these resources be posted or digitised for distance students. Providing access to a variety of databases as well as interlibrary loans provides access to a greater variety of resources than would be available in a traditional print-based lending library. Teacher librarians can work to form community partnerships with local public libraries as well as specialist collections such as the Henry Parkes Equity Centre Library in order to increase the offerings for the school community.

The Ask A Librarian service assists students and staff by providing research assistance and providing help to intellectually access the information resources available through the library. By responding to requests for information not only with the answer to the question, but with an explanation as to how that answer was obtained, librarians can model for patrons how information seeking can be undertaken. Teacher librarians do this in schools everyday, though usually in person. Recently the Softlink team added an “Ask the library” button to the LMS Oliver, allowing students to ask questions remotely, which may be particularly useful for students who wish to investigate sensitive or personal subjects.

The CSU library offers access to its collections and services for alumni and high school students, increasing the information opportunities for students and, simultaneously raising the profile of the university and university library in the community.

Book Apps and Ebooks

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How much do these define the story? How does this impact on my practise?

Book apps are constantly changing, needing updating, require available technology to use them and are of mixed quality. But they are available 24/7, multiple copies can be sought relatively cheaply and they can be highly engaging for students. So, how much does the format dictate the story? I would say that it is very much dependent on the story and the app producers working together. There is no doubt that the potential exists for book apps to be very high quality and there are criteria available (eg. Yokota & William, 2014) that teacher librarians can use to ensure quality is maintained and the resource adds value to the collection. In order for these to be used regularly in classrooms in my school, they would have to offer something valuable that is not available from print books. The appeal I can see would be mainly in the younger years, a time at which actually accessing and logging into devices available is such a phaff that it would be a fairly painful exercise. As such, the pay-off would have to be LARGE. I can definitely see appeal in these apps for reading for pleasure and I would love to be able to offer them to families for use after school and at weekends, but I am fairly confident that this is not possible as far as apps go, and sharing of the individually purchased copies of books within those apps. In fact, thinking about how that would logistically work given the constraints of the ET4L environment, using Windows only (not iOS or Android) one would have to be very careful about what one signed up for.

Ebooks, on the other hand, hold much more realistic value. For students to be able to download these in a browser based way to be read on a tablet/desktop/ereader depending on what they have access to, is a much more do-able proposition. One would have to be very careful about whether the ebooks available were worth the cost, and added something to the text that traditional print does not. Access to books, be they fiction or non-fiction, 24 hours/day and from any device would certain be an advantage. I can’t see it ever overtaking the print collection, but it could certainly augment it. This is something I would really like to look into further for my library.

 

Yokota, J. & William, H. T. (2014). Picture books in the digital world. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585. http://www.readingteacher.com/

Multicultural literature

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The module reading, Cai (2002), presents three views on what constitutes multicultural literature. The first is that in order to be considered multicultural, a text must include and represent as many cultures as possible, encompassing all cultures of the world equally. That is, a traditional tale from the UK is just as multicultural as one from Africa. In this view, the power relationships, the oppressed and the oppressor, the marginalised and the mainstream, are not taken into account. A literature set could not be thought complete unless both dominant and minority cultures were represented. Another view is that multicultural literature should focus on racial differences. This does not acknowledge that gender, sexual orientation, age or any other element of a person or community might influence the culture. I do not believe that this is the case, however, I can see that decisions as to what constitutes “culture” and what does not is up for debate. The third view is that all books, collectively, represent multicultural literature. This is the view with which I most agree. While there may be some texts that do explore in depth many different cultures, or perhaps the intercession of at least two, it is the collection as a whole that must be “multicultural”. Texts which explore, describe and celebrate all cultures and walks of life should be represented with in a collection. This should incorporate texts that explore the clashing, melding, crossing, dividing and accepting of people from different cultures when they come together. I believe that it is not just ethnic, religious or national difference that contributes to culture, but that age, sexual orientation, gender, privilege (or lack thereof) etc combine to influence and create sub-cultures and all should be represented in the collection. Where the terms “multicultural” and “diverse” meet and crossover, I am not sure. And I am not sure it really matters.

 

 

 

Chapter 1: Defining multicultural literature (pp 3-18) in
Cai, M. (2002). Multicultural literature for children and young adults: Reflections on critical issues. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

ETL402 Module 2.1 Professional Knowledge of Children’s Literature

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The introduction to module 2 cites Cremin, Mottram, Bearne, & Goodwin (2008) who argue that teachers in the UK (and presumably Australia, too) rely on a fairly narrow selection of children’s authors and creators due to a lack of time for keeping up with publishing. Certainly, I would agree. Before I started this course and working in the school library, I had relied heavily on those authors I was familiar with, most of whom I had enjoyed myself as a child. Having worked now for two years in the school library, my knowledge of children’s literature has expanded somewhat, but I still believe I am barely scratching the surface of what is available. Currently we rely heavily on the Australian Standing Orders for collection expansion, along with student and staff (rare though this is) requests. I do not think this is good enough.

Two things happened this term in the school library that cemented my view on this. Firstly, the teachers of the OC classes, two ladies for whom I have enormous respect and personal connection with, asked our fully qualified TL to purchase for them a collection of books for their new classroom libraries for next year. The TL and I spent a good deal of time and energy seeking out the texts we would recommend. This was both a positive learning experience and a wake up call. On the one hand, we employed a number of strategies, which I will detail below, to search for appropriate literature and I was able to learn about and practice these strategies. On the other hand, meanwhile, it quickly became obvious that neither one of us really had a good grip on the state of the children’s literature playing field. My knowledge is very poor and needs expanding desperately. This need led me to sign up for this elective in the hope that I could move some way towards addressing the problem. That I would become more familiar with and develop stronger strategies for exploring, the latest offerings.

The second happening was that our Principal allocated the library an additional and unexpected $8000 to expand our collection of class novel sets. Christmas had come early to the school library and the TL and I were overjoyed and excited as the present collection is very little-used, out dated and generally dodgy. Some sets are falling apart from over use, but most of it has never been looked at. What, then, should we do? Should we spend some serious dough replacing the Roald Dahl collection that is falling apart, and use the remaining funds for new texts? Or should it be the other way around. The fact that the Dahls are so overused seems to indicate that the teachers are relying on him (as suggested earlier by Cremin, Mottram, Bearne, & Goodwin), that they know him and are perhaps time (and inclination) poor and choose not to expand their repertoire. What then to select… and how to select it?

Together we looked through a variety of selection aids: Goodreads, SCIS, NESA Suggested Texts, The PRC reading lists, CBCA shortlisters, favourite reviewers such as Barbara Braxton’s The Bottom Shelf, and various websites such as kids-bookreview.com. What became clear is that, in order for teachers to choose and use a text, they needed to be familiar with it and like it themselves. Having a huge selection of curriculum relevant texts in a dusty storeroom only hits half of the issue. Once good texts are selected, we need to get the teachers interested enough to read them. It is my hope that part of this subject will teach me some effective ways of doing this.

 

Selection and deselection – ETL503 Module 2

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Probably the most well known and yet misunderstood aspect of the role of the teacher librarian is deselection. We’ve all been asked, “You’re throwing out books?” in a horrified tone by well meaning teachers and parents. My favourite response at the moment is, “Yes. Do you want it?” Invariably the answer is in the negative. I work in a school library, not a museum or archive. Shelf space is at a premium and it is the job of the teacher librarian to ensure that only quality, relevant material is taking up the valuable shelf real estate. Resources that are covered in 3 feet of dust but otherwise pristine are not being used. This prompts an investigation: why are they not being used? Are they poor quality? Irrelevant? Difficult to find? Unattractive? Teacher librarians are then faced with three choices: promote it, weed it or change the location (move, clean/tidy around it, decorate it to draw attention). A stocktake is a good opportunity to discover resources in this position. When looking at, scanning and cleaning every book, teacher librarians can take the opportunity to remove any resources that no longer meet the teaching and learning needs of the school community. It takes a certain amount of bravery to weed a large collection especially if it has not been done for a long time. My library has designated a “shelf of shame” in the library office to help deal with this situation with humour and provide a little education for teachers and parents who ask the questions I mentioned at the beginning of this post. It is stocked with recently weeded gems that demonstrate clearly why this is needed. One look through and people have a good laugh and understand.

In module 2 we learn that collection development involves:

  • an assessment of community needs
  • an assessment of how well the current collection meets those needs
  • development or revision of selection criteria
  • identification of resources that will improve the way community needs are met
  • selection of the best and most relevant of those resources for purchase
  • acquisition of selected resources
  • processing of resources to make them shelf ready
  • circulation
  • deselection of resources that no longer meet the needs of the school community.

We are pointed to the work of Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005), Johnson (2009) and Kimmel (2014).

We learn that teacher librarians use selection aids to assist in identifying resources to meet needs. Many are listed in section 2.4 of the module. Care must be taken to ensure reviews relied upon are objective, accurate and contain information about the resource such as the intended audience, reading level required, themes and potentially controversial elements (eg language, complex themes). The section of the module that deals with censorship encourages trainee teacher librarians not to self-censor controversial materials, but, in the interests of developing a balanced and diverse collection, be aware of themes or elements of resources that may be potentially offensive and make the deliberate choice of whether or not to include them. Not all selection aids will include this information.

The specific selection criteria used will be determined in response to the individual needs of the school community it serves (Keeling, 2019). Module 2.5 provides a sample selection criteria from Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005). These general criteria must be revised and customised for the individual circumstances. Once written into the Collection Development Policy for the school library, selection criteria must be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain relevant to ever-changing educational contexts.

References

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. Chicago: ALA Editions.

Johnson, P. (2009). Fundamentals of collection development and management [American Library Association version].

Keeling, M. (2019). What’s new in collection development? Knowledge Quest, 48(2), 4-5. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/2311879567?accountid=10344

Kimmel, S.C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. [American Library Association version].

ETL503: Module 1 Collection Development and Management

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Module 1 provides some useful comments regarding the nature of collection development and highlights that there is some debate as to whether collection development and collection management are the same, different processes or two parts of a larger whole. My view at this very early stage of the subject is that collection development describes the future of the collection and how the teacher librarian intends to work towards that vision. Collection management, I see more as the day to day managing, organizing, processing etc of the collection as it currently stands. Of course these are two parts of a larger whole: resource provision. There are other parts of this whole as well – making the resources accessible and discoverable to those who need them, sharing ideas about how a resource could be used, guiding users to other resources that might confirm or challenge the ideas presented in a chosen resource, teaching students (and sometimes staff) how to locate, analyse and use resources, and more and more and more. I hope that these parts of the whole will be addressed throughout the course, however, I expect this subject will focus mostly on collection development and collection management.

So far, collection development has been defined by authors such as Corrall (2018), Van Zijl (2005), Queensland Department of Education and Training (2012), ALA (1998) and Kimmell (2014) who broadly agree that it is an assessment of needs, selection of materials to meet those needs, budgeting and acquisition of identified resources, evaluation of existing resources and deselection, where appropriate, of resources that are no longer meeting the learning and teaching needs of students, teachers and the school community. I am aware that there are several tools and models for criteria a teacher librarian might use in the selection and deselection processes, though I am yet to learn the specifics of them and which is most appropriate for my school library context. I look forward to learning more about them through this subject.

References

Corrall, S. (2018).  The concept of collection development in the digital world. In M. Fieldhouse & A. Marshall (Eds.),  Collection development in the digital Age (1st ed., pp. 3–24). https://doi.org/10.290/9781856048972.003
Kimmel, S.C. (2014)  Developing collections to empower learners , American Library Association, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=1687658.
Van Zijl, C.W. (2005). Developing and managing information collections for academics and researchers at a university of technology : a case study. Pretoria: University of South Africa. Retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/1363