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| Definition, please? (created at wordclouds.com) |
All these words spinning in my head... what does it all mean?
It means we are heading off onto another journey, this time into the reference section of the library. The nitty gritty of where you go to get those all-important answers to your queries and I am excited (with a side of trepidation) because I know this section has always been a weakness of mine. I mean, I have definitely made use of it in my studies but it seems to me, recently, it has become more of an area of the LLC that has been swallowed up by other "advances". With the push of technology, I am finding that the traditional "reference section" is changing and I am not truly sure that I have given it my due diligence. I do hold a reverence for the reference section of the library, it had always been my go-to for getting the information and help I needed to get things done as a student. But as a student, I understood how to operate and manoeuvre through the tomes and stacks, the volumes of encyclopedia, even microfiche - today, there are yet more facets to explore and it can get overwhelming. More and more, my students are turning to digital sources and away from print, perhaps for ease of access but maybe this class will help me unearth other reasons that I will be able to address.
Our LLC was a very, very, very fine LLC
Well, I wish it to be a very, very, very fine LLC, once again.
I have seen the ups and downs of library services in my district and I am hoping to have some more time added to my library load next year. Due to unforeseen circumstances, when the previous TL left, the library time went from 0.8 to 0.2! It has been a wee bit of a shift for me as I navigate this situation.
I was very humbled looking at the Achieving Information Literacy Standards. Thanks to my district's push for access to electronic resources, we were not as badly off as I had thought but I am still well below standards for staffing and for book collection size. My only consolation has been my amazing Explorations Team of teachers. In our reading, when Riedling explored the different research models, one thing stood out strongly for me and that was the statement in Stripling and Pitts’ Research Process where it is said “learning experiences should be viewed holistically, recognizing that one area… can support other areas… and so forth.” (Riedling, 13). My Explorations team has been doing what I affectionately call "stealth collaboration". We observe what core teachers are doing in class and tie it in to what we teach. As Explorations (Home Ec., Tech. Ed., Art, Music, Digital Literacy/LLC) teachers we are often removed from everyone else and in our own specialized spaces. As a TL, I have spent years working to collaborate with teachers and know the inherent difficulty with schedule and time constraints. Imagine my surprise when this year, my team wanted to make it a part of our regular routine to spend one of our team meeting times to go off to observe and learn what classrooms were doing and report back. We then take that information to see what we can do to tie-in our subjects to student learning. It has benefited me greatly to tailor my teaching towards the topics they are doing in class and it has been great fun to watch my colleagues teach recipes from countries being studied, showcase medieval instruments, cut chainmail rings, and highlight artists and techniques from different eras. I truly hope to be fully reinstated in the library so that I can really bridge the gap between classroom and explorations teachers and to strengthen our school community as a whole.
The Joy of Databases
I found this amazing infographic that I just had to share...
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| (from https://www.slideshare.net/joycevalenza) |
I love the subscription databases offered to the staff and students of my school district, they are da bomb! Check out the list here if you wish. There is a gaggle of them! I will be honest, they are not as well used as they should be but I am a database-pusher and all of the students in my school know how to access them. They are actually at the centre of a project that I am doing with students in my digital literacy class. With the cut to my position, I have been slotted into the computer lab next to the library and so I have taken advantage to teach my students researching skills aplenty. My district has been suggesting TLs to add to our digital collections in order to supplement our print collection. I have decided to make it a full-school activity. My students are choosing a topic from a section of the non-fiction that holds special interest to them (maybe a hobby or a focus of study from their core class) and are curating multi-media resources into their personal collections. These curated collections will then be added to our library catalogue to help teach their peers about that topic. We have been working on using our district subscription databases as they often have great items.
Crowdsourced Information, my take.
Wikipedia just turned 18 years old! After nearly two decades, it has matured, developed and really integrated itself into the internet culture. I have found that it is a pretty standard go-to for my middle school students to use to find their information when they are researching. When Wikipedia first began, I was earning my first university degree and it was understood that this was not a valid source to use. At the decade mark, as this article states, colleges were softening their stance:
"I was categorically against my students using it altogether. I would explain that there are simply better, more trustworthy places to find information," says [assistant Prof.] Shulman. "Now, I'm more open to what Wikipedia offers. Saying it's off-limits won't stop students from using it, so I've switched to helping students understand when it's useful and when it's not." (Burnsed, 2011)And more recently, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has stated that they were "going from the era of growth to the era of quality" and they stepped up their game to ensure validity on their site.
When my students ask me if they can use Wikipedia, I say yes. In my work that I do with my students day to day in my digital literacy class, we work on researching skills - how to recognize valid information (for example using the CRAAP test), how to triangulate data, how to select sources to suit their needs, so I trust that they will start to use these skills little by little as they build confidence and to do that, they need to explore and see what is out there.
Referenced Materials
Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D. (Eds). (2003). Achieving Information Literacy. Retrieved from http://accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/ail110217.pdf
Burnsed, Brian. “Wikipedia Gradually Accepted in College Classrooms.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 2011, www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/06/20/wikipedia-gradually-accepted-in-college-classrooms.
Meriam Library. “Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP Test.” California State University, 2010, www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf.
Metz, Cade. “At 15, Wikipedia Is Finally Finding Its Way to the Truth.” Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2016/01/at-15-wikipedia-is-finally-finding-its-way-to-the-truth/.
Riesling, A., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian. Santa Barbara, California: Linworth, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Valenza, Joyce. “Joyce Kasman Valenza.” LinkedIn SlideShare, www.slideshare.net/joycevalenza.
