A Look Back

Well, well, it's the end of a run and it has been more than swell!

Looking back at this last section, Theme 3 was where I learned some of the neatest things in this course.

The Deep Web
I will not tell you how many hours I spent delving into readings and videos about the Deep Web. It was SO fascinating! I know that many of my peers have clipped and used this graphic but I think it is so apt I had to include it here:

From Dark Web News

I feel very lucky to be at a middle school this year and able to put much of what I am learning to use in discussions or activities with my students. While I am in agreement with many of the comments in discussion about the Deep Web not being as relevant when teaching elementary students, at middle school, my kids were fascinated too. I did not go into huge details of the Dark Web but overall, students really found discussion of the size of the web, how much is accessible to whom, how to protect themselves while investigating... super engaging. I was also surprised by how much some of them already knew, even beyond the basics of what I shared with them.

Databases
My students know that I am a big fan of Databases. My district has a bundle that is provided to all the schools in our district and I work hard every year to direct students to them. I feel they are so invaluable in what they can offer but I am also realistic that no matter how many times I showcase them, many students will still go back to the ease of a browser's search bar. Nonetheless, I know that each time I put it out there, a new student will log it into the back of their minds for retrieval at a later date. This video was created for Explora but I really like the clear and concise way it highlights many of the good reasons to use databases.

Research Made Easy with Explora from EBSCO on Vimeo.

Encyclopaedia, Dictionaries, Atlases +
I like big tomes, I cannot lie. I have lovely memories of being in my elementary school library and working the index of the World Book Encyclopedia, matching the volume and page number and finding the gratifying knowledge those entries issued out. I loved it. I did not have a set of my own but my Father loved reference books too and we had a myriad of specialized titles focusing on art, math, quotations, and more - I have retained quite a few of them to this very day. Nowadays, I know that the online version of many of these publications are much easier to search and they offer as much, if not more of an ability to link to further resources. I recognize that the cost of multi-volume hardcopy sets on my library shelf, though lovely, would not be as practical. The ease that many sites such as Google Earth provides and the access of multiple users at one time allows for much more use.
But I have kept an old set of encyclopedias and a handful of atlases. From time to time, I have seen a student sitting and flipping through them, it always brings a smile to my face.

Wrapping It Up
I will end as I began, with a reverence for the reference. There is SO much out there in terms of resources for our students and staff. In just a few months, my eyes have been opened to a variety of materials that I feel, I often neglect. These are not high circulation books but they should be high on my list to advocate for and highlight because they contain so much valuable data. Whether information is digital or in print, I have found over the years that there is often such an abundance out there that much of it can get lost in the shuffle. As a TL, I strongly feel that it is a large part of my job to ensure that the resources in my LLC be remembered, be brought forth, and be used. I truly appreciated having the time throughout this class to reacquaint myself with these gems and to discover new treasures to shine up and put on display.


Reference

EBSCO. Research Made Easy with Explora. Vimeo, 2017, vimeo.com/191195612.

Shannon, Cuthrell. “Deep Web What Is It & How to Access It (Ultimate Guide 2019).” Dark Web News, 2017, darkwebnews.com/deep-web/.

Improving my Reference Services

Analysis

My district in currently undergoing a shift from the traditional library settings to Library Learning Commons. A part of this involves having a district team work with all of the schools in our district over a period of three years to assist in making plans to have physical changes (shelving and furniture), administrative changes (flexible schedules, increased collaboration) and policy changes (material circulation and cataloguing) addressed in all levels of schools. This is year two. My middle school underwent the conversion last year but there were some difficulties. There were many transitions last year including a new administrator and a TTOC in the library for half the year. The result was that any planning and/or discussions that occurred were not communicated or documented and I stepped into a half-converted LLC with no knowledge of what had happened or where it was going. I have since been in contact with the district team and have requested a re-do of the planning stages but with a tight schedule for this year’s conversions, it has been sporadic to get help and answers.

One of the most shocking changes for me in these conversions was a policy change of removing all non-circulating materials from the library. Teacher-librarians in our district are being directed to no longer catalogue literature kits/novel studies or teacher resources, and to absorb reference materials into regular circulation. When a conversion happens, these materials are taken out of the library catalog. The idea being that any materials found on the shelves of our LLC should be able to be signed-out by students and teachers alike. The reasoning behind this is that with several years of cuts to TL time in our libraries, the administrative tasks of our job have taken a toll. In our district, library assistants are only at the high school level. The thinking was that if a TL had their load lightened by not having to keep track of lit kits and teacher resources, this would open up time for them to be able to focus on direct collaboration with teachers.

In this conversion as well, a deep cull is being done at each school to ensure materials are up-to date and old materials are discarded. While I am in agreement for weeding, the monetary reimbursement for undergoing the conversion has not accounted for the replacement of all of the lost material. The results have been a more up to date LLC but with much less materials on the shelves. Rebuilding of resources will take several years at the very least.

Rationale

The changes in the LLC means that our reference materials are now housed among the non-fiction books relative to their subjects and are no longer in a separate “Reference” section of the library. The repercussions of this has been two folds:

1)   Some materials have gained use as students discover them located on the shelf near other materials related to their research topic. This includes many of our special topic encyclopedia sets.

2)   Some materials are underutilized as they become hidden on obscure shelves and students no longer know where to find them. This includes many of our dictionaries, atlases and any specialized books that are not located directly next to popular topics.

Though there may be some gain for putting reference material on general shelves, overall, without a straightforward reference section, students are not fully using specialized materials due to not knowing they are available or not being able to locate them easily. If specialized reference materials are no longer being shelved in a designated “Reference” area, then they need to be otherwise highlighted to ensure they are used and accessed. Due to cuts to my TL time, I currently only have Fridays in the LLC and though I do open the library at lunch three days a week for students, it is not optimal to fully service a school of over 500 students. I am not always available to conduct full reference interviews (Riedling, 2013) to ensure that students’ needs are met.

I need a way to highlight specialized reference materials in a meaningful and accessible way so that students can find them even if I am not in the library. My solution is to create a digital collection of our specialized materials in our library catalog so that students can learn about them and know where to find them. I would also like to include these materials in any other digital collections specific to topics being studied during the school year (example, our Renaissance Encyclopaedia in our Renaissance collection).

My Plan

·      How the change will take place

a.    I will acquaint myself with the specialized collections. As these materials were removed from Reference priorto me coming into this position, I will need to browse the shelves and make a list of all the items I wish to highlight. 

b.   I will identify the titles and their current location.

c.    Digital collections will be created for the following:

                                               i.     Atlases

                                             ii.     Biographical sources

                                            iii.     Dictionaries

                                            iv.     Factbooks

                                             v.     Subject Encyclopaedias

d.   Each entry will include cover image of book, description of content, use and location.

e.    Collections will be added to our school’s Destiny library catalog.

f.     If there are topical collections already made, relevant materials will be added to them.

·      Who it will involve

a.    Teacher-Librarian

b.   Interested teachers

c.    Library monitors

d.   Administrator

·      Timeline for improvement (April to June + recap in September)

a.    Identify titles and location (2 weeks)

b.   Create five digital collections (5 weeks)

c.    Add materials to existing collections (2 weeks)

d.   Present to all students and staff (3 weeks)

·      How to communicate change

a.    Once the collections are created, I will share the resources via email to the staff and also ask for time during an upcoming staff meeting.

b.   By virtue of being the Digital Literacy teacher (one of our explorations cycles), I have had the opportunity to walk ALL of the students in the school through our library system this year and every child learned how to build a personal collection. It will be very easy to point them towards these new additions.

·      Other considerations

a.    Due to limited LLC time and my other teaching load, I would like to be realistic in what I can achieve, even with help.

b.   With a completion date in June, it may be more practical to hold-off presenting the resources until September as it will likely be better received at the start of the school year when everyone is fresh and looking to plan ahead.

References

Riedling, A., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian.Santa Barbara, California: Linworth, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.