Final thoughts...

It’s funny to look back at the journey…but great to see how far I have travelled!

When I read through my prior blog posts, one of my first comments was how I thought this course would be the most challenging, as I do not work in a library yet. I think that this “challenge” allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and connect with a few people in the district that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I was able to develop a great working relationship with the Teacher Librarian at my daughter’s elementary school, I made some good connections with the District Librarian, I was able to learn quite a bit from the other TL’s taking this course, and I was able to connect with other Teacher Librarian’s in this district who are taking a few online courses as well.

The lessons on Digital Media were a stretch for me, but now that I am at the end of the course, I feel way more prepared for that aspect of the TL’s responsibilities. I found that as my five courses progressed through this semester, there was some overlap of information, which was great for me to say to myself, “Hey! I know that now!” For one of the assignments in another course, we were asked to assist a teacher in changing their view of using some kind of innovation with their class. I was able to use the knowledge that I gained from this course in terms of Google searches, and databases to provide her with some information to use with her class. I felt like a “real” Teacher Librarian – it was great! I think that my biases against digital media have subsided (I have to laugh a little bit as I read my post for Lesson 2), I have become more comfortable with “screens”, but I still will argue for the use of print media in certain instances.

Cataloguing… that was a huge learning curve for me! I entered this course with very little idea of how this took place. CIP, MARK, ISBN, ISBD, LOC, SEARS (not the store, as I quickly learned!) – these are all terms that were completely foreign to me, but now familiar. The hours spent learning and producing MARC records were certainly a challenge, but now I have a much deeper understanding of books, and how they are catalogued.

As this course progressed, the activities we were involved in sparked my excitement and anticipation even more of getting a position in a school library. Being able to sit in a teacher librarian’s chair and go through the OPAC was an exciting and informative learning experience. I think having the opportunity to just “play around” with the system will be the best way to become familiar with all it has to offer. It sounds like Destiny is one that is used by many districts, so I am glad our district uses it. Learning about library homepages and looking at some of the pages that other librarian’s have put together was a practical learning experience as well. This is one of the top things that I would like to incorporate into my own library when I get a position in one. I think the information that can be gathered and presented in one accessible area can be hugely beneficial to promote the role of the TL in the school. Having the experience now of creating a Weebly for one of the assignments for this course has given me the confidence to take on this kind of a project – whether it is a Weebly, Blog, or other form. The last lesson was also a practical lesson in making me reflect on the types of things I would like to implement in my own library – the aspect of physical space, traffic flow, signage, inventory, overdues and other important aspects of the library, were all areas that I will need to be aware of, and continue to monitor on a regular basis to make the library a central, effective, learning environment for the school community.

Thirteen weeks ago, I began my blog for this course (I had never blogged before) and my first title was “The Adventure Begins…”  This may be the end of this course, but I feel that "My Adventure Continues…"

Many thanks to Keith, the instructor for this course. 

Lesson 13 - Learning Resources

This week’s lesson was one of those lessons that really had me itching to be in my own library! The practical suggestions and ways to improve the physical space had me imagining how I would incorporate all of these ideas into my own library. I don’t think, however, I will be able to incorporate ALL of them right away! Some of the potential costs involved can be quite a hindrance, so trying to be creative and keep the costs down can be a challenge. I enjoyed reading through everyone’s discussion post on how they would improve their own space, and found there were a few repeated ideas, such as weeding, improved access, rearranging furniture for better use of space, and improved technology. I was also amazed at the difference between everyone’s library space and needs. No library is the same, and the requirements will be different based on the needs of the school community.

Another aspect of this week’s lesson that I hadn’t given too much thought about was the issue of overdue materials. This topic had been briefly brought up in another course as well, but a suggestion this week stuck with me:

“With overdue materials it is important to establish a regular pattern of issuing overdue book reminders. This may be done daily, or at least weekly (as is most cases in BC schools). Discuss the frequency with teaching staff to ensure notices are delivered at intervals accepted to them. Bombarding teachers with unwanted notices will result in unread notices” (Lesson 13).

Establishing an “acceptable” pattern seems so basic, yet so necessary. I have been one of those teachers that has been bombarded with overdue notices, and this lesson points out the fact that this bombarding “will result in unread notices,” which is so very true! As a teacher, I got to the point that I wouldn’t read them, or that students got tired of the continual “advertisement” that they had an overdue book. Now being on the other side of that fence, I need to make sure that the overdues are dealt with in a way that is acceptable with teachers, and not looked at as annoying!

It will be wonderful when I can get into a library and start implementing all of these suggestions, and make the library a great learning space for students and teachers!

Lesson 12 - The School Library Homepage

This week I enjoyed our lesson on library homepages, as this is something I would like to develop when I get into a position at a library someday. I appreciate the resources listed by Joyce Valenza in her WebQuest, as I have found a couple of my library courses have referenced this website as a good resource. This website provides many suggestions as to qualities that should be seen in a homepage, including  Information for Access and Delivery, Teaching and Learning, Supporting Books and Reading and  Program Administration. 

(Valenza, WebQuest on School Library Websites).  

Retrieved from: http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/WebQuest+on+School+Library+Websites

Incorporating a homepage into a school library in today’s information age can be a useful tool in helping students and teachers access a multitude of quality resources that they may have overlooked otherwise. As stated in our lesson this week, “Providing access to online digital learning resources can present ideal opportunities through which teacher-librarians can support resource-based learning and teaching and promote student inquiry” (McPherson, 2012, Lesson 12).

Another point that was brought up in the lesson this week: “What is becoming increasingly obvious to teacher-librarians is that the Internet is not only providing us with huge amounts of information, but information that, if accessed correctly, may be more up-to-date, and in some cases superior to learning resources that we can purchase in hard copy. Our ability to access free resources via the Internet and purchase on-line digital resources including encyclopedias and educational data bases has had a huge impact on our reference areas.”

I agree, the internet has HUGE amounts of information, and as a TL, I see part of my role as being able to pare some of that information down for student and teacher use. The other operative words are “accessed correctly.” Having the ability to know which resources are current, accurate, relevant, and credible can be a challenging part of the position of TL. Once a TL is familiar with more of these online resources, then I agree, some are superior to print purchases, and potentially less expensive as well.  Incorporating a homepage to provide this information and the links to these sources provides a valuable resource for students and teachers.

One of the reflection questions for this week had me thinking about my potential future working in a school library:

Now that you have seen the work that is being done to support online, digital resources, many of you will be thinking about your own commitment or support for this area. Again, if your time or the technology in your school is limited, you can start with some basic lessons that will indicate to the students the importance of using the better Internet sites and digital resources. It won't be a matter of convincing the students that the Internet is an important source of information. The challenge will be for you to get them to access the better sites. If you agree with the above, consider how you, in your schools, might you go about this?

How to go about accessing better sites? One step at a time. As a TL, if I can keep informed about what units/projects teachers are doing in a class, then I can suggest possible online resources. I know just recently I suggested to a teacher friend some possible internet sites that her class could use for their project research. I had TOC’d in her class, and in the day plan I was to take the students to the library to work on a Social Studies project on Famous Canadians. When I asked the teacher which websites she was using, she said none in particular. So I suggested a few to her. As a TL, being equipped in these situations to guide the classroom teachers and students to more accurate searches and better quality information will, eventually, lead to better teaching and learning about online, digital resources. 

Lesson 11 - OPAC Exploration

The activity this week was quite exciting for me, as I was able to sit in a Teacher Librarian's circulation desk chair and take a closer look at the features of the OPAC. The first part of our activity was to "look at the student search page through the eyes of a student". The OPAC that this particular library uses is the Destiny Follett Software. 

Observations from a student perspective:

The first thing I noticed when conducting a search is that you need to have correct spelling, or close to it. At least if there are “no matches found” it prompts a “did you mean” with a drop down of possibilities. When locating some resources, unfortunately there are no pictures to go with the book titles – a feature that I enjoy with the public library. That way, when I am searching for the title on the shelves, I have an idea of what it looks like. I noticed that if a student wanted to find a particular book title (ie. Scaredy Squirrel) and clicked on “subject”, instead of “title”, then no matches come up. Students will have better results if they click on the accurate index. When conducting searches, it is nice that they have a Bolean Logic search, but a student will not understand how to use this unless they have been taught. I also liked the visual index – however it seems that the headings are too limited. I wonder if there is the ability to add more? For instance, when looking up squirrels, I wasn’t sure which picture to click on after animals – there was not a clear category for me to select. It is also very easy to see if the book is in or out of the library, and how many copies are available

Destiny Quest  (Follett) was another tab located underneath the Library Search, so I tried searching using that as well I do like the search feature in Destiny Quest that if you start spelling a word, other key words that start with the same letter pop up - this way if a student doesn’t know the exact spelling, the search may be more successful. Also, a student can see other subjects that are available in the library (beginning with the same letter though).

The home page in Destiny is more visual and appealing to students. There are graphics with books that immediately tells the user if the book is in or out. The Top 10 Books area lets students know which books are popular. There is a visible list of New Arrivals. I also like the shelf browse feature, which can allow a student to look at other books by the same author, or subject, or whatever would be on the actual library shelf next to it. The graphics are fun on the search page, however there are no topic headings like in the other library search

The second part of the activity this week involved "going into the administrative applications of the OPAC". I was able to spend about 1 ½ hours with the TL at my daughter’s elementary school library going over the OPAC. In terms of some of the functions of a catalogue (Identifying, Locating, Collocating) I found this OPAC very useful.

• Identifying: It was simple enough to look at the records of what is in the library collection.
• Locating: One feature I liked was the ability for the TL to create their own locations in the menu for resources. For instance, many Christmas items were “Top Shelf Storage Room.”
• Collocating: the search functions were simple to find records grouped together by author/subject/etc.

Beneficial features of the “Back Office” :

• It is a nice feature that a photo is included for each patron, and there are visible tabs for updating patrons/classes
• Library policies included areas for setting/modifying max. checkouts for teachers, students, and even parents. This could be easily modified if needed. 
• An area for setting access levels by students, teachers, parents, assistants, etc…to ensure that only authorized people are getting into various administrative aspects of the OPAC
• Calendar hours – this is a handy tool for blocking out holidays, etc… so that books don’t come due on that day (skips over the day)
• Many of the headings have a brief summary of the function which assists the user in quickly identifying which aspects he/she would like to use

Another feature that I thought was useful was that once a student places a hold on a book, the TL has the authority to OK the hold. I questioned as to why she would want to use this feature, and she said she liked to keep track of what the kids were trying to take out, and to make sure it was appropriate for their grade level. When the book is returned, there is a message that a student has placed a hold on the book.

When asking the TL if she likes the system and finds it useful, she stated that it is “easy to use…when it works” so apparently there are some issues with the system freezing, or not working properly.  In the 1 ½ hours that I spent looking through the system, I began to feel quite comfortable with it, and was starting to explore other areas we hadn’t discussed together. The TL mentioned that the best thing was to just play around with the features to figure them all out, and I would agree that this would be a beneficial way to get comfortable with the OPAC, without the fear of messing something up!

Reading Reflection Lesson 10 - Cataloguing...returns!!

So much to learn about cataloguing that I had no idea about!

After having to construct my own MARC records for an assignment (okay, I tried to construct), I would definitely look at alternative options for obtaining cataloguing records. One thing I wondered is that many libraries pay for access to MARC records. I am wondering why, for example, an elementary school library would do this if the MARC records are available for free from LOC or VPL? Is this type of copy cataloguing permissible? I also wonder if the purchase of MARC records is more of an issue for highschool and post secondary institutions? Or at the district level because of the volume of books that have to be entered? If this is the case, then I can see why they would want to purchase the cataloguing information from a supplier for the ease, and to also maintain some sort of continuity.

I have to admit that I am relieved that our district has district-level personnel to deal with cataloguing of new books. Although, I agree that it is useful to have an understanding of MARC records, and have the ability to modify the catalogue information to suit the environment of the school.

One thing that surprised me, was the suggestion to “select a jobber and buy all your materials from one source.  However if you buy locally, keep in mind that you may not be getting quality, library bindings on your books.” I didn’t realize until recently that quality could be an issue. The TL at my daughter’s school decided to buy some books for the library, and found that many of them were falling apart after a short period of time. So I can see where it would be worthwhile to find out from other TL’s quality suppliers – jobbers - and go with that. Sometimes the prices may be a little more, but perhaps the books will last longer.

Jobbers:

Follett's Titlewave: Searching through some of the materials, I notice that there are many suggestions to “Find materials tied to state and common core standards for…” (retrieved from http://www.flr.follett.com/intro/firstchoice_elem.html) which is great for educators in the states, but not for Canada. It looks like a great resource for the broad spectrum of resources available, but I wonder how many people in Canada use this resource. I wonder what the shipping costs and customs costs are? I don’t know if the cost savings would be enough to justify ordering from there – but I have no experience in this area either.

United Library Services: I like to promote services that are Canadian! The store down in Burnaby looks like one that I would like to visit. If it is designed specifically for school libraries, then I would think that the books are designed to last, and not fall apart after a few uses! I also like the fact that the company is flexible to those visiting the warehouse: “Our showrooms are open to school & library staff during our regular warehouse hours of operation. No appointment is necessary. If our advertised openings are inconvenient for you, please call us to arrange a time better suited to your needs” (retrieved from : http://www.uls.com/ULS/index2.jsp). Customer service is another key aspect for me!

One of the key pieces of advice that stuck out for me was: “Consider if you can purchase locally at a competitive price. For some major items the service and support that accompany a purchase are as critical as the purchased items. For example, some jobbers pay shipping while others may not, some publishers offer free processing while others charge for the service. Decisions of where to purchase must include the total package: item, shipping, processing if applicable, and any other available support/services needed” (Module 10 lesson). This makes sense, as I even use this advice when I am shopping for myself. If I can buy locally, I will. If I can purchase something online, I will double check on the cost of shipping and handling to see if it will end up still costing less, or possibly more.

OCLC – I spent some time going through this site, just trying to figure out exactly what it entails. It seems like there is a wealth of information to be discovered, but I am not quite sure how to access it. One of the videos describes how WorldCat will become WorldShare in Feb 2013, so that is a change that will be coming up soon. I also discovered a bit about interlibrary loans, which I am guessing is a large part of WorldShare, I am also not sure of the distinction between WorldCat/WorldShare and OCLC. I would imagine there involves some sort of subscription/membership for this service, but looks to be quite extensive in its world wide access to library materials. If this is a site that provides cataloguing for books, then adhering to a standard would be beneficial for continuity, as long as that standard is suitable for the school that is using it.

Z39.50. Also another term I am not familiar with, but in the definition, the statement that stood out for me was: “used to search several sources simultaneously and integrate the results.” (ODLIS) The definition from the LOC site states, “Z39.50 is a national and international (ISO 23950) standard defining a protocol for computer-to-computer information retrieval.” My best understanding is if information can be passed quickly and accurately between computers, then this would be desirable.  

As far as allowing uncatalogued material to be circulated, I have never worked in a library, so I am really not sure of the ramifications. Personally, if I had some new material that came in, and a teacher saw it, and could see the usefulness of it to his/her class the next day, then I would probably let that teacher borrow it. I would quickly have the teacher note the title and other basic info, the date, and I would specify a time frame when it needs to be back. Once it comes back, then I could catalogue it properly. However, I am unsure if I would have the same response if it was an elementary student, unless the resource was going to stay within the walls of the library. 

Reading Reflection Lesson 9 - Dewey Decimal System

This week our lesson explored the Dewey Decimal System. I found the history behind this system interesting, and I enjoyed learning more about how this system works. In the article by Suzanne Stauffer, “Dewey-or Don't We-Classify?” I was  not quite sure at the beginning what her stance was on the DDC? Was she for it, or for incorporating something new? Upon reading more, I believe she is speaking for the DDC.

I am only familiar with the Dewey Decimal system, and I agree with Stauffer – “Ironically, many promote the “bookstore arrangement” for libraries to encourage patron independence and reduce the need to ask librarians for assistance (Stauffer, 2008, 49). The bookstore is just that – it is a bookstore and its objective is to get people to browse and to purchase. The needs are different in a school library. I know that when I go to the public library, if I am looking for a book on a particular subject, I enjoy that I can find other books related to that topic in the same section. I am not sure how other cataloguing systems work, so I would have to investigate that further.

Stauffer also makes some good points about students’ levels of learning at certain ages. “These findings suggest that young children will have trouble with any system (numerical or otherwise) that organizes information into more than two or three categories and that all children will continue to need instruction in the physical arrangement of the books on the shelves, regardless of the system used (Stauffer, 2008, 50). It almost seems to me that the Dewey Decimal System just needs to be taught effectively. Over the years, as cutbacks have occurred for TL’s, perhaps there hasn’t been as much time to teach students efficient use of the DDC system.

Through the readings, personally, I found the DDC to make sense, and it arranges the resources in a logical classification system. I do understand the need for a larger classification system for larger libraries, which is where the LCC would come in. But for elementary school libraries, I felt it was effective for student use at that level.  I have been hearing about libraries going away from the DDC, so now with my new understanding of the DDC, I am curious to know more about how these other elementary school libraries are categorizing their resources.

Another fun part of this weeks’ lesson was to come up with a game to help students learn about the DDC. One of the DDC-teaching websites that was mentioned in the lesson, I felt, was effective for teaching the DDC to elementary students: http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/. It appears this website was created in 1999, but it has many good ideas that could be used today. I liked the Dewey and the Alien story!

One of my favourite game shows was The Price is Right, so I modeled my DDC game after one of the games: the “Race Game”

Initial preparation for the game:

-Class Categories with DDC number on them (ie. Sciences and Mathematics 500, Geography 900) labeling the areas. TL can review and point out these areas before the game begins.

-Print off pictures that would match books in that area (ie.  Dinosaur (for 500) Map of Canada (for 900)

-Some kind of timer.

Students (working in small groups) would be given 10 pictures of items representing each class (less could be used if the TL wanted to highlight specific areas more than others). On GO, students have an allotted period of time to navigate around the library and try to match the pictures to the class that they belong (try 5 minutes). When they have completed placing the pictures, they come back to the TL to check to see how many they have correct, and which ones. If they need to go switch some, they can, as long as they still have time left. They are permitted to browse through some of the books in order to try to find the match.

I would imagine that students may not get many correct first try, but learning from mistakes can be very effective. Give students another chance and see how much faster they can be! Most likely they will be faster!

This game seemed to work inside my head, so it would be interesting to see the game in action. I am sure it would be tweaked and modified to suit the students’ abilities!

Works cited:

"Do We" Really Know Dewey? Retrieved from: http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/

Stauffer, S. (2008, Summer2008). Dewey-or Don't We-Classify? Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 6(2), 49-51.

Reading Reflection Lesson 8 -Folksonomy

 “Folksonomy, a free-form tagging, is a user-generated classification system of web contents that allows users to tag their favorite web resources with their chosen words or phrases selected from natural language.” (Noruzi, 2006) I believe this is something that I am doing already, it is just that this is a formal definition of what is going on. I am thinking this is similar to what I do when I give a subject name to a website that I am bookmarking. I have just started to use Diigo, so I am learning about that aspect of social bookmarking. Noruzi states, “The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the folksonomy tagging phenomenon (also called social tagging and social bookmarking) and explore some of the reasons why we need controlled vocabularies, discussing the problems associated with folksonomy” (Noruzi, 2006)

After reading more of Noruzi’s article, I learned that I can browse other websites that other people have bookmarked within the system. I notice that Diigo is not on the list of most popular folksonomy-based systems, but I am guessing that Diigo is newer than 2006 when this article was written. I recognize some other systems, but did not realize they fell under the same umbrella as folksonomy.

One of the main advantages of bookmarking that I enjoy is that it keeps track of all my favourite sites, and I can name them as I wish on my computer. One thing that social bookmarking can do, that I just learned, is that for one, it is stored online so I can access it anywhere, not just from my computer, but that I can find out what other people are bookmarking in relation to the same site I have bookmarked.  One thing I have noticed though, is that the key aspect for making my OWN tags, is that it needs to make sense to ME. What someone else chooses as a subject heading may not fit for me. Usually when I am bookmarking a site, it is for my own benefit so that I can access it again. The idea of shared bookmarks is great so that I can have access to other websites related to the same topic, so I can see where a standard for tagging would need to be established. However, like I said, one persons bookmark under a specific subject tag may not be what I had in mind.

I realized this even more when we were asked, as part of this week’s lesson to explore another social bookmarking site – Delicious:

I decided to look up information about diabetes (my mom has Type 1). I first searched Diabetes on Google, and had 280 million results! When trying to bookmark a site I liked using Delicious, some of the tags that came up as other “Suggested Tags” were: sintomas, prevencion, riesgo, medicine, medicina, Biology 20, Diabetes, symptoms, disease, system:unfiled. I am not familiar with most of these terms! A different language?

When I narrowed the Google search to Type 1 diabetes, it reduced it to 66 million – still a lot. When I bookmarked a site with Delicious (Canadian Diabetic Association), there were no suggested tags – I thought for sure there would be a lot of people who had already bookmarked this site.

So then I Googled Treatment for Type 1 Diabetes, and I had 38 million results. Once again, no “Suggested Tags” for the site I chose to bookmark.

So now I did a search within Delicious. When I searched Diabetes, I got 70 215 results. Certainly much more refined than 280 million! The site I saved with this search had only been saved 18 times. The top bookmarked site (1476 saves) was interesting… “Natural compound helps reverse diabetes in mice” (medicalxpress.com) Not sure how reputable the site is, but I’m skeptical -the name may be a hint!) Some other “related tags” for Diabetes in Delicious that were listed that seemed curious to me were: dietetica, linkroll, my, sitting. Ones that made more sense TO ME were: bloodsugar101, patient_support, monitoring. Obviously these other “curious” tags for me possibly meant something to someone else. Or, if anyone can make up any tag, they can come up with silly, nonsense tags.

My next search in Delicious, Type 1 Diabetes, had 1741 results. My link was only bookmarked by me (Canadian Diabetic Association) -I was disappointed. I didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary. The top site had 217 saves (dlife.com) and the next, a site for finding diabetic recipes (124 saves).

Last search, treatment for Type 1 Diabetes yielded 122 results. Once again, my link was only bookmarked by me. This is where the “Related Tags” got sketchy! Porn, XXX, teen nonnude galleries bikini, it goes on…

So I am not overly impressed with Delicious. Fun maybe for seeing what other people have tagged, but I don’t see myself using it for important research, or as a Teacher Librarian, unless there is more control over the headings that are being used for specific subjects.

Work Cited: Noruzi, A. (2006). Folksonomies: (Un)Controlled Vocabulary? Knowledge Organization, 33(4), 199-203.