Assignment+6

LIBE 463

Reflection Word document link:

It is hard to believe that this term is already coming to an end. So much has happened during this course and I have changed remarkably since the start of the course. Namely having my daughter Emily; and as any parent would attest there is life that you live before having a child and the life you live after having a child. Life prior to Emily though only a mere 11 weeks ago seems like forever.

I am grateful for all the knowledge I have gained in this course and the prior 7 courses I have taken towards my diploma in Teacher Librarianship. I feel that as I leave this course I am now capable of running and maintaining a library. It seems unfathomable to me that a person can enter into a library position in the district I teach in with little to no training on how to operate a library. As I have learned during my course work running a library is more than just sharing and showing books. It is a short coming in our school system to assume that one can run a library without any training or at the very least mentoring to do so, but it is a reality in our world and the district that I work in and many others. The current “system” does not ensure that teacher librarians have the adequate training be teacher librarians.

There is much that I have learned during the 6 themes of the course. The first theme of the course asked us to assess the needs of the school community. While I felt that I had a good grasp on the school community due to previous LIBE courses I did learn a few new things. For starters as Kay Bishop (2007) pointed out in her book The Collection Program in Schools “effective collection development must be based on reliable knowledge about the collection’s users (p. 19). This information about the collection users as I learned during the course of the assignment can be gathered from the school district, censuses or from research projects such as the EDI. What I gathered from this assignment is that the group of students at the school I teach at are from mostly low-income transient families and from district test scores many students are reading below grade level. As a result as Bishop (2007) stated “if you are in a school with low-income workforces … you may need to emphasize materials in less permanent formats. In these situations, it may be better to select less costly paperback books and not fret about the loss of materials” (p. 20). Also realizing that many students are reading below grade level, I as a librarian would focus a part of the collection on high interest low readability materials to insure that all students have equal access to information.

The second theme that we investigated was Evaluating you Collection. Before I did the readings I thought that evaluating a library collection meant printing out a library report on the collection and buying what the report deemed to be lacking. However after completing the readings and the assignment I realized that it is much more then printing out a report and the need is vastly important to understand the goals and objectives of the school library. As Bishop (2007) stated “we evaluate the collection to answer the following questions “does the collection meet the users’ needs? Is the collection integral to curricular and instructional needs? Does it provide access to materials from outside the school? Does it provide access to materials from outside the school? Does it include formats that users prefer? Does it hinder or facilitate the media program? Is the collection responsive to changes in the school’s program?” (p. 141-142). While I am not currently a teacher librarian I envision that conducting a collection evaluation should be done on a yearly basis. As stated in my paper on Collection Evaluation (2011) “ conducting a full evaluation report on each of the curriculum areas to assess gaps in the collection. This information can prove invaluable when deciding what books to purchase to update or improve the collection. Conducting a evaluation report could also aid in the requesting of additional funds from the school principal, school parent advisory council or applying for grants” (p.8). While this admittedly is very time consuming and daunting process I believe that a collection evaluation can be done yearly by dividing the library collection up in chunks with the aim to evaluate the entire collection on a 5 year cycle.

The third theme Weeding the Collection proved to be an area of interest. As a book lover it seems unfathomable to get rid of books out of the collection. However as Weeding Library Collection(1997) pointed out “the library collection should be continually evaluated … for purposes … of identifying for withdrawal those titles which have out lived their usefulness” (p.3). As I learned during this theme if librarians simply leave outdated or uncirculated materials in the collection the collection becomes outdated. In addition, as students and staff tend to judge books by their covers you can increase the circulation of a great book simply by purchasing a newer edition with a newer cover.

The fourth theme we looked at was Issues in Collection Management. This area covered the areas of policy and policy making, Intellectual freedom and censorship and curriculum support and recreational reading. I found this theme to be the most interesting of the course as it had not been covered in any of my previous courses. The school that I work at does not have any library policies beyond hours of operation and the amount of books that each grade level student is allowed to sign out. As I soon learned on the class discussion board this is not uncommon. Most school libraries do not have policies in place. I found the text to be very useful in understanding why library policies are important. Bishop (2007) states “in order to efficiently develop and manage collection activities, policies and procedure need to be developed by the school library media specialist. Policies and procedures should be regularly reviewed for possible revisions to make certain they are meeting them mission and goals of the media center” (p. 39). When I become a school librarian I will seek out library policies from other teacher librarians in an effort not to “reinvent the wheel” and adapt them as I see fit. Policies ensure the smooth running of a library if the librarian leaves and provide a long term vision for maintaining and improving the collection.

The second area on this theme was on intellectual freedom was very interesting. I personally like to err on the side of caution and if something is questionable I personally avoid it. In regards to intellectual freedom in the library I clearly remember the controversial case in the 1990’s regarding some library collections containing same sex family books in the Surrey School district in British Columbia. The school board decided to ban all books that portrayed same sex families from the Surrey School district libraries. The School district was taken to court over the issue. The court case dragged on for 7 years and went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin ultimately ruled that “Tolerance is always age-appropriate, children cannot learn unless they are exposed to views that differ from those they are taught at home.” While most of the chapter in the text was in regards to the United States First Amendment I believe that within reason libraries should provide books to students that reflect society and that policies should be in place if there are complaints from parents, staff or students.

The fifth area was regarding acquiring resources for the school library. Personally I found this theme to be the area that I did the most learning. Having never ordered materials for a school library I had no idea where to start. I now know that you can use jobbers, book publishers or online websites like Amazon. The assignment also required us to find reviews for half of our purchases. Having never considered using reviews to aide my purchases this was a learning curve in itself. I found what worked for me was working backwards; I found the books that I wanted to purchase and then I looked up the reviews using the google search engine. In the end I was surprised by how many professional reviews I was able to find for my selections. I also have discovered some great publications that I can refer to in the future such as: School Library Journal, CM Magazine and Quill and Quire for example.

The sixth and final theme of the course was on access, copyright, circulation and promotion of the collection. Having worked in the schools for the past 6 years I feel that I have a fairly good understanding of copyright. In regards of promoting the library collection the first idea that came to mind was doing a book talk. While this is an effective way to promote a book I did pick up some new ideas during the course on how to promote the library collection. For example a teacher librarian can place a bookmarker in a book that highlights it as new or identifies as a student or staff pick can increase circulation of the title. Promoting the collection can also be done by creating or maintaining a web page for the school library. The web page could consist of host links to research sites, short blog videos created by students about what’s new in the library or links to curriculum resources for teachers. I also really liked the idea that Bishop (2007) mentioned in the text on “sponsor(ing) a weekly “where is the principal reading?” contest in which a photo of the principal reading somewhere outside the school is posted” (p. 137).

The mandatory course text “The Collection Program in Schools” by Kay Bishop and the text “Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist” by Ann Rieding have both proved to be invaluable in my studies this term. Written in layman’s language both of the texts both are filled with useful information for evaluating the library collection to how to purchase new items to expand or improve the collection. I also really appreciated the listings of useful websites that both Bishop and Riedling listed. I will be keeping both texts in my collection as references when I ultimately find employment as a teacher librarian.

Learning and growing professionally is an important aspect of the teaching profession. In the six years since I completed my teaching degree I missed the intellectual interaction. I believe that if you are not able to grow as a professional your knowledge becomes stagnate and you end up teaching in a rut. By taking this course I have been able to interact with colleagues that share the same love and interest as I do. Taking the course has also allowed me to keep up-to-date on new research, and to be exposed to new technology tools and curriculum resources. Furthermore I believe that teacher-librarians have an important role to play in the school and can positively impact the experiences that both students and staff have in the school and I believe that this course has given me more in my “tool bag” or tricks.

In closing what I walk away with from this course is the sense that I am a better teacher at the end. Since that is my purpose in taking this additional diploma on top of my teaching degree I feel it has been time and money well spent. Thanks Joanne for your time and effort to create a very comprehensive yet practical course and for answering all of my questions!

References

Bishop, K. (2007). //The Collection Programs In Schools.// Concepts, Practices, And Information Sources (4th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited

Hearsey, B. (2011). //Collection Evaluation//. Unpublished Manuscript

Slote, S. (1997). //Weeding the Collection: Library Weeding Methods// (4th ed.). Englewood.CO: Libraries Unlimited

Rielding, A. (2005). //Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips.(// 2nd ed.) Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing, Inc.

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrived from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_District_36_Surrey