Reflection - The Future - ETL 505

As we move further into the digital age, with an ever increasing amount of digital resources to sift through and search engines to navigate, the need for organising information effectively and efficiently has become extremely important. As students rely more heavily on the Internet to find their information 24/7 we, as Teacher Librarians (TL's), need to be constantly mindful of the way we describe and organise our collections to ensure that they are easily accessible and user friendly. This accessibility relies, to a large extent on an effective, consistent Library catalogue. According to the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (ASLA, 2004), TL's must have a comprehensive understanding of national standards for information retrieval. We must be able to teach our students and colleagues how to access the information that they seek successfully and quickly, not just on the Internet but through our school's OPAC.

Metadata, according to Hider (2012, p. 6) supports the effective access to information resources by identifying resources, grouping resources together, and helping the user determine if that resource can and should be obtained. O'Connell (2013, p. 4) notes that Resource Description Access (RDA), the International cataloguing standard implemented in 2013, "is the new standard for metadata description of resources". She goes on to explain that the power of the RDA comes from the fact that it takes into account the Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records user tasks find, identify, select and obtain and the Functional Requirements for Authority Data user needs of find, identify, contextualise and justify. These models focus on the user and their needs as the starting points. For our students, we need to ensure that our metadata, its elements, values, format and transmission are managed with what works best for them. There are many questions surrounding RDA, its implementation and its future success. As more and more libraries begin to use it, it will be interesting to see the research that is carried out, especially in regards to Bibliographic control.

But how will metadata be used for information retrieval in the future?  What will description and organisation of resources look like in the future in school libraries? Are we heading down the track more towards digital libraries and what does that mean for our students? Budgets may be shrinking, library facilities may be changing but one thing is clear, information is a necessity in the school environment and so it is up to us, the TL to ensure that we provide our students with the skills they need to navigate, find, assess and use information responsibly. After all, providing the lifelong learner with information is what we do.
 


Australian School Library Association (2004). Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx

Hider, P. (2012). Information Resource Description: Creating and managing metadata. London: Facet Publishing.

International Federation of Library Associations (1998). Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. Retrieved from http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf

O'Connell, J. (2013). RDA for school libraries: the next generation in cataloguing. Retrieved from http://heyjude.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/jocrdasept2103.pdf

Study visits

I am currently in the middle of my Professional placement. Whilst reviewing my notes from last week to fill in any gaps next week, I realised that I had not written about my Study visits yet. SIGH! Well, timing was not the best for the Study visits, Week 8, Term 3. Not much you can do about that so I wrote up teaching notes for the casual teacher and toodled off to Sydney for the 4 days. Traffic was shocking but I got to meet up with some of the names that I had 'met' through the various TL forums. Since I am short on time (1 Report, 1 assignment, finish off my Reflective portfolio, a teaching program to write, books to cover, finalise birthday plans for my daughter, 2 loads of washing and some ironing to do.......), I have copied an excerpt from my Reflective Portfolio to include here:
The study visits were inspirational and gave me lots of ideas. During the four days I only visited one school library as I thought that the whole idea was to have a look at different settings and different librarians. That visit in itself though was amazing. The Senior Librarian who, much like me is a reader first and loves to inspire those around her to read, gave practical ideas that you could use immediately. She was not big on displays but the displays that she had targeted the learners and readers. Her mantra is "build relationships first" and I could really relate to that. The other thing that I learned from her was about validity. I had learned about in some of the subjects but hearing how she uses statistics to validate her choices was important for me to hear. She is the epitome of a fabulous TL and I was so happy to have had the chance to learn from her.  I am now going back and documenting what has happened in the Library this year in regards to new books catalogued, morning visitors, books left on tables after lunch etc.  I have also looked at my Library system and worked out exactly how to compile some different statistics. I plan to use them in an infograph (like the one shown at TAFE-NSW - Ultimo) to take to the Principal to discuss the success of the Library this year. 

TL 505 - Hider text

I am feverishly working to finish my MedTL this year and have lots of juggling to do to say the least! Reading the Hider text is making me wonder if I am actually going to pass this subject (I am only in Module 1!) as I have had to read, re-read and then re-read my re-reading to make sense of it all. 

I will try to outline some of my understanding:
* Metadata (aka indexing, cataloguing or bibliographic data) has 4 aspects:
Elements - which describe attributes (author's name, title, subject etc.)
Values - words or numbers/content
Format - description needed to be compatible with the system you are working with
Transmission - the way it is linked to the metadata item
* In different information contexts, different elements, values and formats can come into play depending on environmental factors, characteristics of the users, technology and information resources.
* Haynes(2004) describes metadata as having 5 purposes - resource description, information retrieval, resource management, authenticity and ownership and interoperability

* Organising information resources to improve access to them involves; categorising, labelling and indexing

*  FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records) 4 User Tasks: 
Find - use attributes to FIND a record of this book
Identify - IDENTIFY the  predetermined resource
Select - used when a user doesn't know the particular resource they are looking for
Obtain - Use the location to find and borrow/buy the resource

Holidays - yay!

After a grueling 11 week term, school holidays are finally here. Hooray. Now it is time for me to buckle down and make sure that I have everything in order....
*Study visit organised and paperwork sent - check (but not going until early September)
*Placement organised and paperwork sent - check (but not going until late September/early October) - Problem #1 - Study visit and placement within weeks of each other
*Reflective portfolio underway - check (but just barely!)
Now to organise my Term 2 teaching program and assessments, Book Week activities and assembly, Premier's Reading Challenge bits and pieces, keep the kids amused, celebrate Easter, go away for a few relaxing days..........
Problem #2 -  There are only 2 weeks to do it all! Sigh.............

Busy, busy, busy

Last year I applied for an 8 week position as a Teacher Librarian in a local Primary school. I was offered the position and things really took off from there. It gave me the chance to use the knowledge that I had learned through my MedTL course and run with it. I enjoyed my time immensely and learned so much about staff dynamics, the need for advocacy of the TL position and the Destiny system and all it's pros and cons. The time went by too fast and in my last week I learned that the TL had decided to retire. The job was advertised as temporary part-time for 2014. Thankfully I got the position and am now doing something that I really love.

Thus the reason for few posts on my blog. I have now started the downhill run on my Masters with only two subjects left. For the next two semesters I  have both a job placement and a study visit that need to be completed and since I am a TL in a school, I am exempt from a school placement. I have decided to approach the University and see if I can work there. My problem, I must undertake this during school holiday time. :(  That means I have to push back my study visit until September. This is going to be one busy, busy year!

Children's literature and child development

Just coming up for air after handing in Assignment 1b and thought I'd post a few things I've learned so far in this unit with regards to children's literature and child development.
* Rosenblatt's theory of reader response is an excellent guide to how a child will respond to a book. There are two types of responses to a text-
1) efferent responses in which readers are reading for information, looking for answers within the literature, drawing conclusions and generating opinions from what they have read and                                        
2) aesthetic responses which are more emotionally based and ask the reader to communicate how they felt or what they experienced as they were reading a text.

* Erikson's 8 stages of development can help with book selection: (only looking at the first 5 stages)
1) Trust vs mistrust (birth- 1and1/2yrs.) - books about parents bonding with children
2) Autonomy vs shame (1 and 1/2 - 3yrs) - books about independence
3) Initiative vs guilt (3-5yrs) - books about mastering skills, demonstrating responsibility and sense of purpose, children and increasing initiative
4) Industry vs inferiority (5-12 yrs) - books about developing new relationships beyond the family, positive peer relationships, adventure and intrigue, world around them
5) Identity vs identity confusion (Adolescence) - books about coming of age, searching for own identity etc.

* Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development:
1) Sensory motor
2) Pre-operational (2-7 yrs) - look for stories about relationships, constructive play, asking questions, following rules, make-believe
3) Concrete - operational (7-11 yrs) - stories about problem solving, combining ideas to solve problems, mentally retracing steps, how appearances can be deceiving
4) Formal - operational (11 -    ) - books with themes about abstract and logical thinking

Children's Literature - ETL402 - the beginning!

This week I started the subject that I have been most looking forward to in this entire course, Children's Literature. I have always had a love of picture books and sharing my favourite books with my own kids has been a lot of fun. We have all come to love The Jolly Postman series by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Surprisingly though, my love of the Hairy Maclary series (I love the rhyme, rhythm and illustrations) has stopped at me. My son, from early on has shown a love for Pamela Allen and will still occasionally bring home one even though he is nearly 9 and they aren't in his "section" of the school library. My daughter is more of a mystery when it comes to books. Early on she liked any character that she saw on tv that was on the cover of a book, now, at 5 and a half there is no one author in particular she just likes any book about fairies or princesses. 

Some of the readings for ETL 402 deal with the history of children's literature and this, which I thought was going to be quite boring and tiresome, turned out to be very interesting. 
Some highlights are:  
* Middle Ages - stories were passed down orally and acted out in plays
* 1440's - Gutenberg invented the printing press
* 1476 - Caxton introduced the printing press to England
* 1500's - Illustrations began to accompany text
* 1689 - 1800's - The New England Primer, that taught the alphabet and lesson in morality, became popular and is thought to have sold between 6 to 8 million copies
* 1697 - Charles Perrault published French fairy tales titled "Tales of Mother Goose" and children started to read for enjoyment
* Early 1770's - adventure books became popular with Robinson Crusoe (DeFoe, 1719) and Gulliver's Travels (Swift, 1726) being published
* 1744 - Newberry published "A Pretty Little Pocketbook", written and illustrated exclusively to entertain and teach children. Illustrations became coloured, not woodcut.
* 1812 - Grimm brothers published their book of fairy tales
* 1846 - Lear published the first book of limericks and humour, "The Book of Nonsense"
* From 1860's genres in children's literature began expanding with stories about , family (Little Women by Alcott in 1867); animals (The Jungle Book by Kipling in 1894); fantasy ( Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Carroll in 1865); science fiction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Verne in 1870); and poetry ( A Child's Garden of Verse by Stevenson in 1885).
* 1860's - Evans mastered mutiblock wood engraving and colour printing became less expensive and picturebooks for children began being published
* 1906 - Anderson's original fairy tales were published
* Early 1900's - separate divisions for children's literature were created in publishing houses. Children's rooms were created in libraries
* 1920's - Book week was established
* Late 1920's - children's books cost aproximately $2 and were usually onlt bought as Christmas or birthday presents. Simon Shuster began publishing Golden books for 25c
* 1930's - the offset press which developed. This enabled books to be printed in colour, inexpensively and in large quantities
* 1934 - comic books were introduced and crossword puzzle books began to be published
* 1950's - information books flooded the market
* 1971 - Scholastic began to market book clubs to Australian schools
* 1980's - Children's books were linked with popular tv shows and videos and audio tapes were released 
* 1990's - digital books began to emerge

(Information from: Barone, D. M. (2011). A brief history of children's literature. Children's literature in the classroom : engaging lifelong readers (pp. 8-19). New York: Guilford Press and Madej, K. (2003). Towards digital narrative for children: from education to entertainment, a historical perspective. ACM Computers and Entertainment, Vol. 1, No. 1.)