Avoid censorship by stealth

When selecting resources, the TL must be careful to ensure selection doesn’t become censorship, either according to the beliefs of the TL or any other member of the school community.  Remember the educational purpose of resources selected for the school collection and ensure a balanced collection results.

 

Suggestions for ensuring selections decisions are accountable include keeping records of sources and recommendations, communicate with teachers and school executive to ensure clear understanding of needs and decision making process, recognise parent concerns or desires in context of the needs of the entire school community. 

Selection Aids

Selection aids assist librarians in knowing what resources are appropriate and available. Some examples include:

1.    Promotions from suppliers eg bookshops.

   ·         Sellers visit schools with a selection of resources which permits physical inspection for evaluation prior to purchase.

   ·         Negative aspects of this method include limited range not necessarily suited to needs of the school.

   ·         Online sellers provide access to a greater range of resources, however inspection prior to purchase can be an issue. Examples – ABC, Book Depository, Dymocks, EzyDVD, Wheelers.

   ·         Publisher catalogues and websites – increase awareness of available resources, but may be biased towards own titles eg Australian Children’s television foundation, Curriculum Press, Harper Collins, VEA

2.    Recommendations from teachers, other TLS, students etc

   ·         Useful however need to consider recommender’s experience of the resource, bias and knowledge of alternative resources.

   ·         Professional networks assist sharing of knowledge. Some examples given in module 2 include:

·      OZTL_NET 

·      Delicious

·      Diigo

·      Goodreads     

·      LibraryThing 

·      Scoop.it!

·      Twitter

·      TroveLists 

3.    Bibliographic services eg SCIS, Trove, core collection lists provided by education authorities, subject lists eg from Asia Education Foundation or Premier’s Reading Challenge, or online bibliographies such as Children’s Book of the Year Awards (CBCA), Book Awards and Book Lists (ALA) can all contain information on useful titles for schools.

4.    Reviews – print or online, reviews are important for their educational focus eg SCAN, Magpies. Others including Inside a Dog, ReadPlus, Resource Reviews (NSW DET), The Source (Magpies) contain useful reviews for libraries. Good Reads and LibraryThing are other online reviewing sites with recommendations, however may need to check for sponsored or biased reviews.

When choosing selection aids, points to consider:

·         look for reviews that evaluate resources and provide alternatives to assist in selection decisions,

·         information regarding the relative value of the resource,

·         choose broad range to ensure a balanced library collection

·         remember professional knowledge of the school and community

When selecting resources, 3 levels of selection criteria apply.

1.      Broad selection criteria – refer to the overarching principles regarding purpose and content considered when selecting any resource eg direct relationship to the curriculum, inclusive for all students, appropriate for age group, balanced views represented.

2.      General selection criteria – decision making applied to all resources surrounding the “authority, physical format and technical quality, arrangement of content, appropriateness, currency, cost, availability, format, inclusion of controversial material”. This criteria is sometimes criticised for failing to focus on teaching and learning approaches of the school.

Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005, p. 47) provide a set of general selection criteria.

3.      Specific selection criteria – are applied to specific resource formats eg fiction, DVDS, nonfiction, websites, and are designed with the particular characteristics of that format in mind

Reference:

Developing collections to support teaching and learning [ETL 503 Module 2]. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/ETL503_201330_W_D/page/cc27bbe6-e6e0-4c57-0010-f556b9fde7d2

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. Chicago: American Library Association.

Social Content Curation - which tool is best?

Social content curation refers to collection, organisation and categorisation of the increasing amount of information available online. 

Potential online tools for this purpose include:

·      Pinterest - is a visually appealing dite for a type of online corkboard for storing selected resources. It is easy for users to locate desired information

·      Scoop.it - often used by professionals, this is a good way of sharing and learning professional information

·      Learn.ist

·      Tumblr

·      Storify

·      EduClipper

·      Diigo and Delicious allow online bookmarking of sites. Diigo allows sites to be highlighted and sticky noted to point out significant information and content can be easily tagged for retrieval and sharing.

·      LibGuides is a commercial site which can also be used here. LibGuides are useful for the library as can be used as a teaching tool such as creating pathfinders for tasks as well as library curation. 

Whilst the ease of use and visual appeal of online bookmarking sites provide significant benefits for libraries and learners, several issues exist. The ability to quickly ‘grab’ online content to store on personal sites, has been argued to encourage copyright violations (Educause, 2012, p. 2). Further, the lack of privacy controls on many sites and the inability to restrict access to the site, pose potential problems for libraries to consider (Educause, 2012, p. 1-2).

From module 2, when selecting a curation tool, important considerations include:

• Tags – is it easy
• Ability to post to multiple channels
• Is it possible to provide comments, evaluations or reviews and is there space available
• Can images be posted easily
• Can licence information be labelled clearly and easily
• Available as an app for curation on the go on a mobile device
• Compatibility with devices and browsers used by students and staff
• Is it visually appealing to users

Reference:

Developing collections to support teaching and learning [ETL 503 Module 2]. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/ETL503_201330_W_D/page/cc27bbe6-e6e0-4c57-0010-f556b9fde7d2

7 Things You Should Know About … Social Content Curation. (2012). Educause. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7089.pdf

Social Content curation - LibGuides

LibGuides is a commercial site is used successfully by school libraries for content curation. The library can customise the site including school identification such as crests and images, as well as colour schemes and layout as desired. A range of widgets can be added to personalise the site, one of which can show where users are accessing the site from across the globe, providing an interesting point for students. Links to the school catalogue and databases are also useful so that students can have access to school purchased resources as well as selected online resources to provide balance.

LibGuides are useful for the library as can be used as a teaching tool such as creating pathfinders for class tasks as well as library curation.  As this happens, students become familiar with the site increasing ease of use when locating information.

The Brisbane Grammar School LibGuide is one excellent example of the usefulness of this tool for content curation.

Ebooks pros and cons

Ebooks provide users with a range of new functionalities not possible with print books.  Whilst highlighting text is possible with both, the ability to add or remove highlights is useful.  Additionally the ability to search, look up definitions, link to further information on the author or the text, create and possibly share annotations is useful.  As many devices are backlit, the need for additional lighting is negated. Being able to increase font sizes and use text to speech functions are beneficial for special needs students. 

For libraries, cost savings per book and reduced physical storage space required are advantages.  The option to email links or enable users to directly access ebooks in the library collection directly to devices, regardless of where and when required is also positive.

As e-readers can store a large number of texts, this can be both advantageous and disadvantageous, if the device fails and the stored items are lost. Thus regular backup is required, as is regular charging or battery changing.  The devices are often costly and can be damaged more easily than books. The weight of some devices and the lack of standard formats between devices are also noted as issues.

As a key consideration is the benefit to users, Young’s (2009) research that 40% of college students using e-devices studied less combined with Follett’s (2006) findings that e-readers are difficult to read, lead to eye-strain, and most importantly “slower reading and less information retention” (as cited by Gray, 2010, p. 24), the benefits to students for educational purposes are questionable.

References: 

Gray, M. (November, 2010). I-tune, e-book, u-learn with laptops. Scan, 29(4), 22-24.

Ebook image photo credit Jorghex (15 September 2007), available http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EBookreal.jpg

Ebooks or Pbooks or information

Much debate exists about the current and future need for school libraries. School libraries are faced with changes in technology, student learning styles, teaching methods and curriculum, as well as the increasing use of digital resources in place of print collections. Due to the increased access of students and teachers to mobile devices and wireless technologies, there has been some move by schools to remove physical school libraries in favour of virtual collections, where staff and students have online access to e-resources.

Such moves have been met with mixed success from parents, students, staff and executives.  In some cases the change has been successfully implemented, as shown by greater use of resources by students and required physical resources rehoused as appropriate.  The ability to access information anywhere has been significantly well received.  Careful planning of the change including selection of effective providers and staff development seem key in this change.

Other situations (such as the Windsor Catholic schools study) have not welcomed the move to abandon physical school libraries. Whilst the needs for ensuring libraries meet current student needs, including developing inquiry and ICT skills required for 21 century learning, the decision to remove print collections has not always been successful.  Ensuring a balance between achieving modernisation whilst also providing students with a love of reading was an important goal of libraries here.

When debating between ebooks and print books, I agree with Christopher Harris’ argument. It is the information contained in the resource rather than the format of the resource that is important. The role of the librarian is to introduce learners to that information in whatever format best suits the learner and the context. It may be that textbooks in ebook format provide learners with improved scope for learning through the features they provide. Reading fiction texts in ebook format may be useful for ESL students who can immediately access definitions of words, however when reading for pleasure students may prefer print books.  It is the context and needs of the user that must be the focus. Whether the TL personally prefers reading print books or writing with pen and paper instead of blogging or other methods of communication becomes immaterial. Further, consideration needs to be given to what formats of information are available.

When making the choice between formats, the TL could also be guided by the SAMR Model below.  Is the move to ebooks merely substitution or augmentation of print books or is there some transformation taking place. For example, are the readers using functions that allow them to contribute their thoughts on the book with other readers?

Image credit: Dr Ruben R. Puentedura, found at Blog: http://hippasus.com/rrpweblog/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

The key point is to ensure the information is available to the learner/ teacher as required and in the format that best suits the teaching and learning needs. Then the TL becomes important in being able to guide inquiry, to develop students’ critical thinking skills and ethical use of information resources and social networking tools.  It is this aspect of the role where the future of the TL needs to be focused ie bring out the T for teacher as well as the L for librarian.

Reference:

Harris, Christopher. "The future is boundless: what do libraries mean in the absence of books?" School Library Journal Aug. 2010: 12. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 7 Mar. 2013.

Libraries to return to Windsor Catholic schools. (2011, November, 15).CBC News Canada, Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2011/11/15/wdr--catholic-libraries.html

Puentedura, Dr R. P., (2012, August 23), The SAMR Model: Background and Exemplars, Ruben R. Puentedura’s Weblog, found at http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/000073.html

Digital Literacy

In this subject I am hoping to learn more about developing students’ digital literacy skills, particularly in terms of effective and appropriate use of research material online.

With the increased use of the internet as a source of information, there is scope for students to download information without processing that information and without an understanding of their ethical responsibilities to the owner of that information.  Similarly, as student learning is increasingly demonstrated online, we as teachers need to be confident that when uploading information to the internet, students possess the appropriate digital literacy skills to ensure they are acting ethically.

So I am interested in the responsibilities of the school, its teachers and students to develop these skills and effective ways for embedding digital literacy skills into the curriculum being delivered throughout the school.