Library information services

This week we reflect on library information services

I think of a reference interview as a first contact with a librarian about information needs. But is this changing? In my youth the school librarian was often a feared figure, the keeper of knowledge, arbiter of noise, a disapproving eye. I can remember trawling through the handwritten catalogue cards rather than asking this figure asking for help finding information. Thankfully those days have passed and a large portion of the librarians role is actually making sense of the information needs of the library users - both physically and digitally (Janes, 2008).
The digital reference service is an interesting idea, I was told recently (by a friend doing the TAFE library diploma) that in places like the UK this is becoming one of the main services provided by some libraries and that if you submit your info request after library hours it gets forwarded to the US so that it can be returned within a short period of time!

In terms of providing information services in school i think the 5 key areas for teacher librarians are as follows:
- selecting resources that support teaching and learning needs (after all that's our main purpose in a school)
- assistance in developing information skills (so students can use these resources effectively)
- ensuring maximum access to resources (this would also encompass the organisational and cataloguing aspects of resources for without these how can you maximise access?)
- focal point for learning (because we need libraries to be this to ensure their survival, this naturally would include ITC access and providing appropriate environment)
- information tools and services (including community networks and resources)

We were also asked to reflect on School Community Profiles. The notion of the school community profile is consistent with Bishop (2007) and others who discuss the need for resources to match the characteristics and needs of the users. In particular Bishop advocates such a community profile as a way of understanding needs and characteristics as well as developing an understanding of community resources and networks. This kind of information allows TLs to tailor the resources to meet the information needs of the school community they service


As for web learning, this is an increasing part of the TL role and when done well websites and wikis can provide a great tool for students to access information and resources and interact and collaborate. As for the argument of wikis vs web - i'm all web! I think Valenza's (2010) arguments being pro-wiki, are outdated. All her arguments for wikis are equally applicable to websites. Web host and design providers such as weebly and webs (as mentioned by Herring) mean that all those capabilities mentioned by Valenza can be done on a website without having the need to understand or write code - and I think websites have greater design flexibility than wikis.

Bishop, K. (2007). Community analysis and needs assessment. In The collection program in schools : concepts, practices and information sources (4th ed.) (pp. 19-24). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

Janes, J. (2008). An Informal History (and Possible Future) of Digital Reference.

Valenza, J. (2010) Ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki.

Students and web use

This week I am reminded of the need to teach information skills across curriculum and certainly not in isolation or just in the library, particularly as it appears that these skills are not necessarily as transferable as we might like (Herring 2010). It also reinforced that students rely on the capabilities of search engines more than they should (Chung and Neuman, 2007 and Kuiper et. al. 2008). Herring's question formulation paper also made me think that perhaps I haven't paid enough attention to the different tools and processes we can employ in defining our information needs.

The Kuiper et.al (2008) research also raised some interesting points about reading skills when seeking information on websites. For example, that less appropriate reading skills were employed when students were unsure if a site was relevant. I contemplating this, I wonder how much of an impact the perception of "speed' and "ease" of search engines and the pursuit "the right answer" affects this. Its interesting that our online patience appears to be shorter while our expectations, particularly in a search engine's ability to find what we want may be higher.

I am conscious of my own patterns of behaviour when searching for information of the distraction of following threads in pursuit of 'unique' information and the ahhh factor of those serendipitous finds. I am reminded of the value of planning searches and understanding your information needs.... I just need to remember this when it comes time for my next assignment.

Chung, J. and Neuman, D. (2007) High school students' information seeking and use for class projects. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(10), 1503-1517.

Herring, J. (2010) School students, question formulation and issues of transfer: a constructivist grounded analysis. Libri, 60(3) 218-229.

Kuiper, E., Volman, M. and Terwel, J. (2008) Students' use of Web literacy skills and strategies: searching, reading and evaluating Web information. Information Research, 13(3).

connected learning? Is it possible

I thought this was an interesting premise - or goal for the future of education. Its exciting ...but technology changes so fast and today's connection trends may be different tomorrow - think my space to facebook, or tumblr to instagram, some suggest that twitter may not be relevant in 3 years. But whatever the interface connectivity is here and if we want to remain relevant then we need to integrate and tap into student's interests and preferred ways of connecting and communicating.


access this and more at Connected Learning Infographic | Connected Learning

ETL501 assignment 1

This week it's full on assignment time - the main thrust is to look at criteria to evaluate websites. Part of the assessment was critically evaluating 2 criteria. In some ways the terminology, number of website evaluation guides and the concept of what constituted a set of criteria was harder conceptually than the actual evaluation we were required to do.

Partly this was due to the fact the assessment was open to interpretation about if we were analysing criteria for students to use or criteria for teacher-librarians. It was further complicated by authors such as Schrock who has the 5Ws - which are mainly directed at students, then also has a series of survey checklists (which look a lot like criteria) that are developed for both students and teachers and then also has her ABCs of website evaluation which looks like 26 criteria!!

Our lecturer suggested that partly the confusion on forums is a result of MASS (mature Age Student Syndrome) I think I have to agree - sometimes i'm quite clear about what I'm doing then read a post and am totally confused and unsure.... anyway...

In the end I evaluated Herring (2011) and ALSC (1997). Herring's strength is ultimately in that it is designed for teacher-librarians and puts education first, however, I think that his technical criteria are underdeveloped. Conversely the ALSC is strong on technical but weak on content and education. My position is that there is no definitive set of criteria. To make any evaluation worthwhile both the learners and educational context need to be considered and that means adjusting some of the criteria when looking at achieving a particular knowledge construct or product.

Schrock, K. (2002-12). Critical Evaluation of a Website: websites for Use by Educators. Retrieved http://kathyschrock.net/eval/pdfs/evalteacher.pdf

Herring, J. (2011). Improving Students’ Web use and Information Literacy: A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Librarians. London: Facet Publishing

Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) - American Library Association (1997). Great websites for kids Selection Criteria. Retrieved http://www.ala.org/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesforkids/greatwebsites

searching

This week we explore search engines.
After reading about various search engines and the algorithms they use, I came away realising I am a lazy searcher. I have since been more conscious about what search engine i'm using and are employing better search techniques - using advanced searches, domains and " " more often than I used to and adding the - where appropriate!

Using a site such as Beaucoup can be advantageous in choosing the right search engine for the job .... but even though the 3 click rule has been dispelled, a one stop search shop like google does have appeal to the lazy searcher.

To test how well some search engines performed, a search on term "volcanoes school" was done. It was an enlightening. I tested different search engines gathered from the beaucope site but many of the results very very unpromising despite some being supposed to be educational search engines.

I enjoyed watching the videos on the knowledge 2.0 Livebinder site and spent a lot of time exploring different aspects of this site and the websites and information attached. I highly recommend it to everyone!

My favourite 'new' (to me) search engine is Wolfram Alpha - i like facts and calculations (though would have liked to know more about where they pull individual information from.

I guess the main point is that there are many different search engines and as an information professional you need to be aware of what's out there and hone your information and searching skills all the time......

no more lazy searching people

information resources

In every subject at least once come the question of the relevance of the library and the future of books. This week we explore the relevance and future of reference materials and if the internet will make them superfluous in physical formats.

In terms of the library itself everyone in my family borrows regularly from both school and local library so i'm not imagining its demise right away - i think a library is more than books its also a community place! Follow this link to a piece by Zadie Smith on libraries
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/02/north-west-london-blues/

My comments in brief:

Reference sections - I think physical will decline over time especially as encyclopedias like Britannica are available online. I liked the way VERSO (http://learn.quinnipiac.edu/verso/versomain.html) organised their reference section online and although the interface is a little clunky it is a familiar and less daunting way of browsing a reference section - goodness knows sometimes finding the right journal in our CSU library catalogue can be hard even when you know the name of the one you want - try find Access just for fun!.

We also discussed Wikipedia - i admit to using it - but usually only to find out things like what other movies an actor has been in. But agree with the blog sentiment that it's fine as long as you know its not a reliable peer reviewed resource. Having said that I would never use it for academic work!

Dictionaries - there's still merit to physical ones. After all we sometimes need to clarify meanings, pronunciations etc when we are not online.

Atlas - think you need to know why you want to use the Atlas first.... is it to find animal populations, topography, population etc - each different use probably has a more relevant atlas available.. and probably online provides more options that physical formats can

First impressions ETL501

Well, so far this unit seems to be the most well organised yet. There are plenty of resource materials and assignment stuff already and the forums are being made more manageable - albeit requiring more input than i usually provide! The assignments look relevant and have already started thinking about the final one - though have yet to start readings or get onto other stuff so maybe jumping the gun! But here's to a successful unit all round.... ETL501 here I come