Final+Reflection

Throughout the LIBE 463 course, I was always surprised at the roles and responsibilities of a Teacher-Librarian. Don't get me wrong, I've been in the education system long enough to realize they are more than glorified, well-paid book-checker-outers, but I had no idea the breadth and depth of what caring for a school library entails. In this final reflection, I intend to highlight the five areas of learning in which I gained the most valuable information about the role of a Teacher-Librarian.

Evaluating and Weeding the Collection:

We use Follett’s “Titlewave” as our program that catalogues our collection and is useful for running reports that identify the overall age of our collection and circulation statistics. However, running those reports I see as a good “start” in terms of identifying what should stay and what should go in the library collection. One of the tools I would create would be some sort of student and teacher media survey that would be useable across a wide range of media. The survey would ask patrons to identify sections of media that are targeted for weeding. Would those patrons use those items? Why or why not? Making media accessible to patrons is another important step in ensuring that books, DVD’s etc. don’t remain uncirculated due to a lack of knowledge as to what is in the library collection. Creating book displays for new and current media will invite patrons to take a look at what is new in the library. In our school, the current T-L advertises new reads through our daily announcements. Besides the title and author, our T-L includes a reader review (even one just from Amazon or the book jacket if he hasn’t read it) that gives the staff and students an idea about what the read is about. Finally, a monthly e-mail identifying what has been recently added to the library collection is sent to all staff. This has been a great way to keep teachers informed about curricular areas that have been updated.

The Teacher Librarian as a Technology "Expert"

Our library houses a full computer lab that has a flexible schedule so that teachers can access it relatively easily through a paper/pen booking sheet system. Currently, teachers are not to book more than 3 classes in a row in the lab. The lab is also used for provincial exam writing and can be accessed throughout the day, before and after school, by students. Much of what goes on with individual students out of regular classes is accessing Facebook and games. There have been issues surrounding the use of Facebook, but I think that adults in the building are recognizing that for our students, Facebook has become the social media tool that encompasses most of their communication needs. Many of the students have but don’t access their e-mail accounts, rather send and receive messages via Facebook. Keeping the lab up-to-date is really a part of our technology staff through the board office, but maintaining the physical facility is part of the teacher-librarian’s duties. I wouldn’t go so far to say that the lab is more frequented than the physical library, however, it is removed from the main library space, so monitoring food and drink and on-line activity can be a bit of an issue. I would make sure that policy surrounding internet use is very clear from the outset. Students must have a parent signature on internet use at the start of their years at Penticton Secondary School. However, that form is only a start in terms of teaching students how to properly research using the internet and maybe more importantly, how to properly and appropriately use social media.

Budgeting

Although as a T-L I won’t have much control over how much money is allocated towards the library, HOW the money is spent will be an important focus. Here, staying on top of what is used and what is sitting, collecting dust, will be one important aspect of how funds should be spent. Therefore, weeding on a regular basis must occur, based on circulation statistics, student surveys, the relative age (for non-fiction particularly) and physical condition of media. Before spending money on what is the newest technology (i.e. e-readers, play-aways, etc), it will be important to research for cost effectiveness and most importantly, avoid the “planned obsolescence” of new technology. For example, our librarian assistant ran into some difficulties with our libraries Kindles as some bought titles could not be downloaded on all twelve of the e-readers. Issues such as copyright, etc can be costly, and in order to ensure money is well targeted, good amounts of in-depth research must go into the acquisition of new media.

Promoting the Library

Our library already has a well-used website, however I would want to add other features to that site, such as a blog and book review page that would allow patrons to share their thoughts about our library, recent reads, author visits, etc. Since our students (and many staff) access information on-line, I would also want to create a Facebook page for the library that would be easy for patrons to “friend” or “like”. Simple updates to new and hot fiction, resources, author visits, etc could be easily advertised on that page. Throughout the school, bulletin boards are already used for library “news”, so that would continue and be enhanced.

Being Part of a Collaborative Team

A) Colleagues In order to be valuable to my colleagues as a TEACHER-librarian, it will be important to familiarize myself with the curricular goals of the main subject areas in our high school. Although this may take time, perhaps it would be wise to chunk that learning process into several areas. For instance, take one semester to familiarize, work with, develop a simple research project, find on-line resources, etc for an academic subject like Biology 12. Maybe even working at two academic areas in one semester may be do-able. Like teaching, learning the curricular goals and forming unit plans, research projects, etc. can take years before a mastery level has been achieved, but the process will ultimately help staff and students and allow teachers to see that the T-L is not just a checker out of books! B) Students Becoming familiar with the latest academic on-line resources (i.e. Khan Academy, Google Art Project, etc) would allow the T-L to stay up-to-date with how students are learning and accessing their information. A two-way street, as the T-L demonstrates to students how to access academic peer-reviewed articles on EBSCO host, those same students would share their latest/greatest on-line resources.

In terms of how what I have learned will influence my practice, I suppose the greatest knowledge gained was just how important it is to consider issues of censorship, curricular relevancy, usefulness, etc when determining what stays, what goes, what is ordered, and what new technology is incorporated into the library collection. If and when I do become a Teacher-Librarian, one of my big focuses will be on attaining better knowledge of the high school curriculums for the subject areas taught within the school. This will allow me to define some areas of interest for collection management. In other words, ensuring that the collection meets the needs of students and teachers in academic areas. I can see this process taking a long time, probably several years given the curricular content taught in schools.

In conclusion, LIBE 463 has certainly opened my eyes to the roles and responsibilities of the teacher-librarian. From budget management, to personnel interaction, curriculum collaboration and the overall management of the physical facility and its entire contents, it is easy to see how this career path is much like the classroom teacher's career. The time spent "on the job" would certainly take up many hours of after school time, weekends, summer holidays, etc, ensuring that the library is up-to-date, relevant and meeting the needs of all of its patrons.

Lesley Lacroix