Hey everyone. My name is Jen and
I am a teacher-librarian and grade 4/5 teacher in the Langley School District. At
our school we have not had a teacher librarian for over 10 + years. This year I
decided to take teacher-librarian courses and filled that position when it
opened in September. The weeding that happened during the no teacher-librarian
time was minimal. As a result I, a brand new librarian, walked into a large
mountain of reference books. At one time our school was a K-7 Elementary school
with a late French Immersion program, now we are an English K-5 school. This
switch has left our school with a ton of books and reference materials that are
no longer useful to our current clientele. For example many of our books are at
a reading level that is too high for most of our students and they are
out-dated according to our district weeding guidelines. I am facing this
challenge head on during my two days a week in the library.
I related to our course material
when they talked about the frustration that students and teachers face when
doing research projects in class. Over my 5 years of teaching I was never told
that we have online databases that our school district provides or that the
library tech would help me find appropriate research materials. It wasn’t until
I became a teacher-librarian that I suddenly became Simba seeing all of the
land that the light touches and all of the materials that I now had access too.
This school library would not be considered a “successful reference services”
according to Riedling. There was no knowledge of the collection (print or
online) and there was little communication between the library and the rest of
the staff. (Riedling, p. 4) I hope to change all of this by communicating with my staff about
the new reference materials I am bringing in and sharing the good materials
that we already have. I will use the Evaluation Process that Riedling discusses
and follow the 6 areas (Content Scope, Accuracey, Arrangement, Relation to
Similar Words, Timeliness and Cost) to ensure that I am finding quality works
for my students. (Riedling, p.21-23)
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| https://imgflip.com/i/23h1rs Riedling, Ann Marlow. Reference skills for the school library media specialist: tools and tips. Linworth Books, 2005. |
A good positive start to the course with a short reflection and big picture discussion of all the new things you can do to support your school community and collection. You have described a big challenge ahead, with limited time and not a lot of support. I think you have the right attitude and approach and you will slowly make progress as you adventure through your new land.
ReplyDeleteWow! 10 years with no T-L. I now feel badly complaining about the library I have inherited, as while it's certain that minimal (at best) weeding occured, at least we had a library staffed with a teacher-librarian. I also cannot comprehend dealing with taking this task on and only being present in the library two days per week! I'm sure it feels insurmountable at times as I'm in my library four days a week and still feel as though there are not enough hours in the day. Good on you for having such a positive attitude although I'm sure you're completely overloaded.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Jen on your new adventure, my school also has not had a teacher librarian in over 20 years, we have a librarian assistant, so I am also going through a similar battle with the transition to a learning commons with a lot of resistance from the school community and especially our LA. If you have any tips I am all ears.
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