Let's Taco 'Bout Blog #3

The various sections of reference materials are important to analyze. Coming into this course I thought of reference materials as the one shelf where you held the old World Book Encyclopedia collection. Now I see the depth and usefulness of having up-to-date and age appropriate materials in our reference section. Theme 3 covered the various print and online materials that make up our reference materials.

Bibliographies are an area that I think our library has the potential to grow into. I like Riedling’s definition of bibliographies, that they “organize the chaos of information published”. I feel that this is what I needed before I became the librarian and started to see more value in the library. Most teachers like organization, many teachers I have encountered are type A personalities who have their lessons and units planned weeks in advance. In comparison, there are also teachers who are more like me, who have things planned but often change their lesson “on the fly”. Both types of teachers would benefit from having access to a librarian made bibliography. Our online OPAC system allows the librarian or teachers to create a custom-made bibliography to suit a certain lesson, topic or unit. In our school, we know that each year the grade 5 class will be learning about the Canadian government. Since this is a yearly occurrence it would be beneficial to have a ready-made bibliography that has fiction, non-fiction, picture books and websites ready for the teacher to use. This library resource would be a time saver for both the teacher and the librarian (once it was made).

Atlases are something that I struggle with in our library. I struggle with this section because I see how underused and undervalued atlases are in our school. Most of the atlases that we have in our school are ones that I used when I was in elementary school 20 years ago. A lot has changed since then and students deserve to have up to date print information. We have recently weeded our atlas section so I know that I must put aside my personal biases and spend money on updating this section of our library. Using this resource and online resources will provide our students with satisfactory atlas access.

            Wikipedia… Oh Wikipedia. I remember in university that professors often said “Do not use Wikipedia as a source.” and yet what did me and I assume countless others do? We used Wikipedia. I was glad to see that studies have shown that the facts on Wikipedia are accurate. Knowing this I think that for an elementary school, most students who stumble upon Wikipedia because it is often the first hit in a Google search. Research on an animal, a country our person will provide students with the facts they need to complete their research or inquiry project. Although I think that students will find information better suited to them by using non-fiction books or our online World Book Database, as the creator of Wikipedia Sandra Ordonez said it is a great place to “start your research”. 

(Michael Scott knows how awesome Wikipedia is!)

Overall I have gained a better perspective on how to build, highlight and incorporate the reference materials into our library. I think this will benefit our whole school I grow our reference materials.

References:

Riedling, Ann Marlow. Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist: Tools and Tips. Linworth Books, 2005.

Let's Taco 'Bout Assignment #3

The reference area that we will be focusing on in at our library is the atlas section.

Evaluation

When looking at the Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada we can look at their standards to determine where our school library is on the spectrum of expectations. I have adapted these standards into a table to see the growth that we will be accomplishing through this process of revamping our atlas resources.

This is our current state of our library concerning atlases.

Standard	Below	Acceptable	Exemplary
Materials support areas of the curriculum.	X
Materials meet student needs or interest.	X
Materials meet teacher’s needs or interests.	X
Balance between print, non-print, and electronic resources.	X
Resources are current and in good shape.	X
The budget is sufficient.		X
Materials are catalogued, inventoried, organized and circulated though the school library and are available to all users.		X

When looking at this table you can see that our school is underperforming in the atlas area. It has been neglected for various reasons such as, the current materials are old, their location in the library is inconvenient, the materials are not kid friendly and teachers did not see a curricular value in the materials we do have. When looking at Riedling, I think that an important point is made when considering our atlas section and the format of our materials. She states that we should look how “the format of an atlas deals with the intended audience.”. Our current atlas selection is intended for a higher-grade level. We are a K-5 school and these in-depth atlases are big, bulky, hard to read and uninteresting for most our students. The concepts covered in these atlases may be interesting to a select few students however they are not what teachers or students need to support them and the curriculum.

Rationale

The atlases in our reference section are in desperate need for a change. They are currently not able to help students or teachers and therefore they are obsolete for our school. This change is essential because students need access to current and relevant information that atlases can provide. All our students from K-5 could find a curricular use for an atlas if we provided them with age appropriate materials.

Some of the curricular connections include:

Grade	Curricular Content
K	• People, places, and events in the local community, and in local First Peoples communities.
1	• Natural and human-made features of the local environment.
2	• Diverse features of the environment in other parts of Canada and the world.
3	• Relationship between humans and their environment. • Major local landforms.
4	• Early contact, trade, cooperation, and conflict between First Peoples and European peoples. • Physiographic features and natural resources of Canada. • Biomes as large regions with similar environmental features.
5	• The changing nature of Canadian immigration over time. • Resources and economic development in different regions of Canada. • First Peoples land ownership and use • The nature of sustainable practices around BC’s resources.

https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/social-studies

 https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science

The amount that atlases could be used by both students and teachers is seen in every grade in the Social Studies curriculum and can be used in the higher grades in the Science curriculum. Looking at these connections you can also see how the atlases would be used. They are no longer used for the traditional fill in the map and colour activities. Atlases can be used to learn about landforms, biomes, immigration and much more. Riedling’s evaluation points for atlases asks if the materials are reputable, use various scales, current, age appropriate format and an easy to use index. Currently we have few atlases that meet these criteria. Having access to reputable, current and age appropriate atlases will benefit all the students in our school.

Our electronic resources are sufficient as we have access to Google Maps and a World Book online subscription. As a result, I will be focusing on print materials in order to create a balance between our print and electronic resources.

The Plan

The plan to update our atlas section will include multiple steps. This change will take place over the next few years because of the consideration of the cost of reputable and current atlases. Both the teacher-librarian and the library-technician will be involved in the following plan. We will be using the “Stages in collection development” that is adapted from School Libraries in Canada, 2002. The timeline for this plan is for it to be completed within 5 years of the start date.

1.     Analysis of existing collection.

a.     Assessing the current atlases using Riedling’s evaluation points.

2.     Weed atlases that do not meet our district weeding guidelines.

a.     Our district recommends that books with the Dewy Classification of 000 be weeded every 3-10 years. (Weeding Guidelines and De-Selection Criteria, 2017)

3.     Weed atlases that do not meet Riedling’s evaluation points.

4.     Identification of needs.

a.     Look at curricular, teacher and student needs.

5.     Budget

a.     We will allocate $100 a year for 5 years towards new atlases. This will be reassessed after 5 years to evaluate the continuation, change or stopping of this program.

6.     Selection and Acquiring of New Resources.

a.     The teacher librarian and library technician will work together to find atlases that meets the needs of the atlas section.

7.     Promoting the New Resources

a.     Introduce signage so students and teachers know where to find atlases.

b.     Display new atlases that are coming into the library.

c.     Do a lesson on atlases with each class to introduce the section and what you can find in an atlas.

8.     Ongoing Maintenance of Resouces.

a.     Continue to weed and use our allocated $100 to purchase new atlases.

This change will be communicated to staff during our monthly staff meetings. The teacher librarian is on the agenda every month and will update staff on how the new and old atlases can assist them and their students with various curricular connections.

The success of this plan will be assessed after 5 years. We will use the same standards that were used to determine our current below acceptable standing towards atlases. To be deemed successful we will have 6/7 of the standards in the acceptable or exemplary columns.

References:

Asselin, Marlene, et al. Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada. Canadian School Library Association, 2003.

“BC's New Curriculum.” Social Studies | Building Student Success - BC's New Curriculum, curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/social-studies.

“BC's New Curriculum.” Social Studies | Building Student Success - BC's New Curriculum, curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science.

Doiron, Ray. School Libraries in Canada, 2002. Vol. 21, No. 4 and Ministry of Education materials

Riedling, Ann Marlow. Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist: Tools and Tips. Linworth Books, 2005.

Weeding Guidelines and De-Selection Criteria. Langley School District #35, 2017.