Do We Really Need to Cite our Articles?

That's my final question of the blog. If we need to create a citation page, I certainly will. If James or Sandra can email us through Vista to tell us one way of another, we'll have an answer to that question (which, by the way, I wouldn't classify as ready-reference).

Do We Really Need TL's in our School Libraries?

I have to admit, ever since the first lesson where we had to read the glossary of Riedling's Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist: Tools and Tips (second edition), I was intrigued by the terms 'ready-reference questions' and 'reference interview'. I had questions myself, ready-reference or not. Did we really need terms to identify the simple act of asking a question? Was someone needing more of a challenge in their life that they created these terms? Knowing that students ask ready-reference questions in our school libraries one would actually make the assumption that a school librarian exists. Not so in our school library since May 2008, and not so in all elementary schools in our district as our libraries are only staffed 0.4-0.6 FTE. Most school aged kids know how to get onto the internet. Won't the internet provide an answer to any ready-reference question they have? Most likely, yes. Can't the classroom teachers teach the students how to access information? Hmmm. . . some would think the disappearing act librarians are doing in town would lead us to believe that it's all for good reason, that they are, indeed, redundant.
So I appealed to Catherine Sheldrick Ross and her article 'The Reference Interview: Why it Needs to be Used in Every (Well, Almost Every) Reference Transaction' to find out the answer to my biggest question - Do we really even need teacher librarians?
Among other information, Ross discussed why it's more important now than ever before to have librarians. With the mass volumes of information available, the fact that most initials queries are unfocused and the vocabulary of the information systems, the likelihood of students being able to clarify their question and get to the answer without alot of frustration is slim. Ross says that "...for many users entering a library is like going into a foreign country, where a foreign language is spoken. So rather than ask the user to use the librarian's language and fit their questions into our systems, we should ask them questions that allow them to describe their information need in their own terms and in their native language.".
Students depend on librarians to help them find what they need, and a good librarian will also show a student how to use the system. Developing global thinking students depends on them being able to access global information on their own, but they have to be taught how to use the systems available and most classroom teachers are not as fully qualified as the librarian to teach students these skills. The librarian is the professional and the library is their home ground where they are the experts, Ross says.
With fewer librarians in the schools in this district, at first glance one might believe that it may be because they aren't needed. However, Ross' collected data "...repeatedly showed that the librarian is the key to the information seeking process for users. The solution to current stresses on library systems is not to reduce the human element but to make it stronger, more efficient, and more effective." Students cannot easily use encyclopedias, almanacs, bibliographies, periodicals and other reference materials without having first been taught. Without a librarian, who would fill that gap?
It didn't take reading an article to convince me of the value of teacher librarians. All I need to do is look at the information seeking skills of the students I've taught in recent years. The level of their skills seem to be declining in direct proportion to the decline in teacher librarian FTE's in our district. And while the resources on the shelves and on the computer are vital to their education, as Ross says, "The most important resource of a public or academic library may be the staff who link people with collections, virtual or otherwise." Amen.

It's Difficult to Remember it All

There is so much information in this course and so many interesting and informative postings, it leaves my head a little fuzzy! And that's without the cold one (which I keep on tap until after I'm finished my entries . . . unlike some of my classmates it seems, but who's judging?). I feel the need to put lots of the information into a more easily accessable format for reference. I was perusing Riedling's textbook and saw the great value to a T/L of the evaluation and selection charts scattered throughout the manual. As I will always have the text for future reference (another good reference source!) and to get details when needed, I decided to outline which of the criteria is most important for each of the categories of reference sources detailed. I can always quickly refer to the outline and then use the text to more closely examine what it is about the criteria that is so important to refer to.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Authority
• Frequency
• Organization
• Scope

DIRECTORIES, ALMANACS'

YEARBOOKS, HANDBOOKS

• Accuracy
• Scope
• Currency
• Format

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

• Accuracy
• comprehensiveness
• Cost
• Currency
• Ease of Use

DICTIONARIES AND

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

• Authority
• Accuracy
• Currency
• Format

GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

• Authority
• Currency
• Format
• Indexing
• Scale

For me, this format makes the process of evaluating and selecting any of the resouces listed an easier procedure.