Term 1 for 2024 has wrapped up, so it’s a good time to pause and reflect on my practice so far this year.
Supporting Teaching and Learning
Supporting teaching and learning across the school is a vital aspect of the teacher-librarian’s role and helps us showcase our value to our colleagues. During Term 1 I was able to display this in four key ways: first, through supporting the NAPLAN testing running in the library; second, through supporting the ongoing programming, implementation, and resourcing of the new 7-10 English syllabus; third, through the provision of one-on-one senior mentoring and assessment assistance; and fourth, through the expansion of the Teacher Reference collection.
However, reflecting on my practice in this area reveals that there’s more I could be doing to support teaching and learning across other curriculum areas, especially if I wish to raise the library’s profile amongst the teaching staff. I have recently conducted a significant weeding of our non-fiction resources, so could restock this collection with more relevant, updated texts to support current teaching units across the school. At the moment my information literacy and research skill lessons are one-off bookings, so I could also approach different faculties to embed these skills into their assessment tasks, or create pathfinders to support staff as they guide students through the research process.
I’ve previously put out surveys to my colleagues asking for feedback on what they teach and what resources they’d like to see from me, as well as asked staff to send me their assessment notifications so I can support their faculties with informative displays and assessment help. However, staff responses are always limited, revealing that when teachers are under the pump and feeling the pressure of heavy workloads they’re unlikely to prioritise such surveys even if they see their value. It therefore might be more effective to visit different staffrooms in person, either by attending different faculty meetings or by booking in time with each Head Teacher to see how best I can support the teaching and learning in their specific curriculum areas. I could also use this time to promote our Teacher Reference section, which isn’t getting much love from our time-poor staff.
Action moving forward: Speak with Head Teachers in person to determine how I can support teaching and learning in their faculties.
Developing a Whole-School Reading Culture
As I’ve discussed previously, some of my colleagues and I are in the early stages of planning a new whole-school reading culture initiative. We’ve made some small progress in this space over the last term and have begun putting together a strategic proposal (inspired by the work I completed during my degree) which we plan to eventually present to the Senior Executives at our school. One of the teachers has also taken the initiative to create a ‘Current Reads’ poster for the English staffroom windows which has already launched several conversations with students about reading for pleasure.
Action moving forward: Collaboratively develop the reading culture initiativeproposal.
On my end, I’ve been working on developing a culture of pleasure reading in a number of different ways. This term I’ve been working on developing the Wide Reading Program for years 7 and 8, with all classes bar one participating. As always seems to be the case, these lessons experienced significant interruptions in Term 1, with 51% of lessons needing to be cancelled because of other programs using the library space, staff illness, public holidays, and other whole-school events. As a result, four of the ten participating classes have less than 50% program attendance, with two of those classes having had only one lesson to access the library and its resources.
To ameliorate the impacts of my absences when I was sick, I supported the classroom teachers in running the program themselves by providing the lesson materials. However, staff feedback suggests that the program runs best when I’m at the helm, reinforcing the value of a trained teacher-librarian’s expertise and skill in spreading a passion for reading!
Student feedback so far this term has also been positive. I’ve placed a significant emphasis on trying to build excitement around reading and on highlighting different reading behaviours in an attempt to get students to self-identify as readers. As such, we’ve played a variety of games such as Never Have I Ever and an adapted mad-libs game inspired by Cards Against Humanity which I’m calling Books Against Humanity. In this game students must obtain a variety of quotes from the book they’re reading and in small teams choose the best quote to complete the prompt I give them. There were a lot of laughs at this one, and it was great to see even reluctant readers engage with the task!
In large part due to the Wide Reading Program, our loans stats are strong so far this term. While this is not a hard and fast indication of reading culture, it does give some indication regarding the number of books ending up in student (and staff) hands. During Term 1 we loaned out 1140 resources from our physical and digital collections, surpassing the total loans for some previous years in their entirety. However, this is compared to the 1250 resources we loaned during the same time last year; the down-turn is due in part to falling student enrolments, the number of interruptions leading to the library’s closure, as well as a decrease in digital loans from our virtual library. Another pertinent fact emerging from this data is the increasing popularity of our magazines, with 31 loaned this term compared to only 2 in the same time last year.
Another way I’m trying to build a reading culture is by celebrating reading achievements in our school. I’m updating our Readerboard every month to show the students with the highest number of loans, and giving these students both merit certificates and house points in their roll calls to visibly highlight their achievement and show that we value reading. I’m also in the early stages of planning a celebratory afternoon for the students who finished the Premier’s Reading Challenge last year – they’ve chosen a movie afternoon as their reward, so hopefully other students will see their reward and want to get in on the action too! Another way I can increase participation is by embedding the challenge into the Wide Reading Program through read-alouds, book talks and activities such as the CBCA Shadow Judging.
Action moving forward: Embed PRC resources into the Wide Reading Programand continue developing activities to develop enthusiasm around reading.
Fostering Positive Wellbeing
Our school’s strategic plan has a strong focus on wellbeing; this is therefore an area where I can support the school community while advocating for the value of the library. I recently bought some of Margaret Merga’s books on this topic and intend to add them to our Teacher Reference collection, and can’t wait to read them to gain some more ideas on how to be active in this space.
So far this year, I’ve continued to support social-emotional learning through the provision of social clubs during the breaks. I’ve encouraged students to form their own clubs with my support, and as a result we’ve now added a Trading Card Game Day and Origami Club into our schedule, alongside our regular offerings of the Nintendo Switch Club and Dungeons and Dragons. While the Nerdvana Day didn’t get off the ground this term due to time constraints, this has previously been a great success with students and I will endeavour to make it a priority in Term 2. I have also discussed the possibility of a Year 12 Reading Retreat during their Trial exams to help them relax during this otherwise stressful period.
Action moving forward: Organise the Nerdvana Day and Year 12 Reading Retreat in Term 2.
These clubs and activities have had a significant impact on our daily visitor numbers, with an average 138 students visiting each break. Our biggest day was a whopping 334 students! While these increased visitor numbers contribute to a lot of noise and chaos in the library, they also represent an opportunity for students to be exposed to the reading culture I’m attempting to build, with several students who wouldn’t normally identify as readers borrowing books that they wouldn’t have come into contact with had they not been in the library space. However, the data suggests that our daily visitors and loans were trending down towards the end of term; this is no doubt due to the number of interruptions affecting the library’s ability to open in those later weeks, such as the fact that I’m not replaced when I’m absent. Ensuring continued access to the space is therefore an area for improvement in future.
Action moving forward: Advocate for the library space to be covered like any other playground duty in my absence.
Our Library Monitor program is also expanding, with several students approaching me throughout the term asking if they can join the program. Early in Term 2 I will incorporate these new students into the program and develop their skills as junior librarians in training. Their assistance is vital in helping maintain the library collections, especially as our loans increase.
Action moving forward: Train the incoming library monitors.
Maintaining Effective, Relevant Collections
Collection management is one of the biggest, most underappreciated aspects of our role as teacher-librarians, largely because so much of it is done behind the scenes and is therefore invisible to the majority of our school community. We’ve had an influx of student requests, so in addition to my plans to replace many of the outdated resources weeded over the last few years I’ve had to dedicate a significant portion of my budget to fulfilling these requests. As a result, there’s not a huge amount of money left for future purchases! A more balanced allocation of funds might be prudent in future years. However, one benefit of ordering so much so early in the year has been that we are getting a steady arrival of new resources to process in our systems as stock becomes available. This will hopefully allow us to spread out the accessioning process and reduce the number of orders we need to chase up at the end of the year.
Over the past few years I’ve invested a significant amount of time in updating our collection to ensure it’s relevant to the learning and recreational needs of our school community. When I first started, the fiction and non-fiction collections hadn’t been weeded for several years and the median date of publication was 1981. Last year our average date of publication was 2006, and I’m happy to report that due to my efforts last term this date is now 2010, while our median date is now 1995. While this is still not as up-to-date as I’d like, it’s a significant improvement.
I’m also in the process of cleaning up our catalogue and moving some items to locations where our students and staff are more likely to find them. I’ve set myself the goal of cleaning up 10 catalogue records a day, and while this isn’t always achievable it has made a significant impact on the number of resources with outdated or incorrect catalogue metadata.
In NSW Department of Education schools, we are required to have a Professional Development Plan (PDP). This year I’ve set myself three somewhat ambitious goals.
Goal 1: To raise the perceived status, professionalism and value of the school library by ensuring its effective management. This will be achieved by conducting a needs assessment and creating a strategic plan aligned to the school’s Strategic Improvment Plan by the end of Term 3.
This is a huge goal with multiple steps, which is why I’ve set its completion at the end of Term 3. This term I asked for planning time and was knocked back, so have asked for time again in Term 2. I’ve submitted a proposal through my Head Teacher for this planning time to be during the HSC Trial exam period when the library would normally be closed; hopefully my line managers will see the value of this goal and understand my attempts to support the school while minimising disruption.
Action moving forward: Gain approval for planning time in week 9.
Goal 2: To support the diverse needs of our students by working with the Engaged Students for Learning committee to reintroduce a school-wide High Potential and Gifted (HPGE) education initiative.
This is another area where I’ve sadly made limited progress, largely due to the restrictive nature of our committee meeting schedule which has meant we’ve only had one official meeting last term. We were supposed to deliver a presentation during a staff meeting on how to identify and support HPG students, but beyond informal conversations with staff there’s been no movement in this space for me yet.
Action moving forward: Conduct an evaluation of existing HPGE activities with the committee.
Goal 3: To forge strong connections between the library, teaching staff and students by supporting the implementation of the new English syllabus through the expansion of the Wide Reading Program and engagement with research into reading for pleasure and for information.
I feel that this is one area where I have successfully achieved my professional goal. The new English syllabus explicitly references reading for pleasure and our English faculty has embedded the Wide Reading Program into their units as a result of my continued advocacy over the past two years. I’ve also posted previously about my research into reading for pleasure, though more could be done in the information literacy space.
Action moving forward: Continue research into reading for pleasure and information; continue using data and feedback from students and staff to plan engaging activities which provide access and time for self-selected, socially supported reading with the Wide Reading Program.
Effective 21st century teacher-librarians require strong interpersonal skills alongside the pedagogical knowledge to teach a multitude of competencies and literacies across different curriculum areas. Through proficient leadership, strategic planning, resource management, and innovative program design, modern teacher-librarians inspire passion for reading for pleasure and information while supporting learning and wellbeing in our communities.
Modern libraries are about people, not just resources. Our ability to form effective relationships with students, staff, parents, and professional networks allows teacher-librarians to meet the diverse educational, wellbeing, and recreational needs of our learning communities and to advocate for our value in an ever-changing information landscape.
Part B: Critical Evaluation
My very first assessment for this degree required me to reflect on my understanding of the role of teacher-librarians in schools (Lysaught, 2021a). For this task, I discussed the roles I focused on as part of my then-recent job application:
Little did I know, but this visual would serve as a prescient highlight to many of the issues explored throughout this course.
The early work completed in ETL401 introduced me to several roles expected of modern teacher-librarians, and as a result of my continued learnings in this degree I have consolidated these varied elements into three key themes.
Theme 1: Resourcing and Inspiring Reading for Pleasure
The first theme, resourcing and inspiring reading for pleasure, in many ways reinforces pre-existing stereotypes about the work of teacher-librarians as predominantly dealing with books. I discussed this misconception in my early blog posts, noting that these perceptions were largely based on community experiences (Lysaught, 2021a; Lysaught, 2021b). As a result of the readings and learning tasks in this degree, I have concluded that teacher-librarians must therefore ensure that we provide a multitude of different experiences to our communities to shape their perceptions of our roles as varied and valuable in an ever-changing modern information landscape.
However, Herring (2007, p.31) noted that fulfilling all the possible roles expected of teacher-librarians at one time is impossible. Anecdotal evidence suggests many teachers still don’t know what information literacy is, let alone a teacher-librarian’s role in developing student proficiency; those few who do often lack the time for collaborative planning and teaching. Rather than stress myself out by fighting an uphill battle and overhauling community perceptions completely, at the start of my teacher-librarian journey I’ve chosen to draw on my strengths as an English teacher and my pre-existing relationships with this faculty to lean into community expectations and show my value to our school by establishing a culture of pleasure reading. Once trust in my abilities as a teacher-librarian and strong relationships are formed through this Trojan horse, the plan is to leverage my success and branch out into other facets of my role, such as information specialist, to further entrench my value to our school community.
Step one in my plan to channel then subvert community expectations was to create a Wide Reading Program for the Stage 4 English classes. To show the value of this program to our school leaders, I aligned it with our Strategic Improvement Plan, foreshadowing the learnings of ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader. This program, inspired by the ETL402 Literature Across the Curriculum readings, aims to create a school-wide culture of pleasure reading. Reading for pleasure has repeatedly been shown to improve student literacies and socio-emotional development (Combes & Valli, 2007; Howard, 2011; Allington & Gabriel, 2012; Kid & Castano, 2013; Gaiman, 2013; Wu et al., 2013; Whitten et al., 2016; Ipri & Newman, 2017; Stower & Waring, 2018; Smith, 2019; Merga, 2021; Merga, 2022). Student reading drops off during adolescence for several reasons, including lack of access to quality texts, lack of positive reading role-models, lack of time, and lack of confidence in their reading ability:
This program aims to address these issues by providing students access to appropriate, self-selected texts and by setting aside a 60-minute period each fortnight to allow students time to explore, share, and value their reading in a socially supported positive learning environment (Gibson-Langford & Laycock, 2008; Krashen, 2011; Fisher & Frey, 2018; Merga & Mason, 2019; Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2021). Through this program I aim to create independent, lifelong readers who are set up for personal and academic success.
This initiative was first trialed in 2022, our first year without a school-wide DEAR program. It initially ran with 4 Year 7 classes which dropped back to 2 due to staffing issues and frequent interruptions. Data revealed that overall, the students who participated enjoyed the experience and found it beneficial, and I reported these findings to our Senior Executive via my Annual Library Report (Lysaught, 2023a):
In 2023 the Wide Reading Program was expanded from one teacher to six and now includes our Support Unit and two Year 8 classes, largely due to word of mouth and positive feedback from participating teachers – proving Bonanno’s (2011) argument that we should build relationships with the staff willing to work with us, since others will choose to follow once trust is developed (Crippen & Willows, 2019, p.173).
A crucial element of successfully inspiring reading for pleasure, especially amongst teens asserting their independence and exploring their identity, is the provision of relevant resources which support self-selection of reading materials (Beach et al., 2011; Allington & Gabriel, 2012; Fisher & Frey, 2018). To ensure a robust collection which meets the needs and interests of my patrons, I drew heavily upon the learnings gained in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum. Library hygiene is an important element of ensuring an enticing, relevant collection (Fieldhouse & Marshall, 2011), and thus at the end of 2022 I completed a stocktake and significant weed of our Fiction and Quick Reads collections (Lysaught, 2023a). This was the first stocktake since 2018 and the median age of deselected resources was 1999, necessitating a serious update of our collection to ensure continued relevance. This was followed by subsequent stocktakes of our Picture Book and Graphic Novel collections at the start of 2023. Once these stocktakes were completed I introduced dynamic shelving to make the shelves more enticing and facilitate browsing (Bogan, 2022).
I also implemented patron-led acquisitions to increase circulation and user connection to the library’s resources (Hughes-Hassell & Mancall, 2005, p.9; Kimmel, 2014; Johnson, 2018; Aaron Cohen Associates, 2020, para.6; Crawford et. al, 2020, p.2), with 49% of newly acquired fiction resources specifically requested by staff and students in 2022 (Lysaught, 2023a). Drawing upon my experiences during my practicum, this year I bought 131 Hi-Lo books for our Quick Reads collection, and plan to use them for future Book Club activities during the Wide Reading lessons (Lysaught, 2023b). I am also in the process of genrefying our Quick Reads collection for easier browsing and selection, trialing the learnings gained in ETL505 Describing and Analysing Educational Resources (Lysaught, 2022a) in one of our popular, manageable collections.
Fisher & Frey (2018) argued that interventions designed to increase reading volume should rely on four factors: access, choice, classroom discussion of texts and book talks. The initiatives described above aimed to incorporate these four factors alongside efficient collection development and management. Loans statistics indicate that circulation has increased on the days when the Wide Reading lessons run, and as a result Oliver data shows we are on track to meet or beat our previous loans records since I became the teacher-librarian in 2020, despite our removal of a whole-school DEAR program in 2022.
Theme 2: Resourcing and Developing Reading for Information
As mentioned above, despite the importance of reading for pleasure in developing literacy, the role of a modern teacher-librarian should expand beyond the realm of books and into the crucial realm of information literacy to avoid the misunderstanding that our roles are limited and unnecessary in modern schools. I personally was guilty of this misconception prior to starting this degree, so I can hardly blame time-poor classroom teachers and senior leaders for not understanding our role, especially if they’ve never seen it in action! It is therefore necessary that we provide a variety of different experiences to our communities to shape their perceptions of our roles and ensure they understand our vital importance in developing our students as ethical, efficient users and creators of information. We cannot risk becoming an “invisible profession” (Valenza, 2010; Bonanno, 2011) and resourcing our libraries to develop information literacy is a path forward for teacher-librarians to show our value in a shifting infosphere increasingly filled with mis- and disinformation (Floridi, 2007, p.59; Lysaught, 2021c).
The learnings gained in ETL401 Introduction to Teacher Librarianship were crucial in forcing me to revise my misunderstandings regarding the role of the modern teacher-librarian. For the second assessment I focused on how social media platforms affect our relationship with information, and discovered that improved internet access has changed information-seeking behaviours to favour passive information acquisition which uses the path of least resistance (often relying on social interactions), significantly impacting users’ ability to determine fact from fiction (Bates, 2010; Herbst, 2020; Liu, 2020; Kuhlthau et al., 2021). Teenagers are particularly likely to gain information from online, social sources and, far from being ‘digital natives’ equipped to navigate online information, are uniquely vulnerable to misinformation (Combes, 2009; Jacobson, 2010; O’Connell, 2012; Common Sense Media, 2019; Australian eSafety Commissioner, 2021). As a high-school teacher-librarian, I therefore have an ethical responsibility to ensure that my collections and programs equip my students with the skills and competencies they’ll need to be information literate in an increasingly digital world. Anecdotal evidence suggests that for many secondary classroom teachers, the fact that teacher-librarians don’t teach to a specific curriculum demeans our value. The recently released Information Fluency Framework (NSW Department of Education, 2023) offers an exciting way to legitimise our work moving forward, showcasing that we can be the glue which brings learning areas together, and will form the focus of my professional learning after finishing this degree. In the meantime I will continue to run one-off research skill lessons for my colleagues as requested.
Inquiry learning was another key aspect of our role explored in ETL401. While I had been familiar with concepts such as Project Based Learning from my time as a classroom teacher (Lysaught, 2021d), other methods such as Guided Inquiry Design were eye-opening and revealed a new pedagogy full of potential for my students (Lysaught, 2021e), since information literacy is foundational to inquiry learning (Fitzgerald, 2015). I greatly enjoyed reworking our existing Year 7 Shakespeare unit into a Guided Inquiry Design unit and look forward to the opportunity to co-teach it in future (Lysaught, via Guided Inquiry in Australia, 2020), alongside the digital narrative I created for ETL533.
However, implementing inquiry learning and developing information literacy programs has not been without significant challenges in reality. Early on I identified that high staff workloads and minimal free time would likely hamper potential attempts to implement collaborative inquiry learning (Lysaught, 2021f). As such, there has been limited staff uptake. However, largely due to the relationships and trust developed through the Wide Reading Program, I have finally been asked to work with one of the English teachers and her Year 8 class in Term 4 on a unit exploring suspenseful narratives. The ETL512 Study Visits emphasised the importance of emotional intelligence and persistence as key traits for teacher-librarians, and my personal experience shows that we must be resilient in the face of setbacks and persist in the hope that we can eventually have the opportunity to showcase our value to our colleagues.
Effective collection management is another crucial aspect to developing information literacy in our community. ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum and ETL505 Describing and Analysing Educational Resources reinforced the importance of efficient resource management for supporting curriculum learning. In 2021 I completed a stocktake of our non-fiction collections – the first since 2018. The shelves were overflowing, messy, and not conducive to easy selection of relevant material:
Prior to this stocktake, the median date of publication was 1981. I weeded 2468 outdated or damaged resources, almost halving the collection and bringing the median date of publication to 2000 – an improvement, but indicating that there is still significant work to be completed to ensure a current, relevant collection which meets the needs of my staff and students. Foreshadowing the learnings of ETL504, I published the findings from this stocktake in my 2021 Annual Report and shared it with the Senior Executive to highlight the complexities of my role to our school leaders (Lysaught, 2022b).
In 2022 we started accessioning English novels to support their resource management, leading to it becoming our third largest collection:
This year, due to the success of this initiative, we have also had requests from the Science Faculty to assist with the management of their Stage 6 resources. While not without challenges, this provides a way for me to showcase my value to my colleagues, support curriculum learning through effective resource management, and interact with students who would otherwise possibly not utilise the library.
Theme 3: Promotion and Advocacy through Leadership
Two of the most used tags on my blog are ‘promotion’ and ‘advocacy’, so it’s only appropriate that the final theme discussed focuses on these issues.
Early in this degree the readings revealed the importance of advocating for our positions (Lysaught, 2021g), meaning that right from the start I’ve developed an awareness of the importance of perception and relationships in our role. This was consolidated throughout this degree in every unit.
In an early blog post for ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum I noted that, due to the teacher-librarian’s often poorly defined role and lack of clear curriculum direction, we are often utilised in different ways to support whatever the school requires (Lysaught, 2021h). It is therefore crucial for us to collaborate with our colleagues so that they understand our varied roles, ensuring our continued visibility and effectiveness to our school community. As seen through the frequent ‘promotion’ and ‘advocacy’ tags in my blog, so much of our work gives us the chance to increase our visibility; while it can be tempting to give up in the face of colleagues who view us as having the “cushy job”, we need to change our mindset and instead reframe challenges as “chopportunities” (Weisburg, 2020) and look for ways to make our work seen, valued, and understood (Valenza, 2010; Bonanno, 2011).
My final unit, ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader, emphasised the different leadership styles that we can leverage to maximise our effectiveness to our colleagues. Effective leadership, regardless of the approach or title, should focus on building strong relationships with others through mutual trust, respect, and effective communication (Holmes et al., 2012, p.271, 276; Moir et al., 2014, p.37; Ezard, 2015; Gleeson, 2016). My very first blog post had outlined my intent to support both staff and students (Lysaught, 2021i), and thus Servant Leadership appealed to me from the start (Lysaught, 2023c). In particular I was drawn to Servant Leadership due to its focus on empowering and developing others, humility, commitment to growth and community building, highly developed interpersonal skills, stewardship, healing, conceptualisation, and foresight (Arar & Oplatka, 2022, p.83-87; Crippen & Willows, 2019; p.171-172), and found that its guiding questions – ‘do you want to serve or be served?’ and ‘do those served grow as persons?’ (Blanchard & Broadwell, 2018; Greenleaf, 2008, p.36) – aligned well with my personal traits and values, and could help me support and heal cynical, time-poor staff and to act as mentors for both staff and students (Branch-Mueller & Rodger, 2022, p.46-47; Reinsel Soulen, 2020, p.39-40; Uther & Pickworth, 2014, p.21-23).
As a result of the learnings in this degree, I’ve experimented with a variety of different promotions and advocacy methods. I began this degree in mid-2021 when NSW started online learning followed by cohorting, which made collaboration and promotion particularly challenging early on; this has been further compounded by the current teacher shortage and high staff turnover at our school. Some of the early initiatives I implemented to raise the library’s profile include the Student Media Team, a Babble, Books and Breakfast club working alongside the Wellbeing faculty, and a Staff and Student Book Club (Lysaught, 2021j). While the book club fell apart due to lack of interest and time after online learning finished, the other two initiatives are still going strong. My early attempts at strategic planning appear quite amateurish in hindsight, though the alignment of my initiatives to our Strategic Improvement Plan and promotion of my work through Annual Reports foreshadowed the strategies suggested in ETL504 (Lysaught, 2023d). Our school recently experimented with the idea of holding all Stage 6 exams in the library, which if enacted would necessitate its closure for over 2 months of the school year. I was able to successfully leverage leadership strategies and use visitor and loans data collected each day to show the impact library closures would have on our school community, convincing the decision makers to choose another option:
Looking to the future, I will continue to experiment and expand on the learnings gained from this degree. First I will create a library operations folio to ensure effective management and strategic planning moving forward (Braxton, n.d.; National Library of New Zealand, n.d.; Oberg & Schultz-Jones, 2015). I was particularly inspired by the idea of hooking in new and current staff via mentoring (Cox & Korodaj, 2019; Reinsel Soulen, 2020), and building community ownership through a library committee has been a long-time goal of mine (Lysaught, 2021h). Inspired by ETL505 and the ETL512 study visits, I’d also love to create a library website to increase visibility and support teaching and learning by providing easily accessible pathfinders and research lessons. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and this degree has shown countless potential pathways to follow in future.
Part C Reflection
At the beginning of this course, we were asked to consider what makes a teacher-librarian (Lysaught, 2021a). My understanding of the role has expanded significantly since those early days:
However, despite the complexity of our role, our work is still widely misunderstood. This degree has shown me that to be seen as professionals, we must act as professionals and take every opportunity to advocate for our role through the work we do in our school communities. The professional standards developed by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) provide a useful framework for evaluating our professional practice and ensuring that we remain relevant and visible to our peers.
As a classroom teacher with experience teaching both the English and History syllabi from Year 7 through to Year 12, including the Extension courses for both subjects, I feel quite confident in my abilities as a teacher with strong professional and pedagogical knowledge who meets the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, many of which align with the ALIA/ASLA Standards through their similar professional domains (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2022). While I already had a strong understanding of reading practices, assessment, and ICT, this degree introduced me to the wonders of information literacy and collection management which have allowed me to be even more effective in my classroom practice and developed my understanding of how to support my colleagues more efficiently in my library role.
As a relatively new teacher-librarian, I feel that I still have a fair way to go regarding my professional practice, particularly regarding our role as information specialists. While I believe that I have created an environment where learners are encouraged to engage with our resources for understanding and enjoyment, I need to do more to ensure an information-rich learning environment which meets the needs of my community. I’ve worked hard over the last 2 years to build an environment which fosters positive wellbeing and strong reading culture, and due to these relationships and the trust I’ve developed with our teaching staff I’ve finally got the opportunity in Term 4 to collaboratively develop and teach a Guided Inquiry unit. Likewise, while I’ve previously done some strategic planning and budgeting (Lysaught, 2023d), the skills gained in this course will leave me much better equipped to plan for the future and ensure the library’s continued relevance and value to my school. In Term 4 I therefore intend to create a Library Operations Folio, including strategic and operations plans alongside policies for collection development, ICT use, and potential challenges.
I am already a member of several professional organisations, and fully intend to take advantage of their professional development. This will focus on the development and delivery of information literacy programs and wellbeing programs, broadening my understandings further and allowing me to showcase the potential in our practice to our wider school community.
Advocacy through action and alliances is my path forward in what could otherwise be an isolated, misunderstood role. While building my Wide Reading Program I have relied heavily on the action research process to ensure that my practice is evidence-based, innovative, and meets the needs of my staff and students. I have used this research to showcase my professionalism and the potential of my role to my colleagues, particularly to my school leaders. However, evaluating my work against the ALIA/ASLA standards shows that more could be done to develop my leadership capabilities. ETL504 emphasised the importance of leading from the middle by working with staff as well as students, such as through collaboratively teaching, leading professional development, or running key committees (Green, 2011; Wong; 2012; Wolf et al., 2014; Baker, 2016; Crippen & Willows, 2019; Reinsel Soulen, 2020). High staff turnover makes developing relationships with my colleagues a challenge, but also presents a ‘chopportunity’ (Weisburg, 2020) to exhibit both transformational and servant leadership, hook in new staff, and build a culture of library collaboration and appreciation from the ground up.
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Wollondilly Library is a small but effective public library in Picton, NSW. It services the widespread Wollondilly LGA, covering approximately 2556 square kilometres and with a population density of 21.83 per square kilometre (ID Community, n.d.). New developments increased the population by 8.6% over five years (NSW Government Office of Local Government, 2023), with two-thirds living in urban settings while one-third rural (Wollondilly Library, n.d.). Wollondilly’s population is predominantly white and Australian-born, with the majority of residents identifying their ancestry as Australian, English, Irish, and Scottish (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], n.d.).
Wollondilly Library’s mission statement reveals its purpose is to provide a range of information and materials to all residents, to encourage curiosity, free inquiry and lifelong learning, and to support the community’s civic, intellectual, and cultural pursuits. The team leader’s perspective is that the library exists to overcome disadvantage.
To encourage ease of browsing in the limited library space, Wollondilly Library has separate collections for Junior and Adult fiction and non-fiction, a Young Adult collection, an Adult Large Print collection, and a variety of magazines and other multimedia resources such as DVDs, CDs and audiobooks. Eresources such as Hoopla, Borrowbox, Mango, and Studiosity also support the various needs of users and supplement the physical collection, though borrowing statistics indicate most patrons (many from older generations) still prefer physical resources. In Wollondilly, 89.6% of residents only speak English at home (ABS, n.d.). As such, most of the collection is in English, though there are resources from the Adult Fiction, Adult Non-fiction and Junior Fiction collections offered in other languages along with access to the inter-library loans service.
Couples with children make up 50.6% of Wollondilly residents, compared with 44.7% of residents in NSW (ABS, n.d.). The team run several programs to provide socialisation for children and their parents while developing early literacy and encouraging positive engagement with the library. Bookbubs (ages 0-2) and Storytime (ages 2-5) run twice a week, while Sensory Storytime catering for users with diverse needs occurs once a month and is looking to expand (Wollondilly Library, 2023a).These programs provide a free activity for families who might otherwise be isolated due to a lack of parent groups in the area, while school holiday programming such as Lego Robotics, Mocktails and Monet, and HSC seminars (Wollondilly Library, 2023a) engage students with continuous learning and support the work done in local schools.
One of the challenges faced by Wollondilly Library staff is its low population density resulting in small funding allocations alongside the expectation to service all members in such a far-flung community. The Wollondilly Mobile Library van visits various locations, while the Home Library Delivery Service ensures access for users who can’t leave their homes due to disability or illness (Wollondilly Library, 2023b). For many patrons using these services, they offer a rare opportunity to engage with other members of the community and if this service did not exist could result in almost complete isolation and cut their access to information dramatically. Community Outreach programs also visit preschools and local shopping centres, ensuring positive interactions between staff and the community they serve.
Wollondilly Library also achieves its mission statement and overcomes disadvantage through its physical space and provision of ICT resources. The study spaces and meeting rooms are utlised by local students, adults, and community groups, while the Local History Room takes advantage of Wollondilly’s unique heritage to further connect with the residents. A welcoming children’s area in the Junior collection space encourages positive interactions through the provision of toys, craft, and Lego. For many residents, these quiet spaces, local history resources, and toys are unavailable without cost elsewhere. Patrons also have access to technology such as printing, computers, wifi, and assistive technology which I witnessed being used for a variety of purposes ranging from study to centrelink applications.
Without Wollondilly Library, many patrons would not be able to access these programs, resources, and services. As a result, their disadvantage would, in countless ways, become further entrenched.
Section 2: Theory into practice
My placement consolidated my understandings of the theories explored in ETL402 Literature Across the Curriculum.
Wollondilly Library’s Book Bubs (0-2 years) and Storytime (2-5 years) programs are aimed at developing early literacy and positive reader identity, while the Sensory Storytime was created in consultation with qualified special education teachers and promotes inclusive literacy practices, noted as a key component of an effective teacher-librarian’s work (Australian School Library Association [ASLA], 2014, p.14). Several adult book clubs run by library staff or by members of the public using library book kits aim to promote pleasure reading for older audiences. The mobile library van allows Wollondilly Library to provide access to users who would be otherwise unable to attend the physical branch location, and I participated in several community outreach programs including preschool visits and mobile storytimes in public spaces. These programs created a positive reading culture in the community which leads to many wide-reaching benefits for individuals and our society. The use of literature to overcome disadvantage was explored in ETL402, and several researchers support the notion that a positive reading culture can negate socio-economic disadvantage (Allington et al., 2021, p.S234; Krashen, 2011, p.7; Whitten et. al., 2016, p.48). While ETL402 focused on literature in schools, many benefits discussed in this subject were evident in the programs offered by Wollondilly Library. For instance, the Storytime program was designed around a specific weekly theme which aimed to engage readers through personal connections to content while developing valuable interpersonal and age-appropriate academic skills (Kidd & Castano, 2013, p.377; Myambo, 2016, para.1, 4; Short, 2018, p.291).
ETL402 revealed enjoyment of reading plays a crucial role in developing a person’s literacy skills and understanding of the world around them, as well as their empathy for the experiences of others (Gaiman, 2013, para. 9-10; Haven, 2007, p.vi; Krashen, 2009, p.20; Ross Johnston, 2014, p.537). I worked closely with the children’s librarian and the library assistants responsible for the Book Bubs and Storytime programs. Together we selected a variety of age-appropriate books to read with the children, including sensory board books for the Book Bubs children and picture books aiming to develop early decoding skills for the Storytime sessions. While these texts developed early literacy skills through their use of rhyme, repetition, and images, the primary consideration for staff was to ensure that the children were having a pleasurable and social reading experience. This reflects the notion explored in ETL402 that if children enjoy reading, literacy will be developed more easily (National Library of New Zealand, n.d.). Barone argues that the recent focus on cognitive elements such as decoding, comprehending and reading fluently in schools has meant that a focus on the pleasure of reading has been pushed aside, and that books are seen purely to develop skilful readers rather than as an end in themselves (2011, p.2). My placement experience emphasised that enjoyment of reading should be the focus, and that I have a responsibility to ensure that my students are engaged on an emotional or intellectual level, since this is what creates an intrinsic motivation that drives us to continue reading (Barone, 2011, p.3). Recent research reveals a strong correlation between reading volume and reading achievement and that the more children read, the higher their achievement levels (Allington et al., 2021, p.S233-S234, p.S236) and it is therefore in our best interests to focus on reading enjoyment with my students in future.
During my placement I was struck by how engaged these young readers were with the act of reading, with all children enjoying being read to or eager to interact with the books themselves. This early enjoyment of reading vastly contrasts with the attitudes presented by my high school students, reflecting the research explored in ETL402 around the decline in reading in the teen years due to:
Lack of positive reading role models
Burnout from reading programs in primary school
Boredom from the use of fiction texts to teach literacy
Parents who don’t value reading
Lack of time due to jobs, extracurricular activities
Competing interests and hobbies
Underdeveloped imaginations
Misconceptions about who reads for pleasure
Lack of exposure to reading
Lack of confidence and reading ability
Overcrowded curriculum and assessment demands
Lack of access and choice of reading materials (Dickenson, 2014, Krashen, 2011, Manuel & Carter, 2015, Whitten et. al., 2016)
Several of these barriers to reading can be ameliorated by programs such as those offered by Wollondilly Library. In particular, the social aspects of Wollondilly Library’s children and adult reading programs reinforces the importance of connection and community in developing reader identity, especially amongst teens whose information behaviours are motivated by social concerns (Jacobson, 2010, p.44). Activities such as Book Bubs, Storytime and the adult book clubs allowed library patrons to engage in conversations around literature, acting as positive reading role models while increasing enjoyment and further solidifying their identities as readers.
Section 3: Critical reflection
Seeing the practical application of the concepts studied in this course has consolidated my understanding of teacher librarianship, particularly around the issues of meeting user needs, reading for pleasure and information, the emergence of libraries as a third space providing wellbeing and other supports, collection development and library management, and the importance of advocacy and promotions.
A key aspect of teacher-librarianship is the importance of understanding and meeting our users’ needs and ensuring that we provide timely access to relevant resources (NSW Department of Education, 2017, p.3, 5, 7, 8). This degree frequently emphasised the continued need for free access to information in the digital age (Bates, 2010, para.58; Kuhlthau et al., 2008, p.3). The Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA] believes that unrestricted access to information is crucial to our freedoms and democracy (2018). Wollondilly Library’s commitment to providing access to residents despite their geographic challenges is evident through their Mobile Library Van and Home Delivery Service. In my setting I am faced with the challenge of increasingly being removed from the library space as it is used for exams, faculty testing, and other workshops. Access to reading materials is a crucial factor in promoting reading for pleasure and developing positive reader identities (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.89). When staff and student access is cut due to circumstances beyond my control, I can adjust the model provided by Wollondilly Library to ensure that my users’ needs are still being met by encouraging online reservations, classroom deliveries, and mobile book trolleys in the playground.
Reading for pleasure is something that I’ve tried to build at my school over the past year to overcome disadvantage while improving student attainment and empathy (Lysaught, 2022a; Lysaught, 2022b; Lysaught, 2023c; Lysaught, 2023d). Wollondilly Library’s adult Book Club model, which allows groups to borrow up to ten copies of the same novel under one barcode, has inspired me in two ways. First, I can adjust this model to suit my Wide Reading Program by offering disengaged students the choice to read the same high interest, low reading level texts, with a social discussion or literature circle activity to follow. Second, I can utilise the book club kits to create a reading group among staff, which would allow us to promote reading for pleasure and showcase our own reader identities to our students as positive reading role-models.
This degree also emphasised that modern libraries are not just about books. Throughout this course it has become clear that libraries play an important role in providing wellbeing and other supports to our community, often stepping in when other services are inaccessible or unavailable (Aykanian et al., 2020; McKeown, 2016; Merga, 2020). My experience at Wollondilly Library proves this, with users utilising library resources to support centrelink applications and mental health activities. Many patrons also used the meeting room and quiet spaces for work and study, while programs such as Mocktails and Monet or Knit and Yarn provided opportunities for users to form connections with others who have similar interests. This supports the work by Hider et al. (2023, p.3-5), who noted that public library physical spaces are increasingly used as ‘third place’ community hubs which enable democracy and civic engagement. Moving forward, in my school library I can incorporate more social activities such as craft activities and gaming clubs to support student interests, friendships, and overall wellbeing.
Library management was another element where I was able to develop my practical skills. I worked alongside several members of the collections acquisitions team, helping me solidify my understanding of budget management and the importance of workflow procedures. Library hygiene is a key aspect of our role as information specialists (Fieldhouse & Marshall, 2011, p.36; Newsum, 2016, p.201), and I worked with the Children’s Librarian to weed their overcrowded junior fiction and non-fiction collections, ensuring that outdated, offensive, or incorrect resources were removed in order to make way for newer, more relevant additions. This experience showed me that I should trust in my own abilities to evaluate resources according to my selection and de-selection criteria.
Bonanno (2011) states we are at risk of becoming an invisible profession, and the terms ‘advocacy’ and ‘promotions’ are among the most popular keywords on my blog. Working alongside the Programs and Promotions Librarian, I was able to understand the importance of advocacy and promotions in a new light. Her tutelage expanded my understanding of the concept of user avatars to ensure my message reaches its appropriate audience, as well as a focus on three content pillars to ensure that my values are clearly expressed.
Overall, this workplace learning opportunity left me with renewed confidence in my understandings and helped remind me that even though I feel overwhelmed in my role much of the time, I am on the right track! It was especially heartening to note that Wollondilly Library has a team of people who each specialise in one role, whereas I am expected to take on all those tasks in my capacity as a teacher librarian.
Word count: 2299
References
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Aykanian, A., Morton, P., Trawver, K., Victorson, L., Preskitt, S., & Street, K. (2020). Library-Based Field Placements: Meeting the Diverse Needs of Patrons, Including Those Experiencing Homelessness. Journal of Social Work Education, 56(1), S72–S80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2020.1723757
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Scenario: Recreational borrowing is declining and students’ engagement with the fiction collection has decreased. The collection is currently shelved alphabetically. Genrefication of the fiction collection is being proposed as a strategy to address the issue.
Task: A) Consider both internal (library) and external (school wide) factors in this element as a response to the change process
B) Identify one leadership style that will facilitate your chosen element to support the change process. Explain the leadership attributes that will be of most value.
External factors potentially leading to conflict over proposed genrefication could include:
Different or competing personal beliefs held by leaders and teachers regarding the role of the fiction collection
Possible solution: present summary of research into the benefits of fiction as a literary learning tool to support the curriculum; show connection between this research and the impacts that increased pleasure reading has on NAPLAN/HSC scores to align the project with the school’s Strategic Improvement Plan; show testimonials and data from other teacher-librarians or public librarians who have genrefied their collections to benefit their communities
Lack of communication opportunities
Possible solution: in addition to email communication which members of the leadership team can review in their own time, potentially schedule a meeting to present research and make a professional case for the genrefication of the fiction collection; briefly explain process and reasoning to whole staff at a meeting
Limited available time and resources to genrefy the fiction collection (this is especially problematic given current staff shortages and workload issues!)
Possible solution: form a student library committee to a) increase student voice and ownership over the project and b) provide students with their own leadership opportunities (in my school, Student Voice is a key component of the Strategic Improvement Plan)
Internal factors which could potentially lead to conflict in this scenario are:
Lack of understanding about what genrefication is and how to undertake this process
Possible solution: undertake professional learning in this area, read professional articles (such as those in SCIS Connections), seek support from professional networks and other local libraries (both school and public libraries)
To implement a project such as this, I believe that a teacher-librarian would benefit from understanding both Transformational and Distributed leadership styles. We need to ensure that we have the support and buy-in of both official leaders and classroom teachers and can achieve this by providing them with the reasons why this project benefits them as individuals as well as the whole school community. Our colleagues would need to trust that we are capable of achieving this goal and so we would need to project our professionalism and base our plans in research and best-practice at all times. Leading this change by example is another way we can exhibit Transformational leadership. Empowering selected students to assist in the process of genrefication would also display elements of Distributed leadership.
My understanding of digital literature has grown significantly over the last few months. From my early definitions to the creation of my own narrative, I’ve gained a solid understanding of what digital literature is, why it’s beneficial and how it can be implemented to support my school.
My preliminary definitions of digital literature focused on the distinction between the digital and the digitised (Lysaught, 2022, July 19; Lysaught, 2022, July 25). As my research progressed I consolidated these distinctions by combining Unsworth’s (2006, p.2-3) and Allan’s (2017, p.22-23) categories (Lysaught, 2022, August 7). Like my peers (Curtis, 2022, July 19), I believe digital literature should be quality and meet community needs, which led me to consider what makes quality digital literature (Lysaught, 2022, August 14) and to design my own evaluation criteria where I determined three key aspects: multimodality, interactivity, and connectivity (Lysaught, 2022, August 28). Self-evaluations and peer feedback reveals – despite the amateur multimodal features – mine’s an effective, quality text suitable for its intended purpose and audience:
Evaluation of The Shakespeare Chronicles
However, defining digital literature is arguably less important to teacher-librarians than understanding how to incorporate it effectively. Digital literature provides exciting opportunities to move students from passive consumers to active creators of content (Morra, 2013, para.2; Kitson, 2017, p.66), and as new technologies and communication tools emerge, students require new literacies to ensure they’re critically consuming and ethically creating texts (Walker et al., 2010, p.214-216; Kearney, 2011, p.169; Leu, 2011, p.6-8; Mills & Levido, 2011, p.80-81, 89; Leu et al., 2015, p.139-140; Serafini et al., 2015, p.23; Combes, 2016, p.4). In 2009 students spent an average four hours a day online (Weigel, 2009, p.38); by 2015 US teens consumed between 6-9 hours of media a day (Common Sense Media, 2015, para.6), while Australian teens now spend an average of 14.4 hours a week online (eSafety Commissioner, 2021, p.4). Digital literature therefore harnesses our students’ preferences and familiarity with technological platforms (Figueiredo & Bidarra, 2015, p.323; Skaines, 2010, p.100-104; Stepanic, 2022, p.2; Weigel, 2009, P.38). Digital literature incorporating interactivity, multimodality, and connectivity can develop ‘nöogenic narratives’ wherein personal growth is achieved by viewing our lives as a story (Hall, 2012, p.97), a key element of the English syllabus (NSW Standards Authority, 2019, p.10). Research shows that educators can exploit digital narratives to create meaningful and authentic learning opportunities for students to create personal and academic growth (Bjørgen, 2010, p.171-172; Dockter et al., 2010, p.419; Hall, 2012, p.99; Reid, 2013, p.38-41; Smeda et al., 2014, p.19; Sukovic, 2014, p.222-226).
However, educators must carefully consider the purpose of integrating digital narratives into their programmes. While research reveals digital texts’ benefits supporting young, emerging, or struggling readers and developing transliteracy (Tackvic, 2012, p.428; Cahill & McGill-Franzen, 2013, p.32-33; Matthews, 2014, p.29; McGeehan et al., 2018, p.58), others raise issues regarding reading comprehension, retention, and attention (Cull, 2011, para.35-38; Goodwin, 2013, p.79; Jabr, 2013, p.5-30; McGuire, 2015, para.30-35). Technology should be used as a meaningful tool, not just as a gimmick. Monsen (2016) explored the idea that we are “quintessentially cyborgs” due to the symbiotic relationship between humanity and technology. My research into digital learning frameworks such as the SAMR model (Lysaught, 2022, August 6) revealed that effective implementation of technology should not replace, but co-exist with and supplement existing print literacies. Printed choose-your-own-adventure narratives arguably improve literacy (Chooseco & Hofmann, 2016, para. 8-9) and can be updated using digital features to form powerful digital texts (Farber, 2015, para.1-2). Thus, my own digital narrative was designed as an immersive, interactive, multimodal resource to develop students’ understanding of life in Shakespearean England while supplementing traditional print resources and online information sources.
Throughout ETL533 I have examined how I currently incorporate digital literature into our school and considered ways to increase this in future (Lysaught, 2022, July 31; Lysaught, 2022, August 7; Lysaught, 2022, August 13). As discussed with my peers (Macey, 2022, September 24; Barnett, 2022, September 27; Facey, 2022, September 29) difficulties arise surrounding cost-effectiveness, storage, access, and user preferences that often impede digital literature’s success in schools. Despite these challenges, after creating my own digital narrative I strongly believe that student-created digital texts can enhance their own learning and connections to content, and integrate well with Guided Inquiry units and literary learning (Lysaught, 2022, January 27; Lysaught, 2022, August 14; Lysaught, 2022, September 3; Lysaught, 2022, September 16). Peer feedback also supports this (Lysaught, 2022, September 3). Due to this unit I am more aware of my students’ discussions around digital literature (Lysaught, 2022, July 25; Lysaught, 2022, August 28), revealing these are powerful texts with which students are already engaging. Literature in digital environments allows teacher-librarians to show our value to our school community, as we can support time-poor staff as they include more captivating, rich resources and utilise digital narratives to support our students with various interests and literacy needs.
As I’m preparing to review my three chosen digital literature texts for Assessment 2, I thought it would be a beneficial exercise to reconsider how to evaluate digital literature in light of my developing understandings and ongoing research.
So, what makes a good digital literature text?
To answer this question, I’ve examined some of the judging criteria for digital literary awards. Here’s a run-down of some of my findings:
Woollahra Municipal Council (n.d.) states that winners of its Digital Innovation category should be works “where digital technology is used in an innovative way to enhance written storytelling” and which “seamlessly integrate digital elements in the story in a new and dynamic way to generate mood, tone and genre.”
In the Judges Comments, one of the judges of the 2021 winner wrote: “the innovative elements included with the story aided my appreciation and enjoyment of the work. The idea that new digital technologies can be employed by writers presents them with a new balancing act. How do they introduce the right digital enhancements, ones that aid the reading experience, that support and expand the experience of imagining or understanding a story? […] The innovative aspects were relevant and exciting and seamlessly part of the story.”
In their report on the 2016/2017 Queensland University of Technology Digital Literature Award, Writerful Books (n.d.) stated that “Works that demonstrate innovation and creativity in storytelling, combined use of media or interactive features will be highly regarded.”
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC, n.d.) listed the following evaluation criteria for their Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award:
Effective utilization of selected platform(s)
Meets high aesthetic and technical standards
The skills required to navigate the media should be appropriate and suitably challenging for the intended audience
Facilitates active and creative use by children ages 2-8 in exemplary ways
Respects the early learning audience’s intelligence and imagination by offering a rich and diverse experience
Allows for meaningful joint media engagement, co-viewing, shared play experiences and/or guided play
Media reflects/embodies its stated mission and purpose
While the Electronic Literature Organization (2001) outlined the following criteria for its 2001 award:
Innovative use of electronic techniques and enhancements.
Literary quality, understood as being related to print and electronic traditions of fiction and poetry, respectively.
Quality and accessibility of interface design.
Collections will be accepted if they are intended to be read holistically as a single work.
Conclusions:
This list is certainly not exhaustive, but I feel that they’ve helped me deepen my understanding of how to evaluate quality digital literature. The comments above support the idea that good digital literature includes texts where:
The form supports the function. Innovation should not be used in a gimmicky way; the digital format’s multimodality, interactivity and potential for further connection (to further information or other readers) should support the responder in understanding the key ideas of the text.
Responders are positioned not just as passive receivers of information, but as active participants in content and knowledge construction through the use of interactive, immersive and/or socially connected features.
Navigation is appropriate to the texts’ function and the abilities of the responder.
The transmedial features examined in Serafini et. al. (2015) also provide a useful framework for evaluating the multimodal aspects of digital literature:
Visual images
Sound effects, music, voice
Textual elements
Paratextual and peritextual elements
Navigational elements
Transitions
I would also argue that traditional concepts of quality literature (discussed previously) such as “superior or lasting artistic merit” or “high and lasting artistic value” still apply.
Likewise, in a school library digital literature resources can still be evaluated against selection criteria for traditional print texts which consider the resource’s relevance and suitability for a school’s learning community (discussed here and here):
Does the resource meet the needs and interests of students, staff and/or parents?
Does the resource have curriculum links? Can it be incorporated as a literary learning strategy?
Is the content of the resource appropriate to the developmental and ability levels of users?
Finally, I believe that logistics must also be considered when considering the use of digital literature resources in the context of a school library:
Cost
Storage
Access
Other required technology e.g. iPads, software downloads, headphones
Cataloguing and collection management
Data and privacy issues
Association for Library Service to Children [ALSC] (n.d.). Welcome to the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award home page. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/EELDM
Electronic Literature Organization (2001). Judging criteria.
Serafini, F., Kachorsky, D. & Aguilera, E. (2015). Picture books 2.0: Transmedial features across narrative platforms. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(2), 16-24.
Woollahra Municipal Council (n.d.). Woollahra Digital Literary Award. https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/news/articles/newly-expanded-woollahra-digital-literary-award-calling-for-entries
Woollahra Municipal Council (n.d.). Past winners of the Woollahra Digital Literary Award: 2021 Winners. https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/library/whats_on/digital_literary_award/past_winners
Writerful Books (n.d.). New $10,000 digital literature award. https://writerfulbooks.com/digital-literature-award/
The literature provides good arguments for arranging primary school library collections by genres. Is this also the case for high school library collections? Choose two of the advantages and disadvantages mentioned in the literature and critically discuss these in relation to arranging a high school library collection by genres.
When deciding to genrefy a high-school library’s collection, teacher-librarians should consider the multiple roles a library performs within a school community, the specific needs of their adolescent users, and which aspects of genrefication (if any) best suit these purposes and user needs. While genrefication has gained popularity amongst practitioners for its ability to increase circulation and promote lifelong reading habits, issues around logistics and lack of standardised organisation remain.
Genrefication is a relatively new topic in information sciences (Outhouse, 2017, p.43). Broadly speaking, genrefication constitutes organising resources by a system other than the traditional Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (Outhouse, 2017, p.44). Organisation can be based on resources’ formats, literacy levels, subject headings (such as those assigned by SCIS), or literary genres (Wall, 2019, p.11). Genrefication exists on a spectrum, from labelling books in their original DDC location, to separating ‘mini-collections’ in distinct displays, to completely reorganising the layout and position of resources (National Library of New Zealand, n.d., para.33-36; Gray, 2019, p.25; Wall, 2019, p.11). There is also an imbalance in the treatment of fiction and non-fiction collections in genrefication discussions, with greater emphasis on its benefits to fiction collections (Wall, 2019, p.11).
School librarians espouse numerous benefits to genrefying their collections. Increased circulation statistics are cited as one crucial benefit (Gray, 2019, p.18-22). Many practitioners claim that genrefication has made their collections more accessible and more appealing (Davenport, 2017, p.7; Dawson, 2019, p.23; Mathur, 2019, p.6; Wall, 2019, p.14; Davenport, 2021, p.12). Hider (2018, p.24) argues that effective information resource description should help users obtain information, and librarians should therefore understand their users’ specific needs. In high-schools, when student pleasure-reading declines (Dickenson, 2014, p.10), genrefying fiction can be a game-changer. Many teenagers prefer to browse to find interesting and relevant resources (Bessman Taylor et. al., 2019, p.862); therefore, organising fiction according to similar subjects or themes is a useful way to promote positive reading habits in adolescents. Pleasure-reading has numerous academic and social benefits which overcome socio-economic disadvantage (Krashen, 2011, p.1-9), and research shows that access to reading materials increases adolescents’ reading motivation (Manuel and Carter, 2015, p.126). Therefore, genrefication supports adolescent information behaviours, encouraging browsing and selection of resources relevant to their needs, interests, and abilities.
While reading promotion is one aspect of high-school librarianship, promoting information literacy is also crucial. Forsaking standardised methods of organisation like the DDC is a frequent objection to genrefication (Gray, 2019, p.23; Wall, 2019, p.13) since students require the skills to navigate standardised systems utilised by most libraries worldwide. Greater emphasis is placed on genrefication’s benefits to fiction than on non-fiction collections, possibly because the DDC already groups similar resources by discipline to facilitate browsing (Hider, 2017, p.193). However, Outhouse (2017, p.36) argues the DDC is not a browsable system for today’s students due to its technical nature. The DDC has been described as a ‘secret code’ that students today do not understand (LaGarde, 2018, para.10). Outhouse (2017, p.41-42) argues that one of the DDC’s faults is that it is difficult for young children to search effectively due to its reliance on mathematical knowledge and seemingly unrelated subject order; high-school students with poor numeracy or pre-existing negative perceptions about the library would likewise be frustrated by its complicated numerical classification system. Some high-school teacher-librarians have therefore partially genrefied their non-fiction resources to support specific subject areas such as English, or to support specific groups of students, such as senior students (Dawson, 2019, p.23).
One frequently cited disadvantage of genrefication relates to the logistics of such reorganisation. Rearranging sections of a collection, let alone the entire library, takes time, effort, money, and training to ensure effective organisation and cataloguing of the changes (Gray, 2019, p.24; Mathur, 2019, p.6; Wall, 2019, p.14). However, LaGarde argues that if we value improving our users’ reading experiences and volume, then genrefication is worth prioritising (2018, para.26). Yet it must be stated that by replacing the ‘secret code’ of the DDC with genre classifications such as those assigned by SCIS, teacher-librarians might just be replacing one code with another, and replacing the standardised DDC subject groupings with another, non-standardised genre grouping (such as SCIS categories) might not suit all texts and users (Hamm, 2019, para.1; Wall, 2019, p.14), especially considering recent trends towards genre-blending (Barone, 2010, p.15-17). The ongoing flexibility needed to maintain a genrefied collection and keep it up-to-date with teen reading needs and expectations might be more than some teacher-librarians are willing or capable of providing.
Teacher-librarians considering genrefying their own collections should thus weigh the benefits to their specific clientele against the logistical realities of such an undertaking. They may choose to genrefy ‘mini-collections’ or to label resources in their current DDC position, using SCIS categories and user input as a guide. Ultimately teacher-librarians must use their technical expertise alongside their knowledge of their specific users’ needs, abilities, and interests to make the right decision for their context.
Reference List
Barone, D. M. (2010). Children’s literature in the classroom: Engaging lifelong readers. Guildford Publications.
Bessman Taylor, J., Hora, A., Steege Krueger, K. (2019). Self-selecting books in a children’s fiction collection arranged by genre. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(3), 852-865. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000617743088
Davenport, S. (2017). Genrefying the fiction collection. Connections, 102(3), 6-7. https://www.scisdata.com/media/1511/connections102.pdf
Dickenson, D. (2014). Children and reading: literature review. University of Western Sydney, Australian Government, and Australia Council for the Arts.
Manuel, J., & Carter, D. (2015). Current and historical perspectives on Australian teenagers’ reading practices and preferences. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 38(2), 115-128.
If teacher librarians don’t normally create metadata, such as catalogue records, why do you need to have an understanding of information resource description?
I found it interesting that the module noted that if the most noticeable feature about the catalogue is the number of users who bypass it, then something has gone wrong. It seems like hardly any of our users utilise the catalogue and instead either ask the front desk for resources or browse the shelves hoping for the best. While I’d like to attribute this to either laziness or a preference for personal interaction, clearly this is something I’ll have to rectify! It was good that the module reinforced that the one of the roles of the TL is to teach users how to effectively use the catalogue independently. It’s also an important skill for them to transfer this knowledge to other catalogues, such as public or university libraries.
As a NSW DoE school, we use SCIS as our supplier of catalogue records. I’m very fortunate to have a full-time library assistant who handles most of the cataloguing when we accession new resources but her position is not guaranteed and it’s important for me to know how the system works so that I can maintain our collection and ensure efficient access to our available resources.
I’ve noticed that while the records from SCIS certainly do save time, they aren’t necessarily describing or classifying our resources in a way which suits our students’ needs. For instance, many of our manga series are catalogued under their individual titles rather than the series title + number, which makes it difficult for people like me who are unfamiliar with the series to find whether we’ve got a requested book on our shelves. Series which have multiple authors also face this issue, as SCIS classifies them under each individual author instead of together which means that the books are scattered amongst our fiction shelves. The Australia’s Great War and the Twisted Tales series are the best examples I can think of with this issue. Last year I also undertook a stocktake and discovered a pile of never-borrowed verse novels which had been classified as non-fiction, the land that our students forgot. I’m in the process of reclassifying them as fiction texts, which will hopefully allow them to be found and used more regularly. If I have an understanding of information resource description I can hopefully combine this with knowledge of my users’ needs and preferences to create a more efficient collection.
Why is it necessary for information agencies such as school libraries to organise information?
One of the key functions of the school library as an information agency is to ensure that our patrons can easily and efficiently access what they need, when they need it. We therefore need to organise our information effectively to:
avoid patron ‘infowhelm’
provide the right book to the right reader at the right time
reduce time wasted spent looking for resources
reduce dissatisfaction with library staff, services, and resources
support time-poor teachers
support reluctant students who might be turned off by inefficient organisation or difficulty locating resources
ensure equitable access to information i.e. give all users the skills and confidence to fulfil their information needs
ensure effective use of materials and justify costs
maintain our professionalism and advocate for our value to the learning community
keep up with a changing information landscape and ensure continued relevance
A school library without an effective collection is like a body without a working heart. Just as our hearts pump vital blood to our organs, the school library collection – developed and maintained by a qualified, perceptive, and vigilant teacher-librarian – ensures our learning communities get what they need to function and thrive.
The collection is so crucial to the library that the concept of a library is almost synonymous with its resources (Fieldhouse & Marshall, 2011, p.3). As information specialists, it is essential for teacher-librarians to provide balanced collections which serve the educational, socio-emotional, and recreational needs of our communities through the provision of relevant, accessible physical and digital resources. By providing equitable access to our collections, school libraries safeguard the right of users to seek, receive, and impart information (United Nations 1948, Article 19; South Australia Department of Education, 2020, p.2). Like many of my peers, I was shocked at the different types of censorship affecting libraries (Hilzinger, 2022, January 10; Abed Ali, 2022, January 12). We must be acutely aware of our own biases when managing our resources and resist attempts by others to censor our collections (Morrisey, 2008, p.165; Evans & Saponaro, 2012, p.306).
ETL503 exposed the complex paradigms underpinning the various approaches to collection management. The teacher-librarian in the Collection-Centred Model amasses resources “just in case” (Hughes-Hassell & Mancall, 2005, p.6). Conversely, the Learner-Centred Model and Collaborative Access Model create “just in time collections and position teacher-librarians as guides ensuring equitable, user-friendly access to materials serving user needs (Hughes-Hassell & Mancall, 2005, p.9, Crawford et. al, 2020, p.2). Yet patron-driven models, while increasing user connection to library resources, potentially lead to unbalanced collections where popular titles are prioritised over quality or curriculum resources (Fleishhacker, 2017, p.26, 31).
Therefore, in a rapidly changing information landscape and with increasing budget pressures, it is important for teacher-librarians to future-proof our collections through continual evaluation, ensuring a balance between “just in case” and “just in time” as well as popular and quality resources, and to extend our collections through the provision of curated digital resources and interlibrary loans (Evans & Saponaro, 2012, p.83; Albitz et. al., 2014, p.267; Gregory, 2019, p.9, 37). We must think carefully about the ongoing selection, acquisition, and promotion of our collections (Keeling, 2019, p.4) to ensure we combat overt and covert censorship and meet the ever-changing educational, cultural, recreational, and professional needs of our students (NSW Department of Education, 2017, p.8). Clearly, being an effective teacher-librarian is about so much more than just buying the books we love!
If a library without an effective collection is like a body without a heart, then a collection without a development or management policy is like a body without a brain. Just as the brain co-ordinates the body’s actions, so too does a collection development policy guide the library’s effective operation. A well-written manual with clear policies and procedures is essential for ensuring best practice and effective delivery of relevant, accessible resources and services for the library community (Australian Library an Information Association [ALIA], 2017, p.4).
Early in this course I learned that while collection management and collection development are often used synonymously, they can also refer to separate concepts (Lysaught, 2021a, para.3-4):
(Johnson, 2018, p.1; Gregory, 2019, p.xiv).
Gregory argues that effective collection development policies have three main purposes: to inform, direct, and protect (2011, p.31). Fieldhouse & Marshall extend on this, stating that effective collection development policies function as a ‘contract’ between the library and its community, and are powerful advocacy tools which inform users, guide administration, and justify funding decisions (2011, p.165-166). While Newsum argues that collection development is the teacher-librarians’ exclusive responsibility (2016, p.101), others argue that collection policies are most effective when planned and implemented democratically (Oberg & Schultz-Jones, 2015, p.34; Johnson, 2018, p.83). I believe that while the final responsibility lies with the teacher-librarian as qualified expert, libraries should be as democratic as possible (Lysaught, 2021b, para.14). A collaboratively designed collection policy is an important public relations tool which encourages ownership, understanding, and support from the school community regarding the library’s role, resources, and processes (Kimmel, 2014, p.70). It is crucial that school libraries have strong policies supported by their local community and colleagues (Lysaught, 2022a, January 17). Without them, a library and its resources are vulnerable to misuse and misunderstanding, exposed to challenges, and overall likely to be less effective at meeting users’ needs and interests.
When I inherited the library, the collection was damaged, outdated, and irrelevant (Lysaught, 2022b, para.4). Like many of my peers, there was no Collection Development Policy (Gemell, 2021, December 27; Losanno, 2022, January 1) and as a result the collection was not effectively meeting user needs (Lysaught, 2022b, para.3). The understandings developed during this unit assisted me in conducting my first ever Stocktake (Lysaught, 2022c, para.4), and helped me weed many resources that no longer met the needs and interests of our users (Lysaught, 2021b, para.10).
This is what happens when library hygiene is neglected – we have a collection in desperate need of a weed!
Moving forward, I intend to engage in the Continuous Review, Evaluation and Weeding cycle outlined by Larson (2012, p.13). Library hygiene is a key element of our role as information specialists (Fieldhouse & Marshall, 2011, p.36; Newsum, 2016, p.201). Just as we need to keep our hearts in shape, so too must we ensure that our collections are in shape via continuous needs assessment, evaluation, selection, acquisition, and promotion (Kimmel, 2014, p.17; Johnson, 2018, p.122). I’ve already created a draft selection criteria to help with ETL503 Assessment 1 (Lysaught, 2022b). One of my first priorities in 2022 will be to create a Library Committee where students and staff come together to collaboratively plan, implement, and promote our policy and resources (Lysaught, 2021b, para.12). Once our collection development and management policies are ratified, I intend to present the information to the whole staff body – though making it accessible and entertaining will likely prove to be a challenge (Lysaught, 2022d, January 14; Oddone, 2022, January 23)! By creating a collection development and management policy in partnership with my community, I hope to protect our collection against changes to user interests and needs, to the information landscape, and to the curriculum by planning for continual evaluation and improvement. To quote the well-known adage, if we fail to plan, then we plan to fail!
Word count: 1043
Bibliography:
Abed Ali, K. (2022, January 12). RE: Key takeaway from your readings on censorship [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260201_1&message_id=_3899339_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
Albitz, B., Avery, C., & Zabel, D. (Eds.). (2014). Rethinking collection development and management. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA]. (2017). A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres (2nd edition). Australian Library and Information Association.
Crawford, L. S., Condrey, C., Avery, E. F., & Enoch, T. (2020). Implementing a just-in-time collection development model in an academic library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 46(2), p.102101.
Evans, G. E., & Saponaro, M. Z. (2012). Library and information science text : Collection management basics. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Fieldhouse, M., Marshall, A. (2011). Collection development in the digital age.
Fleishhacker, J. (2017). Collection development. Knowledge Quest, 45(4), 24–31.
Gemell, L. (2021, December 27). RE: Editing a collection development policy [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260200_1&message_id=_3853862_1
Gregory, V. L. (2011). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections : An introduction. American Library Association.
Hilzinger, C. (2022 January 10). RE: Key takeaway from your readings on censorship [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260201_1&message_id=_3899339_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
Hughes-Hassell, & S., Mancall, J. C. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. American Library Association.
Johnson, Peggy (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management. ALA Editions.
Keeling, M. (2019). What’s new in collection development? Knowledge Quest 48(2), 4-5.
Kimmel, S. C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. American Library Association.
Larson, J. (2012). CREWing children’s materials. In CREW: a weeding manual for modern libraries, (pp. 33-36), Austin, TX: Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Losanno, J. (2022, January 1). RE: Editing a collection development policy [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260200_1&message_id=_3853862_1
Lysaught, D. (2021a, November 15). ETL503 1.1 definition of collection management and collection development. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/11/15/etl503-1-1-definition-of-collection-management-and-collection-development/
Lysaught, D. (2021b, November 22). ETL503 2.1 developing collections. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/11/22/etl503-2-1-developing-collections/
Lysaught, D. (2022a, January 17). RE: Editing a collection development policy [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260200_1&message_id=_3900966_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
Lysaught, D. (2022b, January 14). ETL503 6.1 editing a collection development policy. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/14/etl503-6-1-editing-a-collection-development-policy/
Lysaught, D. (2022c, January 6). ETL503 5.1 methods of collection analysis. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/06/etl503-5-1-methods-of-collection-analysis/
Lysaught, D. (2022a, January 14). RE: Editing a collection development policy [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260200_1&message_id=_3900966_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
Morrisey, L. J. (2008). Ethical issues in collection development.Journal of Library Administration, 47(3-4), 163-171.
Newsum, J. M. (2016). School collection development and resource management in digitally rich environments: An Initial Literature Review. School Libraries Worldwide, 22(1), 97–109.
Oberg, D., & Schultz-Jones, B. (eds.). (2015). 4.3.1 Collection management policies and procedures. In IFLA School Library Guidelines, (2nd ed.), (pp. 33-34). Den Haag, Netherlands: IFLA.
NSW Department of Education [NSW DoE] (2017). “Handbook for School Libraries. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-across-the-curriculum/school-libraries/your-library
Oddone, K. (2022, January 23). RE: Editing a collection development policy [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58478_1&conf_id=_115077_1&forum_id=_260200_1&message_id=_3899262_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
South Australia Department of Education. (2020). Selecting and using resources for educational purposes guideline. https://www.education.sa.gov.au/doc/selecting-and-using-resources-educational-purposes-guideline
United Nations (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Discuss new areas needing coverage in your collection development policy, in view of the digital content of your collection.
Like so many newbie teacher librarians, I have been unable to locate a formal written collection development or collection management policy. As such, I’ve felt more than a little lost this year as I’ve floundered my way through budgeting, selection, and acquisition of resources to support my school community and feel like I probably haven’t made the best choices.
When I started this unit last October I saw the School Library Collection Rubric (ALIA, 2017) and quickly reflected on where I thought our school library collection sat. The results were eye-opening: out of the 31 elements I felt confident to assess, I deemed 8 to be developing, 20 to be at foundation level, and only 3 to be effective. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done to bring our collection up to scratch!
I plan on using this rubric to set goals (some of which will even make it onto my PDP! What great evidence for accreditation maintenance!) and work towards improving our collection over the next year – though honestly, it will probably take much longer! As noted on my blog, I’ve already undertaken a stocktake and weeded many of our outdated, damaged, and irrelevant resources. It will be interesting to review my initial assessment at the end of the year with more qualitative and quantitative data.
One of the tasks I set myself this year was to at least create a selection criteria which would guide the acquisition of future resources. This draft has drawn on a number of samples and will hopefully guide the development of a more effective collection in future and allow staff to see the complex nature of what teacher librarians actually do.
1.
Criteria
Relevance to Curriculum and Recreational Needs, Interests and Abilities of Users
1.1 Does the resource meet an existing or anticipated need?
1.2 Will the resource be well-used by students, staff, parents, or other community members?
1.3 Is the cost justified in terms of the potential use and value to the collection?
1.4 Is the print comprehensible and formatted to suit the age level and reading abilities of the target audience?
1.5 Are the content and vocabulary appropriate for the target audience?
1.6 Is the resource suitable to the interest level of the intended users?
1.7 Is this resource high quality?
2.
Criteria
Currency of Content
2.1 Is the information current and up-to-date (especially regarding resources on topics such as science, technology, social issues, and geo-political content)?
2.2 Is the information and presentation in keeping with current educational practice?
2.3 Are the tables, charts and other relevant data in the resource recent?
2.4 Are links to websites active and current?
3.
Criteria
Accuracy and Quality of Content
3.1 Is the content clearly factual or fictional?
3.2 Are facts and opinions identified and presented impartially?
3.3 Is the content correct?
3.4 Is the content of literary merit?
4.
Criteria
Authority and Reliability of the Composer
4.1 Is the author or creator qualified in the field?
4.2 Is the publisher well-established/reputable in the field?
4.3 Has the author or creator produced other works in the same area?
5.
Criteria
Presentation of the Resource
5.1 Is the style appropriate for the subject and use?
5.2 Do the illustrations extend the factual information?
5.3 Are the print, illustrations, multimedia, and sound of a high quality?
5.4 Is the resource physically attractive?
5.5 Is the resource durable and well-constructed?
6.
Criteria
Accessibility
6.1 Is the format accessible for users?
6.2 Is the content easy to navigate?
6.3 Are ideas developed, organised, and presented clearly?
6.4 Does the resource have peritextual elements such as an index, author’s notes, table of contents, chapter summaries, glossaries, bibliography or menus to assist users to locate relevant information?
7.
Criteria
Respectful to All Peoples
7.1 Is the resource free of bias or prejudice?
7.2 Does the resource present positive images of gender, disability, and cultural and ethnic groups?
7.3 Are the representations of people honest and accurate?
7.4 Is the resource free of stereotypical images and role definitions?
For resources dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, consider the following additional criteria:
7.5 Is the resource accurate in its presentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues?
7.5.1 Authenticity – is the resource an authentic representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues?
7.5.1.1 Is the material up-to-date?
7.5.1.2 Is the material accurate?
7.5.1.3 Does the material repudiate the concept of terra nullius?
7.5.1.4 Does the material accurately represent Aboriginal resistance to European occupation of the land?
7.5.1.5 Does the material avoid overgeneralisations?
7.5.1.6 Is the number and diversity of both Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal languages and cultures represented?
7.5.1.7 Are illustrations and photographs positive and accurate portrayals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and relevant to the text?
7.5.1.8 Are photographs accompanied by captions which name the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person or group in a culturally sensitive manner, and indicate where they come from?
7.5.2 Balanced nature of the presentation – is the representation of content balanced and representative of the diversity and complexity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures?
7.5.2.1 Is there a balanced representation of men and women in the material?
7.5.2.2 Does the material accurately represent women’s roles in First Nations societies?
7.5.2.3 Are stereotyping and racist connotations absent?
7.5.2.4 Does the resource include all readers by not assuming a European background?
7.5.2.5 Does the resource include Torres Strait Islander people?
7.5.2.6 Does the resource avoid over-representing the ‘exotic’ to the exclusion of other cultural aspects?
7.5.2.7 Does the resource acknowledge that First Nations practices continue to the present day?
7.5.3 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander participation – has the resource been created by, or in consultation with, members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?
7.5.3.1 Does the resource acknowledge Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander participation in the research, writing, and presentation processes?
7.5.3.2 Is the author Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?
7.5.4 Accuracy and support – does the resource accurately represent and support local First Nations groups?
7.5.4.1 Is the material about your local area or state?
7.5.4.2 Has the material been endorsed by local, regional, state, or territory Aboriginal education consultative groups?
7.5.4.3 Has the material been endorsed by other Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander groups?
7.5.4.4 Is the material acceptable to the local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities?
7.5.5 Exclusion of content of a secret or sacred nature – does the resource depict culturally sensitive materials?
7.5.5.1 Does the material avoid culturally insensitive references to information about secret and/or sacred items, practices, sites, and/or representations?
8.
Criteria
Criteria Specific to the School’s Context: Support for school and local community issues
8.1 Does the resource support the school as it works to implement the School Improvement Plan (SIP)?
8.1.1 Strategic Direction 1: Student Growth and Attainment
8.1.2 Strategic Direction 2: Enhancing Learning Culture
8.1.3 Strategic Direction 3: Enhancing Wellbeing for Successful Learning
8.2 Does the resource support the socio-emotional needs of our current and emerging student populations?
8.3 Does the resource support the teaching needs of our current staff, such as a specific syllabus option or course?
8.4 Does the resource support specific school-based programs?
8.5 Does the resource support specific local community programs?
Bibliography and other useful resources for future reference:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network (2012). Welcome to the ATSILIRN protocols for libraries, archives and information services. https://atsilirn.aiatsis.gov.au/protocols.php
Debowski, S. (2001). Collection management policies. In K. Dillon, J. Henri & J. McGregor (eds.), Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.). (pp.126-136). Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Debowski, S. (2001). Collection program funding management. In K. Dillon, J. Henri & J. McGregor (eds.), Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.). (pp.299-326). Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Dillon, K. (2001). Maintaining collection viability. In K. Dillon, J. Henri & J. McGregor (eds.), Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.). (pp.241-254). Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Fieldhouse, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Collection development in the digital age. Facet.
Fleishhacker, J. (2017). Collection development. Knowledge Quest, 45(4), 24–31.
Gregory, V. L. (2019). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections: an introduction. American Library Association.
Herring, J. (2007). Chapter 2: Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information (pp.27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Hughes-Hassell, & S., Mancall, J. C. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. American Library Association.
Johnson, Peggy (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management. ALA Editions.
Keeling, M. (2019). What’s new in collection development? Knowledge Quest 48(2), 4-5.
Kimmel, S. C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. American Library Association.
From your readings of module 5.1, discuss which collection methods are suitable and practical in school libraries, and which ones you will use.
As teacher-librarians, one of our core responsibilities is to identify the needs of our learning community and then figure out what we have and what we require to ensure those needs are served effectively and efficiently. The readings for this module reveal that a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods can help teacher-librarians discover and meet these needs with our existing collections and future purchases. Some of the methods outlined in Johnson’s (2018) chapter fit the ‘just in case’ collection development paradigm, while others exemplify the ‘just in time’ approach.
In my secondary library, I already use circulation statistics from our library management system, Oliver, as well as from Wheelers ePlatform which hosts our online library collection. For these eresources I will also conduct cost-per-use analysis to determine whether to renew all of our subscriptions later this year (we currently subscribe to 3 packages through Wheelers: ebooks, audiobooks, and the Wellness collection).
I have just completed a stocktake of our non-fiction, biography, and senior fiction collections since circulation data indicated that they were our least used resources. During this process I was able to conduct a direct collection analysis/shelf scanning, though I didn’t realise that this was what it was called at the time! During this process I was able to not only become familiar with our collection, but also to determine whether these resources were still relevant and in good condition. Our shelves have gone from an overpacked, outdated, uninviting mess to a more streamlined collection which will hopefully allow students to identify relevant materials more effectively. One thing I realised was that sometimes poorly performing resources might still be valuable, but need to be displayed or promoted in a more effective manner. However, this was definitely a time-consuming process and not one which could be conducted easily every year!
I’d also love to begin more qualitative methods of collection analysis this year. One of my 2022 goals is to establish a student-led library committee, and we could incorporate other methods such as focus groups and more regular user opinion surveys (for my last one, only 11 staff out of 95 responded). I have also tried to get staff to share their assessments with me so that I can conduct curriculum mapping, but this task often gets put aside and forgotten amidst the rush of term so I’ll try to find new ways to get my hands on their tasks. List checking, for example against lists such as the Suggested Texts for the English K-10 Syllabus (2012) or the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, is another useful qualitative way to analyse the relevance and quality of our library collection.
I think it would be interesting to see whether the gaps in our collection could be filled by resources available at other local libraries; however, while this might be a cost effective way to ensure the needs of our learning community are met, it is hard to quantify using data and when we pass these ‘sales’ (so to speak!) to other libraries they don’t appear on our statistics which makes it difficult to prove the value of the school library’s work to the powers that be. The importance of advocating our value is a recurring theme in this course, and I’d love to be able to include some of these qualitative and quantitative collection analysis methods in our annual School Report to show students, staff, and parents the complicated nature of our work and how we are supporting their learning and recreational needs.
Throughout history, humankind has been drawn to create and engage with fictional worlds to explore powerful, complex ideas which force us to question our assumptions, to connect with others, and to uncover deeper truths about ourselves and our world. Neil Gaiman (2013) identifies two key functions of fiction: first, fiction acts as “a gateway drug to reading” (para.9) by opening new worlds and possibilities while developing our literacy skills; secondly, fiction builds empathy, a necessary skill for citizens in our global world (para.9-10). Fiction helps expand our knowledge of the lives, thoughts, and feelings of others, and inhabiting the mind of another person helps us recognise our similarities, thus affecting what we think and how we respond to the world (Giles, n.d. para.3; Kidd & Castano, 2013, p.377; Whitten et. al., 2016, p.49; Short, 2018, p.291).
Some popular themes and trends influencing young adult literature include innovation and playfulness with content and form, multiple narrators, verse novels, and series fiction (Barone, 2010, p.15-17; Short, 2018, p.288). New technologies and the rise of social networking have also impacted children’s literature, increasing the accessibility of texts and authors while leading to a push for greater inclusivity and diverse representations by consumers (Barone, 2010, p.15-17). In recent years this intersection of technology and social awareness has seen the development of hashtags such as #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #LoveOzYA which connect readers with relevant content and build communities of like-minded consumers (We Need Diverse Books, 2021; #LoveOzYA, 2021).
Historical fiction is a powerful tool which can transform students’ understanding of the past while vicariously broadening their understanding of themselves, of others, and of the world around them. Recent Australian young adult historical fiction, such as Nanberry: Black Brother White (French, 2011), Crow Country (Constable, 2011), Sister Heart (Morgan, 2015), Freedom Ride (Lawson, 2015), Our Race for Reconciliation (Heiss, 2017), and Benevolence (Janson, 2020), focus on the experiences of Australia’s First Nations peoples. Through their portrayals of past injustices, texts such as these can play a crucial role in undoing prevailing misconceptions while promoting diversity and reconciliation.
Historical fiction novels, despite their focus on real events, ultimately fictionalise these events, and it can be a fine line between constructing an accurate, sensitive representation of the past and oversimplifying or trivialising peoples’ experiences (Wadham et. al., 2019, p.60, 62). Although historical acceptance is a key aspect of Reconciliation (Reconciliation Australia, 2021, 21-23), there is also the potential for First Nations students to be exposed to confronting material detailing their historical trauma. Historical fiction novels attempting to portray Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, cultures, and experiences also run the risk of being didactic and tokenistic. Barone (2010, p.16) notes that didacticism has made a comeback in young adult literature, while McDonald (2013) observes that novels with cross-cultural friendships encouraging non-Indigenous characters to reject racism and embrace tolerance have recently become popular (p.120). Garrison (2019) rightly argues that any representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander characters should be genuine and sensitive to the realities of these cultures (p.21), while Heiss argues that many readers are turned off by tokenism in literature (as cited in Case, 2014, para.5). For this reason, many non-Indigenous authors now consult with Indigenous groups to ensure accurate, meaningful representation (McDonald, 2013, p.120). Author’s notes are another strategy employed by composers to add credibility and authenticity to their work and are increasingly popular because they provide much-needed contextualisation for readers keen to see how the fictional fits with the historical (Short, 2018, p.295; Wadham et. al., 2019, p.65). Historical fiction therefore provides educators with a rich stimulus for developing students’ skills in critical thinking and information literacy in addition to acting as a powerful tool to increase their interest, cultural literacy, and empathy.
Research repeatedly emphasises the social, personal, and academic value of reading for pleasure (Herbert, 2012, p.86; Earp, 2015, para. 2; Whitten et. al., 2016, p.48, 51). Yet secondary school teacher-librarians wishing to support their school community in this endeavour are faced with a number of challenges leading to a decline in students reading for pleasure in adolescence, such as lack of time allocated to pleasure reading, competing interests vying for student attention, and negative attitudes towards reading due to its perceived lack of value (Barone, 2010, p.2; Dickenson 2014, para.4; Manuel & Carter, 2015, p.116; Whitten et. al, 2016, p.57). Additionally, due to overcrowded curricula, novels are often used to teach literacy skills instead of as a means of understanding the human experience or for fun (Barone, 2010, p.2-3; Short, 2018, p.291). In secondary schools the so-called ‘educational silo’ mentality often impedes efforts at collaborative, cross-curricular planning (Sheninger, 2016, para.2-4), but teacher-librarians, who engage with a range of students, are uniquely placed to draw together the various syllabus strands into meaningful learning activities. Educators should utilise this expertise if they wish to create effective, authentic learning experiences for their students. Teacher-librarians should select quality resources for their collections which serve the interests and needs of our community (NSW DoE, 2017, p.8; Short, 2018, p.296), preferably from diverse publishers like Magabala Books, and build a culture of reading for pleasure which ideally includes staff, students, and parents by collaboratively teaching, promoting books via read-alouds and displays (both physical and digital), and encouraging activities prioritising student choice such as book clubs and literature circles (Clarke & Nolan, 2014, p.11; Manuel & Carter, 2015, p.124; Earp, 2015, para.15-20; Brugar & McMahon Whitlock, 2019, p.85; Victoria Department of Education and Training, 2020).
Bibliography:
Barone, D. M. (2010). Engaging teachers and their use of children’s literature. From: Children’s literature in the classroom: Engaging lifelong readers. Guildford Publications.
Brugar, K. A., & McMahon Whitlock, A. (2019). “I like […] different time periods:” elementary teachers’ uses of historical fiction. Social Studies Research and Practice 14(1), 78-97.
Clarke, R., & Nolan, M. (2014). Book clubs and reconciliation: a pilot study on book clubs reading the ‘fictions of reconciliation’. Australian Humanities Review 56.
Dickenson, D. (2014). Children and reading: literature review. University of Western Sydney, Australian Government, and Australia Council for the Arts.
Garrison, K. (2019). What’s going on down under? Part 2: portrayals of culture in award-winning australian young adult literature. The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults 10(2), 1- 34.
Manuel, J., & Carter, D. (2015). Current and historical perspectives on australian teenagers’ reading practices and preferences. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 38(2), 115-128.
McDonald, L. (2013). A literature companion for teachers. Primary English Teaching Association.
Wadham, R. L., Garrett, A. P., & Garrett, E. N. (2019). Historical fiction picture books: the tensions between genre and format. The Journal of Culture and Values in Education 2(2), 57-72.
Whitten, C., Labby, S., & Sullivan, S. L. (2016). The impact of pleasure reading on academic success. The Journal of Multidisciplinary Graduate Research 2(4), 48-64.
*This post has drawn on extracts from my ETL402 Assessment 1 response.
To what extent are indigenous OR multicultural voices represented in your school library or local public library collection?
Do you have an unstated or stated selection criteria in the provision of this type of resource?
Name children’s texts (2) that you could recommend as important additions to support either:
Cross currriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures or Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia or another indigenous group relevant to your location or context
General capability of Intercultural Understanding
To determine the extent to which Indigenous voices are represented in our school library, I searched through our Oliver catalogue.
A search using the subject “Aboriginal” received 611 hits while the subject “Indigenous” received 57. There were 28 results for “Torres Strait Islander”. A search for “First Nations” only turned up 3 results. However, the three results for the First Nations search were far more recent (2017-2021), whereas the majority of the results for the others were outdated, perpetuating negative stereotypes or using insensitive terms. For instance, several resources were listed under NON305ABO (if I’m cringing, I can only imagine how our students feel when they see that word!), while the oldest resource was from 1972 and used the term ‘Aborigines’. Results for resources on the local Gundungurra, Dharawal, and Darug peoples were likewise limited. The subject search “Aboriginal peoples – Fiction” produced 35 results dating from 1983-2021.
These searches revealed that our library hosts a mix of fiction, nonfiction, picturebook, and audiovisual resources in both our physical and digital collections. A subject search for “authors, Aboriginal” received only 7 results and confusingly included The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan, which suggests that our SCIS records are perhaps not up-to-date.
Looking at the lists of texts and authors in the above searches, I conclude that our collection is largely outdated and seems to prioritise white representations of Indigenous cultures, histories, and experiences. As far as I have been able to determine, the school library does not have a collection development and management policy, let alone a selection criteria which guides the inclusion of relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources. I am in the process of completing ‘ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum’ and will hopefully soon be in a more informed position to construct such a policy for the library.
Some more recent texts which I’ve added to our collection and could support the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures are:
Sally Morgan. Sister Heart.
This short verse novel details the experience of a young Aboriginal girl who is stolen from her family. This would be a fantastic cross-curricular resource for Stage 4 or 5 students. These teacher’s notes differentiate the text for older and younger readers: http://static.booktopia.com.au/pdf/9781925163131-1.pdf
Anita Heiss. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia.
A nonfiction collection of accounts from a range of Australian personalities about what it means to grow up Aboriginal in Australia. I’m halfway through reading this at the moment and absolutely loving it! A teacher’s resource aligned to the Australian Curriculum is also available: https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/growing-up-aboriginal-in-australia/
Bruce Pascoe. Dark Emu and Young Dark Emu.
A controversial reconsideration of pre- and early-colonial Aboriginal Australian culture and farming practices. It would be interesting to consider the historiographical debates presented by contrasting it with Sutton and Walshe’s recent Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate. There’s a comprehensive teacher’s resource aligned to the Australian Curriculum available here: https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/dark-emu/
Discuss how the teacher librarian’s expertise and role is different from that required by all teachers.
Share ideas on how teacher librarians might effectively collaborate with the school community in the selection of resources in a school with which you are familiar.
Consider also how to engage your learners in selection of resources for their school library.
Who should have the final say on what is included? Why?
From my understanding of the readings set for this module (and my personal experience working in a high school library), there are a number of ways that the teacher librarian’s role and expertise differs from the expectations of all other teachers. The main three that I can tell are:
a) that the TL’s role is poorly defined and seems to be whatever the school requires, whereas a classroom teacher is working from a clearly defined curriculum document;
b) that the TL’s curriculum knowledge spans multiple subjects, general capabilities, and cross-curricular priorities, whereas in the secondary setting most classroom teachers might only have knowledge of two subject areas (and most likely only work within one); and
c) that TLs are in the privileged position of seeing students across different subject areas throughout their time at the school.
As a result, TLs are uniquely placed to know the diverse interests and capabilities of their students and can use their wide-ranging curriculum knowledge to develop collections to support the needs of their learning community.
However, it takes a village to raise a child and schools are no exception. I inherited a library that still has content from when the school was founded in 1976, which means that there is a lot of material that I simply don’t know about or that is irrelevant to the changing needs of today’s teachers and learners. One way I will get my head around this is by conducting a stocktake in a few weeks time, followed by a review of the physical resources once this subject is completed.
I have also collaborated with members of my school community by sending out a survey to staff asking if they had any recommendations for our library collection, and as a result I was able to stock up on relevant learning materials that will better support the staff as they implement their learning programs. I’m in the process of collecting the units of work for each faculty so that I can design displays and curate resources to help staff and students with their work.
Our library is sadly closed to students due to Covid restrictions and our finances had to be finalised in week 2 of this term so no more purchases can take place this year, but next year I plan to form a library committee with students who can help recommend books and other resources that they and their peers might enjoy and find useful. I feel that this will be useful especially with the development of our manga collection (one of the most popular in our library) since I’m not entirely up to speed with the different series that our students seem to love.
One final way that I’m collaborating with my school community is to build a digital space to complement our physical space. I’ve worked hard this year to build a virtual library using Wheelers ePlatform and promoting it via the school’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts. Next year I’d love to build more excitement and increase student ownership of the library collection by creating ‘unboxing’ videos which showcase our new purchases.
While I believe that libraries should be largely democratic, the final say will be mine. While staff and students can request resources and should definitely have a role in shaping a library that is relevant for them, the expertise and responsibility ultimately lies with the Teacher Librarian. After all, I’m the one who will cop the blame if there are any complaints, and therefore I’m the one responsible for creating a collection development and management policy that can justify purchases and stand up to potential challenges. It’s all well and good for a staff member to request that we stock the Outlander series (true story!) or for students to want more copies of the raunchy Food Wars series (it’s amazing how much our teen boys love these images 😂) but if it doesn’t serve the teaching and learning needs of our school community then I have to be prepared to reject these requests. A well-developed collection development and management policy can be a crucial tool in situations like these.
So here we are again, ready for another session of study! This week in ETL503 we’ve been looking at the idea of ‘collection management’ and ‘collection development’. What’s the difference?
ALIA (2017) notes that the terminology surrounding collection development and management have changed since 2007 due to changing technologies and the impact this has had on library services. Gregory (2019, p.1-2) emphasises the increased complexity of collection development and management in a rapidly changing information landscape.
Johnson (2018) states that when librarians use the terms ‘collection development’ and ‘collection management’ that they are referring to all the activities involved in building and managing library collections, including physical and electronic resources. She distinguishes that ‘collection development’ refers specifically to “the thoughtful process of developing or building a library collection” (p.1) to meet the specific needs of the library community, while ‘collection management’ refers to the treatment and handling of the collection once it has been developed, though these terms are often used interchangeably.
Gregory (2019) defines collection management as “the process of information-gathering, communication, coordination, policy formulation, evaluation, and planning that results in decisions about the acquisition, retention, and provision of access to information sources in support of the intellectual needs of a given library community” (p.xiii). Collection development, on the other hand, “is the subpart of collection management that has primarily to do with decisions that will result in the acquisition of materials” (p.xiv).
I work in a NSW DoE school. I haven’t found a specific definition of ‘collection development and management’ for this context, but the Handbook for School Libraries (NSW Department of Education, 2017) features a section on the provision and management of resources. This handbook outlines that one of the teacher librarian’s key roles is to manage the school’s collection of resources by “selecting, developing, organising and managing information sources, services and appropriate technology to meet the educational, cultural, recreational and professional needs of the school community” (p.8).
Sources:
Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA] (2017). “Manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres (2nd edition)”.
Gregory, V. L. (2019). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections: an introduction.
Johnson, Peggy (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management.
NSW Department of Education (2017). “Handbook for School Libraries.”
Throughout ETL533 I have examined how I currently incorporate digital literature into our school and considered ways to increase this in future (
