Artificial Intelligence is an amazing, yet terrifying new technology that has the potential to be used for both good and evil in schools. As information specialists, Teacher-Librarians should be leaders in the space surrounding emerging technologies and how they can impact both teaching and learning – a difficult task considering that AI is evolving faster than a Pikachu with a Thunder Stone!
This year I’ve been doing a lot of research into reading for pleasure and investigating the best ways to build a reading culture in my school. As a result, I’ve got some pretty lengthy notes on the topic and it’s getting to the point where it’s all a bit overwhelming and I’m getting lost in the sheer amount of information I’ve gathered.
Enter ChatGPT. Despite it’s potential to cause harm in education, it also has great potential as a tool to maximise our efficiency. I decided to test out its capacity to summarise my notes so far and see whether it could help me make a bit more sense of the mountains of information I’ve gathered.
First Summary:
The research discusses various episodes related to overcoming barriers to reading for pleasure (RfP) as part of the Open University Reading for Pleasure (OURfP) initiative. Here are the key points summarized:
Peer Role Models: Recognize the importance of peer role models in promoting reading for pleasure, especially if students lack role models at home.
Different Reading Behaviors Count: Understand that all reading behaviors are valuable and that there’s a benefit in children seeing diverse reading role models beyond typical fiction lovers.
Creating Communities of Readers: Shared experiences of reading the same books can create powerful communities of readers.
Personalized Recommendations: Know the books students are reading, recommend similar books, relate to their reading experiences, and know the characters they love.
Normalizing Reading Choices: Avoid denigrating students’ reading choices; share the idea of readers’ rights to validate all reading behaviors.
Social Approach to Reading: Foster a culture of safety and non-judgmental reading choices through book talks, reading modeling, and promotion of different interests. Encourage student-led recommendations and involve parents in discussions and modeling.
Factors Affecting Pleasure Reading: Understand the various barriers to pleasure reading, including lack of access to books, time, will, skills, and peer pressure. Address these barriers by increasing access to books, engaging in reading aloud activities, involving parents, and promoting authentic reading experiences.
Synergies in Promoting Reading for Pleasure: These include constructing literate identities, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, text access, time and space, social interaction, and role modeling and connected communities.
Overall, the research emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive reading environment, promoting diverse reading choices, and fostering positive reader identities among children and young people.
Second Summary
The ALIA Webinar: “Fostering a Passion for Reading” highlights strategies to promote reading culture and engagement, leveraging social media and community involvement. Key points include:
Using Social Media: Social media platforms like Instagram can be powerful tools to connect with the community, promote reading, and engage learners. Schools can use existing popular templates but tailor them to focus on reading. Personal appearances and trending formats can enhance engagement.
Collection Development: Understanding the community’s interests and needs is crucial for effective collection development. This involves community connection, consultation, and gap analysis to ensure a diverse and engaging collection. Weeding, sourcing from trusted suppliers, and regular acquisitions are essential steps in this process.
Programming to Improve Reading Culture: Various programming, including reading lessons, book talks, read-alouds, and themed activities, can help foster a social reading culture. Offering a variety of activities, such as readers’ cups, staff book clubs, and themed weeks, can cater to diverse interests and preferences.
Engaging Reluctant Readers: Strategies to engage reluctant readers include creating a supportive environment through social activities, targeted individual interviews to understand barriers to reading, and promoting a growth mindset towards reading. Programs like “Read with a Mate” aim to encourage social reading and provide personalized recommendations based on individual preferences.
Overall, the webinar emphasizes the importance of leveraging social media, understanding community needs, and implementing diverse programming to foster a passion for reading among students.
Third Summary
The series “Building a School Reading Culture” by Madison Dearnaley explores various aspects of cultivating a reading culture within educational institutions. Here are the key points from each part:
Part 1: Assessing Reading Culture
Identifying a school’s reading culture involves observing factors such as library usage, collection layout, time allocated for reading, conversations about reading, and events like Book Week.
Dr. Kay Oddone suggests strategically assessing and enacting organizational culture change to foster a reading culture.
Part 2: Understanding Organizational Culture
Organizational culture influences how an institution operates and its members’ behavior.
Developing a reading culture involves leadership, shared values, and aligning behavior with the desired culture.
Part 3: Strategies for Culture Change
Culture change requires time and understanding behavioral drivers.
A five-point strategy involves matching change strategies with existing culture, focusing on small behavioral shifts, honoring strengths, integrating formal and informal interventions, and measuring and monitoring progress.
Part 4: Defining Reading Culture
A reading culture reflects how members of a school community value and engage with reading.
It involves embedding reading across all aspects of school life and promoting reading for pleasure, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy.
Strong leadership, a shared vision, and commitment to supporting the library are essential for building a reading culture.
Part 5: Measuring Reading Culture
Measurement methods include surveys, data analysis, and review of strategic plans and policies.
Key indicators of a strong reading culture include availability, opportunity, encouragement, intrinsic motivation, engagement, and choice.
Part 6: Identifying Reading Culture Characteristics
Characteristics of a strong reading culture include providing opportunities for reading, promoting and supporting reading, fostering intrinsic motivation and engagement, and offering choice and autonomy.
Measurement involves assessing resources, time allocation, visibility, staff involvement, reader motivation, engagement, and reader-driven collection development.
Part 7: Integrating Reading with School Values
Integrating reading with school values such as creativity, global citizenship, entrepreneurship, and well-being can garner support for building a reading culture.
Demonstrating the role of reading in achieving broader school goals can help prioritize reading initiatives and gain leadership support.
Each part emphasizes the importance of leadership, shared vision, community engagement, and strategic planning in cultivating a reading culture that supports student achievement and well-being.
Fourth Summary
The article “Getting Students Reading Through Social Media” by Overdrive, Nahomy Ortiz-Garcia, Melanie Wood, KC Boyd, and Amanda Hunt highlights effective strategies for using social media to engage students, staff, and parents in promoting reading. Here are the key points:
Identify Audience and Encourage Interaction:
Tailor content to engage with the audience by asking questions and encouraging interaction.
Incorporate bite-sized content and involve students in posts to showcase their reading experiences.
Celebrate Reading Milestones:
Foster a culture of reading by celebrating reading achievements and milestones.
Provide content with educational value and share additional reading resources and learning opportunities.
Strategic Content Posting:
Avoid overwhelming the audience by spacing out content and posting at optimal times when the audience is likely to be online and receptive.
Content Ideas:
Share school events, curriculum connections, holidays, student interests, and feature authors/illustrators.
Make posts interactive and visually appealing to maintain engagement.
Utilize Various Social Media Platforms:
Use different social media platforms based on community engagement.
Tell a unique story about your library reading program and keep posts concise.
Promotional Strategies:
Inform, define, and promote the reading program to parents, colleagues, and policymakers.
Use memes, newsletters, usage tutorials, and QR codes/flyers at school events to promote library programs.
Encourage Reading Through Curated Content:
Create themed and curated book lists and understand feeder elementary school programming to tailor content accordingly.
Engage in community programs and interactive scavenger hunts associated with prizes.
Personal Connection and Visual Appeal:
Show your face to build a connection with students, especially if you don’t see them daily.
Use fun filters, visuals, and short videos to create exciting and relatable content.
Consistent Content Creation:
Set reminders for regular content creation and schedule it into your workday.
Experiment with different social media platforms and content formats to find what works best for your audience.
Useful Tools and Apps:
Explore apps like CAPCUT for video editing and incorporate features like short video recommendations, trending book lists, author highlights, and new releases to keep the content fresh and engaging.
Implementing these strategies can effectively leverage social media to promote reading and foster a positive reading culture within the school community.
Overall Reflections on ChatGPT as a Research Summary Tool
As you can see, it’s done a fairly decent job of summarising the key points of my research. While ChatGPT does have great potential to save teachers time in this area, there are nonetheless a few limitations I’ve noticed:
It can’t directly access or view specific webpages or documents. We therefore can’t simply enter a URL and tell it to summarise the key points of a webpage or pdf.
It misidentified my notes as an article. There were other minor errors or parts where the AI failed to identify what I would have argued was the actual key point.
It has a word limit for your input, which meant that I had to break my research up into chunks which resulted in the four separate summaries above.
I tried to have it amalgamate these four separate summaries but it failed to synthesise the information effectively and instead created a bastardised, repetitive description rather than anything that would be of real use e.g. “Peer Role Models: Importance of peer influence in encouraging RfP.” I therefore didn’t post it here.
The input function doesn’t appear to allow for easy formatting of paragraphs. It also didn’t reflect my bullet point hierarchy and therefore my notes were all lumped together.
This is only a minor issue, but it took my Australian English spelling and spat it back out as US English e.g. ‘recognise’ became ‘recognize’. This hurt a little.
I was using the free ChatGPT version 3.5. Functionality is quite possibly improved in the upgraded GPT-4. For funsies, I also copied the summaries written by ChatGPT and asked it whether it wrote it to see whether it would potentially pick up on any plagiarism; it correctly identified this content as generated by ChatGPT: “‘Yes, I wrote the summaries you provided in your earlier message.” I’m not sure how effective it would be at picking up content generated by other AI tools, however; this might be an experiment for another day.
Overall, while it certainly saved time summarising my research, this would not be an effective way to create summary notes without having first done the initial note-taking process. We therefore need to caution our students not to rely solely on AI but to still use the old noggin to create their notes first, and always read through to fact check any content generated by these wondrous, alarming, and soon to be ubiqituous tech gremlins.
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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Green, G. (2011). Learning leadership through the school library. Access, 25(4), 22-26.
Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). Greenleaf on Servant-Leadership: Who Is the Servant-Leader? The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 4(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.33972/ijsl.234
Herring, J. (2007). 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.
Holmes, K., Clement, J. & Albright, J. (2012). The complex task of leading educational change in schools. School Leadership & Management, 33(3), 270-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2013.800477
Howard, V. (2011) the importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000610390992
Hughes-Hassell, & S., Mancall, J. C. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. American Library Association.
Jacobson, H. F. (2010). Found it on the internet: Coming of age online. American Library Association.
Johnson, P. (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management. ALA Editions.
Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342(6156), 377-380.
Kimmel, S. C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. American Library Association.
Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Kuhlthau, C. C., Heinstrom, J., & Todd, R. J. (2008). The ‘information search process’ revisited: is the model still useful? Information Research, 13(4)
Merga, M., & Mason, S. (2019). Building a school reading culture: Teacher librarians’ perceptions of enabling and constraining factors. Australian Journal of Education 63(2):173-189. DOI:10.1177/0004944119844544
Merga, M. (2021). Libraries as wellbeing supportive spaces in contemporary schools. Journal of Library Administration 61(6). DOI:10.1080/01930826.2021.1947056
Merga, M. (2022). School libraries supporting literacy and wellbeing. Facet.
Moir, S., Hattie, J. & Jansen, C. (2014). Teacher perspectives of ‘effective’ leadership in schools. Australian Educational Leader, 36(4), 36-40.
Oberg, D., & Schultz-Jones, B. (eds.). (2015). Collection management policies and procedures. In IFLA School Library Guidelines, (2nd ed.), (pp. 33-34). Den Haag, Netherlands: IFLA.
O’Connell, J. (2012). So you think they can learn? Scan 31, 5-11.
Reinsel Soulen, R. (2020). The continuum of care. Knowledge Quest, 48(4). 36-42.
Stower, H. & Waring, P. (2018, July 16). Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers. Alliance of Girls Schools Australia. https://www.agsa.org.au/news/read-like-a-girl-establishing-a-vibrant-community-of-passionate-readers/
Uther, J., & Pickworth, M. (2014). TLs as leaders: are you a Highly Accomplished teacher librarian? Access, 28(1), 20–25.
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.
Finally, write a 300-word reflection on the overall study visit experience and how it has contributed to your journey as an information professional
The ETL512 Study Visits to West Moreton Anglican College (WMAC), Lake Tuggeranong College (LTC), State Library Victoria’s Rare Book Collection (SLV), and Bundaberg Regional Libraries (BRL) have opened my eyes to the variety of work available to information professionals and revealed that the skills developed in one setting are transferable to a myriad of others.
My virtual visits to WMAC and LTC were incredibly relevant to my chosen pathway as a high school teacher-librarian. They inspired me with wonderful ideas to incorporate into my future practice by connecting our work developing reading for pleasure and information with our promotions and role advocacy. WMAC’s idea of getting students and staff involved in the CBCA Shadow Judging by linking nominated texts to different KLAs was something I hadn’t previously encountered, and is a wonderful way of linking the library’s work with faculty curricula to promote literary learning. LTC’s staff provided several excellent ideas to build a reading culture by forming strong relationships with students and staff. All staff in each virtual visit emphasised the importance of knowing our users and building strong relationships, and it was inspiring to see practical suggestions for successful implementation which could help me build my library’s profile and promote the value of my resources and services to students, staff, and parents.
The SLV visit was to a setting I hadn’t previously considered, but Wee’s work in collection and exhibition curation sounds quite interesting as a possible future pathway if I decide to leave the education sector. His point about the usefulness of pedagogical knowledge in his library was heartening, as was his point regarding the transfer of skills to different positions. I’m now inspired to experiment with object and digital exhibitions in my own library.
My visit to BRL paired beautifully with my upcoming workplace learning at a local council library and cemented this as a possible future pathway if I leave education. I was inspired by Harris’ emphasis on integrating new technologies into his programs and his passion for ensuring accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity for all users; as a result, I plan to create my own Gamers’ Club and investigate Virtual Reality for my library programs. This visit highlighted the value of creating strong partnerships between local and school libraries, and in future I aim to work closely with our local library network to ensure maximum benefits for my learning community.
How can we take the perception of the TL’s role from the keeper and stamper of books in the quiet place to something different?
I think it’s fair to say that as a profession teacher-librarians have an image problem. Way back at the start of this degree I wrote about Bonanno’s keynote speech in which she described teacher-librarians as an ‘invisible profession’ (Lysaught, August 29 2021a) and the misconception that the library is purely about books (Lysaught, August 29 2021b). A 2021 study revealed that in the US, teacher-librarian numbers declined 20% in the past decade (Ingram, July 19, 2021), and this trend of shrinking school libraries is being replicated in Australia (Tidball, February 10, 2023) alongside stagnating or declining budgets, staffing levels, and staff engagement or support (Softlink, 2022, p.6-7).
Maybe, like a good dancer, we make our work look effortless. Maybe too much of what we do is in the background of busy teachers’ days. One thing that’s for sure is that we need to work on improving our visibility and perceived value to our school community if we are to ensure the future of our profession (Weisburg, 2020).
Moir, Hattie and Jansen (2014, p.37) identified a number of key attributes that teachers perceived as important for leaders:
They also state that “Trust is often best developed in team environments, as then there is opportunity for collaboration and shared decision-making, especially when there is a common focus on improving teaching and learning” (p.39). Bush and Glover (2014, p.554) also discuss the idea of leadership as influence rather than stemming from formal authority, which suits teacher-librarians since we often lack official leadership positions in school hierarchies. Both discussions relate beautifully to the work of the teacher-librarian as literacy expert and information specialist, and they highlight a key way that teacher-librarians can both improve their visibility and their perceived value to their school community through collaborative programming, teaching, and assessment which supports the work of time-poor classroom teachers.
The work of Crippen and Willows (2019, p.174) highlights the 10 characteristics of servant-leaders, and teacher-librarians are uniquely placed to assist healing for colleagues overburdened by heavy workloads, administrivia, and poor student behaviour: “Through their actions as servant leaders they are facilitating a healing process and followers often look to them for support when times are difficult or something traumatic has occurred (Barbuto and Wheeler, 2007).” Teacher-librarians can also exhibit the persuasion trait of servant-leaders: “Supovitz (2018) also describes how teacher leaders use strategies such as leading by example, earning their colleagues trust and encouraging and collaborating with their peers.”
Another area where teacher-librarians can shift the perception of the school community is in the space surrounding emerging or rapidly changing technologies. A 2016 article notes that “By virtue of their training, relationships, systems knowledge, and instructional roles … teacher librarians are ideally suited to lead, teach, and support students and teachers in 21st century schools” (Digital Promise, 2016). Digital literature has the potential to move students from passive consumers to active creators of content while engaging them with the process and ethics of digital content creation (Lysaught, October 4 2022), and Artificial Intelligence is another emerging space where teacher-librarians can position themselves as experts to increase their visibility and perceived value (Lysaught, March 5 2023). It is imperative that we stay current with new and developing technologies to best position ourselves as experts in this field. Our expertise in copyright and the ethics of digital tools alongside our ability to connect the General Capabilities to specific learning programs is invaluable – however, we need to ensure that we’re promoting our abilities in this area and marketing collaborative teaching and planning as a benefit to time-poor teachers rather than just another thing to add to their plates.
Weisburg (2020) argues that while there are numerous barriers to showcasing our value, as a profession we have no other option. We must make it a priority to develop our visibility and promote our value to our school community or we run the risk of becoming obsolete. Weisburg suggests that teacher-librarians should start by looking for ways to showcase what we’re already doing; social media posts, visible displays, and staff emails can promote this work among the school community, while annual library reports can increase the perception of our professionalism and showcase for senior leaders much of the behind the scenes work that goes into running a library (Lysaught, March 5 2023). Weisburg’s suggestion about speaking at P&C meetings is another interesting one which links well to our aforementioned technology expertise. The most crucial aspect of Weisburg’s article for me was the concept of “chopportunities” – “challenges that can be turned into an opportunity.” So much of what affects the library is decided without our input and while it can be tempting to fall into the “why bother?” disheartened state of mind, for our own protection (and sanity!) reframing these issues as “chopportunities” can be a way to reclaim some sense of agency and showcase the benefits we provide to our school communities.
References:
Bush, T. & Glover, D. (2014). School leadership models: What do we know? School Leadership and Management, 34(5), 553-571. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2014.928680
Crippen, C. & Willows, J. (2019). Connecting teacher leadership and servant leadership: A synergistic partnership. Journal of Leadership Education, 18(2), pp. 171-180. https://journalofleadershiped.org/jole_articles/connecting-teacher-leadership-and-servant-leadership-a-synergistic-partnership/
Digital Promise (2016). The new librarian: Leaders in the digital age. In SCIS Connections, (96). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-96/the-new-librarian-leaders-in-the-digital-age/
Moir, S., Hattie, J. & Jansen, C. (2014). Teacher perspectives of ‘effective’ leadership in schools. Australian Educational Leader, 36(4), 36-40.
Softlink (2022). 2022 Australian and New Zealand school library survey report. https://www.softlinkint.com/resources/reports-and-whitepapers/
Weisburg, H. K. (2020). Leadership: There is no other option. Synergy, 18(1). https://slav.vic.edu.au/index.php/Synergy/article/view/369/364
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.
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.
Perform some subject searches on the Library of Congress catalogue, by choosing ‘Browse’ and using the ‘SUBJECTS beginning with’ option. Conduct a search for any term, such as ‘Cats’ or ‘Libraries’. You will see a list of headings, with the subject terms on the left and the type of subject heading on the right. Check those to identify which headings are Library of Congress subject headings.
Note how many headings are ‘strings’ of terms. Can you interpret them correctly? Click through various headings to the records that include them, and see if the resources are the kind that you were expecting.
Log into SCISData, choose the SCIS Catalogue, then search by ‘Subject’ repeating some of the searches you did in the Library of Congress catalogue. Again you will be taken to lists of headings. Those identified as SCIS subject headings are the ones you are looking for. What similarities and differences to LCSH have you noticed?
I initially did a Library of Congress search for ‘dogs’, and as Lisa said, there were so many results to the point where it was almost overwhelming.
I then did a search for ‘Pompeii’, where I found the subject headings and strings to be more useful and not quite as overwhelming (perhaps because there’s not as many terms/resources?). I could see this being a useful search strategy to narrow down relevant resources:
When I clicked on the subject heading ‘Pompeii (Extinct city)–Civilization, it brought up the 13 resources relevant to this topic. I found it interesting that when I typed the terms ‘Pompeii civilisation’ directly into the search bar it took me straight to one resource rather than bringing up all the resources that were listed under the subject heading, while the search terms ‘Pompeii civilization’ showed 81 search results. Clearly it’s not a perfect system and the differences in language (e.g. US spelling vs. Australian spelling) create issues. However, I still think that it’s a useful tool for when we need to find information on a particular subject.
I clicked on Joanne Berry’s book “The Complete Pompeii” and saw that there were three different LC subjects assigned to it, which would also be useful for someone looking to find other related relevant resources.
When I conducted the same search on SCIS, there were fewer results but they seemed more relevant to a school search:
To further test the functionality of these subject headings, I then tried a search for the books based on the stories created by Critical Role. This created an extra layer of difficulty for the cataloguers, since these comics are a) based on a Dungeons and Dragons Twitch game, so not exactly traditional media; and b) created by a group of actors before being c) adapted into comic book form. When I searched the LC subject heading ‘Dungeons and Dragons (Game)–Fiction’ a number of titles came up, including one title relating to the Critical Role universe: ‘Kith and Kin’. However, none of the actors in the original Twitch game are listed as authors; considering most fans of this show would search for resources using the names of the original actors/creators, this might make it difficult for users to find this resource. In SCIS the same author issues arose; for one resource the actor who created the world and ran the original game the stories are based on (Matthew Mercer) is listed as a contributor, while for another he’s not listed at all, despite being the first name on the cover:
Plus, neither Dungeons and Dragons nor Critical Role are listed as subject headings!
I guess it just goes to show how complicated cataloguing is, and despite the best intentions of the people designing these systems, sometimes (perhaps due to lack of familiarity or new forms which defy traditional standards) they’ll create a catalogue record which is unlikely to be easily found by users who aren’t familiar with cataloguing standards. It’s another reason why it’s so important to have trained teacher librarians recognised as information specialists in schools!
Go to the SCIS website https://www.scisdata.com/ then click on ‘Login’ in the right-hand panel. Use your SCIS username and password to access SCIS Data. Click on ‘Search’ and you will be in the SCIS catalogue (or SCIS database) which contains all the catalogue records created by SCIS for school libraries. Guidance on using this catalogue is available at ‘Help’.
Locate three catalogue records of interest to you and explore which elements can be searched in this particular catalogue, and which elements describe a resource’s information content. It is best to search for records from 2014 onwards to see recent examples of SCIS records.
Since I’m teaching HSC English Extension this year, I figured I’d search for some resources relevant to this course.
Search for Pettersson, B. (2016). How literary worlds are shaped: a comparative poetics of literary imagination.
This search was straightforward, with only two records describing this particular source (for a 2016 and a 2018 edition). Here are the record details for first one I chose:
SCIS number: 1898439
ISBN: 9783110483475
Main author: Pettersson, Bo.
Publisher: Berlin, De Gruyter, 2016
Publication date: 2016
Series: Narratologia ; 54
SCIS subjects: Literature, ComparativeLiterature–History and criticism
ScOT subjects: Literary criticism
Dewey: 809 PET
Description: viii, 326 pages.
Content type: text
Format: volume
Language: English
Additional terms
Learning area: Humanities and Social Sciences, English
Type: Book
Summary
Literary studies still lack an extensive comparative analysis of different kinds of literature, including ancient and non-Western. How Literary Worlds Are Shaped. A Comparative Poetics of Literary Imagination aims to provide such a study. Literature, it claims, is based on individual and shared human imagination, which creates literary worlds that blend the real and the fantastic, mimesis and genre, often modulated by different kinds of unreliability. The main building blocks of literary worlds are their oral, visual and written modes and three themes: challenge, perception and relation. They are blended and inflected in different ways by combinations of narratives and figures, indirection, thwarted aspirations, meta-usages, hypothetical action as well as hierarchies and blends of genres and text types. Moreover, literary worlds are not only constructed by humans but also shape their lives and reinforce their sense of wonder. Finally, ten reasons are given in order to show how this comparative view can be of use in literary studies. In sum, How Literary Worlds Are Shaped is the first study to present a wide-ranging and detailed comparative account of the makings of literary worlds.
Author notes
Bo Pettersson, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Search for Le Guin, U. K. (1969). Left Hand of Darkness.
This search gave me more results, since there have been multiple editions/formats published as well as criticisms and study guides. Interestingly, many of the top results when sorted by Relevance were not the text itself but study guides.
The record details for the edition that I’m using with my students are:
SCIS number: 1830065
ISBN: 9781473221628
Main author: Le Guin, Ursula K.
Publisher: London, Gollancz, 2017
Publication date: 2017
Series: SF masterworks
SCIS subjects: Life on other planets–FictionSex differences–FictionCivilisation–FictionHugo AwardNebula Award
ScOT subjects: AliensGender (Physical characteristics)Society
Dewey: F LE
Description: 304 pages.
Content type: text
Format: volume
Notes: First published: 1969. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Genre: Science fiction.
Language: English
Additional terms
Type: Book
Summary
Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the planet Gethen, a world perpetually in winter. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they can become male ot female at the peak of their sexual cycle. They seem to Genly Ai alien, unsophisticated and confusing. But he is drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long, tortuous journey across the ice with a politician who has fallen from favour and has been outcast, he loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in a moving and memorable sequence, even finds love…
Series
1 Rocannon’s world
2 Planet of exile
3 City of illusions
4 The Left hand of darkness
5 The Dispossessed
6 The Word for world is forest
7 Four ways to forgiveness (Collection)
8 The Telling
Author notes
Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California on October 21, 1929. She received a bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1951 and a master’s degree in romance literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance from Columbia University in 1952. She won a Fulbright fellowship in 1953 to study in Paris, where she met and married Charles Le Guin. Her first science-fiction novel, Rocannon’s World, was published in 1966. Her other books included the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, The Lathe of Heaven, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and The Telling. A Wizard of Earthsea received an American Library Association Notable Book citation, a Horn Book Honor List citation, and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979. She received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014. She also received the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. She also wrote books of poetry, short stories collections, collections of essays, children’s books, a guide for writers, and volumes of translation including the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu and selected poems by Gabriela Mistral. She died on January 22, 2018 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography)
Thoughts:
While most of this information wouldn’t be used as an access point for someone searching for this resource, it would nonetheless help narrow down during the selection FRBR task.
On a side note, I love that SCIS often provides links to the Google Books version of the resource. I’ve found that accessing the Google Books samples (where possible) has helped me make the decision about whether a resource is relevant to my needs or not.
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.
Determine some elements or attributes that might be useful for the purposes of discovering and retrieving a particular resource of interest to you, for example, the prescribed textbook for this subject. Review these elements in light of the FRBR user tasks – are they all useful for all of the user tasks, or for some tasks more than others?
As information specialists who facilitate efficient access to information, it is crucial that our catalogues are well organised and effectively described. Organising information can be a little bit like herding cats – no doubt that’s why it’s called a catalogue!
I found this list of metadata elements that I feel are a useful overview of the types of elements/attributes that can help libraries organise information effectively:
From my experience, depending on the information need and the user task, not all of these elements/attributes will be useful.
For instance, I think that finding the textbook for this subject was very straightforward. Because we have been given the links via the Resources tab I think that I skipped the first few user tasks. I went straight to Select since I needed to make a choice between the two links, and chose the Cambridge Core item because it was described as having unlimited user access. I then Obtained the item by clicking the link. It was very easy for me as a patron to fulfil my information need in this instance due to the effective organisation and description of the information resource. I did not need to Find, Identify, or Explore because this resource had been found for us by the course organisers who had identified its usefulness. Because these steps were eliminated from my search process, I did not need most of the elements listed in the above table. I only needed the bibliographic description to ensure that I had the correct item and the access rights description.
However, if I was searching for information for another purpose, such as if I was researching a new topic to teach at school, my needs would be different and so too would my process. As an example, I am teaching English Extension 2 this year and have a student whose Major Work involves elements of historical fiction. Looking through the JSTOR databse, together we Found relevant resources by searching specific criteria, then Identified the key ideas and Selected which ones might be more suitable for her needs before Obtaining them via pdf download. Because this search was more vague, more elements/attributes were called upon to make decisions about whether a resource contained relevant information. In this instance we drew upon not only the bibliographic descriptions, but also subject descriptions and item specific attributes to understand whether the resource was relevant or not.
It is therefore important for teacher librarians to understand the information needs of their users and which of the FRBR user tasks they are requiring to ensure that our resources are described using effective elements/attributes. If our resources are not described effectively, we risk our patrons becoming overwhelmed and missing important, relevant resources. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
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
ETL402 has greatly expanded my understanding of how children’s literature is more than a literacy tool only useful in the English classroom. This unit has built on the knowledge I’ve developed over the last 10 years as an English/History teacher and expanded my understanding of new literacies and text types that have evolved (largely due to new technologies) since I finished my Master of Teaching in 2011.
Literary learning – teaching curriculum content through literature – is a powerful tool to develop students’ multiliteracies. In a changing information landscape, it is crucial that we develop multiliterate students who are flexible, have the skills to reformulate knowledge and practice, and can make meaning via multiple modes and formats (Anstey & Bull, 2006, p.19-21; Gorgon & Marcus, 2013, p.42). Sometimes as classroom teachers we can get stuck in a rut and it’s hard to find the time to explore new developments. ETL402 exposed me to new, exciting text types such as digital narratives (Lysaught, 2022a, para.4-6) and emphasised that teacher-librarians, acting as a mediators for time-poor classroom teachers, should seek out, explore, and curate useful resources to ensure that our colleagues have the best tools possible to teach our students (Braun, 2010, p.47; Lysaught, 2022b, para.6).
While many ETL401 readings emphasised that libraries were about more than just books (Lysaught, 2021a, para.8-9; Lysaught, 2021b, para.7-8, 15), ETL402 reminded me about reading’s importance and the value of literature across the curriculum (Lysaught, 2021c, para.1, 5). Like my peers (Poyitt, 2021, para.1), it troubles me that so many teens I work with simply don’t read. ETL402 made me question my own practices, preferences, and habits (Lysaught, 2021e, para.1-2). Many readings and discussions explored the reasons why people read or don’t, leading me to create these infographics:
These readings gave me valuable insights and inspiring strategies to inform my future practice as I work towards building a whole-school reading culture (Fulton, 2021, para.1; Shaw, 2021, para.2-9; Lysaught, 2022b, para.5; Lysaught, 2022c, para.2-3; Lysaught, 2022d, para.4-6). Literary learning is a particularly exciting way to build whole-school reading culture which I plan to implement to benefit my school community, as summarised in my infographics which I plan to share with my colleagues:
Moving forward, I understand that as information specialist, curriculum leader, and literacy expert, I should:
Offer professional development opportunities for staff wishing to engage their students with literary learning;
Collaboratively plan for the implementation of literary learning with classroom teachers;
Implement literary response strategies with my own classes and support colleagues’ implementation e.g. Book Bento Boxes, Literature Circles;
Curate appropriate resources to support staff and student needs and interests;
Encourage further investigation and continued pleasure reading with a diverse, relevant, accessible collection;
Effectively display and promote relevant materials as well as successful literary learning units via parent bulletins, social media, staff meetings, and school reports;
Work with other stakeholders (e.g. Head Teacher Teaching and Learning, Literacy Committee Co-ordinator) to collect and analyse data determining the efficacy of literary learning;
Draw upon the expertise and strengths of numerous staff to build a more effective whole-school reading culture which supports students’ personal and academic needs;
Be responsive to the changing information landscape, time-pressures, and other issues (e.g. Covid restrictions) which may hinder implementation of collaborative practice
Bibliography:
Allington, R. L., & Gabriel, R. E. (2012). Every child every day. Educational Leadership, 69(6), 10-15.
Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2006). Chapter 2: Defining multiliteracies. In M. Anstey & G. Bull (Eds.) Teaching and learning multiliteracies: Changing times, changing literacies. International Reading Association.
Barone, D. M. (2010). Children’s literature in the classroom: Engaging lifelong readers. Guildford Publications.
Braun, P. (2010). Taking the time to read aloud. Science Scope, 34(2), 45-49.
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.
Combes, B., & Valli, R. (2007). Fiction and the twenty-first century: A new paradigm? Paper submitted to Cyberspace, D-world, e-learning. Giving schools and libraries the cutting edge, 2007 IASL Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.
Dickenson, D. (2014). Children and reading: literature review. University of Western Sydney, Australian Government, and Australia Council for the Arts.
Donnelly, D. (2017). Multi-platformed historical fiction: Literacy, engagement and historical understanding. SCAN 36(3), 43-47.
Gorgon, B. & Marcus, A. (2013). Lost in transliteracy: How to expand student learning across a variety of platforms. Knowledge Quest, 41(5), 40-45.
Howard, V. (2011) the importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000610390992
Ipri, T., & Newman, B. (2017). Beginner’s guide to transliteracy: Where did the term transliteracy come from? Libraries and Transliteracy. https://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/beginners-guide-to-transliteracy/
Jorm, M. & Robey, L. (2020, December 7). Libraries as literacy leaders. National Education Summit. https://nationaleducationsummit.com.au/new-blog/librariesasliteracyleaders
Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342(6156), 377-380.
Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
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.
Poyitt, B. (2021, November 29). Re: 1.2: Affirmative action – examples of practice [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2.
Rodwell, G. (2019). Using fiction to develop higher-order historical understanding. In T. Allender, A. Clark & R. Parkes (Eds.), Historical thinking for history teachers: A new approach to engaging students and developing historical consciousness (p.194-207). Allen & Unwin.
Taylor, T., and Young, C. (2003). Making history: a guide for the teaching and learning of history in Australian schools. Curriculum Corporation.
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.
Wu, Y., Mallan, K., & McGillis, R. (2013). Reimagining the world: Children’s literature’s responses to changing times. Springer.
Young, S. (2012). Understanding history through the visual. Language Arts 89(6), 379-395.
Locate at least two Creative Commons licensed resources. Write a short description of each and explain the CC license chosen.
Resource 1: Disney by Marc Levin
I chose this resource because I know that the House of Mouse can be quite protective of its IP, and I wanted to ask whether this resource was actually covered by Creative Commons. I found it on Flickr at https://bit.ly/3HgzuLT with the generic attribution licence logo, but I’m wondering if it is legally covered by this licence since Disney (the creator and copyright holder) is not the poster of this material. Instead it looks like Levin has taken a screenshot (with a computer mouse icon included). What’s everyone’s thoughts on this?
I found this on YouTube by filtering my search using the Creative Commons option. This resource was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution licence allowing reuse. Again, I’d be interested to know if Polyphonic’s use of Disney’s images and music is legal to begin with. YouTube’s copyright policy states that creators shouldn’t use content in their videos that someone else owns the rights to; though this video might be covered by the USA’s Fair Use laws and Australian content creators might be covered by our similar Fair Dealing exemptions: research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting the news; enabling a person with a disability to access the material.
Prepare a lesson, worksheet or presentation that teaches students or staff how to locate Creative Commons licensed material, and how to attribute it correctly.
From your reading of the Smartcopying website, choose some facts you think teachers or students in your school may not be clear about. Develop two questions for each fact – one for teachers and one for students.
From my experience, a lot of people in schools don’t seem to understand that their actions are “unreasonably prejudicing” the rights of the copyright holder and misunderstand the licensing terms we operate under – I’ll admit that prior to studying for this degree I was just as ignorant. Just recently I had a DP email me to check because a staff member thought it was ok to give our students access to free book torrent sites because it was ‘educational’. I also had to step in when a Year 12 student tried photocopying an entire textbook so he could have his own copy over the holidays!
I’ve come up with the following questions:
For staff: Can I show a movie from Netflix to my class as a reward for them finishing their assessment task?
Answer: Under section 28 of the Copyright Act 1968, staff are allowed to show films, television or radio in their classrooms when it is for educational instruction and not for profit. HOWEVER, if this activity does not have an educational purpose, our school is legally required to obtain a Co-Curricular Licence to avoid copyright infringement. Also, Netflix’s Terms of Use 4.2 state that their content may not be shared with individuals beyond your household and shall not be used for public performances, with the exception of a limited number of documentaries (you can find out more here).
If you wish to legally watch a film with your class please ensure that it is a) educational and b) does not break the service provider’s Terms of Use. You can use our school’s Clickview account to avoid these issues.
For more information please refer to the following resources:
For students (though staff might need reminding too!): How much can I photocopy from this textbook?
Answer: It depends. You are allowed to copy limited amounts of material without seeking permission from the copyright owner as long as you are copying for:
research or study
criticism or review
parody or satire
reporting the news.
The amount you are allowed to copy depends on whether you are unreasonably affecting the rights of the copyright owner to be fairly paid for their work. If the resource is freely available for you to purchase, you should either a) purchase your own copy; b) only photocopy a reasonable portion (a good guide is 10% or one chapter – whichever is greater); or c) seek the copyright holder’s permission to copy more.
No matter how much you copy, you should be labeling it with the details of the copyright owner/author, the name of the resource, where it was copied from, and when it was copied. Where possible, try to copy only what is absolutely necessary or link to the original material instead. Using Creative Commons licensed material will also help you avoid copyright infringement.
For more information about photocopying, please explore the following resources:
Another student in this unit also posed this question, which I think is a great example of how social media in the school context can totally confuse the issue. I’ve copied the information here for future reference, since I’m now a member of the school’s Social Media Committee:
A student is filmed playing a copyrighted song. Can this recording be shared via the school’s Facebook page?
to play at a school event (eg copying music to CD or MP3 to play at a school graduation)
to include in a video or electronic presentation (eg classroom PowerPoint slides, or in presentations at assemblies or functions)
to play in class, whether face-to-face or virtual (eg in order to play musical works and sound recordings relevant to material being studied).
The recordings made by the school should display the following notice:
‘This recording has been made under a licence from AMCOS and ARIA for school purposes only’.
Schools must also display the following details of each musical work captured in the recording:
the title
the composer/arranger
the artist and recording company (if the school is using a backing track).
Schools can also authorise members of the school community to make recordings of music performed at school events for private and domestic listening or viewing by members of the school community (eg parents, guardians and friends can make a video of a presentation night at which the school band played).
Recording a school event
Schools can make a recording (including an audio or video recording) of a school event at which musical works are performed and/or sound recordings are played. Schools can also synchronise a musical work or sound recording with an existing recording of a school event (eg to add a backing track).
Remember to label the recording in the following way:
You must also display the following details of each musical work captured in the recording:
the title
the composer/arranger
the artist and recording company (if you are using a backing track).
For example, you could have this information flash up in the final credits.
What can I do with the recording of our school event?
Schools can do the following with recordings of their schools event(s):
upload the recording to the school website
upload the recordings to a password protected school server, intranet or DTE and make this available to parents, guardians and students. For example if parents and guardians are unable to attend an assembly or graduation day, the school could send them a link to the recording on the school’s password protected intranet and allow them to download a copy for their private use.
upload the recording to an app that is being used by the school for internal school communications to members of the school community, such as Schoolbag, Seesaw, Compass and SZapp. This is limited to apps being used by the school for internal school communications, and would not include apps like Snapchat or TikTok.
email/message a copy or make a physical copy of the recording (eg copy it on to a USB) and distribute it (for a no cost or on a cost-recovery basis) to members of the school community (eg students and parents or guardians)
provide a digital or physical copy of the recording to third parties , including other schools and administering bodies, for the purpose of events the school is or would like to participate in (eg competitions and festivals)
stream a live communication of the school event from the school’s website.
Uploading a recording or live streaming a school event to social media
Schools can rely on the school’s music licences to upload recordings of their school events, or live stream their school events, to the school’s official social medial page on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. In order to communicate (ie make available) those recordings from those social media pages, school can rely on the licences that APRA AMCOS and record labels have with the social media platforms.
Note, that where a musical work or sound recording is being performed or played at a school event, the post may still be blocked or muted, see ‘Blocking or muting of events on social media’ below.
Blocking or muting of events on social media
Music recording companies (ie record labels) and some music publishers use software to identify potentially infringing content on social media platforms, such as Facebook. When a school live streams a performance where a musical work or sound recording is being played, or uploads a musical work or sound recording, this software may alert Facebook or other social media platforms to mute the recording or send a takedown notice to the school. If you are concerned about a live stream or recording being muted or your school being issued with a take-down notice, contact the National Copyright Unit.
Alternatively, you may want to consider uploading the recording to your school website or password protected digital teaching environment or intranet.
Starting out, I had a narrow understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of teacher-librarians. Comparing my blog posts reveals my developed understanding (Lysaught, 2021a cf. 2021b). I had never heard the terms informationliteracy or fluency, and although I am working in a TL position in a school with inquiry units, they’re mainly PBL units concentrating on the product rather than directed by an information literacy model focusing on the process.
This unit emphasised that students need multiple strategies to help them find, evaluate, and apply information in their lives so they can actively and ethically participate as lifelong learners in the workforce and global community. While nominally “digital natives”, our students aren’t inherently equipped to navigate information, often taking easy solutions, giving up, or believing misinformation (Coombes, 2009; O’Connell, 2012). This unit illustrated schools must explicitly teach information literacy to develop independent, responsible, and respectful information users (Berg et. al., 2018; Kulkarni, 2021). Students must understand their rights and responsibilities as global citizens and cannot do this effectively without the necessary preparation (Lysaught, 2021c).
Information Literacy, embedded in the Australian Curriculum as the oft-forgotten and poorly implemented General Capabilities, develops the 21st century learning skills our students need to navigate increasingly popular internet and social media platforms (Jacobson, 2010; Common Sense Media, 2019; Australian eSafety Commissioner, 2021). Our Generation Z/Alpha students look to their parents as trusted news sources (Notley et. al., 2020), a problematic approach given Generation Y’s ineptitude (Coombes, 2009, p.38). Government legislation has failed to keep up with the evolving information landscape and unethical behaviours (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2020, para.70). Schools must step in to fill this void.
This subject proved “information literacy is at the heart of inquiry learning” (Fitzgerald, 2015a, p.17). I now know inquiry units framed by an IL model support Generation Alpha’s preferred learning styles (McCrindle, 2019), accelerating social/emotional learning and learner autonomy (Consortium for School Networking, 2021). Inquiry learning framed by IL models benefits students, teachers, librarians, educational leaders, and parents (Maniotes et. al., 2015 p.212-215). Teacher-librarians should be familiar with multiple models to flexibly serve the learning needs of their students and so I expanded my awareness of inquiry learning models by exploring Big 6 (Big6.org, 2015), PLUS (Herring et. al. 2002, 2007, 2011), the NSW (2020) ISP and Information Fluency Framework (Wall, 2018, 2019, 2021; Cook, 2021; Grimmett, 2021). This gave me a deeper grasp of research processes, my own research methods, and an appreciation for the confused frustration that our students feel!
The ISP/GID model struck me as most useful for my context due to its emotional stages and collaborative practice (Lysaught, 2021d). My research expanded my comprehension of the way GI moves away from unenjoyable imposed questions (Gross, 2006, p.31) to promote the Third Space Merger (Maniotes et. al., 2015, p.22-23) and authentic learning for an authentic audience (Sorensen, 2019, p.30). Crucially, GI encourages transfer of skills across learning areas (Garrison & Fitzgerald, 2017). I envisage GI being successful at my school, though I need to ensure adequate time, planning, resourcing, and staff buy-in: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go slow” (Leung et. al., 2021).
One prevailing misconception is teacher-librarians primarily focus on books and reading (Lysaught, 2021a). While improving literacy is important, it isn’t the teacher-librarian’s sole responsibility (Herring, 2007, p.29). Bonanno (2011a) states we should promote our specialist services, look for ways to be relevant, and “claim our space” to avoid becoming an “invisible profession”. I’ve learned teacher-librarians, as information and curriculum specialists, are uniquely positioned to teach information literacy explicitly and develop transliterate communities in ways other teachers are not (Lysaught, 2021e). Research repeatedly shows the positive impacts trained teacher-librarians have on student achievement (Bonanno, 2011b). Active teacher-librarians – supported by and collaborating with their colleagues – act as the glue connecting otherwise disparate learning areas (Lysaught, 2021e, 2021f).
As a result of my work in ETL401, I can now see many ways to positively contribute to my school’s Strategic Improvement Plan goals to enhance learning culture and wellbeing to improve student engagement, results, and belonging. In addition to improving student achievement, collaborative teaching of information literacy through inquiry learning draws together both aspects of our position – our teacher hat and librarian hat – and allows us to increase our visibility, advocate our value, and change public perceptions about our roles. What has struck me throughout this unit is the power of social media/networking as a promotional tool for teacher-librarians; as I move forward in this role I intend to continue learning from colleagues and triumphantly claim my space.
To conclude, I leave you with one final wordcloud of my ETL401 posts:
Gross, M. (2006). Studying Children’s Questions: Imposed and Self-Generated Information Seeking at School. Scarecrow Press.
Herring, J., Tarter, A. M., & Naylor, S. (2002). An evaluation of the use of the PLUS model to develop pupils’ information skills in a secondary school. School Libraries Worldwide8(1), 1-24.
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.
Herring, J., & Bush, S. (2011). Information literacy and transfer in schools: implications for teacher librarians. The Australian Library Journal, 60(2), 123-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2011.10722584
Jacobson, H. F. (2010). Found it on the internet: Coming of age online. American Library Association.
O’Connell, J. (2012). So you think they can learn? Scan 31, 5-11.
Sorensen, A. (2019). Guided inquiry in Stage 4 history: Collaboration between teacher-librarians and classroom teachers. Teaching History, 53(4), 30-32.
How might the TL help the school move towards integrated information literacy instruction?
What challenges lie in the way of such instruction?
How teacher librarians and teachers might encourage students to transfer information literacy skills and practices from one subject to another?
The teacher librarian can absolutely help the school move towards integrated information literacy instruction. As shown through the above article, effective collaboration between teacher librarians and classroom teachers in planning and implementing Guided Inquiry units can result in students having a greater understanding of the research process. The article also revealed that GI can increase students’ abilities to transfer knowledge and skills from one KLA to another and increase their confidence and capabilities as lifelong learners. In order to achieve this the teacher librarian must first have a deep understanding of the Guided Inquiry Design Process and be able to apply that understanding to different subject areas. It is important for the teacher librarian to ‘sell’ their skills in this area to ensure that staff are aware of the opportunity to work collaboratively on curriculum design, and for the teacher librarian to identify key staff who might be interested in working collaboratively in this way. The teacher librarian can also deliver professional development to relevant staff, leading their colleagues through the process of programming of a GI unit to ensure that staff are competent in developing and delivering their own GI units in future.
However, the article noted some challenges that can impede the implementation of such instruction. These challenges largely deal with the need for time to effectively collaborate, implement, assess and evaluate these types of programmes. The article revealed that it is important for staff collaborating on GI programmes to understand the philosophy behind Guided Inquiry as well as its processes and scaffolding. Time is also needed for staff to read and apply GI to their own learning and to consider how to best implement it for the students in their class; it is indeed true that what works for one class doesn’t necessarily work for another, and thus teachers are constantly required to rework existing units and resources. Time is a core requirement of collaborative practice and matching conflicting schedules can be a Herculean task. We haven’t even discussed the time it takes to plan and assess student learning and already I’m exhausted! The lack of time coupled with high workloads might also make people reluctant to take risks or leave them feeling uninspired to plan something new.
Another element that was not referenced in the article is the fact that it also takes time to change the public perception around the role of the teacher librarian and to promote our role as information specialists. In my school I have tried to start small by getting staff to share their assessment tasks with me so that I can help support our students and provide relevant resources to help them complete these tasks. Despite my fortnightly reminders, I often end up getting only one or two tasks each term. This is not because my colleagues do not see the value in what I do or the assistance that I can provide, but simply because this task (simple as it might be) is one of hundreds that might populate their weekly to-do lists and often doesn’t register as a priority. It often merits an “I meant to send something!” response. It is an uphill battle to break through the “survival” mode teaching that seems to have taken hold in recent years. However, just like Sisyphus, I’ll keep rolling that boulder up that hill and hope that one day I’ll reach the top. Maybe one day someone will find the energy and meet me there.
What is an appropriate role for the teacher librarian in curriculum development?
What benefits can a school obtain from the active involvement of the teacher librarian in curriculum development?
Should a principal expect that teachers would plan units of work with the teacher librarian?
How are students disadvantaged in schools that exclude the teacher librarian from curriculum development?
A key element of the teacher librarian’s position is as curriculum expert and this role provides TLs with the opportunity to be collaborative practitioners and leaders who see the “big picture” across the school. Particularly in the secondary setting, faculties often tend to be separated into distinct academic tribes and the TL can break through this division to unify programmes and allow the development of cross-curricular activities which allow students to achieve a variety of different outcomes more easily. Teacher librarians can also provide their colleagues with curriculum support and help develop resources that are relevant, current and differentiated according to the interests and abilities of their students. Since TLs are a constant presence in the school experience for many students, they can also provide a common link across year groups and subject areas for students as well as staff.
Since this is an element of our role, it is not unexpected if a principal does expect that teacher librarians should work collaboratively with their colleagues in this way. In fact, it was one of the selection criteria that I had to meet in order to gain permanency in my current role. Our role in collaborate planning and curriculum development allows us to increase our visibility and demonstrate our value to the school community while giving us the opportunity to demonstrate ongoing proficiency for accreditation purposes. However, if principals expect this of their staff then they should be allowed the resources and time to do the job effectively. Schools where this is not an expectation or not supported effectively will likely continue to assess students according to their separate faculty tribes. They will lack a holistic, cross-curricular approach to teaching and learning and have a narrow understanding of the different resources that can support student achievement. There will also likely be limited understanding and teaching of information literacy and fluency which disadvantages our students in the current economic and political environment. Students may also not feel as supported, experience higher levels of frustration and as a result disengage from the assessment and research process, and be less likely to attain the information fluency that is vital to their continuing capacity as lifelong learners. Teacher librarians, when properly supported, can function as the figurative glue which holds everything together; it stands to reason that schools which don’t utilise their skills effectively would therefore be disadvantaged.
Why it is important to have an understanding of the broader information landscape?
How you think the information landscape will affect your role as a TL in a school?
This week I fell down the rabbit hole. What started as a seemingly simple search for “most active social media platforms 2021” quickly spiralled into a flurry of pages on algorithms, business models, data use and abuse. Many of these things I’d heard about in passing but had never really had the time to delve into on a more meaningful level.
Technology has obviously had an immense impact on the information landscape. Some of this has been positive – for instance in bringing together marginalised individuals, or making information more accessible to people with disabilities. Yet there are a number of downsides to the digital information landscape that we cannot ignore. Therefore it is crucial that teacher librarians have not just an understanding of the broader information landscape, but that we have a deep knowledge and maintain currency about these evolving issues. If we do not, we cannot effectively fulfil our roles as information specialists. It also struck me with the reading from the modules and my own research this week that people will not be able to enjoy their rights of access to information if they lack the skills to navigate and evaluate these information platforms.
I found it interesting to consider our rights and responsibilities regarding information access. I think that a lot of people focus on their rights (for example, their right to an opinion) but often forget that there are associated responsibilities around our interaction with the information landscape. We have the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to seek, receive and impart information. We have the right to privacy, as well as the right to access the infrastructure which will allow us access to information (though as I discussed in my previous post, this is not always guaranteed!). In this context libraries of all kinds play a crucial role in ensuring that peoples’ rights to access information are being upheld. However, it was interesting for me to consider that these rights could be restricted by law when necessary, if they were deemed to contravene the rights of others, or if they negatively impacted national security or order, or public health or morals. We live in a world which blurs the lines between facts and opinions, and the idea of who gets to determine if something is ‘necessary’ or harming ‘public morals’ was also interesting for me to consider. It is important to remember these responsibilities, especially in times of global pandemic such as ours. Yet the subjective element here leaves it open to potential abuse and censorship, and the fact that our national commitment to these rights and responsibilities is more of an implicit understanding than something enshrined in law is problematic. For instance, what if a family complains that Harry Potter is on the shelves, or content that they see as promoting Black Lives Matter or LGBTQI+ agendas? Or conversely, that there isn’t enough diverse content? The paradox of tolerance is something to consider here, and the response a teacher librarian would get in one school context might differ in another.
Our right of access to information is further complicated by issues of technological redundancy and convergence. In particular I couldn’t help but think about my own school context and the fact that all too often outdated or damaged technology was not updated, repaired or replaced due to budget constraints. Are funding arrangements, budget allocations and BYOD policies creating what Floridi called “digital favelas” in some schools? I also couldn’t help but consider my own failings with certain technological tools. I normally consider myself pretty tech-savvy, but for the life of me I cannot figure out the 3D printer I inherited when I became the teacher librarian. We’ve recently had a new deputy push for Macs to be integrated into our programs. Heaven help me!
Finally, my research and the module readings this week prompted me to consider the ways that our students are accessing information as digital natives. Modern students are primarily engaging with information (whether for their own entertainment or not) in virtual spaces. In Purcell is correct in her assertion that promotion of our services and resources is vital to our role as teacher librarians, then should we adapt to the online world and utilise social media marketing strategies that will reach and engage them with our content more effectively? Our school community engages heavily with Facebook and we’ve recently created an Instagram page to encourage greater student engagement. However, what are our ethical responsibilities when it comes to using and encouraging the use of these platforms? Are we leaving people in our school community vulnerable to data miners who could potentially sell their information and content to advertisers, politicians or government agencies? Are we pushing them to use platforms which could expose them to algorithms and content which could potentially cause harm? Are we encouraging them to become “unpaid machine trainers” whose data could be used to teach the very machines that might replace them in the workforce? On the surface it appears that having a library Instagram account is a fun way to get students interested, but in reality it is a potential ethical minefield. As teacher librarians we must be mindful of our interactions with these platforms and their function in the information landscape, and as information specialists encourage our school community likewise to maintain awareness of their behaviours.
Are your ideas developing about the information society?
What do you think this term means?
Why is it important for the TL to have an understanding of the information landscape?
For me it was interesting to consider the concept of the Information Society as one which contrasts to earlier agrarian or industrial societies. These earlier ‘revolutions’ had a drastic impact on the lives of people at the time, and I absolutely agree that for many of us changing and emerging IT is impacting our lives too. The fact that I can engage in this degree completely in the “virtual world” while at the same time teaching online would have been incomprehensible even as recently as my years in High School during the early 2000s. Add to the mix the fact that I am getting notifications on my smart watch about my online banking and I’m able to ask Google Home questions about my calendar, the weather, or what an “information society” is. That reminds me, I’ve got to add milk to my online Woolies order … We are well and truly on our way to becoming Floridi’s “inforgs”, if we’re not there already.
I would love to see what someone like Karl Marx would make of our relationship to the current means of production though. Perhaps it’s time for us to write another manifesto dealing with what Floridi called “the tragedy of the digital commons”? “A spectre is haunting the world – the spectre of information technologies!”
The concept of digital poverty absolutely stood out to me as a result of this module and its associated readings. The idea that some people have access to technology and its associated infrastructures and some don’t has really hit home for me during online learning. I teach at a school in the South West of Sydney and we have a very diverse student population, including some students who come from families who are quite affluent and others who are in social housing. We therefore have a number of families that we have had to provide laptops, wi-fi dongles etc. to in order to support their learning online. However, technological infrastructure also plays a part in the concept of the “information-rich” and the “information-poor.” Some of our more wealthy families live in areas that are black-holes for internet reception, which has severely impeded several of our students (especially in Year 12!) from accessing the same information and learning opportunities as their peers. Digital poverty in an information society therefore doesn’t necessarily always follow the same lines traditionally reserved for economic considerations of the term (don’t even get me started on “alliterate” individuals, or individuals who for whatever reasons choose not to engage with authenticated, reliable sources of information. That is a separate rant).
I think that it is absolutely crucial for teacher librarians to not just have an understanding of the information landscape, but to maintain currency in ways of ethically and effectively navigating this complex and ever-changing world. Purcell argued that our role as “information specialist” was one of five key elements to the teacher librarian’s function within a school community. Even though she separated it into its own category (and placed it third in her list) I would argue that our role as information specialists is inherent to our other roles as leaders, instructional partners, teachers and program administrators. If we don’t maintain a deep understanding of the changing infosphere, how can we lead others in designing and implementing curriculum that is relevant to the needs of our students? How can we effectively ensure that our students leave our care as engaged, critical thinkers who will be not only effective workers in this changing world, but also digital citizens that can help mitigate some of the issues caused by unethical tech company policies (Amazon, Facebook: I’m looking at you) and lagging Government action? Our role is also to provide equitable access to quality information to overcome the potential effects of digital poverty.
It has been an absolutely INSANE time over the last few weeks. Teaching online, HSC assessment marking and reporting, and my own preparation for the second ETL401 assessment have left me feeling a little brain-dead. I’m therefore going to start this post by channeling my inner high-school debater and turning to the good book – i.e. the Dictionary – for guidance:
English: library (derived from Latin liber meaning “book”)
German: bücherei (roughly translates to “bookery”)
Spanish and Italian: biblioteca (from Ancient Greek bibliothekē meaning library; derived from biblio “book” + theke “place, box, receptacle”)
I could go on, but I feel that my point is becoming clear. In many languages around the world, libraries are etymologically associated with the idea of “books” and this public perception persists regarding the role of the Teacher Librarian in schools. However, when we examine the day to day functions of TLs, the complexity of the position becomes apparent and books, wonderful as they are, are often not at the centre of academic or practitioner descriptions of our role.
In his comprehensive (if older) review, Herring (2007) argues that libraries should be seen as “a centre of learning first and a centre of resources second” (p.27). Books, fundamentally useful resources for learning though they are, therefore should not necessarily be the priority of TLs in the current information landscape. He states that many school library mission statements give “unnecessary prominence” (p.27) to the idea of reading as central to the school library’s purpose. Although I would argue that libraries certainly do have the capacity to support the development of reading for pleasure (especially given that many classroom teachers are dealing with overcrowded curricula and often feel they lack the necessary skills, particularly in the secondary setting), Herring emphasises the importance of TLs primarily as specialist teachers of information literacy who lead the collaborative development of learning programs and resource collections to meet the needs of their students and staff, with the end goal of allowing them to become independent, life-long learners. In Figure 2.1 (p.30), Herring lists the following roles as integral: teacher; librarian; information services manager; information literacy leader; information specialist; curriculum leader; instructional partner; website developer; budget manager; staff manager; fiction and non-fiction advocate. Based on my experience, I feel that he leaves out: PR and marketing manager; ICT support; technology resource manager; casual cover supervision; counselling service; diplomats; inclusivity advocate; and interior designer. Nonetheless, his list is quite comprehensive and useful for understanding the vast array of roles we are expected to fill. Teacher librarians function as the glue that holds everything together; it seems we have to fit into all the nooks and crannies to do our jobs!
Within his analysis, Herring referenced a number of different professional documents from around the world. ASLA (2003) focused on three key roles of the TL: 1) curriculum leader; 2) information specialist; 3) information service manager. A 1998 publication from the United States listed our roles as: 1) teacher; 2) instructional partner; 3) information specialist; 4) program administrator. A Canadian document published in 2005 emphasised TLs leadership in: 1) information literacy and inquiry processes; 2) ICT; 3) teaching and curriculum planning; 4) collection management. A UK publication (2004) emphasised the proactive role TLs must play in innovations for education, which supports the positions held by Bonanno (2011) and Valenza (2010). Ultimately, TLs must be flexible and ready to adapt to the changing needs of the information landscape, and our function as information specialists is primarily an “educational as opposed to an administrative role” (Herring, 2007, p.32). Drawing from Herring’s analysis, I conclude that our role in collection management and as information service providers should be framed by our role as information specialists, and determined by the interests and needs of our school community – staff, students, and parents alike. Teacher Librarians are no longer limited to books but must expand into the digital world to ensure that we are relevant to our community, effectively promoting our skills, services, and resources, and engaging our students with meaningful opportunities to participate in their own learning.
Purcell (2010) boils our function down to five key roles: leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator. Information clearly plays a role in many of these areas, supporting Sheerman’s argument that “A TL’s primary role is that of an information specialist, trained in the teaching and integration of information literacy skills and inquiry skills across the curriculum, as well as being a library collection manager” (2013, p.4). Although books certainly do play a part as tools of teaching and learning, they are not explicitly mentioned in either Purcell’s or Sheerman’s analysis.
I thought Purcell’s idea to keep a diary of each day’s required tasks was a great way to understand how these roles function in my school context and to help me understand how better to serve the specific needs of my community. I’d actually read Purcell’s article as preparation for my first ETL401 assessment, so it was interesting to revisit her arguments now that wider reading has granted me a (hopefully) deeper understanding of the TLs position in schools. In particular, her emphasis on the need for TLs to effectively promote themselves and their library was instrumental in developing my line of inquiry for the second ETL401 assessment task, where I explored the way that social media platforms influence our relationship with information and each other, and the implications that this has for TLs.
In her 2011 deconstruction of the TL’s varied roles, Lamb used the acronym PALETTE to examine the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions we will need moving into the future. Her concept of the Media Specialist’s PALETTE included a focus on: People; Administration; Learning; Electronic information; Technology; Teaching; and Environments. Interestingly, Lamb also identified the importance of promotion and advocacy in this changing environment: “If the school media specialist is to survive … [they] must demonstrate their value” (p.35). While they don’t state it explicitly, both Purcell and Lamb emphasise that modern TLs play vital roles as Social Media Manager, Customer Engagement Analyst, and Chief Marketing and Promotions Director.
I thought that it was interesting that Valenza’s 2010 “Revised Manifesto” was published around the same time as Bonanno’s 2011 ASLA speech, since both emphasised that attitude is a key element to the TL’s success: “not moving forward is not an option” (Valenza, 2010, para. 3). There was clearly a significant amount of ennui and existential angst amongst TLs at the start of this decade! Valenza was one of the few authors who explored the idea of reading in the context of the TL’s role, yet interestingly the focus was still not on traditional books, but instead shifted to encompass new technologies and formats: “You expand your notion of collection” (para. 40). Valenza’s manifesto, similar to so many discussed previously, discussed how TLs must be flexible, innovative and relevant regarding the changing information landscape, our collection development, our commitment to providing equitable access for all students, the importance of collaborating with our audience at all levels, teaching and modelling ethical information behaviours, implementing new technologies in meaningful ways, providing opportunities to professionally develop our staff (this was in line with Sheerman’s 2013 Guided Inquiry approach), and to provide opportunites for our students to become lifelong learners. While I fundamentally disagreed with the premise that we should be actively available 24/7, there were nonetheless a variety of useful, practical suggestions in this manifesto which I can see myself testing or adapting in future.
As Herring so astutely noted, “it is clear that no teacher librarian could fulfill all of these roles at the same time” (2007, p.31). I wholeheartedly agree as I sit here fighting down the rising tide of panic at the thought of being everything, to everyone, at all times. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Just between you and me, I found it interesting that (in addition to limited references to books) none of these examinations referenced one of the most common functions I personally have been called upon to perform in my new capacity as TL: armchair psychologist, ersatz counsellor, and life-coach. The centrality of the TL to the school community (coupled perhaps with the misconception of abundant time) has led many students (and staff!) to seek out my advice for all manner of issues. While I am grateful to be trusted in this way and to have the potential to positively impact my school community through these meaningful connections, it does highlight one of the issues consistently raised in the above readings: that TLs MUST promote their services, skills, and resources effectively to dispel misunderstandings and misconceptions about our role. This promotion, in my school context at least, seems to be the biggest area of need and one from which all other aspects of the role spring. After all, I could have amazing, collaborative programmes and resources which will ultimately fail to make an impact if no one knows about them or engages with them. In order to facilitate this priority, I am working very closely with the lovely support and administration staff, the Communications Committee, and a newly minted Student Media Team. It is difficult considering the misconceptions around our position, but I am also trying to follow Herring’s advice and focus on my educational, not administrative role for the time being.
I will leave you with one final thought: a word cloud of this blog post. Hopefully this will visually illustrate the complex, varied, multifaceted roles expected of a modern teacher librarian. We aren’t just about the books; let’s liber-ate ourselves!
Throughout ETL533 I have examined how I currently incorporate digital literature into our school and considered ways to increase this in future (
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