Feb 21 2008
Top things - Part 3
Well it is while since I last posted - various pressures have prevented me. Anyway, thanks to those librarians who have been sending me links to have a look at and think about.
And there is so much to think about!
So, today’s top thing is:
What is the role of the Librarian in today’s school library and maybe tomorrow’s?
I read this post “So just what should librarians be teaching?” from Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog. It is interesting to see how he discusses the different roles of the school library:
- Reading Skills
- Information Literacy
- Technology Skills
He tries to work out the different balances that could be made between these areas. The diagrams clearly show his ideas.
In the UK, most school library staff do not have teaching qualifications, although most of us do teach. We may also think in different ways to the teacher-librarians in the US, Australia, etc. However, I have, over the years, tried to think more and more as an educator. I do try to balance out these differing roles - with varying degrees of success.
Some challenges are brought about by my own expertise/lack of expertise or my own skills and preferences - for example: I feel confident when helping students to choose books and have created a reading programme for our students, but would be less confident in actually teaching reading. I am happy to listen to students read and love “waving and raving”, but would not begin to know how to teach phonics. Is the teaching of reading the role of the school librarian? I am not sure.
I am looking more and more at how we can use the data held on the school systems such as SIMs in conjunction with our own Library Management Systems. How can we use our students’ reading levels to help them better? Do our schools even test students regularly so that we can measure our contribution to their reading development?
Similarly - I am happy to work with teachers on teaching research skills - particularly planning the search, thinking around the subject, developing keywords, using search engines and so on. I would not be so confident in teaching students how to write up their research, although I would like to get more involved and I would try! What is the role of the school librarian in the later stages of research? I have been sent a link on this and will return to this issue at another time. Also, I know many wonderful librarians who take Information Literacy Skills far beyond basic research - how many of us are confident that we can teach such things as “Critical Thinking” or group problem-solving and where do we go to learn how?
When I took up my present post nearly nine years ago, my ICT skills were definitely more advanced than most teachers and students. I still try to keep up with new developments and find this a very rewarding and exciting area of the job. Now, I think that more teachers are confident with their skills and many students are also. (Although many clearly are not or are over-confident!). Much of the teaching that I do in this area is on an informal ad-hoc level, rather than part of a formal teaching situation. I am learning about new technologies and am using them for my own personal and professional purposes. But, I would like more opportunities to use them with students. Where so we find the oportunities to try out new ideas?
A lot of questions here - do any of you have answers?
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Hi Librain,
(Love your nom de plume!) Thanks for reading the Blue Skunk post. Like you, I tend to have more questions than answers.
I believe we have a unique role in “teaching” reading. In providing students with materials they wish to read on their own, they are motivated to spend more time reading and by doing so, actually improve their reading skills. We teach reading by giving incentives to practice reading.
The final piece of the information literacy (research) process is assessment. Preferably self-assessment. I would study up on this, especially on how one creates good authentic assessment tools. An invaluable service the librarian can provide to both teachers and students.
All the very best and thanks for the interesting post,
Doug
Thanks Doug. I came across your blog very recently and I can see that I will be visiting regularly in the future! I was particuarly caught up with the discussions around the question of why librarians have not been able to make inroads into embedding our work into school culture. The things that we have been doing for years are then seen as new inventions when the techie guys come along. If this is hard for you when you have dually qualified teacher-librarians, imagine how difficult it is for us in the UK!
Yes, I have done some work on assessing IL Skills - but trying to get our teaching staff to take this on board is an uphill struggle. We are now getting a new National Curriculum in England, which is supposed to have a greater emphasis on skills rather than subject content. Here is a real opportunity for us to make a mark. So let’s see what we can do…