The Librain

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:

1. Reading Skills
2. Information Literacy
3. 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?

I had a look at Joyce Valenza’s Top School Library Things to Think About in 2008 and I thought about what mine might be. Probably a lot more simple and ordinary. But this is an area that we all need to think about in the new year.

So my first thing is:

How do I enourage my school to have a balance between technology and reading?
It is the National Year of Reading 2008 in the UK and reading issues have been at the top of the political agenda for a few months. However, how often is the link made between our often poorly resourced and staffed school libraries, the crowded curriculum, the low status (in some schools) of the “librarian”, the excitement generated by ICT developments and reading problems amongst our youngsters? Giving a free book to every Year 7 student was great - but what follow-up is there? Creating a boys bookshelf with the Boys into Books scheme was great too - but what happens next?

Is it always up to us to push for reading for pleasure as opposed to “extractitis”?

What I would like is for teachers to be as enthusiastic and excited about reading as some are about ICT. Where is the research into and evaluation of the impact of ICT upon attainment to back up the huge spending and emphasis on ICT? Because there is research evidence to prove the importance of reading!

I am not knocking ICT - after all I am using it to write this! However, I am concerned that one day a generation of us will be looking at younger adults who cannot think beyond the computer screen. I watched a programme on TV over Christmas about the Cold War and was fascinated and more than a little scared to find out that Armageddon was only avoided because one Russian guy decided to think for himself rather than believe what the computer was telling him - the “nukes” heading towards the USSR were clouds!

I suppose what I am talking about is teaching critical thinking - others know more about this than I do. But, I was not taught like this - I read a lot and thought a lot.

Do our students think enough for themselves these days?

What do you think?