The Magical School Learning Commons: a UBC Librarianship Journey
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Sunday, February 19, 2023
LIBE 467 Reflections for Theme 2
A library is a place of safety, a haven from the world.
It’s a place with librarians in it.
We need to teach our children to read and enjoy reading.
We need libraries.
We need books.
We need literate citizens.
Neil Gaiman, 2013
"The reference interview is fundamentally a conversation between the school library media specialist and the study, for the purpose of clarifying the students' needs and aiding in meeting those needs"
(Riedling, 2013, p.99)
I work 4 days a week in a K-5 LC. 75% of my time is prep time. The other 25% is my prep time, collaboration, and library administration time. From what I hear around the district, I feel more privileged than most to receive library administration time. I also feel very supported with having an experienced library technician 50% of my time. Besides recess, lunch, before, and after school there is very little time built into the day's schedule to provide a calm, quiet environment to give my full focus on a question that may arise from students or staff. I see 16 of the 22 divisions on my 4 days and to be honest, I need my breaks to decompress. However, I am very mindful of my role to provide the most accurate and relevant information to users of the LC.
We need literate citizens. People learn best when they feel safe and cared for, in an environment that nurtures trust and openness.
Photograph was taken in Langley, BC February 2023
I am working hard to learn more about the 550+ students and staff I work with. I carry post-its everywhere. There are so many of them and just one of me. I write down each question/query so that if I am unable to answer that question at the moment, they know (and I know) I will get to it as soon as I can, which curiously enough, is before or after school, recess, and lunch breaks. To help with this, I ask students to tell me what's on their minds or what they are curious about (related or unrelated to the LC) at the beginning of their prep during attendance. I also write a quick reflection about the prep session I had with the class so I can refer it to the next time I see them. This gives me more of a handle on where I should direct some of my information-giving before sending them off to browse the collection and planning ahead with their LC-related skills activities.
Photograph was taken in Langley, B.C., February 2023
Three basic purposes of reference interview questioning are as follows:
1) to ascertain what information the student wants 2) to clarify the question (what it really means) 3) to discover the amount, level, and difficulty of the resources that will answer the question
(Riedling, 2013, p. 103)
I find I am able to satisfy the purposes outlined above with adequate efficiency in relation to ready references. I have focused on familiarizing myself with the collection in our LC regularly. Because our collection only builds with the acquisition and purchasing by me, I can easily direct students and staff to materials we have, or if we don't have, I am able to navigate our district catalog with ease. Recently, the Grade two teachers were planning a Book Tasting and I was able to gather various genres of books at their grade level for them quickly.
Research project interviews, as Riedling describes them, "...lie at the other end of the spectrum" (2013, p.104). I am confident I can steer the student to a resource they can access and any following resources that may be needed. However, being able to provide prompt, regular interactions or teacher literacy skills for a single student is highly improbable. This provides a great opportunity to offer my collaboration time and services to the classrooms to be active participants in their learning for their research.
The biggest takeaway from reviewing BCTLA Working and Learning Conditions was the unbalanced access to materials in the province. I was surprised to see that the Richmond District's responding schools allotted an average of nearly $20 per student whereas Maple Ridge was only $3 per student. To see that the average funding for elementary schools a few years ago was just under $3 000 made me hope that schools were receiving funding from PAC, gathering funds from Scholastic Book Fairs, and/or grants. If we use Riedling's definition of reference resources as "sources specifically designed to be consulted for definite items of information" (2013, 139), the cost of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and atlases seems quite high. Because we are building a collection to meet our users' needs and needs vary from school to school, a committee of financial stakeholders like the principal, district principal if you can, PAC members, as well as student and staff representatives, would be beneficial to outline what is needed for the LC, both in physical and digital formats. From thereon, acquiring wishlisted resources and calculating costs would perhaps help persuade PAC and the district to provide more monetary support. I have already been told many times that PAC will not be supporting the LC for the next few years as they are putting all their fundraising toward playground equipment.
As I have mentioned in my previous blog, a space encyclopedia is the extent of our K-5 physical resource reference collection. Encyclopedias are limited to more topic-related rather than something vaster like Britannica. After more probing on the district elementary's catalog, almanacs have more recent publishing dates and National Geographic dominates many of the elementary schools' collections. I use the term "dominating" loosely as there are only one or two copies of resource reference titles within the entire district of elementary schools.
"School districts’ funding is established at the provincial level... Note that the provincial allocation to districts does not specifically target funding for learning resources" (ERAC, 2008, p. 70)
SD35 provides across-the-district resources like the digital resources found on their website as well as resources from the district learning commons. Oftentimes there is something new like Mystery Science available for the year, but each school would have to purchase or ask the district for funds to continue a digital resource if teachers asked for it. This doesn't always mean schools receive it.
"The main goal in acquiring learning resources is to make them available as quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively as possible. The purchasing process is enhanced by ordering from as few sources as possible; for example from consortia, wholesalers or jobbers, bulk ordering of key resources, etc." ((ERAC, 2008, p. 76). I see this as part of my role as a TL to promote the materials we have available to us as educators through staff meetings, e-mails, and collaboration.
"In carrying out these evaluations, it is recommended that teachers consider all five areas of the Ministry evaluation criteria: curriculum fit, content, instructional design, technical design, and social considerations" (ERAC, 2008, p.75). A few years ago, teachers were able to use their own Apple ID and add apps to their class iPads without consulting evaluative-type permissions from the administrator. Now, apps can only be downloaded through a self-service which has been vetted by the district IT department.
Money is tight and educators need to be proactive. I fully support open access to resources. If educators can back up the rationale behind using them using a school or district selection criteria and the administrator is aware of the use, then this would save the classroom and school money and the resource can easily be shared amongst colleagues. When evaluating and then selecting such resources some points to keep in mind are:
differentiation to fit student levels and age-appropriateness
copyright issues
tech issues (as it is already difficult to get IT to problem-solve vetted resources from the district)
quality as we want to give the best resources to our learners
Nothing compares to a live human being in your learning environment whose primary job is to boost your learning. Paralleling the LC as the "hub" of the school community, Clinton states: "We need libraries more than ever because they are places for communities to come together... as librarians you go above and beyond every single day to serve the needs of the people living in your communities."
Photograph taken in Langley, B.C. 2023
Photograph taken in Langley, B.C. 2023
There is no one way to deliver a library program to your users because there is no identical type of users in each school, and there is no identical school. There are many guidelines offered by each district and by the provincial TL associations, and the ministry itself. We have established how time and money bear a strain on providing access to the best resources for our learners so that they can meet their full potential. With the changing times of DIY videos, self check-outs in grocey stores, AI programs that claim to substitute health professionals and educators, I am not the one to devalue my profession and myself as a professional. The photographs above did not create a safe, inviting space that promotes learning and reading in the LC; a living, breathing person with passions and hopes to motivate her community did. Each LC curated resources and space both physically and virtually to meet the needs of their users.
Perkins, M. (2013). Canva: free design tool. Canva. Retrieved February 16, 2023, from https://www.canva.com/
Riedling, A. M., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips. Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC CLIO, LLC.
Wow you see so many classes in just four days! Do you see each class for 30 minutes each? What do you do with them during the lessons?
I really like Neil Gaiman and his quotes. I think my primary goal, at this point, is to help students become proficient readers so that they have the option of loving it. We have so many grade 2 and 3 students who are such avid readers - they become so immersed in their books that they are completely engaged and would read all day long. I really want to give everyone the skills to be able to do that - whether they are reading fiction or nonfiction texts. It really is such a complicated job!
Love your sticky note idea! So helpful to keep everything organized :)
This year I've noticed: "Don't read and walk. Safety first!" It's definitely a Grade 2 and 3 thing:) Also, the LC being a magical place and book being a true gift is a Kinder/Grade 1 thing. They literally hug their book as they walk down the hall. I see 6-8 classes on my busy days, about 40 minute per block and sometimes just a 10 minute book exchange. I lose (volunteer it) my lunch and prep once a week to do Reading Link with Grade 4s and 5s. We plan for our teaching and instruct during prep, but then there is this other part of running a service; the acquisition, selection, weeding procedures, creating and meeting committees, prepping for funding ventures, etc.
Wow you see so many classes in just four days! Do you see each class for 30 minutes each? What do you do with them during the lessons?
ReplyDeleteI really like Neil Gaiman and his quotes. I think my primary goal, at this point, is to help students become proficient readers so that they have the option of loving it. We have so many grade 2 and 3 students who are such avid readers - they become so immersed in their books that they are completely engaged and would read all day long. I really want to give everyone the skills to be able to do that - whether they are reading fiction or nonfiction texts. It really is such a complicated job!
Love your sticky note idea! So helpful to keep everything organized :)
This year I've noticed: "Don't read and walk. Safety first!" It's definitely a Grade 2 and 3 thing:) Also, the LC being a magical place and book being a true gift is a Kinder/Grade 1 thing. They literally hug their book as they walk down the hall. I see 6-8 classes on my busy days, about 40 minute per block and sometimes just a 10 minute book exchange. I lose (volunteer it) my lunch and prep once a week to do Reading Link with Grade 4s and 5s. We plan for our teaching and instruct during prep, but then there is this other part of running a service; the acquisition, selection, weeding procedures, creating and meeting committees, prepping for funding ventures, etc.
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