Learning the Basics about Reference Services
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The Reference Process and Information Skills
Katherine Cadwell "Students Need to Lead the Classroom"
It all starts with a question that can take very little time to answer or can be a work in progress or grow into more questions. "It all begins with an information problem, based on a question, problem to solve, or just plain curiosity" (Riedling, 2013, 3). As teacher librarians we are looked upon to be equipped with the skills to do be able to guide these inquiries. Many think straight to the process and topic-related projects it might entail, but inquiry is a mindset, a shift in perspective in our pedagogy as educators.Cadwell exudes passion: "I have the best job in the world. Why? Because I get paid to learn..." (2018). As a trained kindergarten teacher, I was that teacher that had photocopied sets of work ready to go in August. I practically knew exactly what I was teaching each block; I had the Shape of the Day prepared for the next day. As I reflect back on my early years, I was clearly directing students to the answer I wanted them to find rather than allowing them to find the answer to their own questions. I was interfering with their learning and blocking them from developing their inquiry skills.
"None of us is as smart as all of us" (Cadwell, 2018). When we put students' interests, motivations, drives, and inquiries into the driver's seat, inclusion occurs, collaboration is necessary, passions are ignited, and learning becomes natural.
I was inspired by the Inquiry Fair at Wildwood Elementary under the leadership of Principal Mary Beth Cunat. Students worked with teachers and staff to experience the inquiry process and the fair was the culmination of their learning, which was shared with the community. Although this is a large-scale, lots of learning and teaching went into this; at a whole-school level. Inquiry was very intentional and purposefully interwoven in the students' environment where all stakeholders were involved.
"So kids are hitting the standards with the bigger questions and being able to create evidence of their understandings and their learnings in all kinds of ways that the kids get to pick," says Cunat. "But it does mean that teachers must be willing to be flexible. Lessons can go anywhere. Depending on what the students are interested in, learning may go in a totally different direction than the teacher planned." Inquiry learning is messy.
Riedling introduced me to imposed and unimposed queries (2013, 138). Unimposed questions could be questions connected to big ideas. These questions could be the opportunity for TLs to teach the inquiry process and many 21st-century learner skills like critical thinking, information skills, and digital literacy.
"Bibliographic instruction is an expression widely used and accepted in the modern library world. It is defined as any activity that is designed to teach students how to locate and use information in the library, as well as sources that exist beyond the physical boundaries of the school library" (Riedling, 2013, 5).
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| Figure 2 BCTLA Points of Inquiry |
The term, bibliographic instruction, reminded me of one of my ventures into inquiry. During the 2019-20 school year, I decided to move elementary schools after 14 years, so I wanted to take more risks and try new things. I had been teaching Grade 3 for half of those 14 years and experienced a variety of grade group collaborations. To get to know my neighbour better, and because she was also new to our school community, we decided to co-teach and collaborate on our Science program (which integrated social studies, art, and language arts). What we thought would be a term project turned out to stretch out of all 3 terms. We used the BCTLA's points of inquiry. Here are some highlights:
- Journals were used both for writing automaticity and for inquiry. They were encouraged to access their journal any time they were curious about something. They were also able to put their journals in a public space so other students could respond to their entries.
- We began using a field notes journal when we started our science inquiry projects on biodiversity where all of our notes were glued, stapled, taped, and written in there. Students were responsible to bring them to field trips, different spaces in the school, and other classrooms, during online interviews.
- Rather than a teacher-student relay of questions and answers, students were encouraged to ask and respond to each other's comments.
- Wonder Wall - a wall dedicated to ongoing questions about anything they were curious about. We posted their faces and a question mark and a light bulb beside each. Once a question was answered (by anyone) and sourced, we would post it by their light bulb.
- Before online interviews with biologists and university science students, students brainstormed with their classmates in their field journals about "red light" and "green light" questions. Red light questions required a quick one-word response. Green light questions required further, deeper thinking. The excitement the students had when they "stumped" an expert or when they responded with "I have to think about that one" is truly priceless.
- Formative assessment and teacher observation was ongoing; there was less teacher-focused instruction. Students and I would meet often at the rainbow table to talk about their essential questions; where they are and what their next steps would be. This gave me the opportunity to differentiate for students. They would also receive feedback from their peers.
- We used My BluePrint to take pictures of our progress and video reflections; we were able to use this as talking points in parent-teacher interviews.
- The grade 3 teacher and I shared iPads so we were able to have access to a class set of devices on a regular basis. Being at a more established school, we also had access to COWs (computers on wheels) and 2 intermediate class sets of iPad carts from our LC. We also had access to print material from our LC and I ordered materials from our district LC.
- I would send students links to digital resources on our Teams channels.
- This took up most of our afternoons. Truly, the engagement was there. It was a little unsettling at first because as a primary experienced teacher, this was out of my nature. Rather than planning ahead and setting goals way before their time, it was more fruitful to set aside the time for students to explore. It was messy, inconsistent, and a little chaotic, but students really did wonder more. They were given the space to make their voice, take ownership of their learning, and be given the responsibility and accountability to build upon their self-directed explorations.
A new year, a new position, a new point of view. I have limitations and a lack of time to do something so comprehensive again as the TL. I have been fortunate this year to have time built in for library adminstration, but I am in dire need of it as we are a newly built school with imminent challenges. However, I can use my one block of collaboration time to support classroom teachers... or perhaps at least one this year. I am leaning more towards using the Super 3, adapted from the Big 6. I feel like I can digest and begin using Super 3 during prep coverage times and begin trying a Wonder Wall for the whole school in the LC. I love infographics; creating one for the Super 3 for the LC is something on my To Do list this year.
"A good reference source is one that serves to answer questions, and a bad reference source is one that fails to answer questions" (Riedling, 2013, 21).
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Riedling describes the following criteria needed to evaluate reference resources and I have included some of my thoughts on each:
- content scope - the why
- accuracy, authority, and bias - trying to look for a mission statement or vision can be helpful to find out authorship
- arrangement and presentation - when looking at digital resources, especially younger students or students that are still working on decoding skills, have difficulty focusing on the relevant. If the material is not easy to navigate, it won't be used by learners. Many of the nonfiction features: font, size, colour, and spacing also affect the aesthetics of a resource.
- relation to similar works - I can see this to be very time-consuming and help from a committee, online ratings from credible resources, and checking school databases for similar works can help with efficiency and evaluation.
- timeliness and permanence - "Printed resources are often considered to be out of date before they reach the student" (Riedling, 2013, p. 22). That seems to go against the push to have some physical resources in your LC. Digital resources can be easily updated with less cost.
- accessibility/diversity - I find this criterion to be very difficult to achieve especially in the early grades when the range of learners is non-readers to very fluent. There are also students with IEPs and diverse learning needs.
- cost - Is it worth the price? What other vital resource is it taking away from? Is it worth serving only a small percentage of your users or is that percentage of users going to consistently use it? If a physical resource, can the school maintain purchasing subsequent editions?
I am learning about the growing collection in the LC as my first year progresses. It is an onslaught of information, but I am taking note. Literally. I have a little book of questions I have started using since the second week of this course and questions that start with "Do you have the book ______ ?" has its only a little section in my book. I will be starting this during our monthly TL meetings too. I also have "wishlists" all over the web.
In terms, of the selection of the best materials for our LC's users, I perused the Canadian sites for reviews of school library materials. I have casually used Kirkus, Common Sense Media, and Childrens Book Review. I have added CM Magazine to my list; my favourite part is that is reviewed by librarians.
Print and Electronic Reference Materials
I have had this discussion with many colleagues about print and digital resources. Yes, of course, "everything" is available at the click of your fingers, but that's the point. Everything. Everything might not be your answer to your question. Long gone are my own experiences in elementary and high school. If I had an inquiry about Martin Luther King Jr. or a comprehensive project on the Roman Empire, I walked to the public library with my notebook and pencils. I sought out the librarian and spent hours scouring reference books. My mother purchased (slowly purchased from the local grocery store) a Funk & Wagnall Encyclopedia set that I also referred to. I meticulously copied notes and bibliographic information. Everything is now at your literal fingertips. I don't recall the publishing date being more than part of a citation and an actual factor in the quality of my references. "Many libraries find that their reference collection is shrinking rapidly; however, a good ready-reference collection continues to be a vital component of good service" (Crew, 2023, p. 37). It happens more often than not when a teacher comes a few minutes before the bell, needing a set of biographies, hibernating animals, or provinces.
Final Thought
Having reliable and current resources at hand is important and vital to providing reference services. Digital resources are meant to supplement physical print, and when thoughtfully sourced out, have immeasurable utility. What is even more important is a living, breathing, information-literate, effectively communicative teacher librarian that is able to guide you to the resources needed to solve your problem.
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References
Association, C. M. (n.d.). Volume XXIX / issue 21 - February 3 / 2023. Canadian Review of Materials. Retrieved from https://www.cmreviews.ca/taxonomy/term/3283
Berkowitz, R. E., & Eisenberg, M. B. (n.d.). The BIG6 and super3. Welcome to The Big 6! Retrieved from https://thebig6.org/thebig6andsuper3-2
CSUSB’s John M. Pfau Library. (2015). What's the Deep Web? And Why the Library? YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Fyln1cBJmdE.
Educational Foundation, G. L. (2015, August 24). Harnessing students' curiosity to drive learning. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/practice/wildwood-inquiry-based-learning-developing-student-driven-questions
Riedling, A. M., & Houston, C. (2019). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips. Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC CLIO, LLC.
Task Force, k-12 information (Ed.). (2011, January). The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for Information Literacy and the ... the points of inquiry: a framework for information literacy and the 21st century learner. Retrieved from https://bctla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/the-points-of-inquiry.pdf
TedX. (2018). Students need to lead the classroom, not teachers. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/gzQhiB2EOVE.
TSLAC: Texas State Library and Archives Commission. TSLAC | Texas State Library And Archives Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/
ULC, B. (n.d.). Your own personal emoj. Bitmoji. Retrieved from https://www.bitmoji.com/
