Trust

Relationship-building with teachers, students, parents, and the community at large is probably the most important part of being a school librarian. Even as the children's librarian at the public library, I find that building relationships is one of the most integral parts of fulfilling my role effectively. The technology aspect really works to enhance these relationships... every time we initiate any one of the "techie" things were learning in this class in our workplace, if we keep this at the forefront then we'll all be successful.

As I'm nearing the end of the my library studies, I'm really starting to buy into our value! I mean, I always knew that libraries are the cornerstones of the community and the heart of the school, but the actual role of librarian was always somewhat fuzzy to me. Unfortunately, I'm not alone... patrons don't have a clue about how a library is structured, or what librarians actually do. People always look at me somewhat perplexed when I tell them about my crazy day at the library. I even had one neighbour say to me when I told him about my schooling, "ha, you may as well make $20 an hour checking out books!" Librarians have never been very good at marketing themselves. I think with these technology tools, we'll be able to smack people in the face and let them know we can help! Now that our roles are demanding an understanding of technology, we'll be more visible or at least more valued in the community's eyes. At the very least, our role will be more highlighted as the information professionals we are...

Along the same lines, relationship building requires a huge investment of time and energy on all ends. HUGE. In my neck of the woods, we have a crazy "temporary contract" phenomena swooping our school system. If school systems aren't willing to gaurantee a continuing contract for their teachers and teacher librarians, this relationship-building goes all to pot. I sure hope this changes with the rash of retirements everyone keeps talking about! (I came into teaching six and a half years ago and when I graduated from teacher's college, they told us all "in the next five years you'll have your pick of jobs." Still not seeing that happen). Patience, patience, patience.

Dreadful Databases

I was excited to learn about federated searching today. I have a real love/hate relationship with databases. As a graduate student, I love the access to the hundreds of databases in the UBC system. I'm always able to find highly relevant, full-text articles for my research. Full-text is important to me, because my time is valuable and I hate being led on a wild goose chase following link after UBC e-link only to hit a dead end. Before entering UBC as a graduate student I was terrified of databases. I didn't even know what they were, really! In my undergraduate years (93-97) I never even knew they existed. I did all of my research through journals and books at the library. I think I'm not alone in my (prior) fear of databases. They are intimidating, and as Baule pointed out in his article Data Data Everywhere, they're awkward to use because of their specificity. It's no wonder that students tend to "satisfice," or find the path of least resistance and settle with mediocre information for assignments. I think we're all guilty of this! Google rocks.

But I was reflecting on my practicum at the local high school here, where I had the opportunity to give a ten minute mini-lesson on finding information for each classes' assignments. I pushed the online databases that were available to them (ThomsonGale and EBSCO) and no one went for it in their research! I think this had a bit to do with what Baule was talking about- Google is just easier- but as I was perusing the articles available on ThomsonGale and EBSCO, I realized it's because the information is presented dreadfully! At least with online web resources the students can find something that will reel them in- either it's formatted with lots of white spaces, the print is bigger, there are lots of interesting visuals, or the colour combination/background colour appeals to them. There could also be lots of different medias on a website- from auditory to video streams, and opportunity for social interaction through comments/feedback links and blog-type entries.

The information presented in databases on the other hand is just BORING. The articles seem to always be on a plain white background, they have tiny print, they lack any sort of media- at least, it's hardly integrated in the body of the article- they are just boring paragraph after boring paragraph of information. It's like a textbook digitized. What student would pick that over the exciting way websites present information?

If we as school librarians are paying the big bucks for online databases, I want to be darn sure that the kids are going to use it. Sure, there are databases that kick it up a notch higher than ThomsonGale and EBSCO like Searchasaurus, Primary Search, and Student Research, but even though their interface might have a touch more pizazz the content is presented in the same way: BORING! If anyone knows of a good database that would give a school library the best bang for their buck, I would love to hear about it.

Clutter

I'm wondering if experimenting with all these great web publishing tools is merely adding to information clutter on the web. Don't get me wrong... I think it's fantastic that it's so easy to publish on the web. But with the mind-boggling amount of information that is created each day, I wonder if our egos are getting in the way of social responsibility. I mean, is it really necessary to have people's journals online for everyone to sift through when searching by keyword? Let's face it: a lot of the information on the web is trite and its presence contributes to information overload. I'm not trying to be an intellectual ellitist... I don't think everyone should publish something intelligent or not publish anything at all... but I'm just wondering how much stuff on the web is directly related to personal ego gratification as opposed to information dissemination?

After all, that's the hook with podcasts, blogs, wikis, and any other social networking tools we're introducing to kids in the classroom... the public audience is what gets them going. It's the idea that someone- some person in the "real world" will listen if you publish online. I'm not sure if that's entirely true, though. What a wonderful project those Coulee kids are doing with their classroom podcast... the teacher's introduction and explanation of their podcast journey was truly inspirational. But to be quite honest, who would subscribe to that from the general public? The only ones listening to them are the students themselves, the teacher, the principal (maybe), perhaps the parents, and people like us who are directed! I sound like a real pooper, but I'm only questioning the public availability of it all. It just seems to add to the information clutter on the web. I wonder if the deep web is a better place for these things to be, and that way it would only be available to a specific audience.

Audience aside, I think these tools pose amazing possibilities for teacher collaboration! I love that the South African curriculum is a wiki. It makes PERFECT sense to have a place where teachers can post lessons, edit lessons because something didn't work, and network with other subject-specific teachers on an ongoing basis. This discovery was the most exciting for me, since anything that connects teachers is important to me. In my experience, being a classroom teacher is one of the most isolating jobs. That's why I loved being in the school library- because you actually work with other adults to create better learning experiences for the students and I find that very gratifying. Being in the classroom can be awfully lonely, so a wiki for posting lessons/reflections/questions for people in parallel positions to ponder and respond to is wonderful.

Eeeks!

I'm starting to get overwhelmed with the jumping between all the different modes of communication we're using! This is a huge change from WebCT (which is a great thing), but I feel like I need some time to wrap my head around it all. I feel strangely disconnected from everyone and am starting to freak out about having only four weeks left in this class. If anything this class is teaching me is that my mind is clearly NOT naturally wired for this online social networking stuff! But that's not to say that I'm not open to learning about it and trying to adopt it. I feel like I'm finally understanding the context of young people's lives! It's a real treat to get a glimpse of their world, and hopefully this will be the beginning of trying to keep on top of it and in turn trying to mould some meaningful educational experiences for them.

I've been enjoying reading everyone's blogs for this class and I'm happy to see that many people share similar fears, hopes, and questions. I wish I could respond to everybody's posts. I like how everything is easily streamed from RSS to Google Reader, but feel a little overloaded at all the links to explore. I just wish I had more time, darn it!

Social Software: Friend or Foe to School Librarian?

I am loving all the new social networking software available these days and only wish I had more time to explore everything. I constantly get befriended on Facebook by all sorts of people from my school and my past; unfortunately, between classes, course work, work, family, and building a new home (yikes- managing the funds is a full-time job all in itself), I simply don't have time to play! This "Technology in the School Library Media Centre" course is the PERFECT excuse to spend hours playing around with all the softwares I've been dying to explore.

But one thing is nagging at me. I'm thinking back to an interview I had over a year ago with an elementary school principal re: a teacher-librarian job. I was pretty fresh to the MLIS program, and I was excited to share all these new technologies that have enlightened me during my studies! I went on about how I could collaborate with teachers by implementing wikis, and how I could introduce blogs in the library for students to post book reviews, etc. I even talked about improving the library website by connecting the catalogue online.

I didn't end up getting the job, and since I'm incredibly charming and qualified (ha ha), I'm wondering if it had anything to do with my espousal of technology! It's true that the schools in our district don't have huge budgets for computers and system upgrades. I did my practicum in a highschool that didn't allow any video-streaming or gaming simply because these applications were too draining on the system. But I think it goes further than this. My perception is that teachers and schools in general are scared of social software. Their educational potential is outweighed by the fear of a number of things: student distraction, online safety, and the big one: teachers' fear of learning about the stuff! I have great dreams about running workshops for teachers in the school library during lunch hours or after school. But realistically, between all the other tasks they juggle in their time management, and the "stigma" that these types of social software have in schools, I wonder if this would fly.

I do dream about the day when students are allowed access to their e-mails during school hours. I dream about the day when podcasts and video streams are integrated in lesson planning, to appeal to all different types of learners. I dream about the day when schools embrace technology, instead of finding ways to filter and block it from their students. This stuff ain't going away...