(just in case spacing/formatting goes awry as I paste it here)
An Evaluation Plan for
Improving Digital Reference Services
at the Sardis Elementary School Library Learning Commons
(LIBE467 Final Assignment)
1. The Present Conditions
Reference Materials: The Resources Themselves
When looking at standards set out in Achieving Information Literacy, my Library is currently Below Standard for both print and digital reference material. As I have been discussing in recent blog posts (here, for example), it will be very difficult to bring my print reference collection up to Acceptable standards due to space and cost issues. I have already weeded this section of the Library extensively due to major “out-dated-ness” of the resources, most of which were taking up too much space that was needed for more relevant, current nonfiction resources. To upgrade the print reference collection would take thousands of dollars.
Although it is not ideal to neglect the print material, I believe that I'll be able to fairly quickly upgrade the digital resources to Acceptable, and maybe even move toward Exemplary, in the near future given my goals to be discussed throughout this paper. The reference resources I will rely upon will be those “virtually free” because they are part of SD33 database bundles (costs of which don’t come out of my Library budget), and those truly free online resources.
(Once the digital project is completed, I’ll again address the print reference materials)
This ERAC Database Bundle available in Chilliwack, for elementary students, is a great start, but is not extensive enough.
Type of Ref. Resource
|
Primary
|
Intermediate
|
Encyclopedia:
World Book: Early World of Learning
|
Yes
| |
Encyclopedia:
World Book: Science Power
|
Yes
| |
Encyclopedia:
World Book: Decouverte
|
Gr 6 French Immersion
| |
Encyclopedia:
World Book: Kids
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Encyclopedia:
World Book: Student
|
Yes
| |
Atlas:
World Book Atlas
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Historical:
World Book Timelines
|
(Yes)
|
Yes
|
Digital/Media Literacy:
Mediasmarts
|
(Yes?)
|
Yes
|
National Geographic Kids
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Local BC History:
Encyclopedia of BC;
Encyc. of Raincoast Place Names; FarWest, The Story of BC
|
Yes
| |
Wide-ranging Video Resources:
Criterion On-Demand;
Learn360
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Periodicals:
Explora: An EBSCO Experience
|
Yes
|
What is Still Needed?
The staff and students could certainly use a variety of specialty online encyclopedias to go beyond the (often repetitive) World Book products. We also currently have no easy access to vetted digital almanacs, handbooks, factbooks, or biographical sources. We could also use various digital dictionaries and thesauri, further geographical sources, and perhaps more periodical databases.
I have approached my colleagues at a recent Chilliwack Teacher-Librarians’ Association meeting about the need for a single, central online portal to such extra reference resources. We have struck a committee of members who will look into building this portal. We are starting to compile lists of links. We are considering whether we will create a web page, a wiki, a symbaloo, etc. to best accomplish this goal.
In addition to building ease of access to an increasing number of reference resources, I still have much work to do in building reference skills at my school; that is, making students more able to find and use appropriate reference materials to meet their learning needs.
2. The Rationale for Change
Reference Skills: Students’ Abilities to Find and Use Reference Materials
In my first two years in this new Teacher-Librarian position, I was working more on weeding and re-building the picture book, novel, and nonfiction collections, plus transforming the space itself, while building team-teaching connections with staff. This school year I have been focussing on the mission of examining the (lacking) reference collection and on building information seeking reference skills. Previously, my forays into this area were more haphazard and “on the fly.”
I feel that a lot of researching in the school in recent years has been bound to nonfiction books only to avoid concerns about internet safety; or, has involved a lot of student floundering through “Googling it” without refining skills. That type of Internet research tends to lend itself more to regurgitation, and is harder for students to see why they shouldn’t cut-and-paste, because they aren’t really generating their own knowledge.
Once we Teacher-Librarians have completed our Reference Resources Portal, we can do more effective teaching on how and when to use each type of reference material, plus they’ll be readily available as needs arise. Narrowing the search field from the whole of the Internet via Google to more targetted and vetted sites will be beneficial and more efficient. In addition, my concerns that students are only skimming the surface Internet and are missing out on access to deep web sources will be alleviated. I have been really focussing on using our database bundles as a first line research strategy to combat these flaws, but we still need more options to explore.
The Current Environment
Right now, our school’s staff is really intrigued and motivated by a desire to engage in true Inquiry researching. I have had all of the Intermediate teachers approach me for help with Genius Hour or Inquiry research, and have been explicitly teaching database and Google search tips to students throughout the year. We are looking at the curriculum content and trying to look more at students choosing or formulating questions to answer via researching that motivates them. In fact, in the last few days, I’ve been collaborating on creating a Gr 6 Human Body Science unit including ideas for intriguing questions, teaching info-seeking skills, teaching the scientific method, having the kids design a lab experiment or build a working model, and deciding how they will best present their learning in a spring Science Expo.
Now comes the period of formalizing all these types of learning goals so that we have a process/model to follow for future endeavours.
It is vital that we Teacher-Librarians lead the way in making sure that our students can find, interpret, and use information in an efficient and responsible way. I feel it is my responsibility to ensure my students do become information literate. I have taken this statement as part of my (in progress) Reference Services Policies:
"The American Library Association (2006) describes information-literate individuals as 'those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.' The abilities to access, comprehend, use, and evaluate information have become the skills people must develop in order to function in our current world (Reidling, 7-8)."
The Research Models to Guide Us in Our Reference Research Rebirth
As to the research process for students, I have included the BCTLA Research Quest and Points of Inquiry models as part of my Reference Services Policies. I've tended to roughly have those in mind when embarking on research, but now am committed to using them more formally. I especially thought it was important to use and promote these locally developed models to highlight exemplary work from our field. The Points of Inquiry process is what I was mapping out with the Gr 6 teacher for the Human Body unit mentioned above.
3. The Timeline for Improvement
In terms of putting reference services changes into practice, I’ve already been in process for awhile. My own Professional Growth Plan for this school year had included as the top priority a goal to approach teachers about explicit learning of research skills via team-teaching in the Library. This has been happening, as mentioned earlier.
Another part of the timeline, I deliberately signed up for this Teacher-Librarianship course, LIBE 467, as a way to spur me on and ensure the mandatory time needed to analyze needs and adopt changes would remain a commitment. In fact, in the course, I was calmed by reading about these considerations in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model:
...this model suggests the importance of paying attention to implementation for several years, because it takes at least three years for early concerns to be resolved and later ones to emerge….We also know that help over time is necessary to work the kinks out and then to reinforce good teaching once use of the new practice smoothes out. Finally, with all the demands on teachers, it is often the case that once their practice becomes routine, they never have the time and space to focus on whether and in what ways students are learning. This often requires some organizational priority setting, as well as stimulating interest and concern about specific student learning outcomes (National Academy of Sciences).
So, if I look at my timeline as a roughly three-year window, I gradually weeded out the outdated, under-utilized reference print collection in the last half of last school year, I’ve spent this school year working on building info-search skills and exploring solutions to cost-effective reference resources, I’ll spend next school year working with T-L colleagues on building a Digital Reference Resources Portal, and as it “goes live” during that year and into the following one, we will need to tweak it, add to it it, and maintain it.
Timeline Goals and Deadlines
I have developed some more specific timeline goals to keep the Teacher-Librarian committee working on the portal focussed and organized.
- By the end of May, we need to have decided on what platform we will use: if SharePoint is viable, or whether del.icio.us or some other wiki would be better, or whether we want to create a webpage link similar to the database page link attached to our SD33 Library pages.
- By the end of May, and into June, I need to go through my overwhelmingly disorganized email file where I have been sending myself reminder links and notes regarding great reference resource sites over the last two to three years (often ideas from TL coursework) and start sifting and categorizing and re-evaluating them
- In May and June (and possibly over the summer), we will start to add reference resources to the portal in progress
--we will subdivide into categories for primary and intermediate (links will be placed
in both sections if applicable)
--we will subdivide under Pr/Int into categories: general encyclopedias, specialty
encyclopedias, periodical databases, dictionaries, online safety, Netiquette, info-searching tips, etc, etc
--additions to the portal will include the title of the resource as a working hyperlink
--all additions to the portal must include an annotation beneath its title/link
explaining in two to three sentences how/why it is useful
- By the end of June, after the district After-School Collaboration dates are set, we will thus have our “work bee” dates set to build and discuss the project further during the next year
- By January 2018, I (at least) plan to be using the wiki/etc in progress with students and teachers via team-teaching in the Library
- January-June 2018: district-wide communication about the portal’s existence and usefulness (more on that below)
4. Follow-Up and Maintenance of the New Resources
Since the proposed Digital Reference Resource Portable will be a work-in-progress throughout the next school year, follow-up and maintenance won’t be as much of an issue as simply building it in the first place. Luckily, we have a committee of Teacher-Librarians who is keen to see this get going as soon as possible, and we will have dedicated collaboration dates to help us stick to the plan.
A Life of Its Own?
Once the portal is up and running, it will hopefully receive extensive use by those of us who created it, and by our other T-L colleagues. A core group of T-Ls will continue to be responsible for periodically evaluating the portal. From there, through team-teaching and so on (more on that below), usage should spread to other colleagues, and to students. When it is well used, maintenance will be easier because users will notify us if links have gone dead, or if some resources are deemed better or worse than others, which will help us curate the portal. Users will also be able to suggest (and maybe even add on themselves) new reference resource links that they have discovered on their own. It will hopefully take on a crowd-sourced model over time.
How to Best Communicate the Existence of These New Reference Services
It’s all well and good to imagine the utopia of a self-maintaining crowd-sourced reference portal that we’ve built, but how do we ensure people know it’s there, and how do we get them to use it? First of all, we Teacher-Librarians will need to do an information blitz starting in December/January of the next school year. We will need to notify teachers and administrators via SD email, the Superintendent’s Monthly Memo (where all SD33 news, programs, etc get shared digitally with all staff), and in staff meeting presentations. Most importantly, we will need to do demonstrations and direct teaching on how to use the portal in team-teaching lessons during Library visits, Genius Hour, and Inquiry research projects so that fellow teachers and their students see just how useful the links really are. We can spread the word to staff, students, and the parent community through school newsletters, Library pages, and social media.
Since the portal will be online, it will a 24/7 library learning commons. Combined with the database bundles we currently have in the district, I just might bring my school’s digital reference resources into Asselin’s covetted but elusive Exemplary realm!
References
Asselin, Marlene, Jennifer L Branch, and Dianne Oberg. Achieving Information Literacy: Standards For School Library Programs In Canada. 1st ed. Ottawa: Canadian School Library Association, 2003. http://www.accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/ail110217.pdf
British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association,. The Points Of Inquiry: A Framework For Information Literacy And The 21St Century Learner. 1st ed. Vancouver: BCTLA, 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/documents/Points%20of%20Inquiry/PointsofInquiry.pdf
Hunt, Christopher. "Digital Vs. Print (Vs. Emerging) Reference Resources: Theme Three Reflections". ExLibrisMrHunt Blog-O-Rama!. N.p., 2017. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.
National Academy of Sciences,. "The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model For Change In Individuals". Nationalacademies.org. N.p., 2005. Web. 6 Mar. 2017.
Reidling, Ann, Loretta Shake, and Cynthia Houston. Reference Skills For The School Librarian: Tools And Tips. 3rd ed. Linworth, 2013. Kindle e-book: http://www.amazon.ca/kindlebooks
