What is a balanced collection?

Discuss the pros and cons of buying bundled sets of resources, for instance a journal database or a Standing Orders service.
Pros
Free up time.
inexperienced or new TL able to resources a library due to the simplicity of obtaining resources
resources are screened
Reputable publishers and popular authors
Age suitability
Discounts
Continual supply
Wider variety of fiction types, horror, fantasy

Cons
Some double ups on titles.
Not meet the interest of students.
Issues may arise with regards to platforms if bundling ebooks and limitations to specific devices.

Consider also the pros and cons of selecting content that is provided via online access but which the library does not own.
Pros
Physical storage space not required
24/7 access
Initially cheap as you may not have to buy outright and allows for review and analyses of resource.

Cons
Access to online resources might be problematic for some.
Over time may be expensive for renewals of subscriptions

I am interested to read the ideas of others as I have only produced a limited list of pros and cons which reflects my inexperience.

Developing collections to support teaching and learning.

How is the teacher librarian's expertise and role in 'selecting and using resources' is different from that required by all teachers? Not having experience working in a library and after viewing Standard 3, focus area 3.4 of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, I would greatly appreciate the ideas of others with regard to the differences between teachers and TL’s role in 'selecting and using resources'. How could teacher librarians effectively collaborate with the school community in the selection of resources in a school with which you are familiar? Within the school I’m currently working, TL might effectively collaborate with the school community in matters relating to selection of resources by developing a committee comprising of staff members from each KLA. These members may meet as a group in an allocated time slot and discuss resources they may need, budgets, acquisition, accessioning through the library and how resources may meet outcomes across KLA’s. Consider also how to engage your learners in selection of resources for their school library. I personally believe learners (students) need not be involved in the selection process. If Standard 1 of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers ‘Know their students and how they learn” is effectively meet by teachers then the selection of resources can successfully be done by teachers and TL’s. For the purpose of this forum though I would identify stages where this process would be efficient (stage 6 possibly stage 5) develop a committee where possible resources are brought forward after teachers have made a short list. Students can, under the guidance of teachers, offer their opinions. This shortlist provided to the committee could reflect significant and relevant aspects of the learner’s community and interests. Who should have the final say on what is included in the school library collection? Why? The final say of the selection of resources ultimately should be the Principal as they are the face and leader of the school. However, this process could be put to a panel of teachers and executive staff that are leaders in their fields providing a unbiased system that could reasonably resources the curriculum needs of the teachers and learning needs of the students.

From your experience and knowledge of schools with which you are, or have been familiar, consider how effectively these schools are addressing the resourcing for learning in the 21st century.

Video conferencing, laptop rollout (DER), ipads, Xsel students using adobe connect for specific classes are all thing that I can see schools that I am familiar with resourcing for learning in the 21st Century. Although these are broad and specific activities, hardware and software I believe it is a step in the right direction. I can see the challenge in resource for the New National Curriculum from a TL’s point of few but there are also the opportunities for TL to show their expertise.

Do you agree with Johnson that students, and indeed younger teachers, are increasingly 'post-literate' in the manner that he defines and uses this term?

I agree that students and young teacher are increasingly ‘post literate’ as Johnson defines. I also agree with his statement that it is a return to more natural forms of communication, speaking, storytelling, dialogue debate and dramatisation. From the readings in this course and ETL401 I believe that school libraries are already adopting some of the critical attributes of Johnson highlight in his article. This may be a natural progression for school libraries as they adapt to the changing needs of teachers and students with regards to fiction and nonfiction resources.

Consider how a school library program collection provides access information at each stage of the academic information cycle. What are the implications if people have access to information from only one stage of the cycle?

Each stage of the information cycle News, Scholarly and Books may be accessed electronically or hard book copies within a school library (KLA referencing). As each stage of the information cycle is as important as the previous stage, if access to information from only one of these stages of the cycle occurred implications may occur. Access to news only, will provide students with facts and fables. Without access to Scholarly articles students will not have the resources to distinguish between fact and fiction. With access to books only, students may not identify the relevance or significance of all the specific information compiled into the one source of information. Access to only one stage of the information cycle may create significant gaps in students learning and understanding of information provided to them.

ETL503 "What to watch for in 2013"

Reading Shatzin’s blog “What to watch for 2013”, I was slightly pleased to read that there are many unresolved issues that will hopefully prolong the life of hardcopies in an actually library staffed by TL’s and SASS Library Assistants . The longevity of hardcopies may be a result of Shatzins ideas that picture books and illustrated books due to screen sizes will not have the same impact digitally and on the other hand a reference book displaying disinteresting charts my also lead to the readers disappointment. I believe that Shatzin’s points of the merger of large publishers and increase competition amongst platforms will provide consumers (schools or individuals) with greater purchasing, viewing (ebook or hardcopies) and security options. These ideas put forward by Shatzin, I believe will impact school libraries and their collections in such a way that there will be numerous modes for reading books and there will be more options for TL to resources their library. Knowing how students learn and what they want to read have been traditional roles of the TL and teachers, TL’s now have an additional role of knowing how they want to read (ebook or hardcopy). It’s also important for the TL to identify the needs of the teacher and other community members while being flexible and continually up-skilling in this ever changing environment.

Assessment item 5. Part B Critical reflection.

My view of the role of the Teacher Librarian (TL) has changed quite considerably throughout the study of the resources provided in ELT401 Teacher Librarianship.

Initially, I was somewhat naïve about the role of the TL and concerned about the future of TLs and their place in education institutions such as the one I’m currently employed in (Edwards, 2013a)

Preservation of knowledge, was my primary thought about the role of a TL. Although this is not incorrect it is very limited and very distant from the multifaceted role that I have now come to know. Herring (2007), Purcell (2010) and Lamb (2011), provide many examples of the role of a TL such as: Librarian, Information specialist, Information Literacy leader, Curriculum leader, website developer, budget and staff manager and professional development coordinator. It should have come as no surprise but these readings also gave a heavy importance of teaching, much more than I anticipated. In my blog (Edwards, 2013b) I highlighted that the TL’s primary role is teaching and meeting the educational needs of students as well as the social role TLs have such as: welfare, mentoring and being an ambassador for their students and their school. This primary role was also identified by The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) through its ‘Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians’ which focuses on the Teaching Role of the Teacher Librarian through the second strand ‘Professional Practice’ (ALIA & ASLA, 2004).

Through defining this explicit role of the TL other common themes appeared that were foreign to me but effectively assisted the TL to be successful and ultimately meet the educational needs of the students.

Working Collaboratively and obtaining the Principals Support

Working Collaboratively and obtaining the Principals Support were identified by Morris (2007) and Haycock (2007) as being key factors to the success of a TL. Morris (2007, p.1) stated “Principal support is the key to successful collaboration between classroom teachers and media specialists.” Haycock (2007, p.32) identified collaboration between staff members as the single professional behaviour that most affects student achievement and leads to growth of relationships improving experiences of all members of the school community.

Information Literacy (IL) and Inquiry Learning

The research and literature on IL is fascinating. Now knowing that this is a significant role of the TL I’m a little overwhelmed by this concept as there are numerous definitions. After reading definitions by Langford (1998), Doyle (1996), Candy (1993), Eisenberg & Berkowitz (1990), Herring & Tarter (2007) and Owen (1996), I personally prefer Abilock’s (2004), definition that ‘Information Literacy is a transformational process in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes.’

This above definition helped me to identify IL as being more than a set of skills as IL can go beyond the school setting to the workplace and attribute to lifelong learning highlighting the notion of creating, sharing, self-reflection and awareness (Edwards, 2013c).

Assessing IL and Inquiry Learning

While fully engrossed in the module Assessing IL and Inquiry Learning I had commented on my blog (Edwards, 2013d) questioning why TLs had to defend and justify their position. I had previously thought that the TL role of assessing was primarily to justify their position in schools. I now know that this is a vital role of the TL and its primary function is achievement of student outcomes not just accountability purposes. This primary role was again highlighted to me in the ‘Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians’ (2004) focusing on the Teaching Role of the Teacher Librarian through the second strand ‘Professional Practice’ standard 2.4 Evaluation.

The readings highlighted the many forms of assessment such as: diagnostic assessment (prior knowledge), formative assessment (throughout a unit of work) and summative assessment (end of unit of work) (Stripling 2007, p. 25) which were forms that I had implemented previously in my teaching. The most effective type of assessment that I had vague knowledge of and is a role of the TL was authentic assessment. I found this role of the TL interesting as it allows for collaboration with teachers and students to create an assessment that is significant to students as it provides real world problem for students to solve.

As I near the end of my first subject in ETL 401, after all the reading, research and reflection of the role of the TL, my view of the role of the TL has changed quite considerably. The TL is not merely a preserver of knowledge but an effective component of any school environment due to their varied skillset and primary role of achieving student outcomes.

Referencing:
Abilock, D. (2004). Information literacy: an overview of design, process and outcomes. Retrieved from http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/1over/infolit1.html

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) & The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Library standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved  from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm

Bursting with Potential: Lamb, A. (2011). Bursting with potential: Mixing a media specialist’s palette. TechTrends, 55(4), 27-36.Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Candy, P. (1993). The problem of currency: Information literacy in the context of Australia as a learning society. Australian Library Journal, 42, 278-299.

Doyle, C. (1996). Information literacy: Status report from the United States. In D. Booker (Ed.), Learning for life: information literacy and the autonomous learner (pp. 39-48). Adelaide: University of South Australia.

Edwards, S. (2013a). How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future. Teacher Librarian in Training. Retrieved from http://scotttl.blogspot.com.au/

Edwards, S. (2013b). The Role of a TL. Teacher Librarian in Training. Retrieved from http://scotttl.blogspot.com.au/

Edwards, S. (2013c). Blog Task # 3 Information Literacy is More than a Set of Skills. Teacher Librarian in Training. Retrieved from http://scotttl.blogspot.com.au/

Edwards, S. (2013). How do you think a teacher librarian might make his or her priorities both clear and palatable to the school community. Teacher Librarian in Training. Retrieved from http://scotttl.blogspot.com.au/

Eisenberg, M., & Berkowitz, R. (1990). Information problem-solving: The big six skills approach to library and information skills instruction. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries
in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga
Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
 
Herring, J. and Tarter, A. (2007).Progress in developing information literacy in a secondary school using the PLUS model. School Libraries in View, 23, 23-27.

Langford, L. (1998). Information literacy: a clarification. It first appeared in School Libraries Worldwide, Volume 4, Number 1, 1998, 59-72. Retrieved from http://www.fno.org/sept98/clarify.html

Morris, B.J. (2007). Principal support for collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 23-24

Owen, R. (1996). Chilling the community: Information literacy and the Hindmarsh Island bridge. Australian Library Journal, 45(2), 120-135.

Purcell, M. (2010). All Librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the roles of a School Library Media Specialist.Library Media Connection, 29(3), 30-33. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Stripling, B. (2007). Assessing informative fluency: Gathering evidence of student learning. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 23(8), 25-29. Available CSU Library Reserve