Theme 1: The Foundation of Reference Services
In personal experience within the public library system and public
school library learning commons, I have always been working from the side of
already created reference sections, both physical and virtual. My role has been
the director to resources and
recommending sources that I am familiar with either through my own use or
observance of others using them successfully. Being completely honest, the
notion of being the person to build
the reference collection and evaluate resources is daunting!
Throughout Theme 1: The Foundation
of Reference Services, I have gathered what I hope to be useful tools and
advice to use in the future. Practicing the evaluation process in assignment 1
is going to be a valuable experience.
During lesson two, I started to think that no matter what model is
followed (Points of
Inquiry, Research
Quest, Big 6, Five
Basic Steps), with
student-centered learning and an inquiry approach to learning, the importance
of research skills and information literacy become a student’s first important
building block to being an independent library user. As mentioned in lesson
four, “[o]ur role is to provide the skills that students require to select the
best information” (Mueller, 2019), and I feel that often not enough time and
attention is paid to this – evaluating content is often glossed over,
especially with younger students. In past collaborative research projects I
have observed students copy content not understanding it at all. When
questioned why they chose it as a resource, they sort of mumble an “I don’t
know, it says it so I copied it, and the teacher says we have to hurry up
because the project is due soon.”
The project is due soon.
Here lies one of the issues of how project-based research is often set-up. The timeline is often unrealistic, and I have often thought that it is unfair to students to expect them to simultaneously successfully learn new skills (hopefully), and achieve a good mark on their big term project (which often makes student unwilling to take risks). It would be like learning to ride a bike while IN the Tour de France.
Readings throughout this theme reminded me that a T-L has to encourage
colleagues to have their classes spend time in the library to learn and practice
information literacy skills in a fun and meaningful way before applying them to graded assignments. I also started to think
about how a T-L could continue to assist students throughout the learning
process when the T-L is not available or the student is outside of the school
library. I found this video, How to
Search Databases published on Youtube by Stanford University Libraries
(2016).
It looks like a student or possibly a librarian created this video guide
about accessing school databases. I wonder if creating a video library with
short “how to” guides would be beneficial for students who want to look up
reminders on how to access stronger resources. This might be a modern addition
to a T-Ls reference collection?
References
Feuerman, A. J. (2018). Picard-Facepalm-2_0 [JPEG
file]. Retrieved from http://ajfeuerman.com/not-the-worst-pitch-ive-ever-gotten-but-maybe-the-most-irresponsible/picard-facepalm-2_0/
Gynne, E. (2013). Bought a bike but soon realized I have not been on one for 6 years
[GIF file]. Retrieved from http://recognizingstupidity.tumblr.com/post/64627149215/bought-a-bike-but-soon-realized-i-have-not-been-on
Mueller, A. (2019). Lesson 4: Print
and/or Electronic Reference Materials, course modules LIBE 467 63C: University of
British Columbia Vancouver, online. Retrieved from Canvas learning
platform.
Riedling, A. M., Shake, L., & Houston, C.
(2013) Reference skills for the school
library media specialist: Tools and tips (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Linworth.
Stanford University
Libraries. (2016, April 7). How to Search
Databases [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8bXA9JC6tQ