Learning to ride a bike while in the Tour de France...

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