I have decided to go through my blogs on a week by week basis. This will make it easier to summarize the issues and my thoughts. I will refer to Annoyed Librarian as AL and Hey Jude as HJ, just to make things easier.
Annoyed Librarian had two posts this week.
In Provocative to Whom?, there is a discussion of the "provocative statements" released by the Taiga Forum, which describes itself as a "community of AULs, and ADs challenging the traditional boundaries in libraries." (AULs are Assistant or Associate University Librarians and ADs are Associate Deans or Assistant Directors.) These released statements are meant to start conversation and critical thinking about library issues, not necessarily predict the future. AL points out that in the past, when the first "provocative statements" were released, they were neither very provocative because most were already happening. The same goes for the new statements.
My thoughts: I agree with AL in that the statements are not very predictive of the future, and any conversation provoked by them is already late. Many of the statements are examples of things already happening, especially statement #2: radical cooperation, which states that withing five years, research libraries should reduce budget cuts by cooperating with other universities in jointly-owned collections, etc. Well, I am pretty sure we do that or at least something similar, with our database and e-journals and any other online sources that we use.
In Teachers and Librarians in L.A., the NPR story L.A. School District Tells Librarians: You're Not Teachers Anymore. Apparently, L.A. is trying to alleviate budget cuts by reclassifying the job titles of school librarians, from teacher librarians to just school librarian. This will make it easier to cut these jobs, and approximately 85 librarian positions are being cut. AL states that the school district is right. They are librarians, not teachers. However, that doesn't mean that they don't teach things. But, according to the school district, teaching students how to use the library and promoting English and literacy does not count. They are even trying to decide if librarians with education degrees can be classroom teachers. There is a similar mindset in academic libraries. Many librarians have trouble referring to themselves as professors or even faculty, even when they teach a class! For some reason, teaching a "real" subject in a semester long class is different than teaching a semester long class in information literacy, or any other class a librarian may need to teach.
Librarians are considered to be the low end of the totem pole because people are uninformed of what they actually do. It is the school librarians job to get out there and make a case to the public and the school boards. They need to let everyone know exactly what it is that they do, and why it is important. Unfortunately, they haven't done this very well in the past.
My thoughts: I agree with a lot of things in this blog. However, if the school librarians in California are required to get a teaching certificate, then, I believe, this classifies them as teachers. Maybe the school district doesn't see them as relevant because their programs are behind and haven't gotten a chance to catch up with new technology. This is very unfortunate for these schools and the students. Twenty-five years later, I still remember going to my elementary school library and being so happy to search for and check out my books. Then we would all sit around the table, while the librarian read to us. It is a wonderful memory that many children will miss out on.
HeyJude had several posts this week. This blog is by a librarian in Australia, so many of her posts are going to be about things happening in the Australian library systems. But, we are a global community, so it will apply here as well.
In Essential Tools: Using Easy Bib, there is a guest post by Stacy Taylor, Information Services Manager at Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College, who uses Easy Bib in her International Baccalaureate secondary school for girls. Easy Bib is a free bibliography maker. It helps with works cited and has formatting for APA, MLA and Chicago styles. Ms Taylor explains that the school used to use a Harvard referencing tool called citation, but had to switch to a different application for several reasons. One was that their school became a Mac school and the previous referencing tool was incompatible. Secondly, a higher standard of reference was required for the essays and projects. Also, many of the teachers hadn't done a bibliography since their college days, and were unfamiliar with the current styles.
My thoughts: It is great to know that those programs are out there, to provide reference. I wonder if the schools are actually teaching the students to make the bibliography on their own, or just allowing them to generate them through the program?
For Paint Your Own Horizons, the author shares some information on advocacy and promotion of your library. In the Horizon Report 2011 K-12, school library professionals are told to keep technologies in the forefront of their thinking. The National Australian Library Association put together a website to inform people about the role of the school library in their community. It is called What a Difference a School Library Makes.
My thoughts: It is important for librarians and members of the community alike to be informed of what's going on in the academic/school library world. Other libraries should think of ways to use technology, or Web 2.0 principles, to find opportunities for promotion of their services and programs. This would help the public to perceive them in a different light.
Our Book Passion- in an ebook age describes the author's experience going to a Reading Matters conference hosted by the State Library of Victoria. This conference enabled librarians, teachers, and teacher librarians to mingle with authors and learn about the topics they write about. It was an excellent opportunity to speak with your favorite author, and get a book signed. The author later lamented the fact that now that she uses an e-reader, she no longer buys paper books, thus had nothing to get signed, which was a favorite thing to do.
This blog also mentions the website Inside a Dog, which is by the State Library of Victoria. It is a place where students can post book reviews or participate in Book Clubs, no matter their location.
My thoughts: This reading conference sounds like a lot of fun. I can't believe the author passed up an opportunity to obtain signatures from authors just because she had an e-reader. Yet another reason why I don't need/want one. The website seems really interesting. I wish they had something like that around when I was younger. That would have been something I was all over. But, unfortunately, there was no internet back then........
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