An Action Plan for the School Library Reference Services

-->

Assignment 3: 

An Evaluation plan to improve the School Library Reference services

*Image from http://knowledgequest.aasl.org/future-ready-librarian/

Ann Riedling et al (2013) note that while the roles and responsibilities of the teacher-librarian are diverse and complex, reference services can be ‘viewed under the two headings of provision of information, and instruction or direction’ (p.15). Through this lens I will focus on the evaluation of reference services in my school library setting.

Holly Elementary is a school located in north end of the Surrey School District. We have approximately 575 students from Kindergarten to Grade 7. The school population is a diverse one with students coming from 39 different countries and speaking 33 different languages. Physically, the Library Learning Commons at Holly is located near the main entrance to the school and it is a busy place, used throughout the day as well as before and after school. We have a full-time teacher-librarian as well as an extra teacher-librarian one day a week. The reference services at Holly Elementary have been undergoing significant changes in the last two years. As part of making the change from library to learning commons, many things have changed from the furniture to the collection itself. As part of these changes, the teacher-librarian has been actively weeding the collection and has already downsized the print reference section significantly. It currently occupies only two shelves as there are no longer print encyclopedias. There is an older set of atlases (2006) and dictionaries (2009) There are 238 other reference texts including thematic dictionaries and one volume encyclopedias that are integrated into the non-fiction collection by subject.

In regards to the digital collection, schools within our district have access to wide range of subscriptions to digital reference resources.

*Screen-shots from https://www.surreyschools.ca/sites/7V5JQUO4HC/Pages/default.aspx

After an informal survey of a selection of classroom teachers, I discovered that usage of the digital reference resources varies greatly. A small number of teachers use them regularly however; most teachers had a vague knowledge of them or were not aware of them at all. Similarly, few teachers had introduced their students to the resources.

For these reasons, I have decided to focus on the digital reference services at Holly and how we can promote and improve their use throughout the student population.

Rationale

The reasons for change and improvement to use of our digital reference collection are as follows:

1.     Access to technology:

In the last year, generous donations and budget increases to the school have resulted in an increase in the amount of technology that is available for students to use. There are 4 classroom sets of iPads and 2 sets of MacBooks that can be signed out. In addition, many classrooms have a set of 3-5 iPads in their classroom permanently. With this increased access to technology, we are in the position at Holly to truly utilize digital reference sources to increase student engagement and learning.

2.     The New BC Curriculum:

The inquiry focus of the New BC Curriculum (particularly within the ‘Critical Thinking’ core competency) can be supported with online information reference sources. Research shows that providing authentic digital reading experiences that allow students to build their information literacy skills increases engagement (Sekeres et al, 2014) and provides opportunities for real world problem solving.

3.     The Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons:

The need for differentiated content demands a diverse and well-managed digital collection as well as print resources.

* Image from Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for the School Library Learning Commons in Canada 2014

4.     Cost:

While the cost-effective nature of digital resources vs. print will continue to be debated, it is acknowledged by Riedling et al (2013) that smaller budgets and rapid pace of change make it very hard to keep print resources like encyclopedias and atlases current. Therefore digital resources become a crucial part of keeping the reference resources current in the school library learning commons.

5.     Convenience:

Students today have become accustomed to a world where the answers seem to be at their fingertips and they are often unaware of the unreliable nature of the ‘answers’ they receive from their ‘Google searches’. William Badke (2014) discovered that even with university level students, convenience was the determining factor for using a reference search tool. We need to make digital reference resources as convenient as possible for students by creating shortcuts and links from the browser homepage.

6.     Role of the Teacher-Librarian:

It is our role as teacher-librarians to make the digital references available in the school library learning commons more convenient and accessible for students and staff. The excerpt below is from the SD36 Teacher Librarian Handbook and I have highlighted the relevant points in yellow.

*Screenshot taken from School District 36 Teacher-Librarian Handbook (2007)

The more recent publication School Library to Learning Commons (updated May 2017) also stresses the importance of teacher-librarians being leaders in digital citizenship. They state that:

“The Teacher-Librarian ensures students and staff are responsible users who are technology literate and media aware” (Ekdahl & Zubke, p.7)

Therefore, there will be two aspects to this plan to renovate the digital reference services at Holly Elementary:

Part 1: How can digital reference resources be promoted and organized?

-->

Digital Reference Resources Action Plan
Who will be involved? Teacher-Librarian, Teaching staff, Principal
Expected Timeline: 2 years The estimated timeline for this improvement plan is over two years. I believe this is a realistic timeframe by the end of which we could see a noticeable difference in the use of digital reference services by staff and students. Ideally however, this would be an ongoing project that will grow and evolve to meet the needs of the school community.
How will the changes be communicated? ·      Monthly updates at staff meetings ·      Email reminders to staff with links to digital references ·      New signage in the Library Learning Commons ·      Monthly lunch meetings to promote digital references and links to the new curriculum (alternate with primary and intermediate focus).
Action Plan
Curate	Action: Curate the free online resources (using a bookmarking tool) so that teachers and students are able to find the approved resources quickly and easily. ·       Using symbaloo.com, I created a webmix to provide easy links to the district digital reference resources (Surrey SD icon) as well as free online reference resources for teachers and students, many of which are on the ERAC list of approved resources. *Note: When you upgrade to SymbalooPRO, it allows you to set these webmixes as your homepage on multiple computers. https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/referenceresources11
Direct	Action: Increase accessibility and direct users to the digital references by creating shortcuts and links. ·      I will update the links on the school website library page and make district digital references one of the homepages on the library desktop computers. ·      I plan to also plan to clearly display login process with visuals on laminated cards near the laptops and iPads storage area.
Promote	Action: Raise awareness through promotion and direct teaching ·      Offer teachers opportunities to collaborate and be prepared to show them the online resources relevant to their unit planning. ·      Integrate digital reference sources into inquiry units of learning in the Library Learning Commons. ·      Teach students how to use the digital reference resources and provide opportunities for them to also explore and understand crowd-sourced encyclopedias like Wikipedia. ·      Present one digital reference resource briefly at each monthly staff meeting.
Explore	Action: Does the digital reference collection need to be expanded? Is there a resource that I would suggest that we explore as a learning community? Suggestion: PebbleGo K-3 Database (Science) Capstone Digital.  *Image from http://www.westonps.org/page.cfm?p=497 There is a need at our school for reference resources that are accessible for English Language Learners and striving readers. The new BC Curriculum also has required that new resources are needed at certain grade levels. Educational publishers are struggling to create and print resources quickly enough for teachers to implement the new curriculum. PebbleGo is available for a free two-week trial so I would like to explore it as a potential new resource to serve our emergent reader population at Holly. A Teacher-Librarian in Vancouver School District recommended this resource to me and she had seen great results using it with elementary school students from K-5. It also has favorable reviews from School Library Journal accessed here. What does PebbleGo offer that our current resources (World Book Kids & Early World of Learning) do not? Some of the articles in World Book Kids are at a higher level than is manageable (independently) for ELL and struggling readers. There is a read aloud function but it is not intuitive. The Early World of Learning database does not have a search function and the science topics are limited (covers some areas like plants and weather). See Appendix A for evaluation rubric of this resource.

However, it has been pointed out that simply having access to technology and digital resources does not make students better learners (Loertscher and Koechlin, 2012). In my experience as a classroom teacher, I have observed that many students do not know how to effectively use information online in a discerning manner and will often take whatever comes up in their google search as ‘fact’. So in addition to providing quality digital reference resources, it is also our responsibility to teach students to question and think critically about what they read and the sources they use.

Part 2: What information literacy skills are to be learned and how can they be made more explicit in teaching and learning in the LLC?

Ken Haycock notes that quality school library programs include a ‘systematic approach to teaching an “information process” based on a school based continuum of information skills and strategies’ (Asselin et al, 2003, p. 63). Holly Elementary would benefit from having specific information skills across the curriculum in the classroom and library learning commons. The benefits of this direct instruction are further enhanced when the teacher and teacher-librarian collaborate and co-teach in a sequential series of lessons and inquiry units. The British Columbia Teacher Librarian Association published the 2010 document “The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for Information Literacy and the 21^st Century Learner”. The way in which this framework combines information literacy and the inquiry process make it ideal for using with all students. In addition, it gives detailed indicators for students to work towards in primary and intermediate.

*Image from https://bctla.ca/resources/point-of-inquiry/

I would plan to display and refer to the posters available from the BCTLA website as well as the Points of Inquiry planning package to share with teachers and reference throughout the year.

To judge the success of this action plan, I predict that most of the assessment will be through observation of student learning and teacher feedback. It would also be useful to create a short online survey for teachers and students to complete about their use of digital reference services before and after implementing this plan.

References

Asselin, M., Branch, J. and Oberg, D (2003). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school libraries in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian School Library Association.

Badke, William (2014). “The Convenience Factor in Information Seeking.” Online Searcher, 38 (6). Accessed March 24^th, 2018 from http://www.infotoday.com/OnlineSearcher/Articles/InfoLit-Land/The-Convenience-Factor-in-Information-Seeking-100274.shtml?PageNum=1

BC New Curriculum. Accessed March 20^th, 2018 from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/critical_thinking

Canadian Library Association (2014). Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Accessed January 10^th, 2018 from http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/

Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium website. https://bcerac.ca

Ekdahl, M., M. Farquharson, J. Robinson, and L. Turner (2010). The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for Information Literacy and the 21st Century Learner. Vancouver, BC: British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association.

Ekdahl, M & Zubke, S. (2014). From School Library to Learning Commons: A Pro-Active Model for Educational Change. Vancouver, BC: British Columbia Teacher Librarians Association.

Loertscher, D.V. & Koechlin, C. (2012). “Dear Teachers: The Learning Commons and the Future of Learning”. Teacher Librarian, 39(4), 51-54.

Riedling, A. M., Houston, C., and Shake, L. (2013) Reference Skills for the School Librarian Tools and Tips. Santa Barbara: Linworth

School District 36 (Surrey) Teacher-Librarian Handbook (2007) – By committee. Accessed from http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/documents/2008/TLHandbookSurrey.pdf

(July 2017).

Sekeres, D.C., Coiro, J., Castek, J., & Guzniczak, L. (2014). “Wondering + online inquiry = learning.” Kappan Magazine, 96 (3), 44-48.

Appendix A

Evaluation of Pebble Go K-3 Database from Capstone Digital.

	Not Meeting Standard	Meeting Standard	Exceeding Standard
Scope	Information outdated and may have omissions. Content is irrelevant to the school community. Little or no connections to the curriculum. Little or no information about First Peoples knowledge and indigenous ways of learning (where applicable).	Information is related to the purpose of the reference resource. Content is relevant to the school community. Some connections to the curriculum. Some references to First Peoples knowledge and indigenous ways of learning (where applicable).	Broad and detailed amount of information related to the purpose of the reference resource. Content is specifically relevant and of interest to the school community. Direct connections to the curriculum, across many grade levels. First Peoples knowledge and indigenous ways of learning are included and linked to the content (where applicable).
Accuracy & Authority	Little known about the publisher. Not reviewed by independent sources. Contains advertising or links to a sponsored agenda.	Well-known publisher. Good reviews from independent sources. Unbiased coverage regarding controversial issues.	Highly regarded, well-known publisher. Excellent reviews from independent sources. Objective, balanced and extensive coverage of controversial issues.
Arrangement & Presentation	Content is disorganized and difficult to search. Text is small and illustrations are unappealing. May be missing index or contents table.	Content is well organized. Text is easy to read, with clear headings and sub-headings. Clear index or contents table. Visually appealing photos or illustrations.	Content is logically organized and arranged in an easy to read and visually appealing manner. Photos or illustrations are useful and support the main ideas. Videos and/or audio files included.
Currency	Publication date is older than 5-10 years.	Publication date is less than 5 years old. Information is regularly updated and monitored by publisher (digital).	Published in the last 2 years. Information is regularly updated and monitored by publisher (digital).
Accessibility & Diversity	No information from different cultural perspectives. Text is inappropriate reading level for the school population. No diversity in gender roles or identity shown (if applicable).	Includes information from different cultural perspectives. Text is the appropriate reading level for the school population. Diversity in gender roles & identity is addressed (if applicable).	Includes an extensive amount of information from different cultural perspectives and possibly even multiple languages. Text is accessible to a range of reading levels. Diversity in gender roles & identity is celebrated (if applicable).