and make it snappy

I shared previously the summary of the key points I learned from the readings assigned in the first half of the semester. Here is what I learned in the second half

1. Librarians are bound by law, ethics, and responsibilities to users. They must comply with the law of the land, but also work with consideration of the ethics of librarianship. It is essential that librarians evaluate their own beliefs and biases and how they may impact their interactions with users.
   • In order to be prepared to handle challenging situations where the appropriate course of action may be unclear, libraries need to develop and maintain thorough policies guidelines (Luo, 2016). Policies should be readily available and updated as necessary. Additionally librarians and library staff should receive specific training regarding ethics and library policies. This will help to ensure that all library staff understand and are prepared to uphold the library policies. If a librarian is faced with an ethical dilemma and is not prepared with knowledge of the law and policy they could take an action that causes harm to themselves, the patron, the library, and the community.
2. When developing a collection and selecting resources it is important for librarians to be aware of the range of options available to them.
   • Participating in consortia, interlibrary loan programs, and subscription services can help libraries expand their available resources. These programs all have pros (larger selection, speed of access) and cons (costs, management), but they all have the potential to greatly enhance a collection/library services.
3. Before making decisions regarding collection development options and budget libraries need to analyze their data and consult with stakeholders.
   • Kelly and O’Gara (2018) recommend that collections be assessed based on the specific goals and challenges of the institution in question. Instead of merely looking at circulation statistics and how many resources are in the collection it is necessary to ask why an assessment is being done and what decisions will be made based on the results and determine what information will be needed how it will be collected. When collections are appropriately evaluated librarians and stakeholders are better able to make decisions that will be the greatest benefit library users.
4. Instruction is an important service offered by libraries. What is being taught will vary widely based on the type of library, the patron population, and the goals of the institution.
   • In order to provide effective and meaningful instruction it is necessary to understand the needs of the patron population and what factors impact their ability to participate in instruction (Holliday, 2016). Accessibility is something that must not be overlooked when planning instruction. Accessibility includes, but is not limited to, physical needs/limitations of participants, transportation, technology availability/reliability, and scheduling. Horace Mann called education the great equalizer, but for that to be true everyone must have equal access.
5. Libraries must actively promote themselves and their services to engage the community.
   • The most incredible library in the world is worth nothing if no one uses it. Libraries provide a plethora of services to patrons, but oftentimes patrons are unaware of these services or their benefits. The consequences of not promoting library services extend beyond the fact that potential users are missing out on valuable resources. The unawareness of the true value of the library has led to some claiming that libraries are obsolete and should be shut down. Albert (2017) explains that libraries need to communicate their value “in a way that is impactful, feels good to the stakeholder, and invokes a mutually beneficial relationship” (p. 247).

 

References

Albert, A. B. (2017). Building brand love and gaining the advocacy you crave by communicating your library’s value. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 11(1 -2), 237-250.

Holliday, W. (2016). Instruction. In L. C. Smith & M. A. Wong (Eds.), Reference and information services: An introduction (5th ed., pp. 98-137). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Kelly, M., & O’Gara, G. (2018). Collections assessment: Developing sustainable programs and projects. The Serials Librarian, 74(1-4), 19-29.

Luo, L. (2016). Ethical issues in reference: An in-depth view from the librarians’ perspective. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 55(3), 189-198.

It is a well known phenomenon that it is harder to write a short summary than a long review. This semester all our readings are divided into two large chunks and we have to write a brief overview of the most important points. Here’s what I learned

1. Librarians serve as information liaisons and coaches, making communities more information literate and helping people find the best information (Tyckoson, 2016).
   • Libraries and librarians hold the keys to accessing knowledge and should use those keys to unlock the doors and welcome in all who seek to learn.
2. The “fake news” epidemic is a real concern and librarians, as information experts, are the ideal candidates to train the public to fight back.
   • Being able to locate and evaluate sources is a skill that all citizens of a society need to have. Unfortunately, many people lack these information literacy skills and can be led astray by false information. Leeder (2019) found that college students only had around a 60% success rate of identifying real and fake news stories. Librarians need to be proactively teaching information literacy skills, like the CRAAP test, to patrons of all ages.
3. Librarians need to take the initiative and make themselves visible and connected to the community; not only to survive cutbacks, but to improve library services to better match the needs of patrons.
   • The advent of many new technologies has created a plethora of new opportunities for services and roles for the reference librarian while simultaneously removing them from the public consciousness. Reference librarians have their fingers in more pies than ever before, and yet they are ironically less visible than ever before. Patrons are not able to recognize the fingerprints of the reference librarian on the services that they are taking advantage of. This leads to the community becoming disconnected from the reference librarian (Johnson, 2018). Patrons begin to wonder why they need a reference librarian anyway when they can get all their questions answered on these services.
4. Effective librarians need to be aware of how different users approach information in order to provide the best support.
   • Users come with different information needs and in different cognitive and emotional states, impacting how they formulate searches and use/interpret the results (Kinley, Tjondronegoro, Partridge, & Edwards, 2014; Yari Zanganeh & Hariri, 2018).
5. In order to best serve users librarians must know who they are and their individual needs.
   • Different groups of people have different needs regarding accommodation, accessibility, content, and resources. The goal is to reach all members of the community, regardless of race, gender, SES, ability, age, or any other label, with quality library services that are relevant and purposeful. There is no such thing as “one size fits all.”

References

Johnson, A. (2018). Connections, conversations, and visibility how the work of academic reference and liaison librarians is evolving. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 58(2), 91-102.

Kinley, K., Tjondronegoro, D., Partridge, H., & Edwards, S. (2014). Modeling users’ web search behavior and their cognitive styles. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 65(6), 1107-1123.

Leeder, C. (2019). How college students evaluate and share “fake news” stories. Library and Information Science Research, 41(3), 100967.

Tyckoson, D. A. (2016). History and functions of reference services. In L. C. Smith & M. A. Wong (Eds.), Reference and information services: An introduction (5th ed.) (pp. 3-26). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Yari Zanganeh, M., & Hariri, N. (2018). The role of emotional aspects in the information retrieval from the web. Online Information Review, 42(4), 520-534.

Teaching Research Skills in the Library

I created a year long plan for incorporating the Big6 research process into library instruction. You can see it below or open the PDF here

Research Instruction PlanDownload

And a little info about what the implementation of this plan might look like

Grade: 4^th

Selection: 4^th grade is the year that students take the STAAR writing test. Their teachers have an intense focus on writing. On the STAAR the students have to write an essay to a prompt and they learn all year about brainstorming and pre-writing and graphic organizers and strategies for them to do well on this assessment. The Big6 process has a lot in common with what the teachers are already teaching the students to do in that focused writing. Providing more training on the research process and using it in contexts outside of essay writing will help students really understand and effectively utilize these strategies. The History Fair and the Science Fair are both perfect events for practicing the Big6. In the past our school has not seen much participation in either fair due to minimal promotion and students’ lack of access to the information and guidance/support necessary to complete the projects.

Lesson Delivery: I want to make sure that everything we do is aligned with what is happening in the classroom. I would meet with the 4^th grade team at the beginning of the year and outline the plan and receive their feedback and negotiate with them the extent of their active involvement in collaborating and co-teaching. I do not want them to feel as though I am adding another thing to their already full plates, so I need to be very sensitive to the amount of time and energy that is required from them for this program to be successful. Depending on the level of teacher enthusiasm these lessons could be co-taught or I could provide the direct instruction in the library.

Communication: At the beginning of the year I would share information about the Big6 and the History Fair with students and parents via informational presentation at Open House night, fliers sent home, links shared to the school Facebook and ClassDojo, and posts on the library website. Throughout the process I would send out a monthly progress newsletter, through the same avenues, including a summary of the project so far, the focus of the upcoming unit, and expectations for student/family involvement. Brief updates at the regularly scheduled faculty meetings will keep all the teachers and support staff up-to-date with the program. I would also attend team PLC sessions with the 4^th grade teachers to promote collaboration and ensure alignment.

Evaluation: At the end of the year teachers, parents, and students will be given a survey to determine their impressions about the relevance and practicality of the program as well as student enjoyment. Student portfolios of the research process as well as their completed projects will be evaluated to determine to what extent the students were able to accurately and appropriately apply the Big6 process. Scores from the STAAR writing and reading tests will be compared with past years to see if the program could be correlated with an increase in test scores.

Genrefication Action Research

In my last semester of my undergrad when I was student teaching we all had to do an Action Research Project. My project was about how the kids behaved during the last hour of school. The schedule had the class not going to recess until late in the day and then coming in with only an hour of instructional time left. That hour was often not very productive because the kids had “checked out” or were still in recess mode. I created a list of seven positive behaviors (on task, participating) and seven negative behaviors (off task, interrupting) and recorded the number of times each behavior occurred during that last hour of the day for a week. As expected the negative behaviors outnumbered the positive. My next step was implementing a plan to improve the situation. For the next three weeks as soon as we came in from recess we did a three minute breathing exercise and calming activity before continuing instruction. I recorded the behaviors observed and there was an increase in the positive and a decrease in the negative. This was a very simple and brief experience with Action Research, but it gave me a foundation for understanding what Action Research is and how it benefits teachers and librarians.

Now five years later and towards the end of my graduate degree I encountered Action Research again. This time was both easier and a lot harder. Easier because I did not have to actually do the research; harder because I had to create an in-depth research proposal for a larger scale project. I learned a lot through this process. I spent a lot of time reading articles on the topic and considering the best way to implement and measure the impact of the plan.

My Action Research question: How does changing the organization of the fiction collection to a genre based “bookstore” model affect circulation?

Check it out below or view the PDF here. 





Group Projects Aren’t the Worst

I’ve mentioned before how lucky I have been with group projects. I’ve had very minor issues a couple of times, but for the most part everyone in my groups always seem to be on task, willing to do their share, and cooperative with the needs of the group. I don’t know if it is because education majors and school library students are more likely to be a personality that works well in collaborative situations or if I am just incredibly fortunate, but either way I will take it.

This group project was about creating a project proposal for a library program. Our group went with a Makerspace program because it is something we all want in our libraries but not everyone has. We had to create a budget, provide research to back up the benefits of the program, and a plan for measuring impact. I was responsible for the research. We created a presentation and recorded it in a VoiceThread, but I no longer have access to the VoiceThread.

You can see out presentation without the VoiceThread here: 5340 Group Advocacy Project Group 7

Anatomy of a Research Article

 

Part of being an effective librarian is knowing research in the field and being able to understand research articles and determine whether the information is valid and how it is relevant to your own practice. To practice these skills I was assigned the following exercise. The questions really made me think more deeply about the article and its implications.

What is the title of the research article?

 

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ)-Themed Literature for Teens: Are School Libraries Providing Adequate Collections?

 

What are the components of the study (abstract, introduction, literature review, research questions, methodology, etc.)?

 

This study has section headers for the following components from the list provided in the module: abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion.

The study contains the following elements without section headers: research question (found in the title of the article as well as the abstract and the introduction), implications for future research (found under the “discussion” section heading).

 

What is the purpose or goal of the study? Is it clearly stated? Explain.

 

“The purpose of this study was to determine if young adults have access through school libraries to LGBTQ-themed literature.” The goal of the study is clearly stated in the first sentence of the abstract. Stating the goal in the first sentence that people searching and skimming through articles will read makes it easy to determine if the article might meet the needs of the searcher. The goal itself is stated concisely and with simple enough wording that a reader can quickly understand, while also maintaining a professional/academic tone.

 

What key studies are mentioned in the literature review? How do they help to shape or inform the research questions and research design?

 

The literature review includes Barriers to GLBTQ Collection Development and Strategies for Overcoming Them (Alexander and Miselis, 2007) and Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians (Martin and Murdock, 2007) to support the position that access to LGBT reading materials helps prevent feelings of isolation and promotes feelings of self worth. Safe Spaces; Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth (Vaccaro, August, and Kennedy, 2012) supports the assertion that a lack of LGBT reading materials contributes to students experiencing that their feelings and identities are wrong. The belief that access to LGBT material is beneficial to all students, not just LGBT students, is based on Accept the Universal Freak Show (Manfredi, 2009). Gay Young Adult Fiction in the Public Library: A Comparative Survey (Spence, 1999), Gay and Lesbian Fiction for Young Adults: A Survey of Holdings in Canadian Public Libraries (Rothbauer and McKechnie, 1999), Recent Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Fiction for Teens: Are Canadian Public Libraries Providing Adequate Collections (Boon and Howard, 2004), and Young Adult Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Non-Fiction Collections and Countywide Anti-Discrimination Policies (Stringer-Stanback, 2011) are all used as evidence that public libraries are lacking in LGBT reading materials. The fact that the presence of LGBT reading materials is beneficial to young people but public libraries are lacking those materials invites the question of whether school libraries are also failing to meet the needs of students. The research design was inspired by the methods used in the studies that examined public library collections.

 

What questions or hypotheses guide the investigation? Are the questions concise and free of bias?

 

How well are school libraries providing resources for LGBTQ teens, especially at this critical transitional time in their identity development? The question is concise and I do not believe it is biased.

 

What types of data collection tools are used? Are they appropriate for the investigation?

 

Quantitative data was collected by searching the OPAC of a sample of 125 high school libraries for titles found in a list of highly recommended LGBT literature as well as a selection of relevant headings from Sears subject headings. This method in part relies on OPAC records being adequately and appropriately catalogued using Sears subject headings. Poor cataloguing could skew the results. The use of the recommended titles list is a more reliable method that suits the investigation.  

 

What are the findings? Is there adequate data to support them? Are the conclusions justified or warranted?

 

The investigation indicated that school libraries do not have adequate collections of LGBT related materials. The data supports this result. While there were a few outliers that had more LGBT related titles that the majority of the collections sampled, even they did not have an adequate number of titles. I believe this conclusion is justified.

 

What are the implications for librarians? How can librarians use the research findings to improve their practice? What are suggestions for future research studies?

 

Librarians need to be conscious of their collection development habits as well as recommended titles. Bias, conscious or unconscious, can cause librarians to exclude LGBT titles from purchases. Librarians should make an effort to seek out LGBT materials and utilize recommendation lists in order to locate quality titles. It is recommended that librarians ensure that their collection development policy is comprehensive and in line with the Library Bill of Rights. The article recommends future research into school librarians attitudes towards LGBT literature as well as their knowledge of the impact that the inclusion/exclusion of LGBT literature has on students.

Reference

Hughes-Hassell, S., Overberg, E., & Harris, S. (2013). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ)-themed literature for teens: Are school libraries providing adequate collections? School Library Research, 16. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/pubs/slr/vol16

Reflections on Research in Academic Journals

Two of the major publications for library research are School Library Research, published by AASL, and Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, published by the University of Alberta. They are both scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. But what does that mean? What makes these publications so reliable? They each have rigorous requirements for submissions and have a number of prominent professionals in the field reviewing submissions for publication.

Process for Selecting and Publishing Manuscripts

School Library Research

Submission Guidelines

When a paper is submitted to SLR it is reviewed by several referees, professionals in the field, who evaluate the paper following a series of guiding questions provided in the submission guidelines. There are 12 referees on the editorial board for SLR. The questions that the referees consider are:

• Are all statements, names, and references accurate?
• Does the study address a significant problem, topic, or issue?
• Does the study offer fresh insights or original treatment of the problem?
• Does the author demonstrate knowledge and wise use of relevant literature?
• Are the research methods appropriate to the problem?
• Are there flaws in the methods, arguments, and/or data analysis?
• Do the findings confirm, expand, revise, or challenge conventional knowledge or professional consensus?
• Are the conclusions justified by the results of the analysis?
• Is the paper well organized and clearly written?
• Is the paper interesting?
• Do appropriate graphs, charts, or other graphics contribute to the understanding of the narrative?

There will typically be 3-5 referees reviewing a subsmission. If 3 referees reject the submission it will usually be rejected from consideration. Referees can provide notes and recommendations for the author(s) to consider as they revise their work. If a submission is not rejected it will be posted for all twelve of the members of the editorial board to review. To be accepted for publication each submission must be approved by a majority of the referees involved and the editor.

SLR primarily publishes original research reports and conceptual essays, but also consider literature review and proposal papers.

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

Instructions for Authors 

Submissions to EBLIP are reviewed by 2 peer-reviewers who are knowledgeable in the subject of the submission and have no conflicts of interest. This applies to submissions from editors or peer-reviewers as well as unaffiliated authors to prevent bias. The website does not have much more information about selection.

EBLIP publishes research articles, review articles, evidence in practice reports, commentaries, evidence summaries, classics, research in practice, news, letters to the editor, and data sharing. This is a much broader scope than SLR. Each type of submission has its own requirements. Some have more rigid requirements, while others have basic guidelines.

Authority/Credentials

School Library Research

Editorial Board 

All 12 members of the SLR editorial board have PhD’s. Of those 12 members 10 are professors at universities across the United States and Canada. One of those professors is from UNT and has taught two of the courses I have taken. Every one of the members of the editorial board have authored multiple published works in the library and information science field.

SLR is published by the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association that was founded in 1951. In the 68 years since then the AASL has earned a reputation for being a quality organization that is active in promoting school libraries and school librarianship. AASL also publishes Knowledge Quest, a professional journal that provides valuable information and inspiration to practicing school librarians.

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

Editorial Team

EBLIP has a large team of editors and 69 peer reviewers from all over the world. Most of the peer reviewers are associated with universities and many of them have PhD’s and have published their own papers and research. The reviewers come from a variety of fields.

EBLIP is published by the University of Alberta Libraries which, according to their site,  has almost 100 Open Access titles. 

Value as Resources

School Library Research

SLR publishes articles on a variety of topics that impact school librarians. One of the most recent articles is about how school librarians are taking responsibility for digital citizenship education, the resources they are using, and how the view their role in teaching digital citizenship (Phillips & Lee, 2019). Since I took an entire course on digital citizenship last semester I am interested in learning more about how other librarians are putting what I learned into practice in their own libraries. Another article reveals that school libraries are underrepresenting LGBT students in their collections (Hughes-Hassell, Overberg, & Harris, 2013). I want to be able to help LGBT youth feel understood and welcomed and so reading about how to support them through the library is beneficial. One of the things that I tell my students’ parents is to utilize audiobooks, and there is a research article about the question of whether listening to audiobooks is really “reading.”

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

EBLIP publishes articles on all sorts of topics relating to libraries and information, not just libraries or school libraries. Because of this a smaller percentage of the articles are of particular interest to school librarians, but there are still important and valuable things to learn. An article titled Delivering Information Literacy via Facebook: Here Comes the Spinach! (Tyson, Angelo, McElwaine, & Tauro,  2019) sounds very interesting (they have a great title at least). The research was done on undergraduate students in university, but could have implications for methods to try with younger students as well. Another article examines the effect flipped library instruction on first-year English learners, another topic that has bearing on school librarians, especially those serving areas with high ELL populations.

---

References

Hughes-Hassell, S., Overberg, E., & Harris, S. (2013). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ)-themed literature for teens: Are school libraries providing adequate collections? School Library Research, 16.

Phillips, A. L., & Lee, V. R. (2019). Whose responsibility is it? A statewide survey of school librarians on responsibilities and resources for teaching digital citizenship. School Library Research, 22.

Tyson, A. F., Angelo, A., McElwaine, B., & Tauro, K. (2019). Delivering information literacy via Facebook: Here comes the spinach!. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 14(2), 33-50.

The Big 6 Research Lesson

I created a lesson in Blendspace to teach students how to follow The Big 6 research method. This project involved several components, including two presentation videos, a handout, and a quiz. I had never used Blendspace before and I was surprised at how simple the program is. I will definitely be adding it to my toolkit. Besides learning how to use Blendspace I really learned a lot about The Big 6 while creating this lesson. It is a good system that will be useful to me in my own research, especially when it comes time for the EOP (of which I am only a little bit terrified).

Blendspace lesson

The separate components included in the Blendspace

• Introduction video
• Big 6 description (not created by me)
• Big 6 process (not created by me)
• Conclusion video
• Handout

 

What Would You Do?

Research indicates that information seekers begin with the Web. As an information specialist, identify TWO of the BEST strategies to use to meet the challenge of developing online searching skills.

A. Provide research updates to teachers and administrators in faculty meetings on the dangers of over reliance on Google searches.

B. Model online searching and evaluation skills whenever possible.

C. Caution students whenever you see them performing a Google search.

D. Include online search skills training in every library instruction class.

---

 

The incredible amount of information available through the internet is both a blessing and a curse. You can find just about anything you need to know, but you might have to dig for it. Digging for information online can be very challenging. The students in our schools right now need to be given the tools to help them dig through the information and find what they need. One of the best ways to do this is to model searches for students. Searching is such a multi-step process that varies with every search that just explaining it in a handout isn’t going to be effective. Walking kids through searches, thinking aloud about the process, will help them acquire those skills (Miller, 2018). For this to be the most effective kids need to see this modeling multiple times in multiple scenarios. Options B and D are the best route to take to develop students with strong searching skills.

Reference

Miller, A. (2018). There’s so much there!: Helping kids conquer the internet and save democracy. Knowledge Quest, 47(1), 24-30.

Siyali Ramamrita Ranganathan: Father of Library Science

I did research into the life and contributions of the inimitable Ranganathan. It was a lot of work, but so interesting.Click here to check out the fruits of my labour.

Custom Search Engine

Our assignment this week in my 5720 class was to create a custom google search engine using 3-10 websites. We had to pick a topic relating to the core curriculum of our school (math, science, reading, social studies, or English). I, of course, went with science because it is my favorite subject to teach. My search engine focuses on our solar system and you can check it out here.

Custom search engines are such a great tool for teachers. It allows teachers to select quality, relevant resources for students to use in their research, while also allowing them to practice using search engines to find information. It makes the results less overwhelming for students and ensures that they are not finding false information and developing misconceptions. A custom search engine would also be perfect for a webquest.

Evaluating Web Resources

 

I actually managed to work ahead! I wanted to go ahead and do this assignment and get it out of the way. I had to make a ThingLink with resources to teach something related to research in the library.

The standard I chose

My ThingLink focuses on evaluating web resources.

We also had to create a padlet to accompany the ThingLink. The purpose of the padlet is to be a way for distance learners to engage in discussion on the topic.

The assignment never mentioned included a list of references, but what kind of librarian would I be if I didn’t?