From Lesson #6 – Wikipedia VS Established Encyclopedias

What is your opinion about established vs. free citizen-built encyclopedias such as Wikipedia? Consider how information environments are evolving and also think about the challenges for developing information literacy skills.

After reading the articles “Can We Make Peace With Wikipedia” by Chris Harris and “Wikipedia and Britannica -- The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man)” by Paula Berinstein I came to have a better understanding of the service that Wikipedia and other citizen-built encyclopedias can provide. I did not realize the editing process in which the Wikipedia site adheres to and even though misinformation may occur within the on-line encyclopedias, eventually there are reviewers that will catch it and correct it. Information environments are definitely changing at a rapid pace and the popularity of Wikipedia cannot be denied. I agree with Chris Harris when he says, “It would be much more productive to teach colleagues, students and parents how to best use Wikipedia. Instead of appearing to be ‘behind the times’ when it comes to new information sources…if we can’t beat’em let’s join’em – as leaders in promoting the proper use of Wikipedia.” (Harris, 2007, p.26) As many others have said these types of sites can be a good starting place for beginning your research and getting a general idea about your topic. It is important to confirm the information found here with more reputable sources and this is in itself a great way to teach the students skills in analyzing and thinking more critically when searching for accurate information. Usually teachers will not accept Wikipedia as their only reference sources so students need to broaden their scope and using Wikipedia may actually help them to become familiar with other on-line encyclopedias and information sources. Also Berinstein made a good point when discussing bias within Wikipedia and Britannica and that is that we will find bias everywhere, sometimes even in the most reputable and scholarly published works therefore it is a good place to teach students to keep thinking critically and not to trust everything they read without question.

From Lesson #7 – Dictionaries

Dictionaries are often a source of frustration in the school library. What problems are inherent in print versions? What "special" dictionaries are essential in Canadian schools?

I just remembered someone writing about having a massive, monster-sized dictionary sitting on a pedestal in their school library. One of the libraries I worked in still has one!! The students got a kick out of opening it up and finding some strange definition of unfamiliar words in it.
Yes, dictionaries can be overwhelming for students and time consuming when attempting to grasp the concept of alphabetized searching. I am tutoring a grade 3 students currently and am encouraging him to use the dictionary but if spelling is not your forte this becomes a difficult task but he is improving in his searching abilities and it is strengthening his spelling. I have also introduced him to the thesaurus, an invaluable source in my opinion...I love them and it is such a great way to expand student’s vocabulary.
When considering dictionaries a major concern is accommodating reading levels so wide-ranging and varied dictionaries are beneficial to have in your library. As mentioned in Riedling, “an elementary level dictionary should include words likely to be used in reading and writing by an elementary school student.” (Riedling, 2005, p.59) Some examples may include:

1) Canadian Oxford Dictionary and Concise Oxford Dictionary
2) Random House English Dictionary
Note: I like to have 2 different styles to choose from and an abridged and unabridged version.3) Merriam-Webster dictionary due to its “almost anything goes” stance. (Riedling, 2005, p.58)
4) French-English Dictionary
5) Picture Dictionary for primary students
6) Roget's International Thesaurus
7) Special topic or subject dictionaries e.g. rhyming, slang and quotations dictionaries are great, natural history, sports, bibliographical or science dictionaries for example.

It is also useful to include on-line or web-based dictionaries because sometimes they have the ability to be updated more frequently and it is a quick and easy tool for students to use and access. Some examples I found in Reference Skills by Ann Riedling were Dictionary.com which I thought would be a good choice for elementary schools because it includes Fun and Games and Thesaurus.com, Merriam-Webster Online as a reputable and extensive site and Net Lingo, the Internet Language Dictionary. When considering dictionary choices it is also important to consider Canadian language-based dictionaries due to differentiated spelling compared to the U.S. versions, most dictionaries provide both spellings to choose from.

From Lesson #9 – Geographic Sources

In this lesson, you learned about geographic sources. You learned about the evaluation of geographic materials, and the problem of staying current in today's world. Online atlases and gazetteers generally provide up-to-date information, and are good sources to keep in mind. Consider ease/clarity of navigation, currency of information, or, if appropriate historical significance and cost. Share your findings on the Discussion page.

There are so many resourceful opportunities available to students for finding geographical information either in print form or using on-line resources such as current world atlases, historical and thematic atlases, maps, gazetteers, geographical dictionaries, travel guidebooks, geographical thesauruses and on-line map resources just to name a few. At times keeping up to date with print resources in your library is a difficult task and the availability of on-line resources is so extensive and invaluable to any school library. I also never thought of contacting municipal government and regional agencies in order to request free, up-to-date maps. It is invaluable for any school library resources centre to take advantage of all the free on-line geographical resources available. The visuals alone are wondrous with the ability to view the earth, countries, cities, forests, desserts all by satellite maps. Students are in awe and love to look up places they know or want to visit, where their parents came from or places they would love to live. Thematic maps are amazing resources especially in combination with historical places or civilizations. I have helped students look at historical features of old city centres and their surroundings which may include rivers, desserts and soil conditions and how the geographical area contributed and effected the civilizations within ancient cities.

I have found that many geographical web sites are easier to navigate than other subject resource sites. Some great websites include: National Geographic and The Canadian Atlas Online. Both reputable sources, the maps allow you to zoom in for close up viewing and zoom out for a broader view of the landscape. They are both current and quite easy to navigate although you can get lost in all the information presented. The National Geographic offers many opportunities to explore on each of the pages with general headings always being offered at the top of the screen, such as Maps Home where you can zoom into different areas on the globe, MapMachine where you can look up any place name and view by road map, satellite, bird’s eye and 3D view, there are various Print Collections from around the world, Atlas Puzzles to solve and Atlas Explorer. The Canadian Atlas Online is a great reference of Canadian provinces and territories. It contains sections such as Explore the Maps, Explore by Themes, includes a Gazetteer and Glossary of terms, a Learning Centre, Games and Quizzes and a CG Kids Atlas version. I liked that you can choose from a variety of topics in the learning centre to explore.

From Lesson #12 – Teacher-Librarian’s Role

Is this Role Description indicative of the teacher-librarian's role in your school? What parts of the role description would be affected by limited time and budget? What parts of the role are absolutely essential regardless of time and budget?

This role description is an accurate depiction of the teacher-librarians role in the schools that I have worked in. Although this one role has been interpreted differently within each school. In many cases many of the librarians, myself included, have attempted to fulfill all of these elements but as we know it is just impossible to do so when your time is divided between two libraries. The parts of the role that are greatly affected by limited time and budget are “working cooperatively with teachers in developing information retrieval and critical thinking skills.” Collaborating on authentic resource-based activities takes time and planning. If librarians are only in a school 2.5 days per week, which is commonly the case, it is difficult to accommodate teachers in respect to planning time and the flexibility needed in scheduling blocks within the library to work on projects. It was difficult to accommodate teachers in a school that I worked in which had two librarians working six days a week. It really takes a lot of effort to work together with teachers and this really discourages them from taking time out of their already busy schedules in order to plan collaborative projects when it is not convenient. Keeping up with technology and teaching students’ literacy skills in relation to technology is primarily reliant on budgetary factors. School libraries must possess the proper technology in order to properly teach students how to use and explore educational on-line resources and programs. They must have access to a large white board or computer projection systems that allow them to visually share the information, they must also have enough computers in their library to accommodate students and they must have enough time to walk students through these types of resources and allow them time to explore and investigate. In relation to reference resources in the school library, at times it is impossible to select and acquire up-to-date materials on the annual budgets dedicated to purchasing resources. Librarians need to find creative ways to afford current and appropriate reference materials that fit the budget and accommodate the learning needs of the students. We are lucky in some ways to have access to on-line references and many school districts pay for subscriptions to a variety of web resources.

What is essential to your library program regardless of time and budget…maintaining the collection, teaching information literacy skills, promoting reading, language development and literature appreciation and managing the library facilities, services and budget in order to contribute to the stated goals of the school, school district and Ministry of Education. At times even keeping up with these is a struggle because we want to accomplish so much more than what is just required. We can achieve many goals if we continue to promote the importance of our role and let our colleagues know how these goals can create better learners and facilitate them in their teaching.

From Lesson #2 - Information Literacy

Why is it so difficult to get your teaching colleagues to buy into the idea or construct of "information literacy"?

Do you think a "scope and sequence curriculum" works in the school library setting?

The idea or construct of "information literacy" may be a difficult sell because these skills have been taken for granted and have not been the focus in our educational past. I agree with many that it is not directly part of the classroom teacher's curriculum and therefore they may find it difficult to include it in their busy schedule. I think it is important for the librarian to incorporate these skills and encourage teachers to work together in order to strengthen student research skills. Yes students are now more technologically advanced but their skills are still limited and the focus of their knowledge base is not educational. I think that the deeper comprehension and evaluating skills necessary to be information literate definitely needs to be reinforced with students. Skills like: where to locate the best resources available, how to use these sources (including how to find the information you need using the tools in your resource), how to refer to your chosen resource using the proper citing methods (quoting, paraphrasing, bibliographies, etc.) and how to incorporate technology in presenting your findings in unique and interesting ways. These are time consuming skills that teachers may find difficult to focus on and many times over-look when concerned about covering curriculum. They need to realize that their TL’s have strategies at their finger tips to assist teachers and their students in learning these essential skills and saving them valuable time.

I was not familiar with the term scope and sequence curriculum. I did a little research and came to the conclusion that it is following a systematic guide in teaching skills sequentially, like following learning outcomes in the regular classroom or scaffolding learning.
I think it may be an asset to the library setting. A general guide to the types of library skills students should have at a certain grade level would be beneficial. This guide may prove to show that students are not at the level they should be in order to be prepared for high school and then on to college or university. It may even help school boards actually realize how important these skills are to lifelong learning and to student achievement.

From Lesson #3 - Riedling’s Approach to Evaluation

Like many of you I have not had the opportunity of working with the selection, evaluation and maintenance of the reference section. Although I had the pleasure of helping a fellow librarian weed her newly acquired library of encyclopedias form the 1970's...I kept a couple for art projects...talk about the library not being an archive!

I like Riedling's approach her layout is quite clear and concise. The only issue I may have is that some categories would not be useful in the elementary school library. For example bibliographies would be a section that possibly the librarian would have more use of and teachers and students would not have the time to search out materials using this source. And the library itself may not have the selections listed within the bibliographies as well.
Bibliographies created form your own library database form Destiny would be useful for patrons...especially one organized by subject headings which is possible within Destiny and has been quite useful to myself when working with student research projects on certain subject areas within the curriculum. I found this helped students to be more independent in locating their own resources using a user friendly system that they were already familiar with.

I also love all the resources and websites she includes for each category at the end of each chapter, they are quite useful and informative!

Also the weeding process has always been a difficult issue with me. Unless the resources are blatantly out-dated it would be difficult for me to discard these costly references especially when many are considered out-dated after 5 years. Much consideration and evaluation would need to be done and I agree with Riedling when she says, "no two school library media specialists (and collections) are alike...and...the process is a highly individual one...student needs differ form school to school." (Riedling, pg.22)
And I also agree with the fact that the TL must have an excellent knowledge of the collection and its use by all patrons before selection decisions are made.

From Lesson #3 - Selection Tools

There's no doubt that selection tools are massively important when creating the reference area (both literally and electronically) and electronically in the school library.

Riedling gives a good overview of some of the most frequently used tools. However, as information professionals in Canadian schools what do you use to evaluate and select the "right" Canadian reference materials? What are the issues (right now) with Canadian selection tools?

The most challenging aspect is to find Canadian selection tools for good reference material. I did some searching on-line and it is difficult! I do know about Quill and Quire and Canadian Library Journal but I could not find anything specific on reference materials. Most of the selection tools I found were geared toward the fiction and non-fictions sections such as Canadian Children’s Literature, Resource Links, Language Arts, The Reading Teacher and the Horn Book. There is a great review of these selection tools on the following web site: http://books.google.ca/books?id=iNlb8vp8VKAC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=canadian+library+selection+tools+issues&source=bl&ots=Z-7YpT1Htc&sig=LAIcZRgBon-ypRVg-uRdP0X03Vk&hl=en&ei=apvUTMDcJty4jAft_5zKCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=canadian%20library%20selection%20tools%20issues&f=false (sorry for the long URL!)

One other websites I found useful as a Canadian reference resource were:

Best of the Web (Canada)

http://www.bestoftheweb.ca/canada.htm

This site included links to all types of Canadian reference material from the Atlas of Canada, Canadian Encyclopedia, Canadian Geographic, Images Canada, and Statistics Canada to sites on current events, history, government, famous Canadians. There was a wealth of information here.

When working as a librarian I liked to shop at United Library Services. They were a great resource and liked to be up on Canadian content. Unfortunately I never purchased or had the time to review the reference sections within the libraries I worked in but they served the needs of the students when we needed them. I previously worked in an English/French emersion school library and the French resources are also so limited.
I would definitely consult other librarians and visit to see their collections and talk to the district librarian on their policies surrounding reference materials and what publishers are commonly used and trusted.
Again Riedling has some good references for selection but they are mainly American-based. As mentioned and included in The Best of the Web site Canadian Encyclopedia (part of the Historica-Dominion Institute) and Canadian Geographic (which has links to atlases, mapping and gazetteers) are excellent electronic resources.

To conclude, the main issue surrounding Canadian reference selection tools is selection itself with Canadian content, the balance between electronic sources and print materials and of course cost is always a continuing factor, especially for print materials and subscriptions to on-line databases and indexes. I hope to gain more insight into creating a balance and choosing the best reference materials possible as I continue with my TL career.

Article Review #1

Sullivan, Margaret. (2010) "Are School Libraries at a Tipping Point?" Teacher Librarian, 37, no5, Je 2010, p.84-85. Retrieved from Wilson Web Full Text database.

Within Margaret Sullivan’s article, “Are School Libraries at a Tipping Point?” she begins by expressing critical concerns about the future of our school libraries. Questions like:

Do libraries need to occupy a physical space?

Will e-books and digital information be their replacement?

Can districts continue to fund them?

Will Teacher-Librarians eventually be replaced by paraprofessionals or technicians?

Taken from the title of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point” Sullivan uses his business model and theories on the three rules of change where “he equates change to an ‘epidemic’ because of the speed at which an idea can spread globally if the right factors are in place.” (Sullivan, 2010, p.84) Sullivan uses these same principles to show how we, as Teacher-Librarians, can create a positive change in our school libraries.

Quickly to summarize the three factors that will create a positive “epidemic” in our school libraries…

The First is:

1) “Law of the Few”

There is a need for three types of people:

Connectors who will make connections with people who can help create a change. Spread the word amongst administrators, superintendents, school board trustees etc.

Mavens who will set the example and promote the way they work with teachers and students in their schools and create excitement about current projects and developments within their school communities.

Salespeople who will talk at TL conferences, meetings and to parents in order to sell the ideas of how to enrich library programs.

2) “Stickiness Factor”

The need for a ‘brand’ that is memorable in order to promote the role of TL’s in curriculum development and to have a program that warrants support and funding. (Sullivan, 2010, p.85) Sullivan originated the branding name of “Learning 4 Life” which outlines specific guidelines and standards for the 21^st Century Learner. For those interested you can download a free brochure at:

www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/index.cfm

3) “Power of Context”

Sullivan believes that “information literacy” is a powerful catalyst for change because of the growing amount of information both print and on-line and the use of new electronic tools in order to create new and exciting learning environments. This “clearly is a context for change.” (Sullivan, 2010, p.85)

Sullivan ends her article by asking librarians some important questions:

What does information literacy look like to your school administrators and parents?

Can you articulate the difference between their views and what you know are necessary for true information literacy?

Have you created an environment that welcomes change and will launch a learning epidemic?

This article strengthens the view that change is occurring in our libraries and in order to move forward into the 21^st century in our school libraries we must embrace this change because it is happening whether we accept it or not. We need to use tools that will enhance and challenge the students’ learning environment in order to give them the skills they need to want to continue learning and growing not only as students but as individuals within society.

It is also important not to follow specific trends in technology just because they are the next best things. This is another difficult task because there will always be new programs and formats for organizing information. We need to be up-to-date and current yet our programs also need to have consistency, organization and flow. New concepts and ideas can be brought in slowly so that TL’s, teachers and students are not overwhelmed by the choices available to them.

Sullivan touched on the idea that TL’s have to be involved in curriculum development and I believe that this will definitely strengthen the positions of teacher-librarians. We need to have IRP’s, learning outcomes and expectations for the students incorporated into the curriculum that apply to all school library programs. With this there is also the difficulty of all school libraries having the same access to resources both print and electronic, computers in the library, software and programs and technical support in order to deliver, relatively, the same kind of library program to all of our students.

There is a big task ahead for TL’s, I’m hoping that there will be more support for our school libraries and we need to continue to work with our teachers, students and administrators and enrich our library programs and create awareness of how our contributions will enhance the learning environment within our schools. Librarians also have to come together in order to strengthen our position within our schools and the community…show your presence and lets promote ourselves!

Article Review #2

Cohen, Sydnye. (2010) "Growing a Knowledge Building Centre." Teacher Librarian, 37, no5, Je 2010, p.37-41. Retrieved from Wilson Web Full Text database.

Sydnye Cohen discusses the success of creating a "knowledge building centre" (referred to as KBC research programs) within her library in the article, "Growing a Knowledge Building Centre." She began planning and restructuring the way she organized research projects after reading the article: "The Learning Commons: Where Learners Win!" by Carol Koechlen, Sandi Zwann and David Loertscher. After discussions and an on-line class with David Loertscher she was ready to transform her library into a 'learning commons.'

She began her discussion by commenting on the dramatic increase in amount of student and teacher usage of the library but went on to realize that just because they were visiting more did not guarantee that they were learning how to use the tools in order to increase their researching skills and their knowledge base . She decided to implement some surveys to analyze students researching skills and found that, "most students where not using databases. Eighty-two percent of students responded that they used Google as the first choice for research...even though students received lists of databases and passwords" they did not use them for their research needs. (Cohen, 2010, p.38)

She decided to implement her new KBC model within a research project that occurred almost every year, 'The Greatest Greek.' Every year students usually presented a Power Point Presentation of the topic, Cohen decided to change that format into a Voice thread presentation. As part of the project the students had to provide an annotated bibliography for each work sited to show how each resource was used.

What I liked the best was the way the TL organized the assignment by creating a Wiki page for the students. On the Wiki they could find databases with the best e-sources, links to e-books, Noodle Tools (which was the format used for their annotated bibliography and links to how to create a Voice thread. The TL created a “one-stop shopping experience” (Cohen, 2010, p.39) for their project. This format was easy for the students to access and familiar to them. This is an ideal situation where the students can be taught the skills to use the Wiki but then have some independence while searching through it and fall back on the assistance of the TL if they are having any technical difficulties.

Cohen found this model to be more participatory and it also engaged the students to seek out more credible web sites and actually use other databases. When re-administering the same survey on the use of databases the statistics went up dramatically by the end of the year. In another project she created an evaluation test for web sites and had students use this evaluation to rate the web sites they found. The students were able to “engage in thoughtful discussions and could say why their sources passed the evaluation tests.” (Cohen, 2010, p.40)

This article was resourceful and opened up possibilities on how to structure and implement new ideas in order to plan authentic resource projects that students will enjoy and learn from. It allows students the opportunity to build on skills that they are familiar with and also expand their knowledge by showing them new ways in which to conduct more authentic research. It is also a great guide and structure to follow for both TL and planning teachers and clearly sets out the expectations for students in order to allow for success.

Article Review #3

Aden, Abdulkadir. (2008). "Reference Library in a Changing Environment." Library Times International, January, 2008, p.27,28. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete Database.

Within the article, "Reference Library in a Changing Environment,” Abdulkadir Eden poses the question: “What will the future bring for the field of reference library?” (pg. 27) Although Aden’s focus is on the public library system his discussion also relates to teaching reference research skills to students and I found this article beneficial as a guide to how teacher-librarian roles are also changing and how we can adapt to the changes.

Aden states how the role of the librarian is changing due to the increase in technology and we are becoming technology specialist in our libraries. This fact creates many challenges to the librarian that are both “operational and financial” (pg.27) First of all the librarian is selection specialist and must organize the vast amount of information that is available to them both in print and especially with on-line reference materials. As always there is the financial aspect which deals with 'library budget cuts, under funding in professional development and under staffing.' Teacher-librarians also suffer these same obstacles and must make selection choices in their libraries that will most benefit their clientele and consider costs of both on-line research tools and expensive print reference material.

Aden acknowledges the dramatic changes in the Information System and how it is leading libraries to provide their clients with a Digital Reference Service. Should this be the same route to take within our school libraries? It is an invaluable skill for students to know how to properly access referencing sources on the internet. I believe one system cannot be created for all schools but teacher-librarians have access to a number of resources and can teach navigation skills to all their students. Aden also mentions the vast number of search engines that can be used in order to serve specific purposes. This is a great way to introduce different ways of searching for specific information for example, instead of using Google search for all you information retrieval needs students could use 'Bolify' which allows for more detailed searches and models Boolean operators.

I believe that it is essential to create digital databases within our automated library program and to create even more access to reference material for students at home. It is essential that teacher-librarians work with the staff and students to provide the best referencing resources available in order to enhance researching skills. We should not forget about our print resources as well for they will always be an excellent and reliable source of information as long as librarians have the ability to keep it current and appropriate for all student levels.

Reflective Self-Assessment in LIBE 465

LIBE 465 – Organization of Learning Resources has offered an abundance of learning opportunities for me. As with many on-line courses it is easy to get carried away with the amount of information and I feel that I could spend even more time discovering new resources and following links to gain more knowledge. I believe that I have participated to the best of my ability this term but with all courses there is so much information and never enough time to immerse yourself within it. I appreciate that the course remains on-line after completion and I find myself going back to review and discover resources I may have missed or did not have the time to really think about.

Learning through the readings…
I will begin with the article by David Loertscher, “School Libraries need a Revolution, not Evolution”. He has some great ideas such as:
• Dozens of student-run book clubs exist in virtual space; learner-led/adult coached
• Students build their own information spaces to control the internet
• Students download books on their own learning commons “credit card” to their personal reading device
The reality is that these ideas must be supported by a Teacher Librarian that has the time to initially set up a digital learning commons, introducing and teaching these skills to the students. Also a major component would be the technical support with the quality of our computers. They cannot deal with simple tasks and are often shutting down, I’m not sure if they have the capabilities to download texts efficiently. Unfortunately without the time and funding these changes will take some time to come to fruition. I think small steps can be taken, getting students linked to great websites for audio books and other resources and encouraging them to use these programs at home and offering support if they need it, possibly having short after school sessions sharing information with those interested. As a TL I would like to be able to support and reinforce the digital possibilities in the library.

Organization through cataloguing methods…
Throughout the course the realization of the background needed and the steps in organizing resources and creating bibliographic information for texts and digital resources still amazes me. This was the greatest amount of learning during the course and my understanding of metadata schemas is quite elementary. Although I may never work with resources at this technical level it was a great learning experience to learn about MARC records and how standardized organization systems were and are still are being developed. I have a greater appreciation for the technical expertise of cataloguers and cataloguing systems (like Destiny) as well as how the web is organized and able to synthesize information from its users to provide you with the appropriate resources. Knowing how these databases works allows me to better understand how to effectively search for resources and information on the net and teach these skills to patrons.
I am still pondering the question posed within, “A Ghost in the Catalog” by David Conners...’to main entry or not to main entry?’ The struggle continues to develop new and improved ways of organizing resources to improve access for all. I am glad to leave this task to the competent hands of professionals and I can reap the advantages. Then there is the concept of Folksonomy…that opens up a whole other level of organization. It makes me appreciate how complicated systems are created in order to achieve the most simplistic methods of information retrieval for users.

Learning through others…
I truly enjoyed learning through the ideas, experiences and practical teaching strategies shared by all the participants in the class and of course through the expertise of the instructor in laying out the foundation for sharing our knowledge.
Forums for sharing resources and TL ideas are wonderful and that is why I love participating in on-line courses. The ideas shared for Module 8 on the Dewey Decimal system were practical and useful. I compiled a file with all the ideas and hope to use some of them in the future. The benefit to online courses is that information can be easily shared and distributed and I think that this is another reason why school library web pages are a great asset to students. Time, effort and funding should be made by school boards and administrators to help develop and encourage the use of school sites in order for students and teachers to benefit by creating a shared learning environment. And what better way to teach information literacy skills because the internet is where most students are looking up information and socializing. In our daily lives I have not used the Yellow Pages for some time and I am sure that students today know how to navigate better through a website than through the Yellow Pages. It is important to use these prior skills and develop them further.

The activities and assignments…
were useful tools in understanding the impact that organization of resources has on the use and access of information within our libraries. The information collected through our Digital Libraries in Assignment #2 and the examples given from our instructor were effective in understanding the work and thought that goes into creating an organized space to allow the best access possible to resources. It is quite a challenging task but presents the opportunity for creativity which also translates into how we can use our library spaces as creative outlets for knowledge.
I hope that my contributions, thoughts and ideas throughout the course have been helpful and beneficial as I have gained much knowledge from the contributions of others.

Thank you all for an awesome learning experience…

Continuing the blog...

Hello Fellow 465ers,
I created this blog as part of my final project for LLED Trends and Issues in Literacy Learning so I thought I would continue with it through the duration of all my library diploma courses. Feel free to browse through it...as many others I still can't believe I set this up with virtually no assistance from my more techie husband. I admit I asked him some questions along the way when I got frustrated...for some reason you can't copy and paste on this blog which still drives me crazy!! Anyway...hope you enjoy, I'll work on updating it and changing the heading to describe LIBE 465 instead of LLED 459.
Looking forward to following your blogs...talk soon.