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…