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.