Final Reflection

            One of the things that has so impressed me in the Teacher-Librarian diploma program at UBC is the practical nature of the courses.  After 19 years of teaching I find my patience for “theory without practice” is very limited.  This does not mean that I don’t like reading about or discussing theories in education, however I appreciate learning the skills and information I need to make my library a better place to learn by actually doing those things.

            In reviewing the objectives for the course I feel confident that I have met the criteria.  I have learned about the organizational systems of my library, I have considered how I will improve these systems and how I will communicate the changes to my school community.  I have practiced and created records, created online resources, considered the how, not just the what, of improvements to my library, and I have taken steps to improve my library’s catalogue and access.  I have documented my learning in my digital library, in my discussion forum posts, in my plan to make my library a learning commons, and in my learning blog.

            In our first lesson we were asked “Can we truly have a strong Library Program in a poorly organized school library?”  On the page I wrote, “Yes! Just need to work toward that organization.”  My library was poorly organized in many ways, and I knew I had a huge task ahead of me before I became the TL this year, but I also felt I could begin the process of creating a strong library program and a positive environment for the staff and students of my school.  This course has given me many of the tools I need to make this happen. 

            We began by talking about organization and access – which interestingly is also what we were talking about in our last lessons.  I realized right away that the access to the resources of my library could use some significant improvement.  I needed to weed my collection, improve the catalogue entries for better search results, and I needed to better plan my budget to meet the needs of my library.  

            Our lesson on metadata and search engines was also invaluable to me.  I love that I can now actually explain to my students what happens when they try to search for something on Google.  I also appreciate that I now have search options and am a much better researcher because of it.

            In Module 2 we began our journey into cataloguing.  I was especially interested in these lessons because I knew this was an area where I had a lot to learn.  Cataloguing is one of those library functions that looks deceptively simple, especially now that our systems are computerized.  The problem is, and this was my experience, we follow along filling in the information in our catalogue system without really understanding the importance of the information we are inputting.  Before learning about cataloguing I had been blaming the librarian who preceded me for our catalogue issues, but I now realize that I was making many of the same errors, the biggest being not entering subjects and search terms.   Although our lessons on MARC made me a bit insane, I know that they were important in my learning experience.  I do all of my own cataloguing, and most of it is “copy cataloging,” but that does not mean that I don’t have to create some of my own records.  I also need to know how to read the records I am copying so that I can tailor them to the needs of my library. 

            One of my “AHA” moments was in lesson 4 when we were introduced to ODLIS.  This has been a tool that I have referred to often since this lesson.  I even included a link on my library web site for quick reference.

            Comparing the records of various library resources was very interesting.  Because I now knew what the information meant, I could compare with a more critical eye.  I realized the importance of the information that I had not been including when cataloguing, thanks to my new understanding of the ISBD areas.  I also liked seeing how other institutions, like the Vancouver Public Library, catalogued the resources I was comparing.

            And then there was MARC.  Let’s just say it’s a good thing I will not be having any more children and that my husband wasn’t set on the name “Marc” or “Mark” because we would have issues.  When we first began “playing” with MARC records I was frustrated and quite honestly, a little angry.  Why were we doing this?  My system creates these records.  When will I ever need to do this myself?  I still have these feelings but without the intense resentment.  Although I will probably never have to create my own records I can at least read them and actually understand what I am looking at.  I can also see what information is relevant to my school, or, if I am copy cataloguing, I can see where I might want to add information.

            When we added Dewey to our lessons I felt a bit more comfortable.  I really liked the “Classification Rules to Remember”:

1. Cataloguing can't be learned in a day.
2. Dewey is not a perfect system; not all books fit neatly into 1 number
3. Some books can legitimately be catalogued in several numbers; choose the one most appropriate to the curriculum and the conditions in your school
4. Always put a book in a number where it will get maximum usage; move good books if they don't seem to be used in your school library
5. Bend the rules to suit your local needs - Catalogue biographies based on district rules.
6. There are standard subdivisions that can be added to almost any number:
7. 03 = dictionaries, encyclopedias. ie. 503 for a dictionary of science; 610.3 dictionary of medical terms
8. 09 = history and criticism. ie. 809 = criticism of literature; 385.09 for a history of railways

These “rules” made me relax a little – and feel more confident about my decision to create a BIO section for biographies and move them out of the 920’s.

            In the last module we considered how our cataloguing is done and by whom, as well as the systems we use.  I do all of my own cataloguing (and much better now) and our system, Alexandria, needs to be upgraded for online access.  Our OPAC is working very well but if I want to improve access to resources we need to move it forward.  This also links to the importance of our library homepage and web site.  I am excited that I am moving the library forward through our website and I hope to add access to our OPAC for the fall.

            In our final lesson and in our third assignment, we considered how we can improve the access to our resources.  I love that I now have a vision and plan to make this vision a reality.  I also feel good about the progress I have made this year and that I now have the knowledge to back up the future changes I know will improve my library.

            Like all learning processes, there are some things I would have improved about my performance in this course.  I know I could have been more consistent in my discussion posts so that they more accurately reflected the continuous learning I was doing as a result of the lessons.  Often I would get caught up in reading others’ posts and working on the lesson activities that I would miss posting.  Sometimes I also struggled to find something to add to the discussion that hadn’t already been said 30 times.  Having said that, I learned so much from my classmates’ discussions – something that has held true for all of the courses I have taken toward my diploma.  I feel very comfortable with the VISTA platform and I like being able to share ideas and respond to the comments of others.

            I have amassed a considerable amount of knowledge and resources as a result of this course.  I know that it will help me make my library better organized so that I can have a strong library program.

Yes, we are open! Come on in!

There have been so many great comments in this lesson.  It is so interesting to see how many of us are living in old and dated environments but that we all have a vision of how great it could be.  I am inspired by those in the class who have open spaces or have done some renovations.  We had our seismic upgrade 4 years ago, before I was the TL, and unfortunately our school did not take advantage of the opportunity for the library other than painting all the walls some type of off-white - oh, and they broke the circulation desk in half to move it and then never fixed it - don't even get me started.

If you look closely under the entry form box you can see the crack in the circulation desk.

One of the things I decided when I began as TL in September, was that I needed to "live in the space" for a year before I got too carried away.  I did make some simple cosmetic changes - removed the broken and bulky alarm system at the door, removed a bookshelf and filing cabinet that blocked the entrance, and rearranged the tables and chairs.  I also removed the frosted Mactac that covered the windows into the hallways of our school - apparently the previous librarian didn't like students looking into the library...? 

Entrance last year

Slowly, as I have become more comfortable in the space I have been able to make changes.  Our PAC gave me money for a reading area so we now have 4 club chairs, a rug, and a small table.  (By the way, adding a rug sure made me unpopular with the custodians.) I have also begun the huge task of weeding the non-fiction section (over 1500 titles so far) with the hope that I can completely remove one of the non-fiction shelving units to create more space and better access.

New reading area.

The signage in my library is also an embarrassment.  I too laughed at the comment in our lesson reading by Julie Winkelstein - "Many were computer-generated and taped with wrinkled yet indestructible clear packing tape. This reminded me of an architect I interviewed about signs. "We have to take control," he told me, "or the librarians will just print a bunch of signs out on the computer and tape them all over the place." (Winkelstein, 2005)  So true!  My library has very little signage - just some TAPED Dewey numbers at the ends of the non-fiction shelves - no words or categories to help students with their searches.  I have added some signs for Fiction, Graphic Fiction, and Biography.  In my Assignment 3 plan I explained how I would really like to have signage similar to a grocery store indicating what can be found in each section or aisle.  I have a die cut machine called a Cricut so I know I can do this fairly inexpensively, and I can also then change the signs as needed.  This is one of my summer project plans.

The other area that I think will have the largest impact in improving the access to my library is making it feel more inviting with some colour.  My PAC gave me more money (apparently no one else was asking this year, or they just felt sorry for me, LOL) to purchase a poster series for the walls.  I am also going to be working with our art teacher next year to add a rotating gallery of student art.  Another idea I had is to do a workshop at one of our district pro-d events and have staff in our district create canvases from discarded books, quotations, etc., that I could then hang in the library.

There are so many ways to improve the access to my library but the most important thing is that the students and staff feel welcome, despite the decor.  I purchased a round kitchen table from a local Facebook buy/sell/swap site for $50 and that table has done more for the access to my library than any of the other changes.  It sits right as people enter the library and we use it for a monthly display. The books fly off this table!  For March, because of a 2 week spring break and the job action, I did a quick "Reading green books will bring you luck" display.  I literally went around and grabbed every green book - fiction and non-fiction - and put them on the table with some shamrocks and a green table cloth - voila!  It grabs the attention of people walking down the hall and the students take books out that they may not have noticed before.

December display

March display

I am excited to continue with the development of my library.  I think there needs to be some change every year to keep it fresh and feeling different, or like things are evolving.  Improving access in our physical space, and also in our virtual space through the development of a digital library, online access to our OPAC, and regular maintenance of our web site, will all make this a reality.


References:

Winkelstein, J. (2005). BackTalk: What's your sign? Library Journal.  Retrieved
       from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6727991

Library Websites and Homepages

I too feel that a library homepage is essential for our school libraries regardless of the size of the school or our demographics. If we are to believe Valenza's statement that the homepage is "a second front door" we need to make that front door inviting. I watch my 3-year old daughter navigate our iPad with confidence every day. She can open apps, find videos on YouTube (we have created lists of safe videos for her to watch), listen to her audio books, and play a myriad of games without our help. By the time she is in kindergarten she will have the ability to access her school's library web site, but will there be one for her to access? I hope so.

We also have to remember that our homepages and web sites are not just for our students. They are a PR tool for our communities, prospective students/families, and tools for parents of our current students. At the elementary level our web sites/homepages can offer resources for parents to help their child with study skills or be a source of fun learning games. Things like contests or trivia can introduce the concept of homepages for libraries so that these students and families will have some prior knowledge as they move up through our systems into intermediate/middle and high school.

One of the things I think we can all see through our posts on this discussion topic is that we all have different ideas about what makes a great web site. A lot of that has to do with our personal tastes and styles. I did not like the Prince of Wales site at all. I think it is too text heavy and the list of resources on their Reference Desk page is overwhelming. I would like to have seen some groupings that perhaps led to another page or some visuals to address the needs of visual learners.

I do agree that access to the library's OPAC is key - and one of the areas that my library's web site is lacking. I do also think that the homepage needs to be fun. I like the sites that have photos on their homepage, bookshelves with new acquisitions, and the sites that have surveys and links to things like movie tie-ins is also a huge plus - and something I think will appeal to students. These things are all on my library homepage.

One of the things I learned while doing research for developing my library's web site is the "three click rule." Visitors to your site should be able to find what they are looking for in three clicks of the mouse or fewer. This is actually harder to do than we think, and can sometimes result in those busy pages that many of us say we don't like.

This is my first year as the TL at my school (an 8-12 high school of 390 students) and we did not have a library web site or homepage when I first became the TL. Fortunately, one of the courses I took this fall included an assignment of designing a web site so I got mine done. I chose to use Weebly and pay for a domain name. www.hopesecondarylibrary.com  I am very pleased with the platform. Although I see this as a work in progress, I am pleased with the results so far.

The main thing my site is missing is access to our catalogue. As part of my assignment 3 I looked into the possibility of adding this and am fairly confident I will be upgrading our system for the fall of 2012. The other thing my site is missing is visitors, LOL. The reason for this is awareness. The site was created after I had done the library orientations with our students, so hopefully I can improve our site usage in the fall. We also have a Facebook page that is starting to gain some popularity with our students so I hope this will also attract attention back to the web site.

The Library Catalogue

I think I actually get to be original as my school uses Alexandria for our cataloguing system and the version or system we pay for is not an actual OPAC system - meaning we do not have online access to the catalogue. The three elementary schools and my high school in Hope all use this system, however we are independent of each other. The system itself is excellent and based on my observations and research into Follett's Destiny, the two systems are very similar.

Students have access to our catalogue on one computer in the library - and honestly NO ONE uses it. One of the main obstacles is that the students have to log in to the computer and then access the catalogue, which just takes too long. I have considered making the catalogue computer accessible without a log in, but that means one fewer computer for student use and they are all used regularly.

As part of my assignment 3 I began investigating an upgrade to our system to allow for online access. I would need an initial outlay af about $1200 plus a yearly maintenance fee of $599. (Only 390 students in our school) This would give us the ability to have up to 10 concurrent users of the catalogue, which at this time, seems like more than enough. I have not compared this to what it would cost to change to Destiny - that is next on my "To Do" list for our catalogue.

In a previous course I did an extensive study of our system when analyzing one section of our non-fiction collection. I realized at that time that the catalogue is only as good as the information it is provided and that has only been confirmed in this course. In the student search feature they have several options - like some other students in the class, I find the visual of the search screen a bit dated, and in my case a bit "young" for my high school students. It is very easy to navigate and try different search parameters. The problem is, many of our resources have not been entered correctly. For example, a search for titles with the word "Canada" nets 6 results - really? We only have 6 books with the word "Canada" in the title? And a search of the subject "Canada" only gives 4 results - and 2 of them are not the same as the title search. Yikes!

Managing the system from the main library computer is not difficult. The system has a very clean visual look and now that I know most of the keyboard shortcuts, moving between different functions is even easier. Since starting this course we have significantly improved the cataloguing of our new resources, and once I have finished the weeding of the non-fiction, we will begin recataloguing other resources. (I feel your pain Beth!)

I think some of the discrepancies in the catalogue have been the result of going from a full time TL with a full time aide 20 years ago, to just a TL who had to teach 1 or sometimes 2 classes as well. There just wasn't time to maintain the collection or the catalogue the way it should be. This being my first year as the TL, I have tried to be the observer. How is the library being used? How is the catalogue being used? Which features do I like? Do I need to change? or just upgrade what I have.

Like some others, I have played with reports on my system as well. I like being able to print off my monthly circulation to show the increases since last year, and I also like that I can see things like the average age of the collection.

One of the problems I have with our system is finding students for overdue items. When we originally started using the system, our school had a daily homeroom so this was where the TL could hand out overdue notices or give the homeroom teacher a list of overdues. We no longer have homerooms and the students' schedules have not been entered into the system as part of their profile. To send overdue notices I have to pick one of our 8 blocks and then manually search for the location of each student. One of the features I will be looking for when considering an upgrade to our system is an easy way to import student data when creating "patrons" so that my overdue notices can indicate the student's location.

Sources for Cataloguing, Processing, and Preparing

Because my district (#78 Fraser-Cascade - serving Agassiz, Hope & Boston Bar) is very small we do not have centralized library services.  I am provided my own budget each year and I do all of my own purchasing and cataloguing.  As this was my first year as the TL there was a steep learning curve for this process, especially considering we were desperately "behind the times" in the age of our collection. 

As a result of this course, I quickly realized some of the errors I had been making in the cataloguing of materials.  Luckily, my acquisitions had focused on Fiction, and the main area where my cataloguing was lacking was in subject and search terms/tagging.  I have slowly been working on adding to these records so that the search features of our system can be more effective.

I have several sources for acquisitions, and am not ashamed to admit that the best price has been the most important criteria for me in trying to bring our fiction collection into the 21st century.  I buy books at Costco, Walmart and scour used book stores for good quality used books - I found some great Manga and graphic fiction this way, especially since they can be so expensive to purchase new.  I know that I do not get library bindings but honestly, do I need the book to last forever?  I weeded over 500 titles in September - sure they were in great condition, but no one was reading them.

Now that I am feeling more comfortable in my library surroundings I am exploring the services of companies like Follett and ULS.  The librarian before me had been at our school for 20 years and never used jobbers.  A librarian at another school in the district told the Follett rep that I was new and he came right over to our school.  He was so excited as he said he was told not to bother coming by before.  Although I know he was doing his job, I was very impressed that he took the time to come meet me and then set up another time to come by and demonstrate Follett's services.  Before his return, I took the time to register with Follett and become familiar with their site.  In the 2 hours the rep spent with me on his second visit I was able to use their collection management tool and begin setting up possible purchasing lists.  I also loved that all this was FREE!  I do not use their cataloguing system and I did not feel pressure to purchase from them - but I did. 

There are lots of elements to their site that I like.  Of course free shipping is always good, they offer several binding options, I can create different lists and save them to add to or delete, and title searches also tell me if I already have the title or a similar title in my collection.  It is also very easy to order with a P.O.  I can have them do cataloguing services for me, but I have elected to do these myself.  So far this has not been too overwhelming.

As I said in a reply to Michelle's post, we often judge services and web sites as compared to our first positive experience, so Follett's site and services became my standards.

I have not used ULS...yet, but I hope to actually visit their warehouse in June.  I am not a fan of their web site.  I, like Michelle, find it "dull" and a bit confusing.  I believe this is mostly due to my visual likes and dislikes, not really because of the content of the site.  For both Follett and ULS I logged in so I was able to see prices and options.  ULS does not have as many visuals to accompany each resources and sometimes they only offer one type of binding, whereas Follett seems to always have at least 2 options.  I do like that ULS is Canadian but I do not find Follett "overly American" and my site, once logged in, has a Canadian flag at the top to indicate that I am in the Canadian part of their site.

In ULS I also have trouble narrowing my search to high school options.  In the "Best Books" selection list, I would like to be able to sort by grade.  Instead I have to scroll down to find the books for the grade levels at my school.  I do like their selection lists for First Nations books, Canadian authors, and award winners.

I agree with the School Media Specialist information on jobbers when it says that it is important to form a positive relationship with jobbers.  I know that ULS will be helpful so I want to get to know them better.  I think it is possible, and beneficial to use more than one jobber.  This may not be possible in some TLs' situations, but it can at least be a way to compare products, services, and prices. 

When copy cataloguing I use a variety of sources including Follett, ULS, Library of Congress and various public libraries.  Now that I am better at cataloguing I have my student TAs get the books ready for cataloguing by stamping, labeling and barcoding the acquisitions.  Sometimes I will have them start the cataloguing process and save the subject key word work for me.  This tends to be done within a week of resources arriving which I think is a pretty quick turn around.

As mentioned on the School Library Media Specialist site, purchasing locally is sometimes the best option.  Although I do not have a book store in my community, I do keep my eyes open for book bargains when out and about.  I also check the teen sections of Chapters and Kidsbooks and then look for their top choices at less expensive prices.

Because my library and school district are so small, doing my own cataloguing has not been overwhelming, however I do know that I have some re-cataloguing to do once the weeding of our non-fiction section is complete.  All of this however, is leading to a better organized and more efficient Learning Commons for our students.

Tagging, Folksonomy, Delicious

Here is the link to my Delicious stacks lenorapoulin.
 
I had signed up for Delicious some time last year and spent quite a bit of time setting up links, etc.  I found I preferred my bookmarks bar as it was inconvenient to go to the Delicous site for my lists.  Since their redesign I cannot find my "stuff" on Delicious so I had to re-sign up.  This wasn't really a problem as honestly, I don't even remember what I had bookmarked last year.

I like the new format of the site.  The stacks remind me of the pin boards on Pinterest - my favourite bookmarking site.  I was also able to add a Delicious gadget to my iGoogle home page which will hopefully make access easier, and me more likely to use this tool.

I created stacks for Library, Scrapbooking, My Blogs, Teacher "stuff", and Web 2.0 and then added the links that I currently have on my blogs and bookmarks toolbar.  One thing I was having difficulty with was the image associated with the site.  Even when I selected "no image" an image would appear, sometimes one that was really too big and not identifying of the site.

The tags exercise was interesting.  I could see many of the issues mentioned in the Folksonomy article.  When linking some libraries suggested tags included catalogue, catalogues, cataloging... etc.  How do I know which is the most popular search term?  Obviously I don't really "care" that much about searching through my bookmarks, but when considering cataloging resources for staff and students, this is important.  These tag "clouds" are becoming our online library catalogues and so we need to have some vocabulary standards.

I didn't spend much time searching for other links for my stacks but I can see how this could become quite addictive.  I am trying, through Google reader, to subscribe to the sites I visit most and then receive notification when there is a new post or update.  I find this to be much more efficient than visiting a site that hasn't been updated for some time.

UPDATE:  Since writing this post (February 19th), I have become a huge fan of tags and am working on tagging previous blog posts and other online content that I follow.  I have added the Tag Cloud to my learning blogs so that I can find content easier and in my Google Reader RSS feed I use tags to sort and search for web content to follow.

Through this learning process I have become a better cataloger of my library materials.  I find that I can think about who might be searching for that material, and what kind of search terms they might use.  I am also trying to encourage my students, when they are doing their blog posts in class, to tag their posts.  I tell them it is like creating a filing system for their Web 2.0 material.  It might not seem important now, but when they continue their education or have a career, they will be thankful for this skill.

Assignment #3

I am posting my assignment #3 here just in case.  I am a little nervous because it took close to 10 minutes to load onto Vista.