Teacher librarians and information literacy in schools

This week, I have read an opinion article from the Canberra Times website (a newspaper based in ACT) titled, ‘Teacher Librarians crucial in info age’ by Holly Godfree, discussing about the educational issue of Teachers Librarians’ vital roles in enhancing information literacy amongst students.

 Holly argues that in today’s increasingly changing world, teacher librarians are vitally important, because they are the genuine experts and leaders in the critical and effective evaluation of online information and have developed the art empowering students to do it themselves. She believes that by having enough teacher librarians in our schools, it will highly result students developing the capability in critically assessing what they read, observe or hear. More importantly, she urges us to no longer regard teacher librarians as the ‘frowning, eye-glass-wearing “shusher”’ but rather, a 21^st century teacher librarian, who holds both recognised teaching and librarianship qualifications.

I truly advocate the necessary need for teacher librarians in our schools, because they play significant roles in assisting and empowering students to successfully and critically assess information, particularly online information. Without them, students won’t have the necessary skills to effectively locate, select, evaluate and share information throughout their schooling and beyond.

Bibliography reference

Godfree, H, 2012, ‘Teacher librarians crucial in info age,’ Canberra Times, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/teacher-librarians-crucial-in-info-age-20120903-25abs.html; viewed on 17^th September 2012.

Community's perception of libraries

I read another interesting blog post from the 21^st Century Library Blog called, ‘The Perception of Your Library’ by Dr. Steve Matthews.

He was generally concerned of the lack of importance of the community’s perception of libraries despite the fact that librarians tend to survey their patrons about their services and programs. To best demonstrate this, Steve pulled our two different scenarios on library surveys. A worst case scenario reveal that the majority of the residents say they don’t know the location of their libraries, don’t use the library and had better libraries in other places. In contrast, a best case scenario shows that a huge proportion of residents say they know the location of their library, they regularly use them and they haven’t had better libraries in other places.

Steve is heading in the right direction for a greater importance on the perceptions of libraries in their communities, in which I believe librarians need to reflect upon. It is by developing our own positive thoughts of our libraries amongst our societies, which enables librarians to confidently and faithfully make positive contributions towards their 21^st century communities, if provided adequate support and funding. Hence, libraries become friendly and safe places for patrons to visit and most importantly, they are going to frequently visit our wonderful libraries to utilise our wonderful services and programs.

Bibliography reference

Matthews, S (2012), ‘The Perception of Your Library.’, 21^st Century Library Blog, blog post, 27^th August 2012, viewed 13^th September 2012, available at: http://21stcenturylibrary.com/2012/08/27/the-perception-of-your-library/.

Libraries and photo sharing in social media

This week, I read an interesting blog called, ‘On Remixing and Reshaping Online – I Do This for the Money, Prestige and Power. Said No Librarian Ever’ by Bobbi Newman posted on Librarian by Day blog.

Bobbi discussed about the issue of sharing photos with quotes on Facebook and ‘Pinterest’, when it comes to the ‘ethics, ownership and remixing culture’ (Newman, 2012). She got them to consider questions about the ownership of photos; the source they are from; whether the person actually says it; whether the person sharing it attempted to authorize them before even posting and sharing them on those social media networks and many more. The someecards Bobbi leisurely created, which are not accredited, and the picture of Abraham Lincoln were great demonstrations on how people nowadays, can easily make up something they may not in fact exist or not link to its original source.

I like the way Bobbi educated her audience to reflect upon the criteria of evaluating information and images by prompting questions as guidelines when talking about digital literacy. However, she would have achieved her outcome further if she focused on the provision of diplays on evaluating information and get the audience to use the images posted, as an exercise on the familiarity on evaluating and critiquing the deceived images.

Bibliography reference

Newman, B (2012), ‘On Remixing and Reshaping Online – I Do This for the Money, Prestige and Power. Said No Librarian Ever.’, Librarian by Day, blog post, 15^th August, viewed 5^th September 2012, available at: http://librarianbyday.net/2012/08/15/on-remixing-and-reshaing-online-i-do-this-for-the-money-prestige-and-power-said-no-librarian-ever/.

Libraries and Technology training

During the week, I have been reading a journal article called ‘Libraries Adding Value With Technology Training’ by Ormilla Vengersammy in Computers in Libraries magazine.

In this article, a library named the ‘Orange County Library System’, is currently coming up with innovative methods in responding to the needs of their communities served through technology education and training. Ormilla Vengersammy states that some of the major factors in becoming a library of the future are technology and training job seekers on completing online job applications etc. To achieve them, a variety of practical computer classes are offered in all OCLS branches, encompassing 8-12 computers, including a computer, whiteboard and data projector for the instructor. The instructors teach classes, specialising on technology training, ranging from the basics to the more advanced classes either face-to-face training or online.

In the present time, libraries are redefined as places to access books and other collection in both print and digital. The work of the OCLS is an inspiration to all libraries on the importance of moving towards the digital world by constantly keeping up to date with the latest technology. Through education and training on technology, they can greatly assist their patrons in filling online job application, computer skills, downloading eBooks and much more, whilst still maintaining information literacy.

Bibliography reference

Vengersammy, O (2011), ‘Libraries Adding Value With Technology Training’, Computers in Libraries, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 11-15.