Evidence Based Librarianship (EBL)

This is a timely concept for librarians, given the state of education budgets around the world. I read the articles about getting the Principal onside with enthusiasm. I remember working in a government department library where the President was easily convinced of the library's worth because he was academic in nature and used it weekly. However when budget cuts were announced from higher up, I used very basic statistics from surveys and reference enquiry records as well as submissions from staff members, but this wasn't enough. As the cuts were political, I don't think I could have saved the library, but I want to be better prepared next time. According to Todd (2008) EBL“is an approach that systematically engages research-derived evidence, school librarian-observed evidence, and user-reported evidence in the ongoing processes of decision making, development, and continuous improvement to achieve the school’s mission and goals. These goals typically center on student achievement and quality teaching and learning.” It comes out of several beliefs including that student learning outcomes, as well as cultural, intellectual and social development can be measured; and that school libraries as " knowledge and information centres" are instrumental in helping achieve curriculum standards. He advocates student surveys, standards-based scoring guides and rubrics, formative and summative assessment tasks, skills measurements and ongoing performance -based assessments as useful to providing evidence. The Standards published by the American Association of School Librarians should provide a structure for the evidence which should be generated. My first thought is that I need more training in how to go about this, and that EBL would be time consuming, especially as Todd suggests that relying on other school library studies isn't good enough. Todd also asks how we might share locally generated school library research and highlight good examples. This will be a topic I return to, as it is vital to keeping school libraries staffed by teacher librarians and a great way of highlighting best practice; concentrating on activities which generate the most benefit to staff and students.

Time management in endeavours which have no boundaries

I remember working as a solo librarian in a government department where I did everything; no staff to process and shelve books, catalogue or do stocktake whilst I attempted to complete reference enquiries, current awareness and training in a timely fashion.

As a mother of two young boys, I find a similar challenge - no staff to do the washing, cleaning, cooking, care for sick children, manage the homework and speech therapy whilst I read interesting articles, synthesise important concepts, do assignments and learn about new technologies, not to mention blogging.

Next week, I'm going to attempt the time study observation Purcell (2010) suggested for TLs and see how feasible my workload is. The harder steps will be: becoming more efficient, knowing what tasks to ditch, what help can be found.. and discussingoptions with my family.

Knowledge is power. I'll get back to you on that one next week,
Anna

my initial response to Purcell's 2010 article on the role of the SLMS

Purcell (2010) lists five roles of the school library media specialist as leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher and program administrator (p. 30). She states that they are interconnected and can't be performed without eacher other (p. 33).

My response is influenced by the fact that I have worked as a librarian at university and college libraries. I remember how the relationship between the librarian and the academics / administration affected the outcome of information literacy programmes. Some heavily funded information literacy programmes foundered as they weren't linked to the curriculum and students weren't required to do the library workbooks, or expensive resources were not utilised as lecturers didn't know how to use them.

All the roles Purcell list have a relationship component to them, and a newly appointed librarian would have to focus on these, as well as the information specialist role. I think reflecting on the results of the time study suggested by Purcell (2010) would be a great starting point in prioritising SLMS roles (p.30). If there was too much time being spent on tasks which come under the program administrator banner, then the librarian can liaise with the principle for more help / budget so that she can fulfill her roles related to leader, instructional partner, information specialst and teacher. This is likely to lead to an increased visibility and more time to collaboration and strategize library services / resources so that they synthesise with the school's goals.

great vodcast on teacher librarians and getting with the programme

This is an inspirational vodcast by Mike Eisenberg on how teacher librarians should align their information literacy programs with the curriculum, really embrace Web 2.0 tools and market themselves. Thought I'd provide a link so I can revisit, share and practice making a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE2MpvByblc

Enjoy, Anna

Response to readings in Week 1

The Gilman article (2007) on the role of reference librarians in a university struck a chord with me. I worked as a reference librarian at a university over 10 years ago, and the refrain was the same; students although unable to use the library effectively did not value information literacy training, and much time and effort was concentrated on the wrong types of training. I would like to be open minded about how I engage students and am determined to become adept at Web 2.0 tools including blogging, social bookmarking etc. If you aren't responsive to need, no matter how skilled you are, it is to no avail. I plan to visit a few more university libraries online to see what they are doing.

Loved the time management article - great for all areas of the life where there are lots of jobs which need to be prioritised and not enough time - every library job I had fell into this category. I want to adopt the slogan on page http://www.time-management-success.com/time-management-for-teachers.html:
Decide what to do.
Start it.
Finish it.
Accept it.
Also knowing what to give your 100% to, and what to accept an unperfect job,
There was a hint about having 4 different lists for things of different priorities. I wont go to 4, but 3 headed, important, deadline approaching in the next few days, and important when I have time may seem less stressful


I remember conflict or conflicting goals occuring in the university and college library I worked in. This sometimes involved management or clients; and the win/win strategy outlined in Sanders (1994) was rarely applied. I think when one knows their role, what is expected of them and what they can reasonably achieve, they are more able to negotiate in a conflict. This strategy reminds me that I should think more about where the other person is coming from, e.g assignment deadline looming, budget cuts or a reason I am anware of, before negating their point of view or expectation. The article also emphasises the need for preparation if possible. I hope to remember when the need arises that a refresher on non inflammatory language and the need to see their point of view is essential.

Beginnings

Jumping right in to my ETL401 studies - I feel confident that my experience as a librarian at a university and a college will provide some insight into how the library fits in to an education institution, although teaching information literacy to teenagers instead of young adults will be a different kettle of fish. Let the fun begin.