Obsolete Reference Sources Earn A Failing Grade

It is with a mixture of gratitude and frustration that I write this reflection. Gratitude because the timing of the course could not be more beneficial to me personally. This September I started working as Teacher Librarian in an elementary school (having only been an enthusiastic patron of libraries prior to this position). This course also inspired frustration because, prior to starting this course, I assumed that the reference collection we offered to students was acceptable. As I learn more each week about reference services, I am chagrined to admit the quality of the reference materials is embarrassingly weak.

Further exasperating this situation is the fact that the library at my school has no budget. This is abysmally lower than the suggested $26-$35 per student range suggested by the document Achieving Information Literacy to reach the designation of acceptable (Asselin, Branch & Oberg, p. 35). Unfortunately, this lack of funding speaks to the low level of priority that the library holds in the hierarchy of school fiscal needs. According to these proposed standards, the reference section in the library in which I work (along with its furniture and equipment) was designated as 'below standard'. In fact, all the reference materials were scattered along the library periphery until I gathered them for this picture. 


I am also thinking strategically about how best to update the reference collection. Every purchase I make must first be written as a proposal to my principal in which I outline how the addition of these materials will support the student population’s learning needs. Knowing that sources should be selected “based on … validity, not on the medium from which it has been obtained” (Riedling, p. 48) and rising to the needs of distance learning during COVID19, I believe I will advocate for digital versions of these resources as a means of updating these reference materials. Students currently have access to Britannica School but I would like to include other source types that will be accessible through the Library Links section on our school website such as: a dictionary, another encyclopedia, a biographical source, and an atlas. If you have any suggestions for age-appropriate on-line reference materials in these categories, I would be grateful if you were to include them in the comments below!

 

Teacher Librarians are very rare in the province of Manitoba with only 5 school divisions out of 38 offering this position. So regardless of the current state of the reference section and the fact that I have no working budget, I am grateful to be physically present and to be able to teach, share and model “skills in searching, accessing, using, and evaluating information efficiently and effectively” (Riedling, p.105). Even in the absence of a excellent reference collection, I can support and promote basic student information literacy skills through my visits to classrooms and by using the reference sources available on the internet. The reference collection may earn a failing grade, but I hope I will get a passing one as I navigate my first year as a teacher librarian. 



References:

Riedling, A. & Houston, C. (2019). Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips (4th ed.) [eBook edition]. Libraries Unlimited.

 

Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D., (Eds). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian School Library Association & The Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada.

Comments

  1. Aaron MuellerSeptember 28, 2020 at 6:28 AM

    A good, practical reflection on the application of your new learning on your current Library Reference collection, services and goals as a new T-L. I appreciated you sharing your feelings, gratitude, frustration and realizations through your blog, as you explore how best to adopt this new role/position and how to best build up your program and collections going forward. A little more reflection on some of the other topics (inquiry models, definitions, etc) would be useful, but the personalized nature of your post was quite insightful and helpful to contextualize where you are, and where you hope to go!

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