LIBE467: A Reference Moment (Theme One)

Created on WordArt.com

As the younger generation of students continue to learn and grow in an ever-increasing digital age, how we, as teachers and teacher-librarians, approach the usage of reference services and resources has changed.  As Riedling states in Reference Skills for the School Librarian (2013), "[i]nformation needs are growing and becoming more complex. The result is that there will be an increased need for experts, school librarians with skills in searching, accessing, using, and evaluating information efficiently and effectively." I'm often asked by friends who aren't teachers, "Why are you studying to be a librarian?" My answer is always, "To help students improve their literacy skills." The video below is something that I found on YouTube which provides a fairly accurate, quick summary of the topics covered in Theme One.

For a 21st-century learner to be a fully functional member of society, Achieving Information Literacy states that the information-literate citizen must be able to accomplish the following things:

Asselin et al., (2003) | Achieving Information Literacy

Dan Rothstein | Twitter

My main goal, as an aspiring teacher-librarian, is to help students gain the skills necessary to become lifelong learners. With the flood of information that students have access to these days, the most important thing for them to learn is to be able to effectively inquire, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the information that they are given. The first thing to do is to help teach students to inquire. The research process, no matter what type of strategy a student chooses to employ, always begins with questioning. The various research models that we looked at during this thematic unit, from Points of Inquiry to the Big6 Information Problem-Solving Model, all accomplish the same goal: helping students learn how to conduct effective research. There is no one "best model" - TLs need to use their judgment and choose the model that is most suited for the students that they work with. For example, in my personal experience working as a secondary English teacher at a private school overseas teaching only ELL students who do not have prior knowledge of the inquiry process, I would probably decide to go back to basics and use one of the simpler research models to introduce the process to these students. The following is something that I wrote in the discussion thread for Lesson 2 several weeks ago, but I think is still applicable to the current conversation:

Chang, 2018 | Canvas.ubc.ca

Once the students are able to question and inquire, our job will then be to direct students to where the information can be found, and hence beginning what Riedling calls the reference process. It's a rather daunting task: as the collection information on pages 24-34 of Achieving Information Literacy suggests, the vast majority of a school library collection should consist of reference resources. The expectations of the TL in this regard is very high. Riedling says that to be a successful reference service for students, TLs need to be 1) knowledgeable about their school library collection, 2) effective at communication, and 3) competent at "selecting, acquiring, and evaluating resources to meet students' needs" (2013). How can this be accomplished?

Riedling, 2013 | Created on Quozio.com

Riedling provides us with an evaluation process for pretty much every kind of reference resource that can be obtained and put into a school library, whether it be a physical or a digital resource. While extensive, it isn't really practical to pull out the book and use the specific criteria to evaluate every single resource, so I have created my own version of the evaluation process based off of commonalities I noticed between each criteria:

1. Accuracy & Authority: How accurate is the information provided in this resource? Is it from an authoritative source? How does the authority of the source lend to the accuracy of the information?
2. Currency & Cost: Is the resource published/updated within the last 5-10 years? Is the cost of replacing the resource to keep it current justified?
3. Scope & Content: Does the resource provide a broad range of knowledge? Is the content in the resource something of high interest to students?

I think that no matter if we're choosing a print resource or a digital resource to use, the same criteria applies. The important thing is helping students to critically engage in a variety of multimedia texts while they complete their research. The sea of information is a large one, but with proper guidance, skills, and tools, students can learn to successfully navigate it. Becoming a successful reference librarian is a big task, but not an impossible one.

References:

Alwine, Hope. [Hope Alwine]. (2017, December 3). Library 101: Reference Librarian [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwqZpRQbm4

Asselin, M., Branch, J.L., & Oberg, D. (2003). Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Association for School Libraries. Retrieved from http://accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/ail110217.pdf

Chang, R. (2018, September 14). Lesson 2: Compare and contrast of points of inquiry and research quest with Big6 and other models [Online discussion group]. Retrieved from http://canvas.ubc.ca/

Riedling, A.M., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips, 3rd edition [Ebook]. California: Linworth.

Rothstein, Dan. [RothsteinDan]. (2017, July 28). "Nice visual on the Question Formulation Technique" [Twitter Post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/rothsteindan/status/890968054598963200