Library & Information Science, Course 233: School Library Media Centers.
Dr. David Loertscher
Spring 2003

Assignments

There are a number of tool skills you will need to use every week in this class. Please consult the Tools List (t1tools.html) and see that you can manage everything on the list.

During this semester, you will be expected to read, view, listen to, and link to everything you possibly can find on and about school libraries. From your searching, you should extract the best of what you find

the real assignments:

(Prelude: If what you read below is confusing, just start reading as many book chapters, professional articles, looking at web sites, examining documents. In other words, start building content first and then the structure of the product will be clarified as we meet in class and discuss the projects over the web. Time spent fretting is unproductive. The more professional ideas you can encounter, the better your repertoire will be as you begin to manage an actual library media center. Another good tip for this class is that you are not in competition with each other so do offer the best of what you find with others, and take their suggestions for good stuff. think of this class as a collaborative. In fact, you can do the entire project with one or several partners if you tend to work better that way. You are not reinventing the wheel. Take what you can from others who have already done the footwork. However, make your project a quality information source, not a garbage can.)

1. Start creating your School Library Media Center Databank.

Many library media teachers have their own manual, loose-leaf notebook, vertical file, web page where they store all kinds of documents, helps, lesson plans, notes, sample this or thats, This document data bank can cover all kinds of helps to assist you in running the operation. There might be such things as notes on all your professional readings, list of the jobbers you use, the names of repari firms to contact, the names of authors that are available to visit your school, policies covering the operation of the library media center, good ideas, wonderful articles, unit planning forms, etc. This databank can be in one or many files, in both print and electronic versions. During this class, you should concentrate on building materials for your databank in six topical areas:

• Topic 1: The Role of the Modern School Library Media Program
• Topic 2: Collaboration as a Part of the School Library Media Program (short)
• Topic 3: The Reading Program and the Library Media Center (emphasis here)
• Topic 4: Enhancing Learning Through Technology (emphasis here)
• Topic 5: Information Literacy and the Library Media Program (short)
• Topic 6: The Information Infrastructure (emphasis here)

This databank should be organized/controlled through either a database or spreadsheet. Here are a few ideas for various types of documents:

Web sites: The URL and a note why important
Physical documents: The databank would be an index to them and their location
Articles/book chapters read: the databank would summarize them briefly
People/experts: list their expertise and contact information
Organizations: professional organizations, repair services, jobbers names addresses, phone number, email addresses, etc.

The databank should be created either in Microsoft Excell or AppleWorks (Clarisworks).The instructor cannot read Microsoft Access files unless you can translate them into Adobe Acrobat files.

Think carefully about the various access points you will need:

Major category such as book chapter, article, web site
Topical area: role, collaboration, reading, technology, Info lit, infrastructure
sub topical area: idea, policy, expert, form
Location (call number) #in looseleaf, vertical file folder, physical location
Bibliographic citation (author, title, publisher, date, pages, etc.)
annotation: brief explanation of importance or contents

each of these topics might be a column heading in your spreadsheet or a field in your database.

At the end of the semester, you will be asked to attach your databank to an email message and send it to your instructor: davidl@wahoo.sjsu.edu. This could be in the form of a URL to a web site, but do not confuse this with the web site construction project discussed below. This file is a record of everything you have read, viewed, or listened to for this class. It contains the major ideas that will help you operate the LMC and its program. You can borrow good things for your databank from hundreds of sources including other folks in the class. But remember, less might be more, i.e., don't overload your datafile with stuff you probably won't use.

Instead of one giant databank, you might have several that control various resources by function. For example, you might have a readings datafile, a datafile for each of the four program areas such as collaboration, reading, enhancement of learning through technology, and information literacy. You can organize something that makes sense to you, or, you might steal and organizational structure from examples you find on the web or from ideas generated in class.

One great source for professional articles is: "Informaton Power: Building Partnerships for Learning: Full-Text Research Articles form School Library Media Quarterly" (t1infopower.pdf) see also on the AASL web site.

2. As an outgrowth of your Datafile, start the creation of a school library media center portal (website) that young people would use as their home page to lead them into the world of information..

Many school library media centers have websites that serve themselves, teachers, and students. You might think of such a website as a portal (a doorway or gateway) into the world of information. Some schools have a school website and the library is one of the clicks off the website. In this class, you should create the school library media center portal with the school as a click off it. For example, it might be titled "The Lincoln School Library Media Center Portal to the World of Information." This semester, you should construct four pieces if you do not already have them in operation:

The main web page/title screen

The Library Corner: A button for the librarian (containing the most-often information you need to function)

Teacher Tools: A button for teachers (containing two major sections: READING and ENHANCING LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Student Section:

There should be three parts to the student part of the page:

•Tools - links to tools that help a student be successful in their classes and in the school. For example, word processors, graphics packages, tutorials on how to write a term paper, tips on using the digital camera to link pictures into a web page, In other words, link learners to the actual tools and/or helps for using them to succeed. Even information literacy tip sheets might be here.

• Pull technology - this is the section linking learners to online databases and various search engines - the place where they will search for information they want. The section may link them to specific databases such as Electric Library or InfoTrac or SIRS; links to encyclopedias, dictionaries, et. Hopefully meta-search engines to search multiple databases might be included. This section also contains the link to the school library catalog and other library catalogs. It also links to various search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Dog Pine among others. There might also be links to a section listing the 15,000 best websites for middle schoolers. A good meta search engine to look at is http://imsa.org created by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

• Push technology section - this is the area where administrators, teachers, library media teachers, and parents are trying to get to the learner with announcements, links to classroom web pages/assignments, advertisements (such as good books to read), etc. There might be a "web site or book of the day" or connections to the living yearbook of the school (the latest pictures of the football game or other school event).

At least one button that links students in a particular class to useful resources for that class including carefully selected Internet sites and any clicks to electronic resources in the school library collection; A section of general helps for kids in school such as school term paper guides, helps in citing materials; links to online dictionaries and encyclopedias, useful tutorials, etc.; A section that leads kids to Internet sites or school databases that help them personally such as information about sexual harassment, where to go for various kinds of help, what to do in case of emergency, local organizations that can be helpful.. The page might contain lists of good books to read (perhaps recommended by the students themselves) and certainly a few you recommend, movie reviews (done by the kids), links to sports, etc.

The objective here is not quantity, but quality.

You will be organized into groups by type of school (elementary, middle, high school). Use these groups and your connections on Blackboard to help each other build your websites. Help each other find school library web sites that are already good and incorporate the best of those ideas in your own site.

If you already have a school library web site, transform it into more of a portal and refine it, add to it, develop it further - note for the instructor where you started and what developments and refinements you have made (a very short essay/log will suffice)

In previous semesters students have used homestead.com (http://homestead.com); Geocities (http://geocities.com); Xoom.com (http://xoom.com); Netscape Composer (http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp); Adobe GoLive; Macromedia Dreamweaver; or Microsoft Frontpage. In addition, you will need to find a place to serve out your Web page - Preferably at your school.

Another good help is Anne Clyde's guide to building school library web pages at http://www.hi.is/~anne/creatingweb.html. also at: (t1bi.html)

A good start is to look at web pages constructed by school librarians around the country. Try Peter Milbury's site for linking school library web pages at http://school-libraries.net

The section for teachers will be the most important part of your web page and will receive the most scrutiny by your professor. Here are a few suggestions:

READING - include the very best ideas that your faculty could use to stimulate reading in their classrooms and with you in the LMC; include descriptions of programs or events you will be using in your school to stimulate reading; include ideas for SSR, reading aloud, building rotating classroom collections, sources of funding for books, great bibliographies of things to read aloud, suggest to your students, read as a professional teacher about the topic of reading, etc. Be sure to organize the materials in such a way that a teacher would be attracted to use it. Just a bunch of stuff is not likely to be used.

ENHANCEMENT OF LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY - this section should spotlight the very best ideas for the use of technology to enhance learning in basic tool skills/literacy/content areas. It should spotlight the best ideas from the professional literature; spotlight the best ideas from your own faculty; provide good sources for personal professional development in the use of technology; andy any other source of help that a teacher might need. Think of this section as a professional development tool box. It might also contain announcements of oportunities in the district, state, or nation. Remember, less is often more.

If you do not wish to create a portal, and have a project more useful to your school in mind, get your idea approved by the instructor in the first 30 days of the class. Approved projects will have two segments: something that concentrates on reading and something that concentrates on enhancing learning through technology. For example, a person wants to create a major reading program connected to the new language arts adoption in their school. In addition, you might be on the technology committee of the school and they are revising the technology plan for the school. In any case, a proposed individual project must have the two main parts covered in this class: Reading and enhancing learning through technology.

 

Sample Portals created by students:

• Glendale High School Library Portal (t1Glendalehs.pdf)
• Napa High School Library Portal (t1NapaHSPortal.pdf)
• North Montgomery County High School Library (t1NCPortal.pdf)
• Piedmont High School Library (t1PiedmontHSPortal.pdf)
• McKinleyville High School Library (t1McKinleyvilleHSPortal.pdf)

Also: read about school portals in general: Gannon, Harvey. "Educational Portals: Shaping the 21st-Century Community." Converge Magazine, Janury, 2001 (t1portals.pdf)

 

3. Join a professional association. You should show evidence of membership in either AASL (American Association of School Librarians) and/or CSLA (California School Library Association).

4. Visit at least one state legislator. You should make one personal visit to your California state senator and/or your state representative in connection with several other persons to thank them for the monies voted for the past three years for CA school libraries ($28/student). This funding is in crisis at the moment. Classroom collection monies have been stopped as has the money for technology. .During your visit, thank the legislator for the money; tell him or her what you are doing with the money and how it is helping kids; and request that this program last for 10 years. Describe the crisis if spending is not continued. Taking along a teacher, parent, or student is always a good idea. Popular at Legi-Day when school librarians lobbied at the California Legislature in Sacramento this past year were appreciation posters signed by kids and teachers, notes from kids telling about some of the new books they had read, etc. You should begin on this assignment in the first 30 days. It often takes months to get an appointment.

5. Be sure to attend class. Attendance is mandatory from the standpoint that activities done in class will add to your grade and there is no makeup for these activities. We meet so few times, that interaction with your collegues and your instructor is essential.

6. Participate at least twice a week on the blog answering the "Questions of the Week" and helping your group succeed in the class.

begin Feb 9

 • For the week beginning June 10, Read two articles that were published in Multi-Media Schools., one by a "cybrarian" and one by a librarian. What two roles are being played out in these two people's professional lives? What are they worried about? What do you think their days are like? How do you guess that these roles will be played out in the professional literature you are just starting to read? Do you think there may be some gender stuff being played out here? Be sure to post at least twice to this question before the second class period.

• Nellen, Ted. "Morphing from Teacher to Cybrarian," Multimedia Schools, January/February, 1999, p. 20-25.

• Anderson, Mary-Alice. "The Media Center: Finding Time," Multimedia Schools, January/February, 1999, p. 26-28

begin Feb 16

• Read Taxonomies, p. 1-28. How has the role of the library media teacher changed over the years as well as the function of that center in the school. What prospects are there for your school library becoming a 24/7 (24 hours a day, seven days a week) information service? And what role would you play in developing or reinventing your school's library?

begin Feb 23

• Read Taxonomies, p. 29-66. What is the role of others in the development of a vibrant library media center program? How can the library media teacher help others to assume a proactive role?

begin March 2

• What other articles/readings (including Information Power have you found that help clarify the role of the library media program in the school?

Begin March 9

• Read Taxonomies chapter 9 and other research such as Krashen/ McQuillan. Comparing theory to practice, does the school community really believe the Krashen/McQuillan notion that "amount counts?" If they do believe, what evidence is there that they practice what they believe?

begin March 16

• Read the article "Waste Not, Want Not" by Jamie McKenzie. This sounds like my rantings and ravings about librarians who can't seem to get enough books into kids' hands because of the restrictive rules and the fear of losing books. In this article, what do you think the role of the school librarian is in providing easy access to electronic information?

begin March 23

• All organizations create rules that help it function smoothly and force the patrons/customers to come in line with organizational needs even when these are antithetical to patron/customer needs.How can school libraries optimize access to reading, yet give every single child/teen the opportunity and the encouragement to become literate? (two books a week with the potential of trading them at any time and "you can't have any more books when you have overdues - such rules don't cut it, folks). What do you do for the trancient child, the child who does not handle materials well? The child who cannot pay fines or pay for lost books? The child whose parents won't let them borrow anything because of fear of loss? The kid who won't use the library because they "don't like to read?" The kid who would like to read, but you don't have anything they want to read? The kid whose teacher makes all kinds of rules about what kids should and should not read? The kids who are forced to do Accelerated Reader even though they hate it?

begin April 6

• How can the library media specialist who has spent the majority of their time concentrating on the reading program cut their time in that program, yet be as effective or more effictive in promoting literacy? (remember, there are too many other emerging roles for the librarian so that it cannot predominate the hours spent on the job each week).

begin April 13

• Read Taxonomies chapter 10 and what Information Power has to say about the role technology plays in the school library. What is the essential role here? How does it differ from the techie role of building and maintaining networks and computers?

begin April 20

• What other readings are you finding that help clarify the role of the school library media teacher in technology? (share to help build your databases) (would someone in the group please email the instructor with the top suggestions for items that should be on the web page but aren't)

begin April 27

• As a group, nominate and present to the class next week, one acaemy award application for each of fours types of technology applications that have the potential or proven record of enhancing learning through technology (see Taxonomies, p. 133).

begin May 4

• Read and concentrate on good ideas for managing the information infrastructure (Taxonomies, chapter 12 to 15) What are the best ideas you have found for your operations resource file for topics such as budget, facilities, time management, staffing, scheduling the LMC, being on leadership teams, managing conflict, handling students, making the LMC a friendly place, building conficence of administrators and teachers, engaging in public relations, etc.

7. Write a grant; assist in the writing of a grant; demonstrate that you have already written a grant. One way to fulfil this assignment is to write a grant for the Laura Bush Foundation at http://www.laurabushfoundation.org/foundation.html Because this foundation is targeting funds only for poverty schools, you might have to adopt a school (but don't do one for a school that is not committed to having a full time library media teacher). Another way is to write a grant for your PTA to fund LMC programs/materials or a grant to a local charitable group.

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