Schooliblit

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Changing Role for Librarians
Ninety-one Percent of Librarians Say Shift from 'Information Gatherer' to 'Information Consultant' is Key to Success. You can take a look at some of the results published in the news release. Note: This survey was sponsored by LexisNexis. [ResourceShelf]

Looking at the title of this article, it seems that it applies to school librarians as well. I think a change in the way we see ourselves and our role is crucial, and I'm not sure it's happening as quickly as it should in schools. This article, though, is about special librarians and information professionals in the business world. It's actually kind of fun -- and perhaps revealing -- to try and read it as if it were written about schools. "Now that most employees have Internet access on their desktops, information professionals are forced to justify their positions constantly."
7:30:12 AM [comment []];[]

Public Schools Losing Librarians
Sad State for School Librarians in Wisconsin. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel All types of information professionals are having job issues these days. This article reviews the sad situation for school librarians in Wisconsin. Shirley Reis a librarian hits the mark when she notes that part of the blame must be placed on the librarians themselves. From the article, "Librarians historically have not been attuned to public relations, and I think that's our biggest downfall," she [Shirley Reis] said. "Because we sit in our little library cubicles and check in our books and don't tell people about the important work we do." [ResourceShelf]
7:25:59 AM

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Teaching Searching
Teaching Searching in School.

Ernie thinks that we should teach searching in school, and not just Google.

Agreed. Students need to know how to search proprietary databases that their library subscribes to. They need to know how to search their online library catalog. Last, they need to understand that not everything is found on Google...Thanks Ernie for your important remarks.

[Library Stuff]

Yes, yes, yes!

Another quote from Ernie: "...maybe the problem with teaching Internet searching is that there aren't enough teachers who would know how to 'teach' this..."
7:08:33 AM [comment []];[]

Dumb or Dumber?
Does clicking make us dumb? No, but search engines do. Those of us who have been in the information literacy business pre and post-web have noticed subtle changes in behavior of end-users engaged in the "research" process. [SiteLines - Ideas About Web Searching]

Why we need to keep harping on the whole process with our students and teachers. As I've been meeting with the IB students doing research on their extended essays, I've been amazed at how few of them know about Boolean searching. They need to be aware that this is what's happening when they do a search on the OPAC, in a database, or in a search engine, whether they use the Boolean operators or not. We also need to work harder on the reflective part of the process.
6:50:51 AM [comment []];[]

After the Writing Test
Grading This Article? First, Take Time to Learn the Rules. At the reporters' grading session, about 100 teachers from across the country were paid $22 an hour to grade the 33,000 essays produced at a recent SAT II writing test. By Tamar Lewin. [New York Times: Education]

I proctored the SAT II exam last Saturday, and as I watched the students take the writing exam, I wondered how it could be graded. Now I know. It also makes me wonder if there has been any research done on the difference preparation can make on the grade for this exam. Do students who have the writing experience of IB classes do better? Does practice with any certain kind of writing technique help?
6:09:28 AM [comment []];[]

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards
The 2003 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature were given in the categories of fiction and poetry, nonfiction and picture books.

The picture book award went to Big Momma Makes the World by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Candlewick). In fiction, the winner was The Jamie and Angus Stories by Anne Fine, illustrated by Penny Dale (Candlewick), and the nonfiction winner was Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman (Putnam).

[from PW Daily, June 10, 2003]
5:26:47 AM [comment []];[]