Third Reference Librarian Observation

My third session with the school reference librarian occurred on October 15. I observed her on the final day of the Industrial Revolution movie project. Before class began, she was quite busy in a reference capacity attempting to assist a teacher in setting up her project in the library space. Although the librarian was not involved with the project per se, she spent a lot of time in the morning with the teacher, who was having a lot of trouble with her e-mail and printing (I was strongly reminded of our lesson plan unit in which we discussed always being prepared!!!).The responsibility of getting the computer and television/VCR set up ended up falling on the librarian. This came as no surprise, as during the interview, she mentioned to me to make sure to boost any technical skills I could. Apparently, she has become a bit of the “Go To Guru” for technology at the school. A couple of other reference issues she juggled before school began was scheduling space for a career resource program, and creating a responsibilities checklist for the library volunteers. Once class began, for this session, the librarian’s primary reference work was teaching and then assisting the students with the microphones for the narration of their parts of the movie. Reference issues included password management (a suspicious trend here), PhotoStory software questions, Creative Commons questions, and having the teacher from the morning pop into the computer lab a few more times for more answers about rewinding the VCR, and creating a link on the computer. During all this, the librarian managed to fix a couple of broken microphones and remind everyone of the importance of citation!When we were first assigned this project, I questioned whether shadowing a school librarian would be a benefit to my knowledge in a reference capacity. What a fool I was! I am beginning to see that a school librarian is bombarded with reference questions from the beginning of the day right up until the end (she has even mentioned getting reference questions in the restroom!). I have also appreciated this project in the sense of really getting a chance to see what “A Day in the Life of…” consists of for a school librarian.Although I am sad to not have seen the movie final project (I am supposed to be getting a link!), my next visit will involve a new project!

Second Reference Librarian Observation

My second observation of my school librarian occurred on October 9th. We met a little before school started for the day. Before homeroom began, the librarian fielded a few reference questions, and helped run the circulation desk. (I also checked student’s books out, and discovered that anime really is as popular as everyone has been saying!) The reference questions before school started involved a password management issue, scheduling with teachers, and a phone call that involved a student’s library privileges being revoked. I got the impression that this was a pretty typical reference morning.Once class started, the students began working on the on-line search aspect of their projects. Since we have just covered lesson plans in class, I was able to pick out many of our learning points as the librarian worked. First, she had a quick “What stuck?” session for a brief informal skill assessment. (While she did this, I answered my first reference question and looked up a computer password for a student). She then challenged the students to find a definition for copyright online in 60 seconds. As they did this, she walked around and noted the methods in which the students accepted the challenge. I thought this was a great way to get the students engaged and actively participating. At the end, she told the students how she would have done it (Google define: word), without forcing her way on to them. The students were able to apply this knowledge later to search other terms, but they were given the chance to try for themselves first, and evaluate their own way to search for a definition.Throughout the lesson, the students gained information knowledge on copyright, search methods, creative commons, and saving to a shared file. They were introduced to Wiki-media commons, Flickr, and United Streaming. Every time they moved to a new site, she reinforced to the students that the first thing to do when they found a usable source was to write down the citation. She also frequently did checks to make sure everyone was still together, by walking constantly around the room, looking at the screens, and also engaging the students with questions. At this point, it was a pleasure to observe that the students were really getting into their project- they really enjoyed conducting their search and making independent decisions of what pictures to use in their portion of the movie. The librarian also made a point to remind the students to analyze the pictures to determine how they would be organized. What a great way to help encourage their higher order thinking! The students were also encouraged to continue their search at home and save to a flash drive. At the end of class there was a brief discussion with the collaborating teacher. Both felt that too much time was spent on the information learning aspect and that the students did not have enough time for conducting their own search. They agreed that the plan would be slightly modified in the next period. I realized there may be a difficulty when collaborating with teachers- in some ways, the librarian and the teacher may have slightly separate goals, ie- history lesson versus citation lesson. I asked her if she has run into difficulty with teachers on this, and she felt that any problems she had encountered had been pretty mild. Overall, I felt this was a successful lesson plan, and though both instructors felt the need to tweak a little, in general, the students were able to learn in a rewarding, positive, and fruitful environment.

First Reference Librarian Observation

I have met with the school librarian who I am observing for my reference librarian observation. I met with the librarian once before, actually, to conduct some of the interview, but time flew and I would like to discuss and observe more with her before blogging about the interview. For this portion of observation, the librarian was collaborating with a history teacher on a unit researching the Industrial Revolution. The students will be in the library for a three step process for this project- the first part to use print resources, the second part to look at computer sources, and then the students will be creating a “movie” using PhotoStory. Each student is required to research and capture a specific portion of the period for their part of the movie. Overall, it was such a pleasure to do the observation. I genuinely felt that I was watching our readings in action. The librarian is highly interactive with her students. She did start the class off with a PowerPoint, but it was very brief, and she kept the students involved by asking a lot of questions, walking through the group, and complementing not just right answers, but also efforts at answering questions. One thing that she did that I thought was really great was that when she asked a question, the students responded not by a simple “Yes” or “No” but with standing up if you agree, holding up certain number of fingers depending on your answer, etc. I feel that it kept the students much more focused and interested. In her discussion portion of the class, she reviewed how to find key words, and how to know what type of information to look for. The students were filling out a Graphic Organizer based on a handout reading. I felt that the librarian was able to go over some basic points to make sure that everyone was “on the same page” without sounding redundant. She asked the students the questions, and utilized a “Thinkerboard” that students put their names onto for responding correctly. She reviewed how a thesaurus is organized and how to find both the information they needed for the report, and also what information was needed for citation and how to find it. I felt this was a good way to cover assessment needs, as some students wanted to look up Alexander Graham Bell under A (yes, this a junior high. Shocking, I know).After the lecture, the students paired up, and worked on the print resources together. Both the librarian and the history teacher circled throughout the class, offering guidance and keeping students on track. I was especially impressed when some boys (in a play to distract) asked her about her love for reading. She responded (briefly) about being read to frequently as a child, and then turned this into a short readers advisory reference moment by asking the boys what they enjoyed reading. This interaction only took a few moments, (not fooled by their tactics!) but now when these teenage boys come into her library, she will be ready with reading that will interest them. I appreciated that she treated them respectfully, but maintained their focus. During wrap-up, she asked students to hold up as many fingers as they had incomplete boxes on their Graphic Organizer (there were a total of 5). There was no admonition or criticism of those that accomplished nothing in the time period. The librarian merely pointed out that they would have a lot of work to complete independently before the next meeting. I felt this was a positive way to put the responsibility of learning in the hands of the students, without being judgmental. Overall, the class felt relaxed, and yet productive and respectful. I felt the students were at ease, and this was a positive learning environment. As the history teacher said, “This ain’t your momma’s library!” The librarian showed multiple reference librarian skills, from teaching to reader’s advisory to a quick password management question after the bell rang. I could see within just that one hour that the reference aspect of a school librarian is a continuous, multi-layered integral part of the job.