ETL402 – Module Two

Diversity in Children’s Literature

I really enjoyed reading about all the different, established and emerging genres in children’s literature. But already working in a library I feel I know a lot about this already.

It takes me back to something from the first module, that is that we were all children once and therefore have our own ideas about what it is or should be like. In light of this and with what I said last module I still read young adult fiction and still feel like a young adult, even if I am twenty-four.

I guess the really good thing about this module is that it has helped me to understand the first assignment a little better. It was hard to think about how children’s literature cold be used to promote anything other than literacy.

Now I feel better equipped to start my literature search for that assessment.

Just a side note that I feel I must add – with all this reading about children’s literature to do I have barely any time to actually read children’s literature!!

ETL505 – Topic Three

Introducing Metadata

I really like metadata. I totally get its purpose and usefulness and am slowly starting to see what the point of this subject is. I can also see how this fits in with the first assignment and so I say hooray for metadata.

It is obvious from the Milstead and Feldman (1999) reading that while metadata is an awesome thing it is highly problematic when there is no regulation of “how to write down the descriptive information and what to write down” (p.26).

For me one of the biggest problems associated with searching is that you don’t always know what you are looking for. Metadata deals with this quite well, however, it does depend on the fields included in that data.

ETL402 – Module One

Children’s Literature

Well I have finally started the reading for this unit, and despite my protests and phobia of long readings it wasn’t as nearly as difficult as I thought.

So my ideas…

Up front this unit asks you to consider what is a child and childhood and therefore what is children’s literature? I think that in terms of a generally acknowledged definition and one that is easy to understand saying that a child is anyone zero to eighteen years old seems pretty satisfactory. I guess the problem with that is though that there are many different capabilities and levels within that broad range. An eighteen year old is not necessarily going to be thinking or acting like a five year old. This has ramifications when one tries to define children’s literature. One thing that really stood out for me is that everyone, and children specifically, should be “reading literature according to their physical and intellectual capacities” (Winch, 2006, p.399).

So what then is children’s literature? I think that it is anything written or created for ‘children’. It would deal with issues that engage and concern the 0-18 year-old’s. just like adult literature it is broken up into genres, but rather than just going by theme so to speak, it is also broken up according to those physical and intellectual capabilities. So not only do you have romance, but you also have tween, teen, pre-school etc. And even though it may be divided this ageist way, it doesn’t mean you cannot read outside your age group to suit your capabilities and needs.

This debate reminds me of some trouble I have been having with manga. Each series is given a rating but I find those rated ‘older teen’ are actually more suited to adults. It is interesting to see what is acceptable to the Japanese compared to what I think is acceptable for a high school full of Catholic girls in Australia.

I was also struck by an issue raised in two of the readings to do with an article by Zipes (2009). The question is raised of whether new technology is ‘dulling children’s senses’ and whether images are going to be more important than words. Zipes seems to think that this is a massive problem, but is it really? If children are becoming more digitised why shouldn’t the literature they read reflect and engage them through the media they like. Again it comes back to the manga/graphic novel thing. I cannot buy enough of these for the school library, students will read them over and over and even out of order because they like the style and format. This doesn’t mean I have stopped buying traditional novels, it has just led to more borrowing and reading – a good thing I think.

ETL505 – Topic Two

 Information Retrieval Tools

Now I understand why librarians have outsourced this whole cataloguing and bibliographic description thing – if this made up the core of my work I don’t think I would be a teacher-librarian any more.

I have never really thought about why things are catalogued the way they are or how it was developed. For me, all I think about is ease of access to information.

And I guess that is the whole point of this unit…

But it is so dull.

I don’t need to know how or why it works as long as it does work.

It's beginning to get to me...

You might be mistaken from reading my blogs so far this semester that I am only undertaking two units. In fact I am studying three but have not posted anything for 402 yet.
Why is this you might ask?
Well not only am I a great procrastinator I have just been utterly overwhelmed by all the information we have been given for 402. Every time I look at interact it hurts my eyes. I have no idea where I should start.
Really it should be my best and most favourite subject. Even though I no longer fit the age bracket, teen literature is still something I deliberately choose to read. This is not because I work with and for teens but rather because I actually enjoy reading it.
And so as I set out to put it off a little longer I wonder why I chose three units in the first place.

ETL501 – Topic 2

Print and electronic information

I think the most interesting thing that I read as part of this module was the Ballard (2008) article. As I read about the web interface they created for their library all I could think was ‘I WANT ONE’. What a brilliant and ingenious solution to the reference debate! Accessible and available all the time, for me it encapsulates the purpose of a library – that is to provide the information when it is needed.

As for the reference debate itself I think it is becoming less and less relevant. At the school I am working in currently we have just integrated most of the reference section into non-fiction. It can now be borrowed for two weeks just like everything else. All that is left in the ‘reference section’ are sets of books and anything that doesn’t fit on the shelves. This was done for a couple of reasons. Really I think that if a student needs a book why shouldn’t they be able to borrow it? What makes some information so special that it cannot leave the library? Secondly, we have just subscribed to World Book Online and it is my hope that students will use this in place of the reference section. We chose this resource because of its ease of use and accessibility outside school hours. I think that for the idea of a reference section to make it into the future it needs to be called something else, something that takes into account the ideas of accessibility, authoritativeness and compendium.

Is Wikipedia then a reference work? I always direct students they’re at the beginning of their research process. It should be viewed as a general source, a place to go when you know nothing about a topic. Then once you have a basic understanding you move on to more reliable and specific sources.

ETL 505 – Topic One

 The need for information resource description

The very first things that this module asks us to do is question why we are even studying the unit. And I must admit it offers little in the way of solutions. The module stresses the importance of getting it right, of sorting materials and placing them in the correct place with the right description etc. It also stresses the idea that this is a specialist job, one that would take up too much of a teacher-librarians time. So I am still a little hazy about why I need to know it.

I was interested to read that archives, museums and libraries are like cousins, or perhaps even siblings. The Rayward (1995) paper suggests that their differences stem from their function and purpose and this makes a lot of sense to me.

I think it also links to why teacher-librarians need to know about all this. The reasons users search is different and understanding how, why and where information is kept can help TL’s help users.

One thing that took me a while to understand was the Hensen (2001) quote. So many big words, so many meta concepts.

In my own words I think he is saying

“cataloguing is primarily about content not form”

And I think that is something that is often forgotten. Usually I just search for one specific thing, especially at school when asked by teachers and students for help. So when they say have you got a book on ‘x’ that is all I look for. When really I should be looking for ‘x’ in all its forms.

So I guess I do understand why we need to learn this after all. If I can understand how information is described, and placed better I will be better able to retrieve and use it, and also better able to help others with this process.

Personally I think information needs to be organised effectively because that is the way I like it. In a library sense the information needs to be visible and easily accessed. It is also a way of selecting and sorting the resources one acquires. Twice this year novels have come into the library that are somewhat inappropriate for the context and users. So what happens to them? A senior fiction sticker is stuck on the spine and I can use it to remind me to quiz kids about their grade level before they borrow it. Can senior fiction be searched through the school catalogue though? The answer is no.

ETL501 - Topic One

The learning and teaching context

Beginning this unit with this topic has reinforced to me the ideas of what the focus of teacher-librarianship should be – and that is teaching and learning.

However, I am not sure that information provider is the most fitting term for this role. Information specialist is perhaps better, but my favourite role description for teacher-librarian is teacher.

                Some interesting points were made in the first chapter of Herring’s (2011) text the most pressing of which I think is the conflict between the concepts of the purpose of education and the purpose of school. These are important as depending on which is in focus the question of ‘what is learning?’ can have different answers.

                I agree with the point that 21^st century teaching needs to be based on a constructivist model and think that the main aim of this should be as Herring (2011) says to encourage, foster and develop information literacy in students. With the myriad of information sources available to young people today, and the multiple stimuli they are constantly in contact with, it seems to me that engaging them, through their own knowledge and interests, is the only way to go. It is key that teaching has a “clear focus on what students learn, how they learn and what teaching strategies will be most effective” (p.11) and that teacher-librarians have the same.