ETL402 – Module 3

Literature and the collection

Some interesting points were raised as part of this module and there are some things in here that I wish I had read before I did assignment one, but never mind, I know better now. There are four things I want to cover; promoting reading, fiction arrangement, censorship and e-books.

Promoting reading

            La Marca (2000) and Cremin (2010) have some very interesting things to say about promoting reading. At the school in which I work reading is the domain of the English faculty. And students are often surprised when I am able to talk to them about the novels they are reading. I take every opportunity I can to talk about books and find the best time is to catch the students as they are borrowing.

            To promote the idea of reading for pleasure the school has a programme called START – students and teachers all reading together. For twenty minutes each morning students and teachers must read a novel. The problem with this is that many students do not like to read and so come into the library of a morning and pick any old book to read. Another problem is the fact that it is silent reading and teachers and students are not really given any time to engage socially to discuss their novels.

            The school also has a student book club but it seems sporadic at best. Personally I would like to hold readings at lunch once a week but I don’t know if students would even turn up.

Fiction arrangement

            As I am currently rearranging non-fiction I don’t have all that much to add here. In the school library I work in fiction can be found in five places – the general fiction section, graphic novels, quick reads and classics. I also have weekly displays of selected fiction such as books turned into films. New books also have there own front on display. If I could I would have all the fiction face out – students are much more interested in a book when they can see its cover.

Censorship

I have written about this before but I guess that it is something that hangs over the heads of all teacher-librarians. I am of the opinion that you cannot please everyone, and that just because one person might not like a text it doesn’t mean it has no place in the library.

Because I am in a high-school, and because it is a catholic girls’ high-school I feel like I often walk a very fine line between what is appropriate and acceptable and what is not. If I ever buy a book that I consider a little controversial I stick a ‘senior fiction’ tag on it and shelve it in that section. I feel like that covers me a little if I am ever challenged. The problem is though that I do not police the section. If a junior chooses to borrow a senior fiction book I let them.

Censorship is hard because everyone has the right to read whatever they choose but in a school situation there are certain values one must uphold.

E-books

            I must admit I haven’t really worked out how to ‘do’ e-books in the school library. Our technology is not that crash hot and so sometimes I think they will be wasted. However, more and more teachers and students have ipads and iphones and e-book readers and I should be moving with the times. In the interim, until I can figure them out, I have subscribed to World Book Online Advanced which has its own e-book library for students to download. They are mostly old classics and the such but it seems like a good place to start.

ETL505 – Topic Four

Metadata Standards

                    

I must admit that I still do not fully understand cataloguing rules and ways to write bibliographic descriptions. I find it hard to follow both the terminology and punctuation. (This is probably going to make the second assignment rather difficult).

What I do understand, however, is the why. Why it is so important to have descriptions, why it is so important to have standards and why there is a shift from AACR2 to RDA.

I think Kirkland’s (2010) article sums up well the implications of and reasons these changes are occurring. As with all education things these days, bibliographic description needs to become more user-centred and user-friendly. She makes the point that a shift to an online format, with generic descriptions for all types of resources will make for more relevant library OPACs.

Chapman’s (2010) article further highlights the need for change. It seems silly to me to restrict descriptions of format because it doesn’t fit, or to not even have links between the same text because format is different. Again the generic-ness of RDA descriptions that take format into account in different ways seems so much better.

I guess what I am discovering is that AACR2 seems to be cataloguer and budget friendly, while RDA is much more user/student/searcher friendly. And if the whole point of the library and the Teacher-Librarian is to meet the needs of users/students I say bring it on.