The Library is My Happy Place

My initial inquiry into resources related to information literacy led me to an article by Copeland and Jacobs in the journal Teacher Librarian entitled, "The power of collaboration between school librarian and classroom teacher". This article describes a successful collaborative relationship where a teacher librarian and classroom teacher taught students research skills to elementary school students. Copeland and Jacobs write, "the school librarian and teacher planned the unit together, determining student goals related to social studies content, information literacy skills, and communicator/collaborator skills." (Copeland & Jacobs, 2017, p 23). One reason this article is an excellent source is that it lists challenges that teachers may face when considering collaboration and offers possible solutions. As I'd had success finding articles on my chosen topic of information literacy in the journal Teacher Librarian, I narrowed my search within the L...

I am old enough to clearly remember using a card catalog when working on research projects. Library research has changed dramatically since I was in elementary school. Back in the 80s, when flipping through the cards in the catalog, the only books I would have seen would have been library books that had been selected by a trained librarian. Nowadays, students searching on the internet are likely to be overwhelmed with resources of varying quality and reliability. A trained teacher librarian can teach information literacy skills that will help students find what they need and assess the information they discover. I have spent time studying this topic in previous courses (see my symbaloo webmix on digital literacy created a year ago), but I feel that it is a vital topic that is worth revisiting.  UBC Library By searching for information literacy on the UBC Library website, I was overloaded with over 350,000 journal articles, nearly 325,000 newspaper articles, 125,00...

As a first-year teacher librarian, I feel like there are dozens of topics that I would like to research further and it's challenging to narrow down my research focus to just one. I will do my best to weigh my options and select an essential question that will immediately be put to use in my teaching practice. I have just started a job at an elementary school in Vancouver and I will be working with students from kindergarten through Grade 7. My position is a job share and I will be working closely with my teaching partner to make decisions about the library. My main priority at this time is developing relationships with students and staff and learning about the school community. I know I will be collaborating with classroom teachers in order to support students in researching their inquiry projects this year. I feel that building my knowledge of information literacy and library skills (e.g. effective internet searching, using databases, spotting "fake news") would be...

As the name of my blog suggests, the library is my happy place. I love being surrounded by books and having the time to browse the shelves and find new resources. I can't see myself ever giving up print books. However, I also do a significant amount of information gathering online and am comfortable searching digital resources for the answers I need. It likely won't surprise you to know that I was born in 1977, the year that Riedling declares as the generational divide in our text, Reference Skills for the School Librarian. I have one foot in the print world and one foot in the digital world. I can remember using card catalogues and microfiches and I also use online databases and have been blogging for over a decade. I was amused when I read that my generation was dubbed the Oregon Trail Generation in a Social Media Week article by Anna Garvey .  I can't be the only one who remembers playing this game in elementary school! I'm comfortable using both print and d...