LIBE 467 Blog #3

Introduction

As Teacher Librarians (TLs) we have the responsibility not only to teach teachers and students on how to find information but also that some information is more valid and reliable than others.  There are many levels (i.e. Deep Web, Superficial Web, and Dark Web) to the internet and we need to make sure they know how to access the information so that they can get the necessary results. In addition, it is just as important to provide information through print and digital resources. A balance between digital and print resources is critical to helping students and teachers with the curriculum. TLs need to collaborate with teachers to ensure they have the resources necessary to teach and reinforce the curriculum. 

Video Source

Deep Web

It is important to teach students about the Deep Web and Grey Literature and the value of our digital resources. Google searches contain less than 10% of the information that is available (Armand Valdes) and "Google will often have false positive hits- content that matches your query but is not relevant to your search" (Asbury University, Kinlaw Library). TLs need to inform teachers and students that there is more information that can be accessed through the digital resources that are not accessible through Google searches. In addition, TLs must teach students to validate the information they find (on Google, Youtube, etc). TLs and teachers must educate students on how they can find reliable results!

Databases
As I used the UBC catalogued, I realized that my search was limited by my ability to elaborate on a topic which is similar to how students experience searching too. Using Google for searches doesn't require too much background knowledge. You can put one word that relates to the subject and Google will give you results. However, we need to be careful because Google gives a lot of false positive results making you think you can get a lot of information quickly but it doesn't always mean that it is the information you need. When searching in databases, you have to figure out the right wording for the database to retrieve the right information. This process can be challenging for students. Therefore, we need to make sure that we scaffold this process by helping students with getting some background knowledge before searching. 

Encyclopedias
Berinstein mentions in the article The Kid's All Right (And So's the Old Man): "Wikipedia's users are potentially everyone under the sun". We need to remember these credentials when teaching our students and be prepared to arm them with the right tools to sort out these sources. It's undeniable that our students will and are using free-citizen built encyclopedias (Wikipedia). This is not a bad thing. Harris states that studies have shown that Wikipedia "is reasonably accurate as a general knowledge source". It's a great place to start but serious research projects cannot cite general knowledge encyclopedias. Students will still need to get information from more specialized, accredited sources!

As stated above, we need to teach them to evaluate the Wikipedia page by looking at other sources to confirm their new knowledge. Harris suggests that students need to have at least 3 sources to verify their research.


Dictionaries and Thesaurus
I believe that maintaining print versions of Dictionaries and Thesauri are important because:
- not all students have access to technology from their classrooms

- if you have some devices, students would have to spend time logging into their devices
- classrooms share devices
- not all students have cellphones

Image Source

Placement of the Dictionaries and Thesauri in the classrooms and Library Learning Commons (LLC) is critical to improving accessibility. The classroom or place where students do their work would be the best home for these resources since students need fast and quick access to them.


Atlases and Geographical resources
Finding an acceptable currency is harder than one would imagine. Especially when Riedling suggests a shelf life of 5 years. Depending on what you need the resource for will determine whether the TL suggests an online source or a print source. A print atlas source demands that students know how to use indexes. The BC Digital Classroom resources are curated by specialists and are updated in real time. Both digital and print sources are necessary for the LLC!

Conclusion
This term consisted of a lot of new material. It wasn't that I did not know about what we were learning at all. It was that I hadn't considered the implications of how they affect the students and teachers. For example, I hadn't considered that Google searches only access 10% of the information on the web. This is why teaching students and teachers to use our digital resources is so much more important. Our digital resources provide information outside the 10%. I also never considered how quickly maps and geographical resources become outdated (every 5 years). I'd rather have a few current resources than a bunch of outdated ones. Finally, I am motivated to reinstate a reference resource section in the LLC. I'd like to take time to focus and teach teachers and students how to use these resources and benefit from their ability to use them. 

Citations

Armand Valdes. Mashable Explains the Deep Web?. YouTube. 17 Mar. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UOK7aRmUtw

Asbury University, Kinlaw Library. Finding Information on the Wed: Invisible Web. August 14th, 2019. https://asbury.libguides.com/c.php?g=65758&p=424014

Berinstein, P. (2006). Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid's All Right (And So's the Old Man). Searcher 14(3), 16-26.

Harris, C. (2007). Can we make peace with Wikipedia? School Library Journal, 53(6), 26.

Riedling, A. M., & Houston, C. (2019). Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 4th Edition. Libraries Unlimited.

Assignment 3 School Library Learning Commons Reference sources' evaluation

Our school is even more challenging to evaluate and collect resources since it is a triple track school. It includes: early French Immersion, Late French Immersion, and English tracks. It is currently the home away from home to approximately 400, K- grade 7 students. The Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) for Teacher Librarians (TLs) is determined by the number of students (i.e. 400 students = 1.0 FTE).

The reference materials section in our school has been eliminated from the Library Learning Commons (LLC). All of the resources have been weeded with the exception of a few. Those few resources have been added to the shelves in their designated Dewey location for patron circulation. Other reference resources have been relocated to classrooms; such as: dictionaries, thesauri, and a few atlases. 

What We Have

In turn, the school's reference collection section can be found completely online, within our digital resources. Our digital resources are carefully curated by BC Digital Classrooms from Focused Education Resources. Focused Education Resources curates and evaluates the digital resources for all the public schools of British Columbia which come from the BC Digital Classroom collection. 

The digital reference resources that are available to all students in our district include the following (as curated by the BC Digital Classrooms):

*SD 38 Library Learning Commons Digital Resources

In addition, students have access to information by accessing the internet through the provided devices. For example, students can search Wikipedia, Youtube, DuckDuckGo (an online search engine that does not track your searches, nor keeps any of your information) and more.

For more information click on the search engines below:

*Youtube home page

*Wikipedia home page

*DuckDuckGo main page for information on the kind of search engine they offer

Evaluation

I will evaluate the resources above using the suggestions from our class materials and readings (i.e. accuracy, scope, bias, and cost). Most of the resources have the option of picking another language (i.e. French). For this paper I will evaluate the English resources, for the students in the English track. 

Accuracy	Scope	Bias	Cost
Excellent because the resources are part of the BC Digital Classroom resources collected and curated by Focused Education Resources which is gathered by specialists.	- is accessible from any digital device anywhere and anytime - Resources are available in other languages (especially French and English since we are a triple track school) - kept current as they are updated in real time - offer cross curricular resources - resources for every age group (e.g. Wold Book)	Some of the resources can have American bias by excluding relevant information even though the resources are curated by BC Classrooms. For example, I typed Truth and Reconciliation Day on World Book and it had no information but in Historica there was.  For more Canadian specific information, students should use other sources to confirm their findings (e.g. Learn 360, Curio.ca, Historica, Canadian Biography, and Know BC)	According to an interview with my district TL; the cost of these resources is high but the value exceeds the cost. Purchasing in this format allows the district to share the cost rather than purchasing print versions for every school. Especially since each item has several volumes in order to contain the amount of information that is offered through our digital resources. The cost of the digital resources ends up coming out to be approximately $1-$2 per student.

Rationale

According to the assessment above, our digital reference resources more than meet the requirements to provide information to students. However, our physical reference resources are lacking since there is no designated section in the LLC for them and since the few that are circulating may be outdated. As stated by Caldwell and Carefoot, TLs need to plan for the purchase of a wide variety of learning resources formats, including print, non-print and electronic resources.

Rationale for purchasing more print reference resources:

- It is part of the curricular competencies for all grade levels to do research inquiry lessons/projects.

- Our school does not have enough digital devices for more than 4 classes to use at any given time. It's not enough devices for 18 divisions. Especially if different classes need the devices at the same time.

- It's considered "exemplary" for teachers to have physical materials on hand in order to meet the diverse needs and interests of students (Riedling, 2013).

- We need to respond to student and teacher needs (Canadian Library Association, 2014).

Plan 

This plan has several elements discussed in lesson 6 (stages in collection development), where Richard Beaudry discusses the steps for evaluating resources in Ray Dorian's article.

1. Form a Library Committee. From my other LIBE course I have learned that one of the most important things to do before deciding what to do in your LLC is to establish a Library Committee. In fact, Doug Johnson stated in his article how he drew more people into the LLC after he established a committee.

2. Get circulation data of existing reference material.

3. At a staff meeting inform teachers that you will be establishing a Library Committee to help you make decisions for creating and maintaining the LLC, including a reference resource section. At the staff meeting, teachers will be informed that we will spend a small part of our up coming pro-d filling out surveys to help the Library Committee find out where to allocate funding for the reference resources. In addition, we will include questions on which reference resources they will use and which inquiry topics they usually cover in class.

4. Collect the surveys and meet with the Library Committee to decide how to fill the gap of reference resources. What will the section look like? Which classes need sets of dictionaries, thesauri and atlases? Which is better, class sets or small sets?

5. Before making any purchases the Library Committee will have to figure out how much funding they have in the budget and how much they want to allocate to reference resources. Since these are more costly resources, the purchasing might have to be done slowly to spread the budget or move onto next year's budget. 

6. Once the reference resources section is established, the TL will do a mini orientation during book exchanges so students know about this new section. Students will be able to take these out to maximize circulation (Beaudry, 2023). However, teachers can place reference books on hold in advance for inquiry projects/lessons.

Conclusion 

I believe that with time and the plan stated above, the LLC will be a place students can come to and find reference resources quickly. For easy access there will be a special section for these books. In addition, the TL will rotate the resources on display by casing them to teachers and students. Most importantly, by creating a space for resources in both settings (physical print and digital) we are catering to individual differences in learning styles, abilities, needs and interests. 

Citations

R. Rubio, personal communication, March 7th, 2023. 

Canadian Library Association (CLA), 2014. The Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.  https://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/. Retrieved on March 19th, 2023.

SD 38 Library Learning Commons Digital Resources. https://libraries.sd38.bc.ca/student-elementary. Retrived March 25th, 2023. 

Riedling, A. & Houston, C. (2013). Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips (3rd ed.) Libraries Unlimited.

Caldwell and Carefoot. Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada ail110217.pdf. Retrieved March 28th, 2023.

Doiron, Ray. 2002. School libraries in Canada and Ministry of Education materials. Vol. 21 No. 4. 

Johnson, D. (2012). Twenty + Years of Working with Advisory Groups. Blue Skunk Blog.

Beaudry, Richard. Theme Three course work material. Retrieved March 28th, 2023.

Collaborating with Teachers to Evolve their Practice

As facilitators of change in the school system, Teacher Librarians (TLs) need to be familiar with how teachers perceive change and how to adjust to help them create change (Oris, Intro to CBAM). The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) can be used by TLs to help teachers who are wanting to change aspects of their practice. The model contains seven stages of concern and seven levels of use. This is a crucial skill for TLs. TLs are responsible for :”facilitating collaborative engagement to cultivate and empower a community of learners” and “cultivating effective instructional design to co-plan, teach and assess learning” (C.L.A., 2014) in order to support student and teacher growth.

*Above is a video supporting the importance and benefits of collaboration between TLs and teachers. 

As a TL I have to be receptive to teachers' concerns and questions regarding the delivery and resources for curriculum implementation. For this report, I will look at two separate cases. Explain the teacher’s pedagogy and how I can help improve their pedagogy using the CBAM process from the tables below. “The Concerns- Based Adoption Model addresses each one of these assumptions: the individual’s concerns about an innovation, the particular manner in which the innovation is delivered or implemented, and the adaptation of the innovation to the individual” (Oris and Huang, Into to CBAM).

Every term I give teachers the option of collaborating for at least one term. Each teacher can sign up for one term and pick one or two blocks per week to collaborate.

Jonathan

Jonathan is one of our English grade 6/7 teachers. He approached me wanting to teach students how to do research online. He wanted me to come to his class to promote and explain why students should use our digital resources instead of copying from Google and Youtube. 

He is very confident with technology. He knows about the biases of researching and his student’s tendency to use information that may be unreliable and false. I remember discussing in another LIBE course how most students use Google for research. Google can give you a multitude of results but it's up to the students to decide which ones to choose. My friend was telling me how she showed her class an untrue video (Spaghetti grows on trees) from Youtube and it was so persuasive that some of the students believed it was true.

*Videos by BBC on April Fool's Day: Spaghetti grows on trees.

Experiences and methods

He had the students do research on the school Ipads. He let students pick what they wanted to learn more about and had them research. He didn’t put any requirements on the type of sources they used. He supervised the process and questioned the students if they had unreliable sources in their project.

Taking Jonathan to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice

His Stage of Concern is a level one: Informational, because he did not know the digital resources that were available through our Library Learning Commons (LLC) and wanted to find out how students could use them. His Level of Use is also a level one: Orientation, because he is taking the initiative to ask and learn more about the digital resources we have on our website.

I created a plan following the chart above on relationships between level of concern and level of use. We met and discussed the resources that were available and how the students could use them. This moved him from level one Stage of Concern to level two: Personal, because we discussed how students will have better resources to get information from. Consequently, this moved him from Level of Use level one to level two: Preparation to teach students the digital resources they could use because they are curated sources from specialists.

After our meeting he picked four different sources to teach the students so that they would use it in their projects. This means that his Stage of Concern is at a management level because he is collecting and planning to present it to the students and Level of Use has changed to mechanical level.

After our meeting/planning, Jonathan taught his class all he knew about the digital resources. The class went on to explore them and use at least one digital resource in their project. I noticed that this put him in level four, Stage of Concern: Consequence because he supervised how the students explored the digital resources and made sure students understood the resources they had available to them. This places him into Level of Use four: Routine because he has made some changes and established using the new found resources for the project.

Sherryl

Sherryl is a very kind and patient teacher. This is her first year of teaching and despite doing her best, she feels overwhelmed. She has a very challenging class, with students who need a lot of support at school. In addition to being her first year and the challenges in her class, our district has taken the initiative to focus on literacy. The literacy district specialists have developed a pillar system for teachers to follow with lessons and guides that will optimize the delivery of the curriculum and help students.


Experiences and methods

After attending a professional development on the “Pillars of Literacy”, Sherryl became more overwhelmed and confused about the process. Her experience and methods with this innovation are at a level two Stage of Concern: Informational because she would like to know more about the pillars and how to implement them. Her Level of Use is level one: Orientation because she wants to learn more.

*The Pillars of Literacy as they appear on the district portal.

Taking Sherryl to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice

When we met to plan our unit, she communicated how she felt overwhelmed and asked if I could take charge of the unit to demonstrate how one would use the pillars resources to teach the literacy unit.

We began by developing a class profile in which we discussed her student’s strengths and stretches. Her students are within a wide spectrum. Some students are below grade level in reading and writing, some are proficient and a couple are above grade level.

As I went through the lessons, Sherryl began to get a better idea on how to incorporate and lead the use of the innovation. This is when Sherryl moved to level three Stage of Concern: management because it's where she organized and gathered information on how to teach the innovation she was learning (from my modeling). Before each lesson we would discuss what the lesson would look like, why we were doing it and how it was going to help the students. I would include her in the planning of following lessons by asking her opinion on various lesson ideas. Sherryl’s Level of Use was level three: Mechanical because she organized how she would use the innovation.

Second term following a professional development day Sherryl reported to me that she refined her lessons and understood how to implement them better. She came up with ways to adapt her teaching. This moved her level four Stage of Concern to consequence and her Level of Use to level four: Routine and Refinement.

Conclusion

As a TL, using the CBAM approach with teachers that I am collaborating with will help me recognize the Stages of Concern and Levels of Use that they are experiencing. Knowing that will help me move them along to higher levels of concern/use. All teachers have their own special set of skills. They bring these special skills to collaboration and it is respectful to acknowledge those skills while encouraging them to try something new. I am very proud of Sherryl and Jonathan for being extremely organized and committed teachers who are trying to keep up with the needs of their 21st century learners.



Citations

Oris, Alex. Intro to CBAM – Concerns-Based Adoption Model. sites.google.com/site/ch7cbam/home/introduction.

Canadian Library Association (CLA). The Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. 2014 Ottawa ON, Canada: Canadian Library Association’s Voices For School Libraries Network and the CLA School Libraries Advisory.

Loucks-Horsley, S. (1996). The concerns-based adoption model (CBAM): A model for change in individuals. Retrieved from https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/731/2015/07/CBAM-explanation.pdf

Richmond School District No. 38 Portal. Pillars of Literacy 3-5. https://portal.sd38.bc.ca/group/41bjggo/Pages/default.aspx#/=. Retrieved February 28th, 2023. 

BBC: Spaghetti- Harvest in Tocino. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU&t=88s. Retrieved February 28th, 2023.

Heraper, Sue. “Teacher Librarians and Classroom Teachers: Collaborative Partners.”, 5 Mar. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyYKkh0n7Vg. Retrieved February 28th, 2023.

LIBE 467 Blog 2

Introduction

The position of a Teacher Librarian (TL) is composed of many roles and tasks. Despite being the only TL in one school, the position is nothing but lonely. The TL has the opportunity to create relationships with support for those in the school. Instead of working in one class, TLs have the chance to create meaningful connections with the same students over and across their elementary school years. Below is a summary of how I will use Theme Two to guide my practice.

The reference interview
Teacher Librarians (TLs) have the responsibility “to assist students in the use of the library and its collection.” (Riedling, 2019. Pp. 99). TLs can do this through “Reference interviews”. Even though, Reidling’s requirement for having interviews may not always be possible as it is hard to find quiet places. We can conduct reference interviews while collaborating with teachers or during book exchanges with the purpose of helping students find what they seek. The interactions between the TL and students should be happening all the time anyways. This develops a relationship where students will feel comfortable bringing up any questions. 
I like that Riedling divided them into three types of reference interviews: ready reference interviews, research project interviews, and reader's advisory. 

Cooperative program planning and teaching for personalized inquiry

Supporting reference skills through cooperative program planning and teaching ensures all students have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to access and use a wide variety of reference sources. Lesson 5 provides a number of ways in which I can promote reference sources:

1. Give all students the opportunity to develop skills to access and use a variety of reference sources

2. Show students the advantages and disadvantages of using one reference source over another

3. Give students direction on how to use the sources without making assumptions about their skills and abilities to use the sources

4. Reference centres so students walk through several formats

5. Have students compare and contrast information taken from several sources to determine the  importance of authority, bias, currency, etc.

6. Have them distinguish between ready reference and in-depth research

7. Search Curricular Competencies that develop research reference skills

8. Promote reference skills at every level

9. Show colleges the value of using reference resources in all formats

10. Develop creative assignments that require students to develop good questioning strategies

Role of the teacher librarian

The gold standard for all TLs is collaboration as explained in the Leading Learning document. This way we can work with teachers in various projects, at various levels of depth and assist them with the LLC's (Library Learning Commons) resources to best supply students and their projects. Within this course and many other LIBE courses I have come to learn that a TLs role within a school consists of many tasks. When funding is at a deficit the TL is one that is often in question for elimination which is why TLs need to be viewed as a valuable asset. If you change “the perception of instruction in the school library to relevant tasks developed to support curricular standards further creates a perception of indispensability and expertise” (Burns, E.A., 2018). 

Managing the reference collection
The city of Greater Victoria district has created a description for TLs to follow. They have divided the description into three sections: Program and instruction, learning resource management, leadership in resource based learning. All three sections will impact the managing and organization of reference materials. For example, providing leadership and promoting strategies for the effective use of a wide variety of learning resources which support and extend the curriculum; requires students to develop “information skills”.

In addition, managing the reference collection is determined by the budget. When budget and time are limited Riedling states that “the primary consideration is providing teachers and students with easy access to a high-quality collection”. Without a fantastic collection we won't have the resources we need for teachers and students to use.

(Achieving Information Literacy)

In Achieving Information Literacy, they recommend the following strategies for the budget process:

Evaluating reference services
In the document Achieving Information Literacy they provide standards for assessing your reference collection. TLs could use these standards to decide which books to weed and how to replace them with more valuable resources.

There are three categories:

Below Standard Resources	Acceptable Standard Resources	Exemplary Standards Resources
provides limited opportunities for reading and learning Materials support few areas of curriculum Don’t meet student needs Little materials for student interest Little balance is reflected among print, non print and electronic resources Materials are not available to all users Not current Wedding infrequently Little to no access to information resources beyond school hours Not sufficient budget	Available in and or through the school library  provides students and teachers with opportunities for resource based learning Collection reflects needs of people Balance of print, non print and digital resources Mostly current and in good repair Selected according to district adopted and approved selection policies Weed on a regular basis Access beyond school through electronic information networks Sufficient funding Program requirements are met Innovative learning resources are available and in school access to digital resources is possible	available in and or accessible through the school library provides students and teachers with opportunities for resource based learning. (i.e. Includes: development of literacy skills, reading, listening, viewing, curriculum implementation, for meeting the diverse/interest of students) organized and circulated through the school library. Available to all users. Materials are current Selected according to district adopted, board approved selection policies Balance among print, non print and digital Dated, worn and missing materials are replaced immediately Sufficient funding to support resource based teaching and learning and a wide range of teaching and learning styles Innovative learning resources are available and access to digital resources is possible from home and school

 

Conclusion

The roles and responsibilities in Theme Two really speak to me. Even though others have told me how the role of a TL can be a lonely one, I feel it will be anything but. It will give me the chance to work with teachers and their classes; get to know students across grade levels and give me the chance to form meaningful connections. I look forward to collaborating with teachers and helping them strengthen their practice through my support and LLC's resources!

Citation

Burns, E. A. (2018). Advocating for Change in School Library Perceptions. Teacher Librarian.

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading Learning:  Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Available:  http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/llsop.pdf

Riedling, A. M., & Houston, C. (2019). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips (4th ed.). Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC CLIO, LLC.

Beaudry, Richard. Theme Two course work material. Retrieved February 6th, 2023. 

Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada ail110217.pdf. P. 26-27.

LIBE 467: Assignment 1: Evaluation of a reference work

 “Human society has become more global than ever before; therefore, recent geographical resources are a necessity.”- Rieldling, p. 79

Introduction

A lot of our physical reference materials have been weeded or relocated to classrooms. Dictionaries serve a better purpose in the classrooms than in the School Library Learning Commons. I have noticed that over the years, physical reference material has shifted to digital forms instead. There are many reasons for this. A lot has to do with the breakthrough in the digital era and the abundance of digital resources at our fingertips. Other reasons range from budget restrictions and utilizing the budget for more valuable resources. However, students still value and appreciate physical material. For primary students, it is easier to use. Especially maps. There is something special about learning a new place or places; opening a huge atlas to find the various cities, lakes, rivers, etc. To see the terrain we live in. After all, being able to read a map can be crucial to getting somewhere. You never know when your GPS service goes down!

Part 1: Evaluative review of "The Usborne Inter-Linked, Essential Atlas of the World" resource

I have followed the criteria in Appendix 1 to evaluate this resource. Geographic sources may be evaluated using many of the same criteria as other reference sources. (Riedling, 2019)

Relevancy and authority- Minimal Standards

• Below Standards for two reasons: the author has newer editions and because there are few reviews for this book.
• This atlas was written by Stephanie Turnbull and published by a reliable company named Usborne Publishing Ltd. The Usborne company was established approximately 50 years ago (https://usborne.com/ca_en/about-us) and has many specialists that work to make these books. Currently, there are only two reviews that I could find. They were on amazon.
• I think it’s because there are more updated versions of this kind of resource. People are gravitating to buying newer versions than these old ones. 

*Reviews of the Usborne Atlas

Purpose and content scope- Minimal Standards

• The cost is expensive ($24.12 on amazon)

• It includes digital resources through links

• Costs slightly more than similar resources

• Clear purpose to inform without advertising and bias

• Clear navigation table of contents/comprehensive index/glossary available

• Maps are drawn to scale and scale is clearly defined and it is appropriate for intended audience

Currency- Minimal Standards

• published more than 5 years ago 

• Some information is out of date

• Relates to some other resources already in the library

For example:

Curricular connection- Minimum Standards

• resource meets some aspects of the new BC curriculum

• May not fit every grade level but most

• Resource meets some diverse student needs and learning styles

• Resource somewhat reflects student interests and cultural background of student’s population

*The picture above may not depict a true image of the Inuit people.

Efficient use of library space- Minimal Standards

• Resource fits easily on one shelf

• Resource may be accessed outside of the library (in a classroom) by students and teachers

Part 2: Evaluative review of a replacement reference resource

Upon doing extensive research and reading several reviews, I have decided to replace Usborne's atlas with a National Geographic one. I have followed the criteria in Appendix 1 to evaluate this resource.

(Indigo)

Relevancy and authority- Exemplary

• Authors and publishers with excellent credentials
• Many current reviews available (below are the ratings for the Indigo website and a book review on this book)

* Reviews from the Indigo website

*Book Review from the website: YA and kids book central

Purpose and content scope- Exemplary

• Cost effective ($19.99), but no additional resources included
• Clear purpose to inform without advertising and bias
• Clear navigation, table of contents/comprehensive index/glossary available
• Maps are drawn to scale and scale is clearly defined and appropriate for intended audience

Currency- Exemplary

• Published recently, within 1-3 years- everything in the library is older than 5 years
• Continuously updated- this resource is updated because it is so recent
• Nothing similar already in the library, resource will greatly benefit existing reference- every other map resource is too old

Curricular connection- Exemplary

• Resource makes many connections to the new BC curriculum and can be used across grade levels
• Resource meets diverse student needs/learning styles
• Resource strongly reflects student interests and cultural background of student population

Efficient use of library space- Minimum Standard

• Resource takes up little or no space in the library
• Resource may be accessed outside of the library (in a classroom)

Conclusion

It is without a doubt that the National Geographic Kids World Atlas 6th edition should be added the library’s existing collection. It will be the most up to date atlas in the library. Students can take it out for fun reading or for participating in the learning of the BC curriculum. This resource will be an excellent asset for all learning styles and reading levels. The pictures, layout and language is perfect for primary and intermediate students. The only thing that is missing is that there are no digital links/versions of the resource which is a very small thing considering we have many digital sources that would allow students to access similar resource digitally.

Citations

Riedling, A. & Houston, C. (2019). Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips (4th ed.). Pg. 3-121, 137-140.

Beaudry, Richard. LIBE 467 Information Services: Module notes: Lessons 1-4. Retrieved January 9th- 25th, 2023.

Indigo. https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/9781426372278-item.html?s_campaign=gooPMaxSmartShop_Books_Kids_EN&gclid=CjwKCAiAleOeBhBdEiwAfgmXfxjKq8rGfzaEUecJGS6blZZsHe7BY1OeuK2dDZHXqF91OSbYEc2FxoCm6IQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds. Retrieved January 30th, 2023.

Fanworth, Jan. April 12th, 2022. Kids Review: National Geographic Kids World Atlas 6th edition by National Geographic. https://www.yabookscentral.com/kids-review-national-geographic-kids-world-atlas-6th-edition-by-national-geographic/. Retrieved January 30th, 2023. 

Appendix 1