The first part of this week's reading that struck me was the need for media specialists to help locate information on the "invisible Web." What this means is that search engines cannot locate beyond database query pages (Stripling & Hughes-Hassel, 2003, p. 176). The example the book gives is the Library of Congress American Memory Web site. The site contains numerous primary source documents that cannot be found unless searched for within the site. If a teacher is not familiar with this recourse, they will not be able to find and use many of the helpful documents that could potentially enrich the classroom curriculum. This made me think about some of my friends and acquaintances that seemed confused about my wanting to be a librarian because "everything can be found on the internet." Clearly, unless you are quite knowledgeable about what is really out there, some great resources and information cannot be accessed. This is exaclty why having collaborative learning environments is so important. There needs to be communication between teachers, media specialists, and others in order to provide the best possible educational experience for students.
The following chapter mentioned something that has bothered me since I started my library degree. Stripling and Hughes-Hassell cite Gary Hartzell writing that "Few teacher training programs contain any systematic instruction on how librarians might improve instruction" (Stripling & Hughes-Hassell, 2003, p. 195). Not only that, but my undergraduate education courses never mentioned the librarian either. In order for there to be an improved collaborative environment, teachers must be made aware of the great resources and services the media specialist can offer. Pam actually emailed me last week after Wednesday's class to let me know that this subject was brought up while I was absent, and I wish I had been there to join the discussion on this topic.
I did see one good sign though. My husband just returned from his training for Teach for America in Chicago and he was given a book about secrets to surviving the first year of teaching and there was an entire chapter of the book about the help and services the librarian can offer! When I saw his book laying around, I had to check if it even mentioned librarians. I must say that I was very thankful that it did, but it should not be in a book about "secrets." It needs to be well-known for all teachers that media specialists are a vital component of a well-rounded educational experience for students.
Source:
Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
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How great that someone on "the other side" is touting how much use us librarians can be!! that hits what we were talking about last week so well.
ReplyDeleteAnn, I totally agree. Amber actually brought this topic up last semester in our LIS 716 class. During the workshop I attended in Wheeling last week about the ISAIL document, the presenters often mentioned that they were working to get this information out to people who were studying to be administrators. I whole heartedly agree with that campaign. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, we are collaborating with the classroom teachers. If we can "infiltrate" (that sounds so negative!) preservice programs with the message that librarians are willing and wanting to collaborate, that would make our jobs somewhat easier. Plus, it would help with administrators as well, since often administrators come from the classroom!
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful you mentioned the need for librarians to connect teachers to the "invisible web." I hadn't thought about this as much since my reference class until I read this section of the text book.
ReplyDeleteI almost have to laugh when I hear people say that they can find everything on the web; yet, why wouldn't they believe that! Because there is SO much on the web, and because nearly everyone has access to put their "stuff" on the web, it's expected that everything there is to know is easily accessible through Google. More frustrating is students' belief that all they need is one click away. If I do nothing else with my students, I find ways to show them that there is so much more to information than a Google search!