Week 7: Collaboration

I really enjoyed working on the website collaboration with my group members. We all gave great ideas and built off of each others. It was interesting to see what other people would add to a website and often times it was not something that I would have thought of. I really enjoyed the project and I thought that it was a great learning experience. I am very much looking forward to when I am working in a school library and I get to create and update my own website. I feel that it is such a great learning tool for students and is often times overlooked by librarians. Looking through different websites it was disappointing to see one that was minimalistic. I think students would really benefit from a well put together website and it would make the SLMS look much more professional and very technological. Parents would enjoy seeing an updated blog, especially in the elementary schools because "library time" is just as much a classroom as students other ones.

Week 6...

Another important task for a SLMC is to understand the copyright laws for a school system. I feel that as a SLMC it is your responsibility to educate you students and other educators on the topic because of your background knowledge. Other educators do not have the same background knowledge so it is up to the SLMC to protect the school against illegal copyrighting. The SLMC should have a detailed recorded of everything to protect both themselves and the school. This tasks is somewhat scary because there are so many different rules and regulations in regards to copyrighting. The book that we had to purchase for class is an excellent resource but some type of easy reference guide would be easier to use for in the actually library. The SLMC should think about taking some of the information found in the book and creating a guide for themselves.

Week 5: Cataloging Systems

This week we learned all about the cataloging systems in school library media centers. This was very interesting because the cataloging system is one of the most important parts of the library. It allows the patrons to find the materials they are looking for.. so essential it is the center of the library. If no cataloging system was in place, patrons would become so frustrated for not being able to find their materials that they would leave. A SLMS should keep a up to date and very informative record for their cataloging system. One important piece of information that I learned through the observation was to go above and beyond for elementary aged students. Try to go through the book and think of every specific subject instead of just a broad range. Be specific about the animal(s) in the book instead of just having "animals" for the subject search. Elementary age students may not think to search for "animals" but instead the want a book with "dogs" in it. Try to think as they would in preparing your cataloging system, this way everyone can easily use the system and locate their materials.

Week 4 Information Literacy

This weeks LIS 568 lesson was very interesting and enjoyable. Learning about Information Literacy is a great concept that I hope to master as a school library media specialist. I remember being in high school and immediately just doing a basic google search to complete my research. It would have been extremely helpful as a student to have learned how to evaluate sites in order to find correct and effective material. As a school library media specialist I plan to work together with teachers to educate the students properly. I think that some type of activity such as a scavenger hunt in which the students would have to find proper websites to prove that they have understood the Information Literacy lesson would be effective. I think that by collaborating with the teachers would allow the students to have better research tips which in turn would make for better papers/projects.