Action Learning Reflection 2

I think that I'm still having trouble distilling my topic down to the necessary points. I know that I want to investigate funding of libraries in public school systems, and that I want to specifically investigate libraries in Watauga County, as that's where I plan to be working, but I'm not sure if I want to do a comparison of those libraries in terms of funding or if I want to investigate one library's funding sources in depth. Which would be more beneficial in the long run? Would it be more valuable to understand things from a more "big picture" approach or to look closely at a school where I am likely to work? Am I doing this to make my future career a bit easier, or simply for my own edification and working with future colleagues?

In looking at the template and questions, I don't know if I can even use the questions there yet. It seems like I may have to frontload this more than anticipated, rather than doing what I typically think of as a project, which I think is the point. It seems like this project is structured more how I like to structure my science fair projects with kids, where they do some research and then come up with the questions. I know that I did some preliminary research in my interview initially, but I think I may have to do some more digging to really get a distinct idea of the direction I want to go.

I am wondering how our new change in administration at the county level will affect the allocation of funds to school libraries. Is that a state or local decision concerning the percentage of the budget that is spent in the media center? Is that of relevance here? Again, I seem to be having more questions than answers and I'm struggling with where to begin. Do I narrow down my questions, or try to find answers to all of them in hopes of finding a topic that really fits and one that I can run with?

Action Learning Post 1

So far, I’ve only gotten as far as to brainstorm ideas about the action learning project. I think I’m leaning toward doing a project about media center funding… but I’m not sure where to go with that. Do I compare different counties within the state? If so, where do I start? Or, do I look at voluntary funding sources, such as grant funding or PTO funding? Another idea I’ve had is to look at collaboration that takes place between teachers and media coordinators throughout our school and across the county. I know that our librarian is an excellent collaborator and is willing to help us find almost anything that will work with our curriculum and fit our needs, but is that the case everywhere in the county? Will I be able to do that one day?

As I stated, I’ve only come up with questions. Our learning set has not met yet; there was some confusion about meeting time, but that has been cleared up. Hopefully we can meet next week and get the ball rolling with that. I haven’t yet heard from one group member regarding our meeting time yet.

The whole project is a bit ambiguous to me right now, and I’m a little unclear about the portfolio, but I’m sure that will come into perspective more as the semester progresses.

Media Coordinator Interview for LIB 5050

I interviewed Kathy Moore, librarian at Blowing Rock Elementary School, about her job and her use and experience with technology. She finds that she primarily uses technology to facilitate cataloging, the Follett resources, the school network (including Microsoft products), the internet, and the SmartBoard located in the library. She also uses software for book transactions (circulation). Mrs. Moore finds that she uses the cataloging technology, the internet, and the Microsoft products during her “planning” time, when students are not actively using the library, to aid with locating resources needed for the library (either per a teacher’s request, or to fill needs in the collection) and grant writing. She most often uses the SmartBoard when she is teaching classes or faculty. Some lessons she commonly teaches are on plagiarism, copyright laws, bibliographies, and paraphrasing. Google Earth and maps are other ways that Mrs. Moore uses the SmartBoard to introduce these tools to students for research that supports classroom learning and projects. As a future librarian, I would love to become more adept at using the SmartBoard and tools such as Google Earth to facilitate student learning, both inside the library and at home with their own computers.

One of the ways she finds that students use technology in the library most frequently is through the use of United Streaming, a service paid for through library funds. United Streaming offers students the opportunity to view video clips that pertain to what they are learning in the classroom. Students can use the computer lab located in the library to view the videos, each having his own computer and set of headphones so that the experience is more personal and students are less distracted than they can be watching a video in the classroom on a single television.
Mrs. Moore finds that teachers are most likely to use the technology that she suggests in her regular emails listing new resources that are curriculum based. She often includes web links and new subscriptions to resources that are web based, such as United Streaming and World Book Online. Teachers also make use of audio book talks that Mrs. Moore makes available that are found on various websites, such as audio book talks about some of the Caldecott books. Both of these seem to be tools that I could easily use in my first year of being a librarian; they are already tools that I am familiar with and could provide some professional development opportunities to show teachers how to use audio books in their classrooms, aside from reading along with a text.

Technology has its benefits that far outweigh its drawbacks, Mrs. Moore stated, but she does spend a portion of her day, usually half an hour to an hour, trouble shooting technology for faculty and staff. Often, this is as simple as getting a new cable for a television or hooking up a DVD player, but it is a part of her day that she finds that she can support teachers in other ways besides curricular. Some faculty members want to learn how to fix things, such as broken overhead projectors, while others would rather have someone else do it. She finds this to also be true of circulation in the library. I would like to improve my skills with technology outside of using the computer in order to be able to better help teachers trouble shoot problems as they arise. As a classroom teacher now, I know how frustrating it can be to have a TV that is not working and not be able to find anyone who can help fix it. I would like to be able to train faculty and staff to find solutions to their own technological problems, so that they do not always have to rely on someone else.

Kathy Moore finds the school website to be a tool of value to both faculty and parents and would like to increase the presence of library resources and announcements there. Currently, the library newsletter is found on the website, but there are other resources that could be there as well. I could see the school website being an excellent place to post links to online podcasts, interviews, and audio book talks that would be helpful and interesting sources for students, faculty, and parents. If the school library catalog were online, this would be an excellent place to post that as well.

Perhaps our most interesting area of discussion was surrounding Mrs. Moore’s wish list for the library with regards to technology. She would love to have the school library catalog online so that faculty, students, and parents could access it from outside of the school network. Additionally, she would like to have a new media retrieval system to replace the Ducane system that we currently have, so that teachers could use it all at once for the school news broadcast or other functions. Photoshop is also on her wish list, as it would help her with the photography exploratory course that she teaches for middle school in conjunction with doing the yearbook.

Overall, I learned a great deal from my interview about the daily life of our school librarian. I knew what she did in bits and pieces, but gained a greater insight into what my future career will look like on a daily basis. It made me excited, and somewhat overwhelmed, to think of all of the possibilities for the use of technology within a school media center. Ultimately, I will have to find a balance between my vision for the use of technology in the media center, and what can realistically be accomplished in a day.