Final+Reflection+(Apr+10)


 * __ Final Reflection __**

At the start of this course I believed that I had a ‘working knowledge’ of the librarian responsibilities within my role as Teacher-Librarian. I had completed seven courses towards my TL diploma and possessed ten months of on-the-job experience. When I first began my current position in September 2009, my learning curve during that first year was essentially straight-up! My memory of that year is a blur of learning the operating system, processing acquisitions, selection decisions, and discovering the needs of my new school. Looking back, I admit that I was out of my depth most of the time. This past September I foolishly believed that Year Two would be much easier, that having learned the technicalities of the Librarian’s role, I could now focus my energies on the Teacher portion of my position: providing a solid Information Literacy program. The activities, readings, and discussions within this course have shown me that I still had/have a lot to learn…

Perhaps I subconsciously recognized that I didn’t know as much as I thought as I deliberately chose to step outside of my comfort zone when I selected Grade 9 Science as my focus curriculum. Bishop states in //The Collection Program in Schools// (Bishop, 2007) that “media specialists should be aware of their own biases and preferences so that personal prejudices do not inadvertently affect selection decisions.” (Page 170) I chose a science curriculum because it is the area of study with which I am least comfortable and I was aware that I had not added many science-related resources to the library collection in the first year as a result of this discomfort. Confronting this discomfort would be the first of several steps I would make along my journey through this course.

I greatly appreciated the way that this course was organized ~ several small, yet completely practical, assignments designed to focus on the entire collection management process. In the case of the weeding assignment, a previous course had brought the truly dated condition of the library collection to my attention but the process of weeding the entire collection seemed so overwhelming that I felt paralyzed to begin. By focusing on a specific curriculum, I was able to break a gigantic undertaking into a manageable task. Now that I have started the process of weeding, I plan to continue with small weeding projects throughout the school year. I still hesitate to throw discarded books into the school’s dumpster, however, believing strongly that they may still be of use outside of the collection. In the end, I found that I enjoyed the weeding process even more than the selection assignment, which was unexpected. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the weeding task was completed in full whereas the selection task was not. Even if the $4000 budget had been real, I would still have the processing of the new materials to complete which left an unfinished feeling to the project.

It was surprising to find that my district’s collection management procedures contained next to no information regarding the process of weeding. The document states “selection is an on-going process that should include the removal of materials no longer appropriate according to the criteria for the selection of learning resources.” No other mention or guidelines were given which led me to question how useful the document would be to new and inexperienced teacher-librarians. As stated in //The Collection Program in Schools// (Bishop, 2007), “the process of carefully weeding a media center to remove outdated and unused materials is as important as the process of selection.” (page 121) Taking the importance of weeding into consideration, it would be reasonable to expect that an equal amount of attention would be given to the topic in the policy handbook. This is clearly not the case in our district. Prior to this course, rather than discarding an item that might be needed later, I erred on the side of caution and only removed items that were damaged beyond repair. The lack of written policy makes the need for appropriately trained teacher-librarians even greater if our school library collections are to remain effective.

As I completed the various assignments in this course I was pleased to discover that, for the most part, my instincts serve me well when making decisions regarding the management of the collection. In my first year I was primarily guided by instinct. I do have two mentors within the district to whom I can turn for advice, but as our schools are unique I must adjust their suggestions to suit my own situation. This course has provided me with the understanding that, while my intuition is sound, I must also have specific goals for the library collection and a plan in place to meet those goals. An example of this would be the selection of learning resources. In my first year as a teacher-librarian I did not set any specific goals for the library collection. Having taught various subjects at different grade levels, I have a good understanding of the topics covered within the core subjects at our school. I mistakenly believed that this was sufficient when selecting and purchasing resources for the library. I cringe now, knowing that I spent nearly all the library budget last year without ever conducting an analysis of the collection or speaking to the classroom teachers to discover where the areas of need might be within the collection. In addition, the lack of a plan leads to an imbalance in spending. In my case, more resources were purchased for Humanities topics than for the very needy Science sections. I also suspect that I spent proportionately more on recreational reading than on curriculum supporting resources. I intend to ask the teacher-librarians at other middle schools to determine how they divide their budgets when purchasing.

In closing, I’d just like to say thank-you Joanne. While this course has been a great deal of work, it has also all been immensely applicable to my job. I have a much stronger understanding of collection management than I did four months ago. Perhaps next September, when I envision the year ahead to be ‘easier’ I’ll actually be correct in the assumption!