Tagging Competency

I chose the book Lesson plans for the busy librarian: A standards based approach for the elementary library media center, vol. 2, by Joyce Keeling. I thought this sounded like a good resource to have as an elementary library specialist. I know that when I begin as a school librarian, it will be nice to have resources such as this to pull ideas from for classes. 


▾Tags
library science (1) location: Conyers (1) non-fiction (1) own (1) pro (1) professional/media (1) read (1) school library (1) standards

http://www.librarything.com/work/1055211/book/56837128

Competency 5

I returned to my initial question of: How are school libraries tied to academic achievement for students?

I started with the Library Literature database. I used the same facets as before: school libraries and academic achievement.

Textwords	School Libraries	Academic Achievement
Thesaurus Results	*children's library services *libraries	*student achievement

I immediately recognized fewer options for subject searches with this database.  My own subject of “school libraries” had 152 records, and the thesaurus subject of “student achievement” had 4 records. So I decided to put my subject with Library Literature’s to see what I would get.

SS1:

(school libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: 1

I wasn’t very satisfied with this result, so I thought I’d run a few more searches.

SS2:

(libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: 1 (same as SS1)

Well, I got the same result as before, so I knew I needed to alter my search. I thought I would try using the “All-Smart Search” as opposed to the “subject” only search. So on to the next try.

SS3: (using All-Smart Search option)

(libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: 125

This was more promising, though I would have to do a little more scanning of the titles and abstract to see if the matches really were relevant. At least I had more to choose from.

Citation: 

Farquharson, M. (2009).  The power of high quality school library programs. Teacher 

      Librarian, 36 (5), 85-6.

Books in Print

This database has a very different appearance than the other so far. I started with my own keywords to conduct my first subject search.

SS1:

(school libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: 1

I noticed that the Bowker Subjects included my own subjects. I didn’t really notice any useful alternatives. So I decided to try a different search method.

SS2: I used the search option “keyword in subject” instead of just “subject.”

(school libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: 1 (same as SS1)

I decided that perhaps having these two subjects together was severely limiting my results. So I figured I would try using just one.

SS3:

(school libraries) as a “Subject”

Records: 760

This obviously yielded a higher return, however it would take a while to sift through the results and see if there were any that I would use. I did find a few that I though would be relevant to my study.

Citations:

Donham, J. (2008). Enhancing teaching and learning: A leadership guide for school library   

       media specialists. United States: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Harada, V. H., & Zmuda, A. (2008). Librarians as learning specialists: Meeting the learning 

       imperative for the 21^st century. United States: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

ERIC/WorldCat Competency

 LS5013.22 Tamra Snell ERIC/WorldCat Competency

Initial (naïve) question: How are school libraries tied to academic achievement for students?

I selected this topic since I am pursuing my degree to become a School Librarian. I am interested in learning how my work as an elementary librarian is influential and vital to the academic success of our students. Also of interest is how, as a librarian, I can assist teachers in meeting their academic goals for students. It seems that many teachers just view the school library as a place where they bring their students for the librarian to read them a story and then help them check books in/out. I desire to know how to play an integral role in the academic achievement of the students I serve.

The facets I extrapolated from my initial question were: school libraries and academic achievement. I used these phrases to conduct a thesaurus search on both ERIC and WorldCat. I’ll document those separately below.

ERIC

Facet 1:  School Libraries                       

Thesaurus Subject Results:     

*childrens libraries

*Learning Resource Centers

*Librarian Teacher Cooperation

*Media Specialists

                              

Facet 2: Academic Achievement

Thesaurus Subject Results:

*academic success                                     

*educational achievement

*scholastic achievement

*student achievement

*student improvement

I crafted my initial Boolean search statement with my textwords as a ‘subject’ search: (school libraries) AND (academic achievement).

SS1:

(school libraries) AND (academic achievement)

Records: 177

Identified alternative subject heading: Library Role from one record result.

Noted four seemingly relevant results based on my question.

SS2:

(library role) AND (academic success)

Records: 3

These records were not relevant for my search as they were related to higher education. My intended focus is elementary through high school.

SS3:

(librarian teacher cooperation) AND (student achievement)

Records: 10

Most results were relevant and could be possible sources of information.

Citation: Corey, L. (2002). The Role of the Library Media Specialist in Standards-Based Learning. Knowledge Quest. 31(2), 21-23.

WorldCat

I decided to start with the same facets as I did in ERIC in order to have a basis for comparison with different subject heading results.

Facet 1: School Libraries   

Thesaurus Subject Results:  

*libraries and schools

*elementary school libraries

*junior high school libraries

*middle school libraries

*high school libraries

*rural school libraries

*instructional materials centers  

Facet 2: Academic Achievement

Thesaurus Subject Results:

 *achievement, academic

*educational achievement

*scholastic achievement

*student achievement

*scholastic success

*prediction of student success

I noticed right away that the subject results from the thesaurus for ERIC and WorldCat differed greatly for “school libraries.” With ERIC, I seemed to get alternative names for libraries, whereas WorldCat offered specific libraries based on target audience.

As with ERIC, I conducted my first Boolean search using my textwords in order to make comparisons with search results.

SS1:

(school libraries) AND (academic achievement)

Records: 72 (far fewer then ERIC)

Alternative Subject Heading: libraries and education

Four results, which were all books, seemed relevant.

Citation: Farmer, L. S. J. (2003). Student success and library media programs: A systems approach to research and best practice. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited.

SS2:

(elementary school libraries) AND (student achievement)

Records: None

SS3:

(elementary school libraries) AND (scholastic success)

Records: None

SS4:

(libraries and education) AND (scholastic success)

Records: None

SS5:

(libraries) AND (education) AND (academic achievement)

Records: 37

Most of these results were repeated from SS1.

Conclusion

There were definite differences in subject headings between ERIC and WorldCat. There was a more significant variation where the textwords “school libraries” was concerned. There was little to no variance with “academic achievement.”

 I also noticed that I got more ‘book’ results through WorldCat than ERIC. ERIC’s results were more journals and articles.

I retrieved satisfactory results from both databases with many records that I would actually be interested in accessing and reading. I found that my initial Boolean search statements yielded the best results overall, though I know it doesn’t always happen in that manner.

Competency 4: RSS Feed

I chose the RSS Feed for "The School Library Link" monthly online publication. I searched for "school libraries" on Google. I selected this particular site because I am interested in becoming a school librarian. I like that this site is specific for school libraries and how librarians can promote their library to the staff, students, and parents. I think as more information becomes available online, people start to think the library and librarian don't serve much of a purpose. This site demonstrates how that is not true, and how librarians can help change that perception, as well as the function of a library to a media resource center. It also highlights the library-classroom connection, and its ties to academic achievement for students.

Competency 3: Podcast

After much searching and a small amount of frustration at links that no longer worked or podcasts that hadn't been updated in some time, I finally found one. I didn't use the search engines to find this particular podcast, though I had tried them to little success. I used the HigherEd blog link in the course module, and then chose "Podcasting in Education," which was a hyperlink. On that site, I found a link for Grandview Library Storytelling. This librarian has audio clips of books. I like this idea because I think it may be a good way to get kids interested in a book. Since podcasts can be longer, I wonder how feasible it would be to do recordings of whole picture books. That way, students could listen and follow along at home.

Here is the website link: http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/StoryTelling.aspx
And the podcast link: http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/BookRecordings/StoryRecordings/TheTerribleNungGuama.mp3