Are we there yet? No ... and this is why - an appeal to database owners and academic libraries

I'm about to write another assignment.  This must be about my 40th serious assignment of over 2000 words requiring academic research, looking for good peer-reviewed studies, reading through 1000's of pages to try and distill exactly what is being said, whether it is of relevance (directly or tangentially), and once I'm finished that to pause and think and think and think and try to come up with some new insights, some different ways of applying the theory, some critiques that go beyond the obvious.

As I've written before, (unfair advantage, how I used to write) the true work isn't in the procuring of the articles, it's in discerning their relevance, it's in rejection rather than reading.

So why am I, Anno Domino / Common Era 2015 STILL spending so much time on the library database doing silly work.  Honestly, those who lead academic libraries and who run academic databases please tell me why this isn't easier, faster, more streamlined?  Is it me? Am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

Right now I'm looking for good literature on "Classroom Libraries".  I put in a federated search. At the same time, I search Google Scholar.... (read more) 

Assessment Item 3: Literature Critique

The challenges of the school library as an evolving learning space

Word Count: 2,630

Bibliographic details:

IDEO. (2014). Design thinking for libraries - a toolkit for patron-centered design (p. 121). IDEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved from www.designthinkingforlibraries.com

Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 25–35.

La Marca, S. (2008). Reading spaces (pp. 1–12). Presented at the 38th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship, Padua, Italy: International Association of School Librarianship. Retrieved from http://www.kzneducation.gov.za/Portals/0/ELITS%20website%20Homepage/IASL%202008/professional%20papers/lamarcaspacespp.pdf

Lin, P., Chen, K., & Chang, S.-S. (2010). Before there was a place called library - Library space as an invisible factor affecting students’ learning. Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services, 60(4), 339–351.

Oblinger, D., G. (2006). Learning how to see. In D. Oblinger G. (Ed.), Learning Spaces (pp. 14.1–14.11). Boulder, CO: Educause. Retrieved from www.educause.edu/learningspaces

Willis, J., Bland, D., Hughes, H., & Elliott-Burns, R. (2013). Reimagining school libraries: emerging teacher pedagogic practices. Presented at the International Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Adelaide, South Australia. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/66925/7/66925.pdf

 

Outline

This essay will specifically focus on the libraries of educational institutions - in particular school libraries - their role in learning and the way in which design, design thinking and the design process can optimise student outcomes given the financial, physical and time constraints inherent to the school environment.... (read more)

Livin' and Learnin'

Now that I’ve started breathing again I can start to think about the iBooks experience and what I’ve learnt from it. (Here it is .... my little baby: Digital Language Learning Ecology)

I found out today that there are no iBooks in Singapore where I’m living and where I wrote / produced / cobbled together my first iBook. Nope, none. Something I didn’t really actually realise. I mean I’d tried to buy Dave Caleb’s excellent photography iBook and couldn’t do it here, but I didn’t twig that I couldn’t buy ANY iBook here…   read more ....

Mad Rush to the finish line

Well it’s done! Well it’s kind of done. The digital essay part is done and I’ve got all the little interactive bits and pieces and I hope they work in real life and not just in preview.

Thanks to Sharon who has also been experimenting with iBooks author and was the crucial hour or so ahead of me to warn me of the pitfalls (only published within 24 hours of submission – YIKES) and the work-arounds – export to pdf.

Of course I was overly ambitious – this is not just a digital essay but I want it to be so much more. I want to expand it as a guide to the implementation of a digital language learning ecology at a school. So I do have blank chapters and LOTS of ideas. Of course this can be added to over time.

INF530 Digital Essay

This is the pdf which will have to do for now, because the iBooks file is WAY to big for what thinkspace will allow me …Read more ....

Activity and paralysis

Reading, reading, reading. I know I should start trying to write, but I'm in a kind of simultaneous paralysis and activity. Each new reading I do, I discover a whole field of knowledge and information that I know way too little about. Today I discovered the LEA (language experience approach) to teaching reading and writing. And the relevant (for me) "cousin" D-LEA (i.e. with digital). I'm sure every single teacher in the world is totally familiar with this and today was the first time I'd encountered it - academically at least. I'm pretty sure it's what they do at school and that my kids experienced it, I just didn't know the name. Duh. So this has kicked off a new round of activity - frantically learning more about it and how it relates to my topic; and paralysis - not being able to start writing my assignment yet. 

Unfair Advantage

Following the release of the results of our first assignment, there has been some soul searching and discussion on how better results can be attained and what went wrong etc. I’ve seen this on various Facebook groups I’m a member of too. I’ve referred earlier to the whole privilege thing, and I’ll say it again.  No one mentioned it, but of course some of us (myself included) had an unfair advantage. When I write “the whole privilege thing” and then so easily reference the exact article, it’s because I’ve read it, and stored it on Evernote, and can easily access it.... read more

Last night's Sichuan dinner in Chengdu - picking through the peppers!

How I used to write

A little while back I did a review of Easybib as an assignment for one of my courses. It's a tool we recommend to our students.  For a while I was impressed by it's notetaking tool and I've tried using it a few times because it kind of makes intuitive sense. But it just doesn't work for me.  And I'm beginning to realise why.

After writing my last assignment I started thinking about this.  When I started out with my studies, it had been nearly 20 years since I'd done any studying.  It was a huge shock to the system. Tons of reading to do, an entirely new field / discipline / subject matter / jargon to master. Unknown demands and expectations and in addition doing it online where you had no eyeballing of your lecturer or fellow students, no way of seeing the nuances of what was being said or not said or left hanging.

Apart from some psychology as a dual major in my business degree and a bit of global politics and society during my MBA, I'd pretty much kept away from the humanities so this truly was a new ball game for me.  I tried to tackle it in what I thought was a logical way. I'd read something and then highlight the sections I found important. I'd read more of other stuff, highlighting highlighting and printing away a forest. And then when it came to the assignment, I'd try and string all those highlights of what all these famous and revered authors in the subject had to say, and weave it with some inter-leading words and paragraphs to make it some kind of coherent summary of the matter and assignment question at hand and submit it. And I got a pass or a credit. For which I was very grateful, because I knew, through the social network that was building up around me on FaceBook, that others were barely passing or failing the same assignments. I guess the ones with distinctions and higher distinctions didn't need to wallow in mutual sympathy and support, or they just weren't mentioning their relative success.

As time went by I became somewhat more experienced in the digital environment and finally had a breakthrough when a fellow student introduced me to Evernote and I could save a rainforest by saving all my notes and readings digitally.  It has a highlighting and annotating tool, but it wasn't ever comfortable to me, so I stopped highlighting.  Instead I started taking notes. With my own funny little colour coding and mind-mapping.  And then I would let things lie for a little bit. And go for long dog walks and talk to my colleagues and friends. Because the universe is big. And this is only one field. And they're specialists, so perhaps they don't really see the bigger picture. And slowly I'd start to form my own ideas about the topic at hand and the assignment question.  And then I'd see if I could find some kind of a structure and flow to my thoughts.  And only then would I start writing and as I came to a claim or assertion I'd revert back to Evernote and type in the keyword and see who else in the readings I'd done agreed with me, or disagreed with me and what they had to say. I could then check in my handwritten notes a summary of their ideas. And in that way I could back up my thoughts or criticise what they'd said.  In a sense that is exactly the opposite to what I'd been doing all my life.  And I think too, the opposite to the formulaic ways that teach notetaking and scaffolding and paraphrasing etc. And the opposite to how tools such as Easybib could lead to perfectly acceptable and passable assignment submissions, without any plagiarism in sight but ones where the students voice and thoughts and originality do not shine through.

My grades have improved in the interim. But I must admit I have also taken some risks, calculated risks whereby what I've written could be considered a little audacious or off the trodden path, and the it could have gone either way.  Funnily enough, the student who introduced me to Evernote remarked to me that she's gone the same way, as we sat for a lunch, nail biting waiting for the results from two different assignments in different courses where we'd both taken a bit of a risk.

Is this a sign of academic maturity? Daring to say what you think and believe? Is it what we should be teaching our students, or do they necessarily need the training wheels and scaffolding to get them there? Should we expect them to get to this point for everything, or just the subjects they're passionate about and topics they care about. Is it just another teachable trick that we could teach instead of the traditional read, note-take, paraphrase, cite, string together?  When in our academic lives are we just hitting the ball across the net and when are we playing the games to win the tournament?

Third time requires a post - plagiarism

This morning plagiarism crossed my screen for the third time in a week, which means the topic is demanding to be written about!

The first time was during an academic discussion last week. A group of us were being asked our opinion about the proliferation of study groups on FaceBook and other social media platforms and their role not only in mutual support during study, but the potential for plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.

I have a somewhat contrarian view on the thin lines between collaboration and theft.  Perhaps I am naive, perhaps I've not felt the very real repercussions of having had my work plagiarised.  Perhaps I'm reading too much utopian digital future type articles and books.

Through my blog I share a lot of what I'm thinking and doing and researching. I also have posted most of my academic submissions of the last 2 years online where they can be freely read. Of course much of what I'm writing about are things I'm particularly interested and passionate about, and I've abridged or edited things so as not to post too many details of my school or colleagues that would not be relevant or appropriate for public consumption.  To me, the most useful parts of anyone else's academic submission would be the layout / structure of the essay / paper / report and the bibliography.  I'll happily share my bibliography with anyone and everyone.

And now it starts to get tricky.  On the one hand, the whole point of academic publishing and journal articles is to make your work publicly (albeit behind a paywall) available and for your work to be part of an ongoing quest to knowledge or the resolution of societal or scientific problems. On the other hand, in the grey area of being on the path to accreditation and while doing so jumping through academic hoops while writing essays and papers and having them marked and moderated by the system, you're supposed to keep all that knowledge and learning private or secret, just between yourself and your lecturer?  Can you see the problem? The double standard? The irony?  So part of my argument, is that if a lecturer can't be bothered to sufficiently change the topic of the assessments and the way in which the course is evaluated, then if another student were to use the work of a former student the lecturer is kind of to blame.  Although I would hope that the student would at least credit the work of the first student. Which because the whole system is rotten they are obviously incapable of doing, because then the whole thing becomes uncomfortably transparent. Ditto the lecturers who are obtuse or unhelpful.

The second time was this article in the Telegraph which appeared 2 days ago. A couple of interesting points are highlighted (I must say, #1700 for a dissertation is very cheap - if I think what each of my courses cost individually, that wouldn't even pay for one course / semester, so whoever is writing that stuff is either undervaluing themselves, or the whole academic thing is such a farce as to be worthless).  I think the topic is a whole lot bigger than many (particularly academics) think. It is not as simple as "plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward" (plagiarism.org). As the article points out - plagiarism happens more often in mass courses where there is little contact between the tutor and the student. It also happens when there are language difficulties experienced by students and the stakes are high.  And, we are obviously (sic) trying to root out "copying and collusion" - at least while our youth is studying. Once they get into the world of work it's called collaboration and teamwork. I'm wondering about this Prof. Braisby who is so keen to educate his students on the evils of plagiarism.  Is any time being spent in dialogue between the students, tutors, professors, administrators and powers that be in institutions to look more closely at the subject. Or are we all very quick to make the subject black and white?

Finally this morning, LibraryGrits, weighed in on the topic with a very nice little graphic which was the most nuanced look at the subject - the symptoms of plagiarism.

Although, I'd be pedantic and say that plagiarism was symptomatic of the other causes which she named as symptoms. 

Having a closer look at her list, I would say that different items need to be addressed in different ways. I'm wondering if newer versions could reflect this by the grouping / colouring?  

In my personal value system "don't care about ethics" would be a serious problem. 

Anything to do with the policing and lack of consequences is an institutional / teacher problem.

The rest, including laziness (please read "the myth of laziness" before jumping to laziness conclusions) need to systematically be addressed and scaffolded and worked on in combination with the teacher, school and probably parents. And here is where my tendency to put my work out there in the open comes into play - by putting examples out, we address the issues of "ignorance of formatting / protocols" and "exposure to modelling of best practise". 

Issues of language barriers, search and retrieval skills, organisation and time management skills need to sorted out while the student is at school, isn't that part of creating "life long learners" as opposed to "life long plagiarisers, thieves and frauds"?  I think the pressure to achieve high grades absolutely cannot be divorced from this whole discussion.  Anyone else been following the Palo Alto suicides and all the press around it?  

We are living in very interesting times in terms of knowledge dissemination, acquisition and creation and the formal institutions of school, university and college are struggling to keep up as bastions of certification, accreditation and credibility. The dear Professor in the Telegraph article alluded to this, but I don't think he really "got it". 

And language. Yes language. So many of our students at every level are studying in a language that is not their own. Their tongues and their minds are slashed and offered to the gods of English and sacrificed to the hopes of a better life in that illusionary magical tongue.  I can only imagine based on what I know from living in tongues other than English in various times of my life how much is lost and distorted in translation. 

References:

Gurney-Read, J. (2015, April 13). £1,700 for a dissertation, but what’s the real cost of plagiarism? Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11532848/1700-for-a-dissertation-but-whats-the-real-cost-of-plagiarism.html

McKenzie, D. (2015, April 14). Symptoms of Plagiarism [Web Log]. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://librarygrits.blogspot.sg/2015/04/symptoms-of-plagiarism.html

What is Plagiarism? (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/

Professional Placement

ASSESSMENT ITEM

Professional Placement

INF 408 – Professional Placement

“I hereby confirm that this is an original essay and my own work and that all ethical standards have been addressed and adhered to”

Nadine Bailey

Student ID: 11510358

Word Count:2673

Table of Contents

1. The role of the Library......................................................................................... 1

2. User needs and services...................................................................................... 2

3. Collections and information resources........................................................... 2

4. Cataloguing, classification and indexing.......................................................... 3

5. System management............................................................................................. 4

6. Reference and information services................................................................. 2

7. Network infrastructure....................................................................................... 3

8. Staffing..................................................................................................................... 3

9. User education....................................................................................................... 4

10. Promotion and marketing................................................................................. 5

11. Evaluation of library services.......................................................................... 5

12. Reflecting on an activity..................................................................................... 6

13. Evaluate the placement...................................................................................... 7

References................................................................................................................... 8

1.  The role of the Library

United World College South East Asia East (UWCSEA East) is one of the two campuses of an International school located in Singapore.  This campus commenced operations in 2008 and moved to a purpose built campus in August 2011.  It offers a kindergarten (K) to International Baccalaureate (IB) programme – K1 to Grade 12.  Each campus has two libraries, Primary and Secondary. 

The goals of the library are closely aligned to those of the school and include amongst other things, continue to develop the library collections, assessing them against the curriculum and identifying gaps and areas for improvement, continue to develop the libraries’ homepage and online presence and develop online research tools.  These goals are cascaded down to individual staff member’s goal setting and development and training guidelines.

The library is an integral part of the school and as such is involved with the service opportunities created there, such as assisting schools in Cambodia to set up libraries, and the literacy projects of related charities.  The library also runs a “read and recycle” program whereby book donations from the school community are sorted and re-resourced either in the library, given to school-linked charities or put on shelves outside the library for users to take.  The library space and equipment has been designed for flexibility.  Exhibitions, talks and seminars are often held there. The library also hosts a parent’s association book club.

The Library is a founding member of ISLN (International schools Library Network) a Singaporean non-profit organisation linking the International schools and the librarians are active in organising the annual Red Dot book awards and reader’s cup (http://www.reddotawards.com/).

Read and recycle shelves outside the library, books can be borrowed or taken. Books are not catalogued

Steampunk sculpture exhibited in the library by the school artist in residence.

2. User needs and services

The library works closely with the school and the heads of curriculum of the Infant, Primary, Middle, High school and IB program to ensure that the needs of students are met. Further, the needs of teachers and other support staff (such as learning support, literacy coaches and digital literacy coaches) are also considered and catered for with special collections of books as well as digital materials and other resources.  For example, the drama department request films, which are downloaded onto iPads that can be borrowed during a class depending on the play, script being studied.

The librarians are in constant contact with students, teachers and curriculum staff, heads of staff, the head of conferences and they work closely with literacy and digital literacy coaches.

3. Collections and information resources

Since the school is relatively new, having only moved to the current campus in the last two years, the collection is currently being developed.   Because the school started with a primary section and added a year each year, the primary school collection is more developed than the secondary school collection.  The school had a Grade 12 class for the first time this year.  The policy of the library is to ensure that the collection reflects both the philosophy of the school, and the pedagogy outlined in the curriculum articulation.  The physical collection is constantly assessed as the school grows.  A recent focus has been on the LOTE (Languages other than English) collection where the libraries have consulted with the heads of language to acquire materials to assist in classroom learning and pleasure reading.

In July 2013, the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore stopped students in  international schools from accessing their online databases without a paid library card. The library has therefore had to invest in online databases that had previously been free.  The librarian selects material with recommendations by heads of departments, literacy coaches, parents and students. Everyone has input in the selection process subject to the approval of the librarian and the material compiling with the values and ethos of the school.

4. Cataloguing, classification and indexing

The library uses a combination of inhouse and outsourced cataloguing.  Follett Titlewave purchases come with downloaded and labelled MARC records, and books are stickered for the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system.  Internally books are stamped and a school barcode is added.  For other purchases, including from Follett UK, all processing is done internally following bad experiences with trying to outsource the cataloguing and processing. Use is made of Z39.50 files in reading in information in the case of incomplete data.  Particular issues arise in the cataloguing of material for the LOTE collection, where teachers or parents need to be called on in order to help cataloguing material, particularly in non-Roman scripts.  A recent exercise during my study placement was to consider the current LOTE cataloguing, and compare it to the needs of the users and other LOTE catalogues in operation in other schools.   There is a movement towards more descriptive tagging as well as the use of subject specific site cataloguing in order to assist users to find materials (for example the guided readers for a specific level and/or grade.  The DDC system is used with exceptions for Fiction, Biography, Graphic Materials, Poetry and Playscripts, which use the “pull-out” method of separate shelving following a more “bookstore” type of concept. Most materials, including textbooks and guided readers or teaching aids and classroom books, are catalogued.  Access to databases such as subscription journal databases is provided through the library webpage, the LibGuides and the subject curriculum guides. The library also makes extensive use of QR codes leading back to the catalogue, webpages or LibGuides.

QR Codes on shelf leading back to LibGuide

QR code on display leading back to library catalogue to see when books will be returned

5. System management

Follett Destiny is the library management system in use.  It is one of the two systems widely used by schools, the other being Softlink’s Oliver.  Each has their advantages and disadvantages.  The primary disadvantage appears to be that Destiny is a system designed for a Web 1.0 environment with bits of Web 2.0 tacked on.  The interface is not as user friendly as the “Google generation” is used to, and many search and reporting tasks that the librarian would like patrons to have access to, are not easily accomplished without running asynchronous reports using batch processing.  The report output is in PDF and XML, the latter which cannot be opened on a Mac system, and the school uses MacBooks in its “one laptop per student / teacher” philosophy.  So, a separate computer has to be maintained just for reporting purposes and to customise and change MARC records.  Sometimes the library has to resort to the vendor in order to accomplish tasks that should theoretically be achievable inhouse, particularly with a librarian who is so adept technically. 

However, Follett is trying to keep up and new developments include allowing circulation by handheld devices such as the iPad or iPhone and catalogue searching by mobile devices.  All teachers have been given authorisation to checkout and check-in books of themselves or their students.

During my student placement I was fortunate to be able to attend a two-day workshop on Follett Destiny held by Follett covering their cataloguing, eBook system, collection analysis and reporting systems.

The school does not have many physical serials, as discussed earlier; they recently needed to subscribe to databases following the change in the NLB policy.

6. Reference and information services

Reference services are provided via desk enquiries, reference appointments, teacher queries, LibGuides and presentations on video.  Reference questions are not tracked by electronic means, however when questions in an area reach a critical mass, a guide or video will be created in order to help students in self-education.  An attempt was made to use Google Moderator for questions, however this has not been fully implemented, as it is not considered the best tool, given that many of the questions are too specialised for students to answer for their peers using the crowd-sourcing approach, and maintenance of the forum takes up a lot of time. As the college has two campuses and four libraries there is a possibility to borrow books from the other campus and delivery takes place through the inter-campus courier service.  The library also has an account with the NLB, where up to 2500 books can be borrowed for 12 weeks at a time in order to fulfil specific needs, for example a unit of enquiry where demand exceeds the school’s collection.  I had the opportunity both of observing and conducting reference interviews during my placement.   The school complies with all copyright and access agreements for accessing and using information even at the youngest level.

Screenshot of classroom update for Grade 5 outlining current research and warning against plagiarism

7. Network infrastructure

The library operates on an Internet based system.  All activities depend on network access and availability.  The catalogue system is open to all. Users can log onto the system to access databases that the library subscribes to.  Some are access through a proxy server and others require a separate login and password in order to comply with licensing and copyright rules of the various databases.   Since the school is a “one laptop per child” campus, there are a limited number of computer terminals mainly used for OPAC searching.  As the library is an open space without a “shushing policy” there are quiet rooms with power points and desks for quiet study.

8. Staffing

Both the Primary and Secondary libraries have one teacher librarian, two assistant librarians and one library clerk.  The teacher librarians have a Masters degree and the assistant librarians a diploma in library technology.   Professional development is partly based on library specific development needs and partly on individual management needs as assessed by the yearly goal setting and assessment by the school hierarchy.  Communication between staff in the four libraries over the two campuses is collegial and I was offered the opportunity of spending one of my placement days in the Dover campus libraries.  Decisions that affect both campuses are discussed between the head librarians and knowledge exchange occurs on matters such as cataloguing and most recently, online journal acquisition and access. The major issue I encountered during my placement is that the secondary library in particular is very short-staffed on the reference librarian side. 

9. User education

Both information literacy and digital literacy is integrated in the school’s curriculum. There are only two teacher librarians (see staffing), for over 2500 pupils, so the librarians do not conduct information literacy classes.

Data on information use is gathered through library reports that have been set up in Follett Destiny.  For all students, a wide range of “how to” videos and guides have been set up online and can be accessed through the appropriate level online “research hub”. For the Infant and Junior school, each class has one library period a week during which the teacher and library staff will assist with teaching children how to access the catalogue and find resources using the DDC.

https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/uwcsea-infant-research-hub/	https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/researchhub/
https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/uwcsea-research-tools/	https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/research-skills-professional-development/

 

10. Promotion and marketing

A number of initiatives have been undertaken to ensure the library is well utilized.  The library has a website (eastlib.uwcsea.edu.sg) and maintains an open catalogue. Events and exhibitions are regularly held in the library where all the furniture is on wheels for easy moving.  In conjunction with the teachers, the library has created large A0 printouts of various teachers’ “favourite reads” and “recommended reads” for different age groups which are displayed in the classrooms and corridors with QR codes linking back to the book in the catalogue in the library.  Within the library, QR codes on the shelves link back to virtual resources such as LibGuides. Parents are welcome to volunteer in the library and to borrow library materials and join the parents’ book club.

Large A0 posters all over campus

Parents book club hosted by library

The giving tree for Christmas donations

11. Evaluation of library services

The evaluation of the services is done annually in conjunction with the annual goal setting outlined in point 1 above.  Goals such as number of books per user, age of the collection, quantity and quality of online guides, and professional development are included.  At the end of all research seminars or other library sessions that have been requested by teachers and set up by the librarian, students are required to fill in an online “exit” ticket in which they evaluate the class they’ve just received with opportunities to comment on potential improvements.

12. Reflecting on an activity

During my placement I was involved with evaluating the cataloguing for the LOTE collections, circulation, creation of guides using LibGuides and attending classes preparing the Grade 11 students for the IB Extended Essay. 

The most significant of these activities was creating LibGuides.  The objective was to create a template for online guides, and then create an online guide for subjects within each of the 6 major IB subject areas and populate these with appropriate physical and online resources. This involved coordinating with the IB coordinator, the secondary librarian and undertaking a reference interview with the subject head.  I prepared guides for psychology, economics, mathematics, science and music, (see for example: http://research.uwcsea.edu.sg/psycho)

The activity was valuable both to the school and myself. I learned to apply research across a variety of media and the incorporation of tools and widgets to make the content engaging.  It also gave me exposure to teachers and heads of department.  The school appreciated having someone concentrate on getting the guides up online to assist the launce of the research process of the Grade 11s.

In retrospect I could have used more of the teacher resources earlier in the process, as well as information available on other library guides.  In reality, given the time constraints a guide was often almost completed by the time the teachers were involved.  However, the teachers were very pleased with the process given that there had been nothing available in the previous year.

13. Evaluate the placement

The placement was extremely useful to combine my theoretical knowledge with real life practice.  In particular the balancing act of trying to achieve goals and complete tasks while still remaining available and approachable to users was a useful insight.   I have become more skilled in conducting the research interview, as well as understanding taxonomy and cataloguing principles and practise.  I also have a renewed respect for the role of a librarian in a school.  I wrote a blog during my placement, which can be accessed at: http://informativeflights.blogspot.sg.   A concrete benefit of the placement was that I’ve been offered a part-time job helping out on the reference side to make up for the lack of staffing in this area and the need to provide students with more access to reference staff.

I very much appreciate being able to have worked with such an experienced librarian, and particularly one who has embraced Library 2.0 in all its facets and is very progressive in the use of technology in the library.

References

East 5LWh 2013-2014. (2013). Retrieved November 23, 2013, from https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/east-5lwh-2013-2014/

High School Research Hub. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/uwcsea-research-tools/

Informative flights. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://informativeflights.blogspot.sg/

Intro - Home - Research at United World College of Southeast Asia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://research.uwcsea.edu.sg/research

Introduction - Psychology: Introduction - Research at United World College of Southeast Asia. (2013). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://research.uwcsea.edu.sg/psycho?hs=a

ISLN - Singapore. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://silcsing.blogspot.sg/

library.uwcsea.edu.sg. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from 

https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/library/

Oliver library management system from Softlink. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://www.softlink.co.uk/oliver/

Research Skills Professional Development. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2013, from https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/research-skills-professional-development/

Software for Library Automation | Follett Software. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://www.follettsoftware.com/library-automation-software

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