Donham insight

What most struck me from the Donham reading was the need for a vision to guide the direction of the TL and the library. To just have a desire to serve the clients means that services are reactionary. Also, in respect to technology, if you have no vision, you can leap on to the next new thing and miss the whole purpose of why you are introducing it. A vision gives the why and the what, the goal and the path to achieve it.

A post literate society

Doug Johnson, in his article Libraries for a post-literate society, I think is on the ball. Not all schools have so far embrassed the new technologies that are currently on offer. Our school has recently adopted iPads for the senior (Years 11 & 12, soon to include 10) years, which has increased the use of digital resources and diminished the use of printed ones.

M. Lee, in his article A library without books, talks in disparaging terms of the library as anathema. That they are dead and should be replaced by the Information Services Unit. Schools, and libraries willl be replaced as physical walls are no barrier to the Internet and digital technology.

Our school does not have a library, it has an Imaginarium. A place where students and staff come to rest, study, play and learn, during lunchtime or school time, safe, encouraging and stimulating. A place where the joy of reading and learning is encouraged. An Information Services Unit is about as friendly as lump of concrete.

Do people still read?

‘It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. … Forty per cent of the people in the US read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.’ Steve Jobs on ebook readers, quoted in New York Times, 15 January 2008

http://www.insidebookpublishing.com/?page_id=34

Sharpen the Saw

We often do rather than prepare or think through a problem. If we work until we can't work anymore, who will do the work?

http://www.cydcor.com/blog/2011/02/habit-7-sharpen-the-saw-is-all-about-you/


http://lifehacker.com/5814019/work-smarter-and-more-easily-by-sharpening-your-axe

Imagination

A great quote from Albert Einstein;



http://sayingimages.com/imagination-is-more-important-than-knowledge/

Using the Internet

I heard this quote used at school and I found it very evocative to present the magnitude of the problem students are faced with when using the Internet.



"Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant" - Mitchell Kapor

The Internet is no substitute for a library

Read this on Margaret's blog (http://infowhelm.blogspot.com.au/). Found it in a more easy to read format here (http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/slctdarticles/10reasonswhy.cfm). Food for thought (if you want libraries to continue and bee seen as relevant) ...

What is Information Literacy

A definition this author is comfortable with is that information literacy is the process of locating, synthesizing, evaluating, using and communicating information effectively for required purposes. It is not just a set of skills but includes the use of strategies and thinking processes to complete tasks and solve problems.

Beginnings

Though I have been interested and am a resonable user of technology, I have not as yet connected with blogs. Once again I will attempt to engage in this forum and journal my progress through the MEd(TL) course.

I am starting the subject ETL504 (TL as Leader). As I have taken over the running of our school library, I am keen to form a vision of what the library will look like in a few years. (What does/should a twenty-first century library look lke?)

For the last five weeks, I have been "treading water". There is so much to do at the start of the year that "big picture" thinking has not been a priority. However, this is a trap I have fallen into. If I continually deal only with the minutae and do not set aside time to "dream", then it will not happen. There will always by details to attend to of one kind or another, so I must prioritise my time well.

I feel that the start of the year has been an excellent introduction to working in a library. I have been experiencing many of the elements of what a teacher librarian must deal with; budgeting, leadership, acquisitions, circulation issues, resourcing, teaching and much more.

I have a budget to manage, staff to supervise, a school community to support and suppliers and clients to relate to. There are so many areas that I am finding I have had little experience in. ETL504 looks like it will force me to read deeply into the theory and practice of leadership, and running a library in particular.