The Best of Both Worlds- The Online and Real World Experience
Growing up, I loved going to public libraries and enjoyed reading many story books and novels as kids do. I even have memories of reading encyclopedias, biographies, almanacs, and atlases which at the time, I did not know were considered “reference materials”. Reference materials typically are not “checked out” of the library but these books that I borrowed were subject-focused and kid-friendly. At home, I had my own large dictionary that my mom taught me how to use and encouraged me to use. I had a Roget’s thesaurus as well as an atlas of Canada. Now, I noticed that my own school library lacks a physical reference section and realized that these young students will have a different learning experience in a library as I did. Theme 3 explored various types of reference materials and included reasons why print and non-print materials are important to a school library learning commons. My current SLLC has sufficient sources of online reference materials but it is not used as often as it should. A physical reference collection also does not currently exist. Theme 3 reminded me of the valuable experience of information seeking through using both online and physical reference resources and gave me ideas on how I can incorporate them into my own SLLC one day.
(Image courtesy of Pixabay)
It is impossible to deny that a simple Google search is what many people resort to when they have a question. However, this may not yield the best source of information because it only makes up a small fraction of available information on the Internet. About 85% of information is found “deep” in the web and much of it is subscription-based and found in databases (LaGuardia Community College, 2018a). These resources are not as free or quick to access compared to search engines but these reference resources offer “rich” content and timely information created by professionals and reputable publishers (LaGuardia Community College, 2018b). As a teacher-librarian, this would be valuable information to share with students as well as with parents to help them understand the importance of doing deep dives into the vast amounts of information that are useful and reliable. As a student, I have used these databases but it was never emphasized why we should use them. It would be meaningful to share this with students so they can make conscious decisions to dive deep into their inquiry and look into the deep web for rich information. So, as a teacher-librarian, it is my job to make them aware of the abundance of information available online as well as in various reference materials.
This video could help inform and convince students as well as teachers to use databases to obtain information that facilitates their inquiry process.
I have not seen indexes used in a school setting but I feel that it could be easily incorporated. Indexes help users find articles through common authors, titles, key words, and journals (UBC, 2021). This would be useful in helping students compile resources for their inquiry and teaching them how to access various databases. With young elementary students in mind, there are indexes and databases that are appropriate for kids include Gale’s Kids InfoBits and National Geographic Kids. Gale is a reputable publisher and accessing sources that are appropriate to the each student’s needs will make information seeking more enticing and gives them the opportunity to learn independently.
(Images from Elanco Elementary website and Sonoma County Library website)
Although we live in a world that continues to rely on technology and the Internet, it would be important to also include print formats of encyclopedias and dictionaries in libraries. I am guilty of frequently using my device to search for answers to questions on the web but there is always uncertainty on how reliable this information is as anyone can post content online. This is why it is important to include print versions. The contributors to well-known encyclopedias include Nobel Prize winners, authors, curators, and other experts who provide authentic and useful works (Berinstein, 2006). These reputable resources can also help with verifying information that was found online as well as to meet the different needs of all students (Harris, 2007; Riedling, 2013). As mentioned above, I was able to create fond memories of borrowing various reference resources and have gained experiences that I would not have been able to learn from online sources like the ease of finding reliable information and reinforcing my love for reading books.
If resources allow it, I would strongly advocate for including reference materials in both print and non-print formats. My Grade 1 students use RAZ-kids which is an online levelled reading program but many still prefer to read physical, black and white copies of the same books. This could also be applied to reference materials. However, the reality is that most school budgets do not allow for the frequent maintenance of these resources so a teacher-librarian will need to carefully plan how many types of reference materials and how often they will need to update these resources. It may be sufficient to keep one copy of an encyclopedia and one copy of a dictionary in a SLLC for everyone to use but it all depends on the needs of the school community. Another reason for why making physical copies available in the SLLC is important is that it may be more accessible than for these young students than to use online resources. All students are my school are able to visit the SLLC weekly but not many will have direct access to the online resources especially the younger primary students.
(Image courtesy of Pixabay)
References
Berinstein, P. (2006). Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man) (Links to an external site.). Searcher 14(3), 16-26.
Harris, C. (2007). Can we make peace with Wikipedia. School Library Journal, 53(6), 26.
LaGuardia Community College. (2018, January 8). Some Fast Facts About the Invisible Web. Beyond Google: The Invisible Web. https://guides.laguardia.edu/c.php?g=762553&p=5467879
LaGuardia Community College. (2018, January 8). Characteristics of Invisible Web Content or Why Search Engines Can’t Find this Information. Beyond Google: The Invisible Web. https://guides.laguardia.edu/c.php?g=762553&p=5467880
OSLIS Elementary School Videos. (2018, August 2). Using a Library Database [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/kttL04lluWU
Riedling A. M., Shake, L & Houston, C (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips, (Third Edition).
University of British Columbia. (2021). Lesson 9: Indexes, Abstracts, and Full-text Databases. [Course notes]. Retrieved from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/60431/pages/lesson-9-indexes-abstracts-and-full-text-databases?module_item_id=1865109