Website - Competency 9

The website I chose is named Resources for School Librarians. Its name says it all. It contains links to library websites pertaining to just about anything a school librarian would need to know. It has links to state programs and certification standards, curriculum and instruction, units and lessons about library skills, copyright, professional development and much more. I have already added it to my favorites and will add it to my bookmarks on del.icio.us. I used Vivisimo (Clusty) to find this website. www.sldirectory.com/index.html#top

Multimedia - Competency 8

I found this graph on the U. S. Department of Education website in a September 15, 2004 article about school libraries in The Achiever newsletter.


Library Use
Percentage of public school library
media centers with scheduled times when
students can use the library independently,
by school level: 1999-2000

NOTE: School library may offer more than one scheduled period or set time.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey, Public School Library Media Center Questionnaire, 1999–2000.The URL for this issue of the newsletter is http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/achiever/2004/091504.html

Library Lit Database - Successive Fractions search: Competency 6

For this search, my beginning search term was "school librar*" which yielded 30,857 hits. The next term was "elementary and (students or children)" which yielded 1614 hits. Finally, the third term was "teach* library skills" which yielded 563 hits. When I combined them into one search, I ended up with a manageable 104 hits.

Dialog Database - Specific Facet First search: Competency 6

I started my search with Library Skills and Children. This only resulted in 95 hits, which I thought was quite manageable.





I did another search for school librar? which resulted in too many hits.

Academic Search Complete - Citation Pearl Growing search: Competency 6

I chose to begin the citation pearl search by using the author of the book I tagged for Competency 5. I searched for Violet Harada in Academic Search Complete and received the following results:




Then I found the article, School Librarians Help Students Acheive: Here's the Evidence, that I liked from these results. Then used the subject term "Libraries and Students" to further my search.



These are the final results.

WorldCat Database - Building Block search: Competency 6

My inquiry is for information about teaching media skills to elementary school students. My original search did not include a date range and resulted in information from the 1970s and 1980s. I decided to add the date range so the results would be more current.





These are the results.

Tagging: Competency 5

education(1) inquiry(1) learning(1) library(1) location-harvey(1) non-fiction(1) partnership(1) professional resource(1) school library media(1)

http://www.librarything.com/work/1049037

I found this book, Inquiry Learning Through Librarian-Teacher Partnerships by Violet Harada while searching for resources for school librarianship. My interest in librarianship was sparked by the untapped resource of school librarians in the schools where I have taught. This book gives a detailed plan of how to create a teamwork approach to inquiry learning. There is a brief summary of each chapter included under the Book Descriptions tab. Just from reading the description, I think this is a book I would like to have.

RSS feed: Competency 4

The feed I chose is from the ALA website and is a booklist by Keir Graff. I am especially interested in the children's and youth listings since my area of interest is school library.

eLibrary Podcast:Competency 3

I found the following podcast about eLibrary on YouTube.com. I chose it because I am discouraged by how little my students are taught about research in the library.
It sounds a bit like an advertisement but is very informational. For me, it is quite useful since I really have no experience with eLibrary. From watching the podcast, eLibrary seems like it would be a wonderful research tool for my students. I especially like that you can sort by reading level so my younger children wouldn't have to sort through pages of items that are above their level.

Teaching Library Skills to Elementary Students: Competency 2

So just what SHOULD librarians be teaching? is the blog I have chosen to link to my site because it discusses the importance of achieving a balance between information literacy, reading skills, and technology. As the author, Doug Johnson, points out:
"Personally I'd like this to be our model - that our programs acknowledge our roles as reading and tech teachers, but we emphasize the application of these skills in an IL model that helps solve real problems and answer genuine questions."
I found this blog at http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/1/12/so-just-what-should-librarians-be-teaching.html by using Google Blog.

Introduction BLOG

I admit I am a bit intimidated by this whole Blog stuff, but at least I've made it this far. The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate competencies for my LS 5013 class. My area of interest is children's programs and specifically teaching elementary students how to use the library services and databases that are available to them. I firmly believe that kids who are taught these skills when they are young will have a real advantage over those who have to learn them at an older age. I am also an advocate for instilling a love of reading and literature in young children.