Assig 2b – Subject access: classification January 3, 2013

This assignment involved using DDC23/WebDewey in conjunction with section 3, Classification in SCIS standards for cataloguing and data entry to create SCIS standard classification numbers for 10 items.  Again, a great deal of lead up work on this one in practice exercises and activities, huge activity in the online forums, and I think, for a lot of us, a desire never to have to purchase and classify any items relating to Italian vioin music of the seventeenth century or collections of Russian speeches from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century (translated into English)!

Feedback:

Results

1 – 3/3.5 (Italian violin music…)

2 – 3.5/3.5 (hedge growing in Kent…)

3 – 1/3.5 (annotated bibliography of historical novels for children…

4 – 3/3.5 (journal – Indonesia/Australia…)

5 – 2.5/3.5 (biography of George Speight…)

6 – 2.5/3.5 (famous Russian speeches…)

7 – 1.75/3.5 (ecology of coastal sand dune birds…)

8 – 3.5/3.5 (readers for ESL primary…)

9 – 1/3.5 (film based on NZ play…)

10 – 2.5/3.5 (pictoral atlas, historical…)

Total 24.5/35 “Demonstrates a good understanding of Dewey Decimal Classification and SCIS standards and synthesises the core concepts and principles.  Presentation is clear and effective.

Assig 2a – Subject access:subject headings

This assignment involved using SCIS to assign subject headings to five topics.  Sounded so simple!  The preparation work on this one was huge.  I had used SCIS before but really just hacking my way around – no skill involved.  Of course, there was that added bit of justifying what you chose which made it a little tricky.  By the end of the assignment task I was feeling fairly confident I had at least some of the correct subject headings.  I think I left some in that I knew were really not ok, but was a bit in fear of leaving them out.  The results came through with good individual feedback on each exercise. 

Exercise 1 – 5.5/7, Exercise 2 – 4/7, Exercise 3 – 5/7, Exercise 4 – 4/7, Exercise 5 – 5.5/7

Feedback – 23/35 You have demonstrated a clear understanding of the principles and concepts underpinning subject classification. 

One of the things I think was offputting a little around this task was the explosion of comments in the forums during the two weeks.  Comments were flying everywhere and just when I thought I had something clear in my head, another comment would come through making me doubt myself on it.  I need to train myself in more selective reading of forums!

Assig 1 – Feedback

This assignment was one I was really not looking forward to getting back.  I really struggled with the concepts behind the content and the fact I was coming from a zero knowledge point.  I read my final assignment to several members of my family and they looked blankly at me after the first paragraph – you could see them heading off to a “happy place” in their head and going through the motions of looking interested for my sake! I think the main issue, among quite a few, was the saturation of acronyms throughout the paper.

I was so pleasantly surprised (&  a little stunned), to get this feedback:

20/30 You have demonstrated a clear understanding of the principles and concepts underpinning RDA and the need for change. More detail on the clustering of records for versions of resources and the impact of this clustering on students and teachers could have been included.

Assig 2 – Feedback

 Vision Statement

Crescent Lagoon State School Resource Centre is a dynamic and engaging information-rich learning environment that supports learners on their journey to becoming active, innovative and lifelong global citizens. Resource collections – physical, print, digital and human – are flexible, futures-oriented, aligned to curriculum priorities and responsive to learner and community needs.

 

Feedback:

“A sound vision statement which sets the tone for the rest of the submission. My only comments are on the paper attached. Thank you for a fine effort. I enjoyed reading the submission which, if delivered, will indicate to the school administrators that they have efficient and professional middle manager and a leader in 21C learning.”

Assig 1 – Feedback

Marking Feedback was fair and in line with what I was expecting on this assignment.  I enjoyed writing Part B and am comfortable with this model in my current workplace.

Feedback:

Part A would have been enhanced with a more balanced view of the leadership styles as selected. TLs need to see both the positive and negative aspects of any style in order to be effective as each style has a ‘shadow’ which may be opposite to the norm.

Part B has demonstrated a solid understanding of the CBAM model and its application to teachers learning about blogging. Knowledge, skills and attitudes have been appropriately addressed throughout.

 

 

 

Assig 2 – Collection Policy

Another great assignment task – so practical!  I really enjoyed putting this together and the feedback was super with a 51/60 result and feedback of “Congratulations on a fine effort.  While I have made a few suggestions which I hope may enhance the policy, a solid foundation has been established.”

 

Part A – Context (approx. 750 words) (15 marks)

Provide an analytical overview of a school library collection giving the current nature of that collection, the roles that collection is expected to play in supporting teaching and learning in the school, and the changes that are being made,or should be made, to that collection to maintain or increase its relevance to the information needs and preferences of students and teachers. This situation should be factual, if possible, but can be hypothetical. This overview should contextualise, rationalise and justify the decisions within the new or revised collection policy you create in part B.

 

Complete one of the following exercises:

1. Where there is an existing collection policy (generally titled Collection Development Policy or Collection Management Policy) in written form, include this policy as an appendix to part A and assess its appropriateness and weaknesses against the context provided above in part A. (500 words)
2. Where the collection policy is unwritten, briefly describe and assess the library’s collection practices. (500 words). At the end of Part A give a list of the references used for this part.

 

Part B – Collection policy (approx. 1750 words) (40 marks)

Create or revise a collection policy for the school context given in part A. The new or revised policy should be a highly professional and well presented document. While the policy must be specific to the circumstances and needs of the given school context, your first purpose here is to complete an academic assessment task which clearly demonstrates what you have learnt through this subject and your ability to apply that knowledge and understanding to a specific context in a pertinent manner.

The policy will be comprised of policy decisions (and rationale where appropriate to clarify decisions). Procedures whose function is purely to indicate how policy decisions will be carried out are not be included in the policy.

The decisions given should be pertinent to the online and physical resources and digital collections to be included in or accessed through the collection. Where the online resources and/or access to digital collections aspects of the collection are still at an early stage the decisions should give proposed directions and actions in addition to decisions on what is in place.

The policy will comprise decisions on:

• the purposes, goals and nature of the collection;
• the types of resources to be included in the collection;
• the access to be provided to digital and online resources;
• funding the collection;
• the selection of resources;
• acquisition of resources;
• weeding of resources;
• evaluation of the collection; and
• how challenges to resources within or accessed through the collection will be responded it.

Clearly demonstrate that a range of professional literature and professional tools were appropriately drawn upon in creating the revised policy. Building your policy from professional sources and relating them specifically and systematically to the school situation is generally a far more productive and successful approach than looking to amend collection policies created for different schools. Include a list of references at the end of the policy which clearly acknowledges the sources of ideas and materials drawn upon in writing/revising the collection policy.

 

Part C – Reflection (approx 500 words) (5 marks)

Reflect on what you have learnt as you evaluated a collection and the existing collection policy/practices and developed a new or revised collection policy. How has completing this assessment task established or extended your knowledge and understanding of the role and nature of school library collections? Include a list of any references you have used for this section at the end of the section.

Assig 1 Resourcing a Curriculum Area

This was a great assignment -probably a little biased as I have worked the past few years as a Head of Curriculum in a primary school setting.  I scored 12/15 for Part A and 25/25 for Part B – best result in the course so far.  Feedback for Part B “Janelle, What you have provided in Part B is a quality overview of your selection process coupled with an excellent selection and descriptions of 10 new resources.  Congratulations on a fine effort.”

Assignment Overview

Part A – Context and needs

• Identify an aspect of the curriculum (e.g. a unit of work or topic, or part of a unit of work or topic) in a school with which you are familiar that is not adequately resourced by the school library, but where the situation can be appropriately addressed by the addition of ten new resources (this situation should be factual, if possible, but can be hypothetical).
• Provide a clear, pertinent overview of the chosen aspect of the curriculum, and clearly and analytically overview the nature of the resources needed to meet the goals, support the  content, and achieve the desired outcomes of the selected aspect of the curriculum.
• Clearly and analytically identify any other information/resource needs created by the characteristics of the school, the students who study this aspect of the curriculum and the teachers who teach it.
• Provide a clear, pertinent overview of resources already available through or within the school library that are relevant to this aspect of the curriculum. Clearly and analytically identify how these resources do not adequately meet the needs of the chosen aspect of the curriculum and/or the needs created by the characteristics of the school, the student body

Part B – Selection and acquisition processes and outcomes

• Drawing upon your studies for this subject, determine, apply, describe and justify the selection and (potential) acquisition processes employed to select and make accessible ten resources to appropriately resource the selected aspect of the curriculum within the context given in part A.
• These processes should clearly reflect the considered use of appropriate professional   literature and a range of professional tools. Your selection processes should clearly identify and describe the use of any lists of resources, bibliographies, or collections of online resources drawn upon in selecting and acquiring the ten resources that was provided with, or already created for, the selected aspect of the curriculum. (15 marks)
• Clearly identify the ten resources by giving a bibliographic description of each item using the APA style you are using for referencing.
• At least six of the resources should be available for use online They may, for example, be digital learning objects, digital collections, e-books or e-journals as well as websites.
• Clearly identify the sources where these resources can be currently accessed or acquired from and why these sources would be used. Clearly specify how these resources (individually or as a group) will adequately complete the resourcing of the selected aspect of the curriculum within the context given in part A. (10 marks)
• The purpose of Part B is to provide you with the opportunity to clearly demonstrate the practical and theoretical knowledge and understanding you have acquired of the principles of selection and acquisition and the wide range of professional tools and resources available in this area.

Assig 2A&b – Pathfinder & Critical Analysis

I really enjoyed making the Pathfinder for this assignment – shame it was only worth 20% of the total mark!  The critical analysis was worth 50% and I really didn’t have my head around it as you can tell from the second part of my feedback from the lecturer!

http://mrswilliamscresso.wikispaces.com/Fairytales+-+home 

 Feedback from Pathfinder:

Introduction, keywords, definitions and IL skills advice (30%) 22

Very good introduction which addresses the students well. Keywords and definitions are clear. There is clear guidance given to students – I accept that this is the equivalent of IL advice, although you could perhaps have included some elements of IL advice given to older students.

 Range of formats and relevance of resources for audience (10%) 8

Very relevant sources and good range of formats

Presentation (10%) 9

Very well presented

Annotations (50%) 38

You provide students with excellent advice on using the resources and link this very well to your previous advice. As you link this well to the Big 6 in your Critical Analysis, this can be accepted as equivalent to IL advice. You could possibly include some elements relating to using the keywords.

Total / 100 : 77

 Overall Comment :

Janelle,

A very resource for your year 2 students and it will be interesting to see how well they can use this resource, given their varied abilities. I think that you could try including some aspects of IL advice which some of your more able students could use.

 Feedback from Critical Analysis:

Given your first assignment, this is extremely disappointing. I’m not sure if this was rushed – it certainly lacks depth throughout, and 51% is a generous mark. You need to follow the specification – and this feedback sheet- much more closely and include many more references to reach your previous performance. I am sure you can do much better.

How Google Works….

Very cool infographic from http://www.ppcblog.com/how-google-works/

Placement, Rockhampton Regional Library Sept/Oct 2012

I undertook a fantastic range of activities while on placement. and was supported by fantastic staff in my learning. Key activities included:

Shelving Support

Each day I spent time in the non-fiction section of the Library, re-shelving returns and tidying/pulling forward books. All staff spent a part of their day on this activity.  Library Assistants spent more time than the qualified Librarians on this activity. This was a great time for thinking about the day, and to get a real understanding of this seemingly “never ending” task in a library of this size.

Reference Project

I was given the task of reviewing the Library Reference area of the collection.  This was an independent task and I enjoyed applying the principles learnt in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum in making recommendations for culling/disposal.  One of the issues facing this area of the collection was a lack of use by clients along with age of resources.

Kids Holiday Program – Wimpy Kid Olympics

I absolutely loved this part of my placement!  I was involved initially in helping to set up the program, and then was given the responsibility of running this solo as the designated staff member was needed at another Library for one of the program days.  We had a great roll up of children for the activities (36 on one day), with some of these coming from my school. 

TechnoTots Program

The TechnoTots Program sounded great, unfortunately there were no attendees on the day I was assisting with it.  I did, however, get to do up the program for the following weeks activities.

Shelf Signage Project

This was another independent task I was given during my placement.  The library collection was moved approximately three years ago to a new building.  This is a beautiful venue with lots of open space, but quite sadly, designed by architects and not librarians!  As a result, shelves are arranged in an architecturally aesthetic manner, but it is like a maze to work in order through the sections of the library.  I prepared and presented a proposal to library management with recommendations on reorganising the main area of the library, including floor plan/shelf position proposals.

Home Delivery

The library offers a home delivery service to users unable to attend and borrow in person.  This is a free service that I had no idea existed until my placement.  I was able to spend time helping with organising books for borrowers and then to go out in the car and do a morning delivery/pick up service to one of the nursing homes in Rockhampton.  This was one of the most memorable elements of my placement as it really struck home the way the Library was meeting the needs of their users – and more importantly, how valuable this service was to the people using it.  I can see linkages to my own role at school with this service.  When students are on extended leave from school for a variety of reasons we send home work, but we don’t send home library books.  Something to change from 2013!

Overview/Support of COIN Academy

COIN is a project that provides basic computer skills training to members of the Library.  I was given a very comprehensive overview of the program and, while I didn’t get to assist with any formal courses, was able to support users on an ad-hoc basis with MS-Word and email needs.  I was really impressed with the range of users that access this service. http://coin.org.au/#

Overview/Support – Other Areas

I was also able to spend time in Cataloguing, the Local History Collection, preparing displays and setting up rooms for events, assisting on the Circulation Desk, and supporting returns in the Toy Library.  This was a great overview of what was on offer and a chance to network with some very competent staff in the process.  The processing area for new books provided me with new knowledge and during Term 4 I have used this at school to completely change the product range we use to process our new books.