Anne Johnston’s Library Blog

I spent yesterday on a course which did what it said on the tin - “considered the pedagogy of collaborative learning, the on-line tools available and the practical techniques needed to engage learners.” The course delivery method was in the style of e-learning we would like to encourage in our students - an initial explanatory section, a session working on my own evaluating examples of hotlists, subject samplers, treasure hunts and webquests and then the rest of the day working in a group to produce a webquest. The day was organised by CILIPS and run by Netskills and had a mixed bunch of participants from school, public and university libraries. Interesting to see, yet again, that we are all dealing with the same issues when it comes to encouraging our library members to carry out research effectively.

I came away from the day with access to a half completed team webquest and an understanding of processes which must be carried out before starting to introduce students to the webquest. It is an effective way of providing a genuine collaborative learning experience which encourages student to locate, synthesise and evaluate information.

I recently visited the new Queen Margaret University Learning Resource Centre, together with several of the East Lothian school librarians and two of the librarians from Loretto. I enjoyed the look around the new campus and was particularly impressed by the use of thin clients instead of desktop PCs to provide IT access for students. Jo Rowley, Head of Library Services at QMU, is keen to offer opportunities to our senior students to make use of their resources. She recently joined us at a school librarians link meeting with senior librarians from East Lothian Library Service. We are already looking at possibilities for joint working to improve our students’ information literacy (or research methodologies - thanks Linda) and ease their transition from secondary to tertiary education. Next steps - school librarians will be talking to their HTs, guidance teachers and staff from relevant subject departments. Jo will contact East Lothian HTs and guidance staff .

Our Chinese Language Assistant goes home at the weekend to Xiamen. She has been with us for a year and has introduced us to many aspects of chinese culture, both traditional and modern. She has given me a postcard of the library of Zhangzhou Campus of Xiamen University. It is a huge, bright building. Follow the link to see it and more pictures of the beautiful campus. It is an interesting comparison with the Saltire Centre I visited recently. Follow this link to find out more about Xiamen University.

*Glaswegian for pal or friend.

13th June was the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Scotland (CILIPS) Branch and Group Day. This day is part of our annual conference and it is attended by people from all different kinds of libraries and other organisations. The day consists of workshops and seminars arranged by the various special interest groups of CILIPS. The day began with the Presidential Address - no, not George Bush but Christopher Phillips, President of CILIPS. My first session after that was on Developing Catalogues for Customers not Cataloguers. It did what it said in the tin, wasn’t overly technical and explained how new international cataloguing standards will improve access to resources for everyone, that is readers, borrowers and customers and not just librarians.

My next seminar was Running Successful Book Groups. We have had a book group for a number of years at DGS but I was hoping for some fresh ideas, which I got. Thanks to CArol Moug from St Saviour’s High School, Dundee for an entertaining and informative presentation.

Last session of the day was Falkirk’s RED Book Award. Again I got lots of ideas form this even though it was dealing with running an award as a whole authority.

Towards the end of last month I and my colleagues from Knox Academy and Ross High attended an open meeting at Glasgow Caledonian University. I arranged for us to see round the Saltire Centre - the library at Glasgow Caledonian - beforehand. We were able to have lunch in the cafe (yes cafe) in the library and spend time working together on a discussion paper making use of the seating with laptop points provided to do so (Large couches actually). I intend to visit other universities and colleges in the next few months to get up to speed with the resources students are expected to use, including online journals and e-books. 

Sitting amongst the students in the Saltire Centre for an hour and a half, I became aware of how most students now mutlitask. They may be sitting at a desktop PC and/or using books, whilst plugged in to an iPod or MP3 and occasionally talking to their next door neigbour. Or they could be working as a group in one of the designated areas which have a white board and seats for several people. They may or may not have a tutor with them.

Our senior students show clear evidence in school that they want to work this way. My challenge, how to encourage them to do so without study deteriorating into a social meeting with no work at the end of the period. Should I be concerned about making sure no one is eating or drinking in the library or allow them to do so and instead make sure they clear up after themselves, as I witnessed in Glasgow? Can I rearrange the furniture to make it possible for students to work in a more relaxed but more productive manner?

Friday afternoon at Knox Academy, I had my mentor hat on. I met three colleagues who are currently working towards their Charter - two School Librarians and the Young People’s Services Librarian. They are all graduates with either a degree in librarianship/information science or a degree in another subject and a PG qualification in librarianship. After a year mentored by a Chartered Librarian, following a personal professional development plan agreed with our professional body CILIPS, they must submit a portfolio for consideration to CILIPs. If this meets the appropriate criteria they will then become Chartered Librarians.

This was our second portfolio meeting. We will get together every few weeks to provide a focus for their work, otherwise it is all too easy to push professional development to the back of the queue of priorities. The purpose of chartering is to demonstrate that we are continuing to develop our managerial skills, keeping our professional skills updated and engaging in effective forward planning. We must demonstrate that we are assessing and evaluating not only our own work but the progress of our service. On reflection this is the way of working and the skills set we are hoping our school students will begin to develop as they engage in Extreme Learning.

At the Extreme Learning meeting on Thursday evening there was one of those moments where everything suddenly seems to mesh. My fellow school librarians and I have been trying to come up with ways to help students located all over East Lothian to improve their research skills. Don used examples of extreme learning projects from Macmerry Primary. Also at the meeting a teacher from Ormiston Primary who has several Extreme Learners in school, a teacher and the school librarian from Ross High. By the end of the meeting these four had plans in hand to pilot some of the ideas for progressing EL and the offer of a venue from East Lothian Library Service for the group to meet. Students from each of the schools will be given the opportunity to work together to design the next stage for Extreme Learning - variously described as simple, flexible and no teacher required, using a technique called agile software development.

I was driving to work this morning enjoying the view from Whitekirk across Binning Woods to the Lammermuirs and musing about yesterday’s 4ureaders local editorial group meeting. Our group has an abundance of ideas for content for the site and BIll Plain at Knox Academy has a student editorial group which contributes regularly. There is a mix of staff from both the public library service and school libraries and we share the work amongst the group, with Bill as the keystone. He attends the national editorial group meetings and co-ordinates our ideas and contributions. It came as a surprise to realise that not all other authorities work in this way but that sometimes one person has to collect ideas from a group of staff and try to do all the work on his/her own. This collaborative approach is typical of our Library Service. As a result our students and staff now have access to a whole range of resources, in print and electronic/digital format, over and above those held in our individual schools. Our students gradually learn to appreciate that all of the libraries in East Lothian are linked and that they can borrow items from and return them to any library. We can also teach them how to search large databases of information effectively, simply by showing them how to use the online catalogue to check their borrowing record and reserve books. This is always a popular part of my course introducing the library to first year students. The catalogue is sometimes known as Elvis. Have a look and see why.