Organizational Practicalities

Let's be business-like, and practical for this last blog post... okay? After all, we are talking about an important issue such as library organization, so let's keep it real, alright?

Physical space, signs, inventory lists, and missing materials (overdue or lost). These are some of the factors that can affect the day-to-day organization of a library.

The physical space, design, and layout of the library will have an effect on who the users will be, what activities they will engage in within the library, and how much enjoyment they get out of their time spent in the library. Obviously, an open, uncluttered space will be more inviting to students and staff. Sometimes this means moving bookcases, or displays, or renovating major areas. Each library space is different, and the requirements of the space will vary depending upon the population using the facility.

Signage is really a hidden tool in the library, because it is so independent, yet dependable. Accurate and high-quality signs will help students and staff navigate the space without the assistance of the teacher-librarian. It also gives the library a finished-look when all the signage is coordinated and written in a positive tone. Signage can welcome students and staff (e.g. Reading is Fun!, or Grade 8 Fiction), or it can scare them off (e.g. QUIET ZONE!, or NO FOOD). It's up to the teacher-librarian to negotiate the appropriate wording and tone in each sign.

Creating inventory lists seem to be a meta-level of library organization. I have never completed a library inventory yet, but it appears to be time-consuming and labourious. Every book must be accounted for on the shelf and matched to its corresponding record in the OPAC. Any book that is unaccounted for after two years is declared missing and removed from the catalogue. I suppose this organizational task is important in order to keep the records in the online catalogue current, updated, and aligned with the physical resources found in the library.

Lastly, when it comes to overdue and lost books, I must admit that I have not been as persistent as I probably should be. However, I do like the idea of keeping these situations positive by rewarding patrons with good circulation records, rather than punishing those with bad records. However, at the end of the day, it isn't really fair for one student to have a (popular) book out for the entire semester. Action must be taken to locate (and re-circulate) the material.

Overall, it seems that there are a lot of matters to consider when organizing the learning resources of a school library. There are physical aspects, digital aspects, psychological aspects, sociological aspects, financial aspects, and the list could go on. Who knew that it was such a complex topic?! However, the overarching sentiment is access. For everything we do in the school library, for every organizational decision, or for every change, the reasoning should always be: to increase ACCESS.

Library Homepage: the Chicken and the Egg

First of all, is a library homepage a necessity? The answer is no.

However... if you want to connect with today's students and teachers, I'd say it's a pretty good idea to have one.

But, it's a lot of work, you say! (Yes, and no). And what if no one even notices it's there, you ask! (Well, maybe). But, here's where we come to the chicken and the egg: First, your library homepage needs to be promoted by YOU (the teacher-librarian) with teachers and students. Show them how useful it can be, and how easy it is for them to find the resources and information that they are looking for. But then, after a while, the library homepage will start to promote the LIBRARY and all the fun activities and cool resources provided by the library program. If you give a little to the homepage, it will give back manifold.

Joyce Valenza states that a library homepage is equivalent to a "second front door" into the library. I agree in that the library homepage should be an extension of the library, resonating the tone and atmosphere of the physical space, and it should also be interactive.

Upon creation of a library homepage, Valenza indicates four essential library homepage "must-haves," such as the following:

(1) Information Access and Delivery: This would entail links to the school library's OPAC, and any resources based on e-subscriptions.

(2) Teaching and Learning: Lesson plans, collaborative projects with classroom teachers, and links to websites or tutorials for students which are curriculum-based. (Moreover, I would also add examples of student work as a celebration of learning).

(3) Supporting Books and Reading: Book reviews, and updates regarding new books added to the library's collection, as well as, reading contests or book clubs.

(4) Program Administration: Library hours, a short introduction of the Teacher-Librarian, loan periods, and library calendars.

Valenza's four areas cover all the necessary bases when it comes to creating a useful and informative library homepage. It is up to each teacher-librarian to modify and to customize their library homepage to meet the needs of their school population.

Sometimes socioeconomic factors play into the relevance of a library homepage. If the student population does not have good and equitable access to technological resources, then a library homepage might not be the best use of that particular teacher-librarian's time. As with everything else, the relevancy of a library's homepage must be assessed within the school's context.

Furthermore, a library homepage with all of the pre-screened links can provide students and teachers with examples of safe online websites. Lessons can be created around assessing the quality and validity of internet websites, and no student is too young to start these life lessons.

Personally, I have just started at my school and have not had a moment to turn my attention to the school library's online presence; however, it is on my immediate to-do list. I think that it is also important for teacher-librarians to use their time wisely and not to feel that they have to re-invent the wheel at every step. Therefore, when I do start to create my library homepage, I'm planning on modeling it on my favourite school library website in the district: Hillcrest Elementary. This library website is fun, interactive, and hits all of Valenza's "must-haves."

OPAC yoga - a mixture of flexibility and power

First, let me start off by defining "OPAC" for those who are less acquainted with library terms. OPAC stands for Online Public Access Catalogue. So, what does it have to do with yoga? Well, nothing. But yoga is all about maintaining flexibility and power, and guess what (?!), those are essential components of a functional OPAC, too. A searchable catalogue needs to be flexible to meet the needs of its patrons (e.g. visual search, sounds-like spelling, auto-fill search). It also needs to be powerful on the administration side, allowing the teacher-librarian to add, edit, and delete patrons, titles, or MARC records. Like yoga, OPACs take patience and practice in order to reach mastery.

Next, I shall discuss the functionality of my school's particular OPAC, that is, Follett's Destiny Quest, in the context of another Eastern philosophy: yin and yang.

Yin - On the one hand, the "Back Office" of Destiny Quest is definitely the yin of Follett's OPAC. For starters, it is the set of applications in the "shadow," so to speak. Only the library administrator has access to these (secret) functions on Destiny Quest, such as adding or deleting patrons or resources. The layout of the "Back Office" is sequential and hierarchical; major tabs leading to sub-tabs and applications. The "Back Office" is all about being functional; there are no splashy colours, or other visual stimuli. It is simply about peaceful work, and system manipulation and management.

Yang - On the other hand, the brightly-coloured student-view of Destiny Quest would be the dynamic yang of Follett's OPAC. The homepage highlights the top 10 checked-out resources, as well as, the newly added resources. The student-view has it's functionalities too (i.e. quick search box, or advanced search options), but it is mostly about being attractive and advertising potential books for students to check out.

One complete whole - Overall, the combination of these two opposites, the yin-and-yang of Follett's Destiny Quest, makes it a highly-functional, user-friendly tool for students and teachers to use in order to find resources in the library. The ultimate goal of every teacher-librarian is to make his/her job obsolete -- what??! Let me explain: By teaching information and literacy skills to students, such as how to use an OPAC, we are continuously striving to have each student reach user-independence. Systems like Follett's Destiny Quest help us to make students more self-sufficient in their journey of life-long learning.

"All by myself... Don't want to be, All by myself anymore..."

Just like in Celine Dion's song, "All By Myself," teacher-librarians "don't want to be all by [them]selves anymore" in the library. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well similarly, it takes a team to maintain a library.

Luckily for teacher-librarians, there are a few "Jobbers" available. Jobbers are companies which buy books from multiple publishers and then prepare packages of selected books for purchase. A teacher-librarian would have the option to purchase the accompanying MARC records, and/or to have the books processed (barcodes and spine labels attached). Of course, these extra services cost extra fees, so it all comes down to a time vs. cost balance.

Generally, I don't think any teacher-librarian in his/her right mind would say "no" to a satisfactory MARC record, but whether he/she would want to prepare the book on-site in his/her own library is a matter of preference, and available time.

Personally, I enjoy the arts-and-crafts aspect of barcoding and attaching spine labels, but it is important to keep that time to a minimum so that there are plenty of opportunities to teach critical information and literacy skills in the library.

The decision to use these services (or not to use them) is completely up to the teacher-librarian, and the administration responsible for the library. The ultimate goal is to provide access (there's that word again) for students and staff to the newly acquired resources ASAP.

Here's a brief and incomplete list of a few available Jobbers:
Titlewave: Follett Library Resources
United Library Services
CanLit for Kids

Dewey Decimal Classification

Melvil Dewey was a genius... a librarian-genius, that is.

Thanks to Mr. Dewey, our modern libraries are organized, useful places which allow us to locate resources within a reasonable time frame.

Resources in the library are divided into 10 categories based upon content. The main classifications are:

000 - General Works
100 - Philosophy and Psychology
200 - Religion
300 - Social Sciences
400 - Languages
500 - Natural Sciences and Mathematics
600 - Technology (Applied Sciences)
700 - The Arts (Fine and Decorative)
800 - Literature and Rhetoric
900 - Geography

Something new that I had not know before this lesson is that fiction (Literature) could be included in the Dewey Decimal system under 813; however, it would take over that entire section. Therefore, most libraries separate the fiction from the non-fiction.

As a Teacher-Librarian, I can see the beneficial effects of students learning to use the Dewey Decimal system. The sooner students can learn the main classification sections, the sooner they will be able to search for resources and follow their interests on their own. It all comes down to access. When students know how the DDC system works, they increase their personal, unguided access to the library's resources. We, teacher-librarians, are always happy to help, of course, but the end result which we strive for is to make students self-sufficient in their personal quests for knowledge.

My favourite resource about the Dewey Decimal Classification system for students is "Do We" Really Know Dewey? It's fun, interactive, and made by students! I will definitely be using this website to teach the Dewey Decimal Classification system in my school library!

I must update this because I have found my NEW favourite resource for teaching the Dewey Decimal Classification system. It's called the "Dewey Decimal Rap." I swear this has been tried and tested this past week at my school, and the result is... kids LOVE it. Here it is:

It's not delivery, it's Delicious...

This week we were asked to register for an account with "Delicious," which is an online social bookmarking service. Just like bookmarking on a private computer, Delicious allows users to label or "tag" a website according to their own needs. Tags added to each link then become searchable for other users, allowing them to find their way to your "favourite" sites. The added benefit of Delicious is that you can access your web-bookmarks from any computer, anywhere; whereas, regular bookmarks are limited to your specific computer.

This social bookmarking tool is an exercise in collaborative subject cataloguing. Regular users (to my knowledge) are not aware of their significant impact on the organization and classification of resources on the internet, yet they play such a large role in it. The question of controlled versus uncontrolled vocabulary is the central dilemma. Alireza Noruzi's article, "Folksonomies: (Un)Controlled Vocabulary?," published in 2006, discusses the limitations of uncontrolled vocabularies in the clear classification of knowledge. By decentralizing subject cataloguing, on the one hand, we are losing accuracy and consistency in classification; yet, on the other hand, we are potentially gaining increased access to information according to simplified and popularized terms. Noruzi's article is a bit out-of-date, in my opinion, because many of the suggestions, such as recommendable tags, have already been implemented in updated versions of social bookmarking tools like Delicious. Thus, there is a verifiable effort being made to work towards creating a more consistent vocabulary for classification in social contexts.

Personally, I did not find Delicious to be that scrumptious. I entered my typical search term, squash (my favourite sport), and immediately Delicious brought back results for butternut squash soup, or roasted spaghetti squash. I looked at the "related tags" list, and everything had to do with cooking or vegetables; nothing hinted towards the sport called squash. So, I had to change my search to "squash sport," and then only 918 links showed up. From years of researching squash on the internet, I know that there are far more websites regarding squash (the sport) than that. Therefore, I have not been too impressed with this social bookmarking site; however, conversely, every tool has its advantages, disadvantages, and limitations.

Furthermore, perhaps collaborative subject cataloguing could be useful within very specific communities, such as in elementary or middle school communities. Often younger students will have different terms or phrases to describe a subject or topic than the teachers or librarians at a school. Thus, by allowing students to contribute to the classification and curation of these high-interest resources, this may result in more students locating and gaining access to these resources.

"Copy-Cat" has a whole new meaning

Last week I learned all about making and reading MARC records, only to find out this week that such a thing as "copy cataloguing" exists... And thank goodness!

Copy cataloguing is exactly what the name implies: copying a catalogue entry from another source. This process is deemed acceptable because it saves time and energy in creating a record where one already exists in another location.

There are multiple sources from which to copy catalogue entries. On the one hand, some sources are free, but require more effort on your part to obtain and copy. MARC records can be viewed in the Library of Congress catalogue, or AMICUS (Canadian National Catalogue). Additionally, often CIP (Cataloguing in Publication) data is printed on the verso of the resource. (Although, as a result of the fact that the CIP is created before the final product is completed and published, the accuracy of this information is sometimes questionable). On the other hand, some sources cost money, but they provide services, such as delivering specific catalogue records (including MARC format) into your library catalogue. An example of one such source is: Worldcat.

Ultimately, when copy cataloguing, one must consider that just because a record already exists, it does not mean that it is a complete and superior catalogue entry; it just merely exists. Thus, the quality, depth, and accuracy of a catalogue entry must be assessed when "copying" the data from an existing record. Overall, I think that it would be considered "best practice" to enhance each copied record to meet the specific needs of your patrons and the library.