Library or Google?
If this is a question then I am afraid if there would be any single student on the library side.
“Kids these days, they need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find and use data) but they need a library, not at all” -------------Seth Godin
The old paradigm of school libraries is completely broken where a friendly librarian used to sit at the front desk issuing out the resources to the students and assist them in finding the books they are looking for. Students these days need neither a traditional library nor a librarian to facilitate their learning. Now the libraries need to feed the information hunger of this google generation. I am calling it google generation because this generation doesn’t look for information by turning over the pages of encyclopedia they just google it.
“Is there any doubt that online resources will get better and cheaper as the years go by? Kids don’t shlep to the library to use an out of date encyclopedia to do a report on FDR. You might want them to, but they won’t unless coerced.” Seth Godin
Most of the information seeking and interaction with teachers and peers occur online. The reality is school libraries need to have an online presence and ability to interact with the community online to fulfill their need.
We should take the resources up to where the students are or where they love to be rather than trying to drag them into the library. Kids these days spend a significant amount of time on their smart devices, so isn’t it a great idea to make the library accessible from their devices in a finger touch distance?
What do I mean by virtual appearance?
Virtual Appearance is something that will make the library visible and accessible online. In simple words, it is the online existence of the physical library.
In terms of school libraries, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a hardcore sophisticated library website (better if it is possible) but it could be the simple library’s web OPAC. These days ILMS (Integrated Library Management System) allows librarians to manage their own web OPAC and it also enables to put and embed external links and post any written and graphics content ). The Web OPAC should be linked to library page on the school website. Whatever or however it is, it should meet some basic criteria
- Accessible from the computer or other smart devices.
- Should provide item description of all library resources (all resources may not be accessible online)
- External links to other free/paid relevant databases or electronic resources.
- Provide all information about library rules, expectation, opening hours and services.
- Promote library events and programs.
- Links to e-books, audiobooks or other sorts of electronic resources
- Enable each library user to check their user account (borrowing history, any outstanding charges), reserve items and create a personalized reading list.
Why we need it:
Library resources are easily accessible: Once in a professional conference, the guest speaker, who runs a private school library in western suburbs was saying that after 9 months of hard work finally they got their library website up and running and now her next mission is to create a mobile app for the library catalog. She explained the rationale behind this is that there are so many students wait at the bus stop for the school bus. Throughout this time they are checking their phones. If the library catalog is accessible via their phone easily then some of them would access the library resources and use their time in a productive way.
I wouldn’t say that every school should have a very sophisticated library website and mobile app because we need to deal with the budget constraints. But if schools could maintain a Web OPAC which they have already paid for and the student could at least access to it from their classroom I believe it would serve the purpose in a much better way than having nothing at all.
Library promotion: The library website is always the great place to promote library resource and services. I would say a well-managed library website not just promote the library but the school as well.
“As new immigrants to Australia, my parents instinctively selected a primary school according to the quality of its library. Today’s parents are more likely to meet schools in cyberspace than on foot. Thus the question arises of the online library profile.” -------Elli Klajn (FYI Journal)
Optimal use of the Library Management System: Every library management software enables its users to manage a web OPAC (online version of the library catalog). It also enables to use it as the library’s webpage as it allows to put/ embed external links or social media, post any written or graphical content etc. In my opinion, a well-managed web OPAC would be a good enough virtual existence for a school library. So by using the web OPAC provided by the LMS schools can utilize the money fully they have spent on purchasing the LMS software.
Research support: what do we tend to do when we need any information on a topic? Simple answer is Google it. Right? This is okay for general information searches such as what is the shop’s opening hours or location or things like that. But in the case of academic research to what extent the information Google provides us is reliable? There are mainly three underlying issues
- Understanding the search engine’s algorithm (how to create an effective search string or what search terms to use to get Google to bring the related results)
- Information evaluation (how to evaluate information against authenticity, appropriateness, relevance, reliability?)
- Copyright (using others’ intellectual property rightfully)
To resolve these major issues involved in online research students need professional help. Library website can put together some external paid/unpaid database links to find information about where students could get information without being worried about the authenticity appropriateness. Also, put resources or tips on how to use others intellectual property.
Convenient and efficient: Students these days are not very interested to walk through the aisles of shelves loaded with thousands of books to find resources for their research or study. Library’s web OPAC allows librarians to create reading lists and put relevant resources or books under each list. For an example if there is reading list called year-7 Ancient Rome then the little year 7 student wouldn’t need to be stressed to find a book on ancient Rome browsing through the hundreds of other books, he would be able to choose his required book on ancient Rome within a few clicks and obviously this will be much easier and more convenient for him.
Apart from this, almost every Library Management system used by schools allows creating visual/ graphic search. Visual search is a very effective way to help junior and middle year students, they find it very easy to locate a book by visual search or topic list.
Cost efficient and the best use of the library resources: One of the best features of online resources is, they are accessible to many students at the same time. This is one of the most important reasons why the school libraries these days need a library website. Sometimes all students in the same class need the same resource in such case they can utilize the benefit of library website by getting access to the required resources.
The better way to classify resources: In school libraries, we prefer to keep a book of the same subject area or topic together to make it easy for students to find them. However, sometimes there are lots of books those cover different subject areas or topics. In such situation, it is a bit tricky for a student to locate the particular book he/she is after. On library OPAC a single resource can be listed under multiple subject area or topic or reading list.
Eay way to teach students efficient information seeking behavior: By the grace of modern technology we can monitor what students are doing on their computer without walking out of the desk. Sometimes their information seeking behavior horrifies me that they just type the keywords on google and copy and paste it with even having a proper read through. These kids are unaware of the proper way to use information found on web or how evaluate a piece of information just found by googling? This is a part of the librarian’s job to educate them to seek and use information appropriately or how to be safe online? However, conducting a session might not be feasible due to many reasons.
The library website is able to address this issue. Librarians can find age-appropriate educational resources and put them together on the website so that students can read it or watch it at their convenience.
Some Inspiring library websites:
Kilvington Grammar School (created with LMS Access It)
Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar College (Libguide)
Maribyrnong College (created with LMS Oliver)
MGS Library (created with WordPress)
Bishop Luffa School (Created with Weebly)
Thorp Academy (Created with Wix)
Reference:
- Jurkowski, Odin, “School library Website Components”, TechTrends, vol.48. No. 6, ProQuest.
- Martell. Charles, 2000, “The disembodied librarian in the digital age”, College & Research Libraries, Jan 2000, ProQuest.
- Sneddon, Linda, 2008, “School library website virtually extending learning support”, SCAN, vol.27. No.4. Nov 2008, ProQuest.
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