Competency 5: Tagging and Indexing

As a future elementary librarian one of my interests is providing quality literature for all children. More specifically, I want to stock the library with books that meet the interest of every child. If a book is not in the library I will use my searching skills to purchase one. Through my experience as a teacher as boys get older some lose their interest in reading whether it be because it becomes difficult, too time consuming, or maybe they would rather play video games. It will be my job as a librarian to spark an interest in every child, including boys. I found a book on LibraryThing that might be an excellent consulting tool when I am needing a book idea for a particular boy and his interests. Best Books for Boys: A Resource for Educators (Children's and Young Adult's Literature Reference) by Matthew D. Zabaracki, is a book organized by genre. The tag doesn't provide much information about the book in fact I added the tag literature for boys. So, after searching futher I also found some related tags using Library Thing.
Original Tags
literature for boys (1) read in 2010 (1) reader's advisory (1) reference (1)

Related Tags
20th century (1,302) adventure (3,795) american (959) american literature (872) british (1,311) children (929) children's (1,634) classic (6,410) classics (3,674) comics (2,064) coming of age (1,048) dystopia (5,772) fantasy (19,170) fiction (39,233) future (772) graphic novel (1,928) hobbits (801) literature (3,378) lord of the rings (1,366) magic (748) middle earth (1,528) mystery (2,635) novel (4,746) own (1,825) paperback (939) read (6,453) religion (1,353) sci-fi (3,778) science fiction (9,922) series (1,392) sf (1,809) suspense (703) thriller (1,805) tolkien (2,370) unread (1,290) vampires (797) war (729) YA (2,760) young adult (3,629)

This information was found using Library Thing.

Library Literature Search

I chose to continue my search using the same question I posed when completing my World Cat and ERIC searches. I wanted to see what other related information and articles were available for my topic because I am very interested in maintaining open communication with my classroom teachers. I want to plan library lessons that complement the curriculum being taught within the classroom. As a current teacher I am constantly team planning and sharing with my teaching partner and other grade levels through vertical teaming. One of my goals and hopefully strengths as a school librarian will be to use the library as an enrichment tool as well as a research tool for students to use as they extend what has been taught in the classroom.

Naïve Question: As a school librarian how can I improve teacher/librarian collaboration involving curriculum to academically benefit elementary students?

Key Terms/Facets	Teacher/librarian collaboration		Curriculum	Elementary students
My initial terms	Teamwork vertical teaming teacher/media specialist		academics lesson plans	PreK-6th grade primary students grade school
Thesaurus Terms (Subject Headings)	School libraries/Relations with teachers and curriculum Teacher education and the school library Education		School libraries/activity projects Teacher education and the school library	School libraries/Activity projects Children's literature/Evaluation Children's library services

Keyword Searching Notes:

This keyword search did not take as long as the Books in Print. For my first facet I completed five searches. The first one I used teacher/librarian collaboration which found the heading school libraries/relations with teachers and curriculum. The second search using school libraries/relations with teachers and curriculum resulted in a match of teacher education and the school library. My third search using teacher/librarian cooperative came back with zero matches. My fourth search using teacher/librarian teamwork also had zero results. My final search I used collaboration and found education as a subject heading. My second facet search began with lesson plans which resulting with school libraries/activity project. My second search using activities as an initial term gave me several words but none of them were of interest to me. My final search I used curriculum and found the heading teacher education and the school library. My final subject heading search took the most time out of all three. I started with elementary students which had zero results and did students as an initial term. My third search using primary students was successful resulting in school libraries/activity projects. My fourth search using Grade K-6 resulted in children's literature/Evaluation. My final heading search using children resulted in children's library services.

Library Literature provided a search with a larger number of appropriate results. Even though some did not pertain to my naïve question they did offer some new ideas for keywords and subject headings.

Boolean Search:

Teacher/librarian collaboration AND	Curriculum AND	Elementary students
School libraries/Relations with teachers and curriculum OR Teacher education and the school library OR Education	School libraries/Activity Projects OR Teacher education and the school library	School libraries/Activity projects OR Children's literature/Evaluation OR Children's library services

Boolean Search Statement:

(School libraries/Relation with teachers and curriculum OR Teacher education and the school library OR Education) AND (School libraries/Activity projects OR Teacher education and the school library) AND (School libraries/Activity projects OR Children's literature/Evaluation OR Children's library services) (all in subject field)

SS1: (School libraries/Relation with teachers and curriculum OR Teacher education and the school library OR Education) AND (School libraries/Activity projects OR Teacher education and the school library) AND (School libraries/Activity projects OR Children's literature/Evaluation OR Children's library services) (all in subject field)

Results: 88 records

Notes: To me it really seems like too much information is provided in my first search statement. There are a number of hyphens and backslashes that might interfere with acquiring quality results. I think I need to consolidate my subject headings and make them a little more precise.

SS2: (School libraries/Relations with teachers and curriculum OR teacher education and the school library) AND (school libraries/activity projects) AND (children's library service) (all in subject field)

Results: 2 records

Notes: Whoa, I am not sure what happened but obviously I need to rethink my search. The two results have nothing to do with my topic.

SS3: (School libraries) AND (Relations with teachers and curriculum)

Results: 1,609 records

Notes: Obviously I have now made my search too vague-time to rethink once again.

SS4: (School librarians) AND (Relations with teachers) AND (curriculum)

Results: 80 records

Notes: I know this still seems like a large number of results but I did find an article that interests me and really addresses my question. The article advocates librarians and teachers working together to provide quality activities in the library.

Buzzeo, T. (2007). Literacy and the Changing Role of the Elementary Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection, 25(7), 18-19. Retrieved February 22, 2010, form Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

This database search did not take as much time as the Books in Print search, although it was harder than using World Cat and ERIC databases. I know that with each database search I am becoming more familiar and hopefully and little less hesitant about using databases as research resources.

Books in Print

I chose to continue my search using the same question I posed when completing my World Cat and ERIC searches. I wanted to see what other related information and articles were available for my topic because I am very interested in maintaining open communication with my classroom teachers. I want to plan library lessons that complement the curriculum being taught within the classroom. As a current teacher I am constantly team planning and sharing with my teaching partner and other grade levels through vertical teaming. One of my goals and hopefully strengths as a school librarian will be to use the library as an enrichment tool as well as a research tool for students to use as they extend what has been taught in the classroom.

Naïve Question: As a school librarian how can I improve teacher/librarian collaboration involving curriculum to academically benefit elementary students?

Key Terms/Facets	Teacher/librarian collaboration	Curriculum	Elementary students
My initial terms	Teamwork vertical teaming teacher/media specialist	academics lesson plans	PreK-6th grade primary students grade school
Thesaurus Terms (Subject Headings)	Libraries and students Libraries, children	Curriculum planning Curriculum planning and development	Primary/junior schools Children-books and reading

Keyword Searching Notes:

This keyword search took the longest out of all four database searches I have completed so far. My first subject heading search was teacher/librarian collaboration and my first results focused only on teachers and did not include librarians. So, I continued my search with librarian/teacher collaboration which resulted with libraries and students and librarians, children. I decided to complete a third search using media specialists which retrieved zero results. My second subject heading search for curriculum was successful in one search with the results including curriculum planning and curriculum planning and development. My final subject heading search for my third facet began with elementary students which gave me zero results. The second search using students came up with zero results also. I tried elementary as a keyword but the results did not address the question I am trying to answer. My fourth search using primary students gave me primary/junior schools. My final search using children gave me the results of children-books and reading and children's libraries.

I found my keyword search in Books in Print to be rather frustrating. There were not as many exact matches for words that related to my question. This searching process took a very long time and I found it was not a very productive search. I am hoping as I move on to my Boolean Search that I have better results.

Boolean Search:

Teacher/librarian collaboration AND	Curriculum AND	Elementary students
Libraries and students OR Libraries, children	Curriculum planning OR Curriculum planning and development	Primary/junior schools OR Children-books and reading OR Children's libraries

Boolean Statement:

(Libraries and students OR Libraries, children) AND (Curriculum planning OR Curriculum planning and development) AND (Primary/junior schools OR children-books and reading OR Children's libraries)

SS1: (Libraries and students OR Libraries, children) AND (Curriculum planning OR Curriculum planning and development) AND (Primary/junior schools OR children-books and reading OR Children's libraries) (all in subject field)

Results: no matches

Notes: Apparently I have too much information in my search and I need to narrow it down.

SS2: (Teacher/librarian collaboration) AND (Curriculum Planning OR Curriculum Development) AND (Primary/Junior schools) (all in subject field)

Results: No matches

Notes: My search is still too broad.

SS3: (Libraries) AND (Curriculum Planning) AND (elementary students) (all in subject field)

Results: No matches

Notes: I am not sure if I am still including too many subject headings. I am thinking about eliminating one facet.

SS4: (Librarian OR teacher) AND (Curriculum) (all in subject field)

Results: 575 records

Notes: Now, I am finally getting somewhere, but there are too many records and they are not really focused on my question. So, I need to be a little more specific to help eliminate some of the results.

SS5: (Librarian OR teacher) AND (Curriculum) AND (elementary) (all in subject field)

Results: 88 records

Notes: Yea, now I have eliminated almost 500 results, but I still wish I could have fewer records. After carefully examining most of the results I have noticed that most focus on teacher's curriculum in the classroom, not the library.

SS6: (Librarian OR teacher) AND (curriculum planning) AND (elementary) (all in subject field)

Results: 33 records

Notes: I am still struggling with records that do not mention library.

SS7: (library) AND (activities) AND (elementary) (all in subject field)

Results: 7 records

Notes: Whoo Hoo! I found some very useful books to jump start ideas when collaborating with teachers. These ideas will assist me when I am meeting with specific grade levels and attempting to align the grade level curriculum with library activities. The following book I found to be quite useful:

Keeling, J. (2005). Lesson plans for the busy librarian: a standards based approach for the elementary library media center, volume 2. United States: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated.

This database search was my most difficult and time consuming so far. I am wondering if my naïve question was not stated clear enough or maybe wasn't appropriate for this type of database.

Competency: World Cat and ERIC

Naïve Question: As a school librarian how can I improve teacher/librarian collaboration involving curriculum to academically benefit elementary students?

I chose this question because I want collaboration with teachers to be one of my strengths as a school librarian. I have worked in several different schools and within each school I have encountered a variety of librarians who each demonstrate different strengths and weaknesses. As a teacher I feel that my students would benefit more from library use if they understand how to connect what they have learned in the classroom and utilize the library and its contents. I know that with younger students this may be a little more difficult, but by collaborating with the classroom teachers I feel that as a librarian I could find a connection for every grade level. I want students to understand all the uses and services the library provides.

ERIC search

Key Terms/Facets	Teacher/librarian collaboration	Curriculum	Elementary students
My initial terms	Teamwork vertical teaming teacher/media specialist	academics lesson plans	PreK-6th grade primary students grade school
Thesaurus Terms (Subject Headings)	Cooperation Cooperative planning Librarian Teacher Cooperation	Curriculum design Curriculum development Curriculum enrichment	Elementary school students

My first subject search of teacher/librarian collaboration and teacher and librarian collaboration resulted in zero matches. My second subject search of just collaboration resulted in the subject cooperation. My third search with teacher collaboration resulted in cooperative planning. My fourth search with librarian collaboration resulted in zero results. Finally on the fifth search I used librarian cooperation and received the result of Librarian Teacher Cooperation. My first search for curriculum gave me several subject headings which included curriculum design, curriculum development, and curriculum enrichment. My first search for elementary students resulted with elementary school students. I tried to search primary students, PreK-6^th students, grade PreK-6^th and did not find any results.

Boolean Search:

Teacher/librarian collaboration AND	Curriculum AND	Elementary students
Cooperation OR Cooperative planning OR Librarian Teacher Cooperation	Curriculum design OR Curriculum development OR Curriculum enrichment	Elementary school students

Boolean Search Statement:

(Cooperation OR Cooperative planning OR Librarian Teacher Cooperation) AND (Curriculum design OR Curriculum Development OR Curriculum Enrichment) AND (Elementary School Students)

SS1: (Cooperation OR Cooperative planning OR Librarian Teacher Cooperation) AND (Curriculum design OR Curriculum Development OR Curriculum Enrichment) AND (Elementary School Students)(all in subject field)

Results: 66 records

Notes: The list of records was too broad and I didn't find the results that I was looking forward to retrieving.

SS2: (Librarian Teacher Cooperation) AND (Curriculum design OR curriculum development OR Curriculum Enrichment) AND (Elementary School Students)(all in subject field)

Results: 3 records

Notes: I was very pleased with the results of my second subject search. I found exactly what I was looking for in three results. The articles I selected are not as recent as I would like but both focus on integrating the classroom curriculum within the library.

Paglin, C. (2003). Keeping Your Ear to the Ground: Top School Librarians Are Constantly Alert for Ways To Team Up with Teachers. Northwest Education. 9(1), 14-18.

Gold, S. (2005). A Tale of Two Libraries: How Two Library Media Centers Seamlessly Integrate Curriculum, Information Literacy, and Technology. Technology & Learning. 26(3), 28.

World Cat search

Key Terms/Facets	Teacher/librarian collaboration	Curriculum	Elementary students
My initial terms	Teamwork vertical teaming teacher/media specialist	academics lesson plans	PreK-6th grade primary students
Thesaurus Terms (Subject Headings)	Teacher participation in curriculum planning	Curriculum planning Curriculum enrichment	School children

My first search for teacher/librarian collaboration came up with zero results. I tried teacher collaboration, library collaboration, teacher librarian collaboration, teacher cooperation, and librarian cooperation and all had zero results. Typing in just teacher I found a variety of results including teacher participation in curriculum planning. Librarian brought up only one result librarian exchange program. Curriculum brought up a number of results including curriculum planning and curriculum enrichment. My final search for elementary students resulted in school children.

Boolean Search:

Teacher/librarian collaboration AND	Curriculum AND	Elementary students
Teacher participation in curriculum planning	Curriculum planning OR Curriculum enrichment	School children

Boolean Search Statement:

(Teacher participation in curriculum planning) AND (Curriculum planning OR Curriculum enrichment) AND (school children)

SS1: (Teacher participation in curriculum planning) AND (Curriculum planning OR Curriculum enrichment) AND (school children) (all in subject field)

Results: 2

Notes: Since librarian was not mentioned in any part of my search neither result was what I was looking for and I decided to change the keywords I used.

SS2: (Librarian OR Teacher participation in curriculum planning) AND (Curriculum planning OR Curriculum enrichment) AND (school children) (all in subject field)

Results: 21 records

Notes: I was much happier with the results of my second search in WorldCat. Of the 21 records there were several books that addressed my question.

Miller, D. P. (2004). The standards-based integrated library: A collaborative approach for aligning the library program with the classroom curriculum. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Pub.

Copeland, B. S., & Messner, P. A. (2004). Collaborative library lessons for the primary grades: Linking research skills to curriculum standards. Englewood, Colo. [u.a.]: Libraries Unlimited.

Competency 4: RSS

I am very interested in developing comprehension reading activities that encourage higher order thinking. After searching "young readers connection to books" in a Google search I found Texas Librarian: Connecting Books, Reading Strategies, & Lesson Plans for PreK-5 Librarians. The site is authored by an elementary school librarian in Garland, Texas. She selects particular children's books and gives the schema (background knowledge) and some activities that compliment the book including areas such as: text to text connection, predicting, personification, setting, sequencing, and much more. The ideas given provide opportunities for students to use higher order thinking skills while enjoying a book. The ideas assist a librarian in demonstrating to students how good readers think. Students are given an opportunity to share their ideas with others as a librarian reads. I like that she offers ideas for a large range of grade levels. The link to the RSS is http://www.texaslibrarian.com/feed/.

Compentency 3: Podcasts

Once again I have learned something new this week: Podcasts. I have enjoyed searching and listening to various podcasts and have begun to list particular ones I would like to share with students in the future. The search engine used was the Podcast Search Service using the keyword "children literature". The website that I found most interesting was Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/ which focuses on teaching children to read including those who struggle. There is an entire page dedicated to videos and podcasts which includes author interviews, libraries, classroom management, meet the experts, and children's books. One part of my topic interest is to encourage children to learn about different authors and what inspired them to write and become authors. I think, especially for the older students, this helps to create a connection to what is being read and they build an understanding of what the author was thinking while writing a particular book. The various authors interviewed included Eric Carle, Marc Brown, Chris Van Allsburg, Mem Fox, and Denise Fleming. The author whose interview I found most interesting was Tomie DePaola.

The video podcast link is http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/depaola
Within his fifteen minute video podcast he described his book The Art Lesson and how it was based on a true story about his inspiration to draw and eventually write. I enjoyed listening to him as he is a very animated author and I plan to use this podcast in my classroom as we do our study of Tomie DePaola. I have discovered how podcasts are an excellent tool to use not only in a library but also within a classroom.