Current Reports and Research for Teacher-Librarians

Current Reports and Research for Teacher-Librarians
by Ester Rosefeld and Kim Tabor, Teacher-Librarian April 2007

I almost passed this article by because it was somewhat short and frankly I thought there would be little to summarize in this blog. I am so glad I read it. In a very simple format, without an excess of superlatives or personalized viewpoints this little article introduced me to 13 websites concerning various issues in libraries or education.

A few I will mark as favorites:

1. An online tutorial about online database resources. The episode teaches logging in, selecting the right database, conducting a search, and refining search parameters. I feel pretty competent however, I'm sure there are a few things I could polish and I plan to share this with colleagues and students.

2. A research report on student's critical thinking skills pointing out that many students lack the basic thinking skills required for academic success.

3. The ALA has a web page listing the top 10 most challenged books from 2000-2005. Interestingly, just as the Harry Potter series is releasing it's grand finale, it leads the pack in challenges.

4. Social networking is very popular. Over half of all teens use online social networks (most popular among older teen, particularly girls).

5. A fun library conference was held in Osage Beach, MO in April. I need to look for these in the future. After all, my job depends on it. Maybe there will be one in Aruba next year????

What I learned:

There is a ton of information at our disposal. It really is hard to wrap my arms around the reality of the information age. The most important thing I can do as a librarian is educate my students on how to discern the plethora of facts that are present. I found it interesting in reading a Horn Book review that even in books many things are not correct (IE - in a book about Estonia an alphabet was provided that was fictitious). Most astounding was the fact that overall the book received an acceptable rating despite the inaccuracies.

We are inundated with information. We will thrive by our ability to sort, evaluate and use it to our advantage.