School library websites and MCG

With the increased use of school intranets, there appears to be fewer school library websites around which are open to viewing by anyone. There are still many good sites out there and a search on your favourite search engine should find some good examples. So why have a website that is open to all rather than having school library webpages on the intranet? In terms of sharing information and ideas with other teacher librarians, an open school library website can be very valuable as a learning vehicle, especially for people new to the school library profession. A good school library website can give staff, students and the school community (and others) access to learning resources which may be evaluated, information literacy skills guidance, and a general view of what is happening in the library. Joyce Valenza calls the school library website “Your second front door” and this is an excellent way of describing it. If your school doesn’t have one, think about how you might start one.

Being in Australia for 6 weeks, I have the opportunity to travel around a bit. Last weekend I was in Melbourne and I attended for the first time, an AFL game. AFL is Australian Rules Football, which is a very fast game, based on Gaelic Football which is played in Ireland. The game I went to was at one of Australia’s iconic sports grounds, the Melbourne Cricket Ground or MCG  as it is widely known. This is a vast gladiatorial arena and there were 87,258 people attending this match which was what the Australians refer to as a Preliminary Grand Final. The word ‘final’ is used differently in Australian sport than in the UK, where you have quarter finals, semi-finals and the final. So what I attended was really the semi-final. Great experience and in a stadium so vast, so you get an idea of how the Romans must have enjoyed watching the gladiators fight or the lions devouring unsuspecting religious minorities – I’m not suggesting that we return to those days!

Pathfinders and rain

For about 150 of my students, it’s time to look at Pathfinders as part of the TL’s role in developing learning resources in the school. Pathfinders are guides which lead students to resources. I’m not sure if I like the title ‘Pathfinder’ as it has connotations of printed lists of books for students. However, it is a recognised term and nowadays, pathfinders are usually in a digital format. Joyce Valenza argues coherently that using a wiki is an excellent vehicle for a pathfinder. My recommendations to students and to TLs is to think of a pathfinder not only as a guide to resources which have been mediated by the TL and by teachers, but also as a scaffold which will help improves tudents’ information literacy skills. Effective pathfinders give students choices, save them time searching and take them to relevant sources from which they can learn.

Now that I am back in Wagga Wagga for a few weeks, the subject of rain comes up. In the UK, we get plenty of rain so no-one talks about it, unless you are in Glasgow and it’s rained for 3 days in a row. In Dunbar, where I live, it rains but not to the extent it does in the West. In rural Australia, there has been a drought of various severity for about 10 years now. So when it rains in Wagga Wagga , people discuss it at length. You overhear conversations – “How much did you get?” “What, 18 mils, we only got 11″. While the fields are green at the moment, with summer approaching, more rain is needed. Rain is also a collection of poems by Don Paterson and you can listen to him talking about different aspects of rain in a Guardian Podcast - excellent listening. Of course, there is Elizabeth Regina (whom Mrs Malaprop might refer to as the Queer Old Dean) who is apparently  good at serving tea. Thus the expression “She never reigns but she pours”.

Reference interviews and thistle

Firstly, apologies for the break in the blog postings – hectic 2 weeks travelling to Australia and being back at work in Wagga Wagga. This week, some of my students are looking at what constitutes a good reference interview in a school library. By “reference interview”, I mean a discussion that takes place when a student (or staff member) comes into the library and asks for help. I have been asking my students to define what a reference interview is – in no more than 20 words – and this has proven a good exercise for them. As we know, students are often vague when they seek help from the TL e.g. “I need information on Antarctica”. No more. No explanation of why or what kind of information. So, a reference interview is an exchange between the TL and the student, with the TL not only finding out what the student needs, so s/he can help, but also to get the student to think more about the purpose of their information seeking. There are lots of articles about the reference interview and one by Brown caught my eye as, although it’s not about the school library, is certainly applicable. Check it out.

In my neighbour’s garden in Scotland (see picture below), there is a large thistle plant about 3 metres high, and the purple thistles have just appeared. The thistle is one of the emblems of Scotland although how it came to be an emblem is a mixture of historical fact and maybe fiction. Legendhas it that the Vikings were attacking some Scottish soldiers stealthily, took off their shoes, stepped on thistles and gave the game away. There may, of course, be other explanations. When I came back to Wagga Wagga this week, I brought with me some bottles of beer from Belhaven Brewery which is based in Dunbar. The beer is Twisted Thistle and it was enjoyed greatly by some of my running friends, one of whom enquired whether Twisted Thistle was not only a beer but a form of Scottish male masochism.

Thistle flower

IASL (2) and Padova (2)

The IASL conference ended on Friday and next year’s conference is in Brisbane.  The closing ceremony featured the handover to next year’s hosts and entitled “Ciao, Italia! G’day, Australia”. The final day’s papers included “The dispositions of exemplary school librarians” and ‘Web 2.0: Knowledge and use by a select group of teacher librarians in Jamaica”.  The ever enthusiastic David Gregorio was filming and interviewing and it is worth going to his site to see and listen to some of the speakers and organisers who put in so much work.

Wandering around the cityof Padova/Padua is a wonderful experience. The university buildings  are magnificent and date back to the 13th century. Their most famous student and teacher was Galileo. One of the best visits was to the Palazzo della Ragione which is a cavernous hall built above the oldfruit market. Its walls are decorated with a range of astrological frescoes. The originals were drawn by Giotto but were destroyed in a fire. In the palazzo, perhaps the most striking feature is the huge wooden horse (see picture below) which dominates one end of this fascinating building.

Wooden horse in Palazzo della Ragione

IASL and Padova

This week, I am in Italy for the IASL conference which is taking place in the town of Abano Terme which is near the historic city of Padova. the conference began this morning with a welcome to the conference by organisers Luisa Marquardt and Donatello Lombello. This session also featured music from a middle school group. The two opening keynote papers were on  information literacy in society by Misako Ito  from Unesco and Carol Kuhlthau on guided inquiry. Both were very relevant to TLs in different ways with the information literacy paper giving a wider perspective on information literacy. I gave my own paper in the afternoon to a good sized audience, considering that there were 4 other concurrent sessions. My theme was concept mapping and transfer.

I am staying in the city of Padova or Pauda  Latin name) which is city of contrasting features, from the ancient walls dating back to Roman times to modern upmarket shops and buildings. On the city tour yesterday, we passed by examples of the three layers of city walls which have been builtsince the Romans, as well as many churches e.g. Basilica di Sant Antonio and the university which dates back to 1122 and has some very famous students such as Galileo. It is now a modern, bustling city but has many cyclists which is good to see. It is also 30 degrees here and the evenings are lovely and warm, great for sitting outside and eating in the many restaurants here. Yeah, yeah – hard life for some …..