40 years of school libraries and the Berwick viaduct

Firstly, I should tell you all that this is the final entry for this blog in its present format. I retire from CSU and the academic life tomorrow (31st January 2012). The blog will continue but will not always feature comment on something of an educational nature, which is relevant to TLs and SLs around the world. However, it may still be ‘educational’ in the wider sense of the word. The photographic content will continue. I have been involved with school libraries for 40 years this year and the vast majority of these years has been in the role of educator. Are school libraries as recognisable as they were in the early 1970s? To some extent they are, given that the space they occupy is still about the same in most schools, and that a range of bookshelves is still one of the dominant features. The addition of ICT hardware has changed the look of school libraries in most parts of the world, where schools can afford such equipment. Are teacher librarians or school librarians different? This is an intriguing question. It might be argued that the knowledge base of todays TLs and SLs is different, given the developments in ICT. The language used by today’s TLs and SLs would have been, to a great extent, unrecognisable to those of 40 years ago. On the other hand, the desire to actively contribute to learning and teaching in the school remains the same. Also, over the years, the most effective TLs and SLs have been able to be innovators in their schools, particularly in the areas of information literacy. So the terminology may be different but the mindset may still be the same. The look of school libraries is about to change over the next few years – printed books and journals will disappear for the most part in most school libraries – but the purpose of the school library/learning commons/i-centre/e-centre will remain the same. I’m intending to write soem articles about this in the near future and will expand on these points.

At the weekend, my marathon/half-marathon/10K running wife and I were down at the border town of Berwick to watch a cross country race, in which the runners crossed Spittal Beach before climbing up a ridge, running on track and returning via the same route. One of the features of Berwick – Berwick Upon Tweed to give the town its full name – is the viaduct which was built to enable the railway to cross over the estuary. Known as The Royal Border Bridge, this magnificent piece of engineering an architecture was designed by Robert Stephenson and opened by Queen Victoria in 1850. As the photo below shows, it has certainly stood the test of time, and if you are on the train going north or south through Berwick, you get superb views along the river and the estuary.

Berwick viaduct

No Wikipedia for a day and harbour walk

Reading today’s Guardian with my breakfast cup of tea, I find an intriguing story about how  Wikipedia is planning to shut down for 24 hours in protest at a proposed bill in the USA, which Wikipedia claim will lead to a form of censorship on new media outlets such as itself, Google and Twitter. I’ve just tried to access Wikipedia and instead of being able to search, there’s a black screen with Imagine a world without free knowledge as the headline, and accuses the US Congress of ‘considering legislation that could damage the free and open Internet’. The article goes on to cite the views of both new media and ‘old’ media such as a newspaper proprietor. The bills which are being proposed, appear to be trying to stop illegal streaming, but Wikipedia and others think that this could be the thin edge of censorship.

One of the pleasures of living in a seaside town such as Dunbar, is that you can enjoy a walk to, or around, the harbour at all times of the year. Normally, in January, the bridge connecting the new (i.e. 1890s built) harbour and the old harbour, is up, so that boats can go to the old harbour for shelter from the winter storms. However, it’s been unseasonably mild and calm this winter, so on Sunday, the bridge was down and my wife and I walked across to the harbour wall side. The picture below shows a view towards Dunbar Castle  with a set of creels roughly stacked, in the foreground. There are a few boats in the harbour which use creels to catch crabs and lobsters, and you can see a creel boat in action off the Fife coast (visible from Dunbar) on YouTube.

Creels on Dunbar Harbour

Stannard tools and The Bow Bar

I recently came across Russell Stannard’s site whilst looking for something else. The main focus of the site is related to – as the name suggests – using video as part of personal development technology training for teachers. However, there is much to interest TLs and SLs, so this site is worth bo0kmarking and dipping into from time to time. Stannard’s set of videos on technology applications e.g. MailVu and Jing are presented in a refreshingly open and friendly way. For example, he’s not afraid to make mistakes and correct them on his videos, and this lack of slickness is reassuring. Stannard doesn’t just tell you what the tools can do e.g. Jing allows you make a video while capturing screen shots, but he discusses applications for teaching and learning. Some of the content of the site will be familiar to many of you e.g. Glogster.

One of the things that you absolutely must do when you are in Edinburgh, Scotland’s enchanting capital city (and that’s not my biased opinion but is based on many comments of visitors to the city I have talked to around the world), is to visit some of its many pubs. Of course, you do not have to partake of the alcoholic drinks on offer, but if you like the occasional pint of beer or a wee dram (glass of whisky), then Edinburgh’s real ale pubs are for you. I stress the real ale pubs as not all pubs serve what I would consider as proper beer. An excellent example is The Bow Bar with its impressive range of beers and 150 different malt whiskies. On a recent visit I had Moorcock Ale from Yorkshire. Now, you will not go into the Bow Bar in order to sit in a leather armchair, get table service and be charged a fortune for your drinks. This is a quintessential pub  – clean and comfortable, where you enjoy the beer. Check out the website to see the interior and one of its key features is the range of framed posters and old adverts on the walls. A great wee place to go.

 

Gooru and national libraries

Firstly, a very Good New Year to you all.There’s a new e-learning platform doing the rounds. It’s called Gooru and is designed to, in the words of the Gooru video, allow “teachers to search and teach, and students to search and study”. Teachers, and of course TLs and SLs although the video doesn’t say this, can put together classbooks which are sets of online resources, and be integrated into class plans. There are tutorials on the site and a video. For a fuller review of Gooru, try the Edudemic site, which is worth bookmarking and looking at from time to time. I have not studied Gooru in detail. However, it was designed by a Google employee – and yes, I know that not everyone will see that as a positive. It is certainly worth checking out and discussing with interested colleagues in your school.

I recently rejoined the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh, as a member. It is  … years(I’ll let you guess the exact number) since I was a member of the library as a 4th year honours student at Edinburgh University. The NLS is a wonderful place in which to study – although I have to say you must like almost total silence in the reading room where people do research. There was and still is, an eclectic mix of young students and (like me now) more mature researchers. As you walk into the Reading Room, some eyes will lift briefly before going back to books, pamphlets, journals. Each seat is numbered and if you order a book – there is only very limited open access to reference materials – or other material, it will be brought to your seat. Yes – a haven of civilisation. Once change since my youth is that you can now take your laptop into the Reading Room – no Skypeing of course! When I was in Australia recently, I made a brief visit to the Australian National Library in Canberra, another fascinating centre of learning and culture. In the photo below, the NLA is in the background, with a very pleasant walk to it, passing some very interesting sculpture.

Towards the National Library of Australia