Metadata ... oy, I think my head hurts.
I never thought about alternate spellings producing different results. I'm going to have to search something with alternate spellings in different search engings and directories. *hmmm*
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Love me some digital media ... BUT ...
Lesson 2 ...
This is a good time to analyze your own thinking about the changes that we are encountering in the area of digital media and the shift towards the "digital library collection". How strong are your biases for or against digital media?
Digital resources and the Internet are now acceptable and powerful components of our school library collections. How we organize them and how we can provide easy access for staff and students is an important consideration for all Teacher-Librarians. So, the question for you to reflect upon might be, how have you provided ongoing support for digital media including Internet sites, school or library websites, online encyclopedias and reference materials, social networks such as "Facebook", blogs, etc.?
Digital media and digital library collections ... love it! I think they are vital components to a library collection, but not the only component. I believe there is a strong need for non-digital media in the school library collection.
Unfortunately access to these digital resources is at times difficult due to cost, the computer hardware and infrastructure, the difficulty navigating the filters placed on the network in the district, the lack of time to dedicate to the building of a viable collection and having the time to effectively educate all the users.
I do think it is a fine balance though. There are arguments on many sides of the discussion around these sorts of things. For example, eReaders ... I personally do not like reading online because I find it physically demanding on me and also I just sentimentally love paper-based books. However, I'm not one to turn down the opportunity because there are those that do love it and there are times and places that it is potentially a better or even just a different option. There is the movement towards using eReaders for textbooks so that students can carry one reader with all their textbooks on it. Great for the ergonomics of the back since lugging multiple pounds of texts back and forth from school makes every chiropractor cringe. However, it's not so good for young students according to the optometrists. Reading on a screen is much harder work for the eyes and as a result of our society becoming more and more screen oriented, optometrists in developed contries are finding more children at younger and younger ages requiring visual correction. So the instant access to information and the easing of the backpack loads could on the other edge of the sword be detrimental to our children's eye health. So, for young students, I do not agree that digital textbooks would be the way to go. Perhaps for senior high school students and beyond, when the eyes are fully formed, it would be okay, or even preferable to move towards eReaders, but of course there are other arguments for and against this move to the digital media let alone all the other moves that could be made.
How about online journals? Widespread access to all sorts of professional journals through our district's subscription to the EBSCO databases is wonderful, until the district no longer can afford to subscribe, chooses another provider who may not have access to your favourite journal or until the moment EBSCO no longer happens to provide that access for what ever number of reasons. Now all that information is gone. You can no longer access the information. If you had subscribed to the paper version, you could have archival access to it but when the digital access is gone, so is the information.
It's all a very fine balancing act.
This is a good time to analyze your own thinking about the changes that we are encountering in the area of digital media and the shift towards the "digital library collection". How strong are your biases for or against digital media?
Digital resources and the Internet are now acceptable and powerful components of our school library collections. How we organize them and how we can provide easy access for staff and students is an important consideration for all Teacher-Librarians. So, the question for you to reflect upon might be, how have you provided ongoing support for digital media including Internet sites, school or library websites, online encyclopedias and reference materials, social networks such as "Facebook", blogs, etc.?
Digital media and digital library collections ... love it! I think they are vital components to a library collection, but not the only component. I believe there is a strong need for non-digital media in the school library collection.
Unfortunately access to these digital resources is at times difficult due to cost, the computer hardware and infrastructure, the difficulty navigating the filters placed on the network in the district, the lack of time to dedicate to the building of a viable collection and having the time to effectively educate all the users.
I do think it is a fine balance though. There are arguments on many sides of the discussion around these sorts of things. For example, eReaders ... I personally do not like reading online because I find it physically demanding on me and also I just sentimentally love paper-based books. However, I'm not one to turn down the opportunity because there are those that do love it and there are times and places that it is potentially a better or even just a different option. There is the movement towards using eReaders for textbooks so that students can carry one reader with all their textbooks on it. Great for the ergonomics of the back since lugging multiple pounds of texts back and forth from school makes every chiropractor cringe. However, it's not so good for young students according to the optometrists. Reading on a screen is much harder work for the eyes and as a result of our society becoming more and more screen oriented, optometrists in developed contries are finding more children at younger and younger ages requiring visual correction. So the instant access to information and the easing of the backpack loads could on the other edge of the sword be detrimental to our children's eye health. So, for young students, I do not agree that digital textbooks would be the way to go. Perhaps for senior high school students and beyond, when the eyes are fully formed, it would be okay, or even preferable to move towards eReaders, but of course there are other arguments for and against this move to the digital media let alone all the other moves that could be made.
How about online journals? Widespread access to all sorts of professional journals through our district's subscription to the EBSCO databases is wonderful, until the district no longer can afford to subscribe, chooses another provider who may not have access to your favourite journal or until the moment EBSCO no longer happens to provide that access for what ever number of reasons. Now all that information is gone. You can no longer access the information. If you had subscribed to the paper version, you could have archival access to it but when the digital access is gone, so is the information.
It's all a very fine balancing act.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Here we go again!
Course number 9 of 10 has begun! LIBE 465 - Organization of Learning Resources ...
For some reason I'm really anxious about this course. I think part of it has to do with the horrifically stressful time I had in my last course and not wanting to relive that. Then there is the whole new year, new resolutions type stuff ... oh, and the wee little annoyance of living in (or at least really, really close to) an Olympic venue bubble. February and March should be fun.
Okay, I'll also 'fess up that I no longer make New Years Resolutions. It's just too much pressure. I did however, quietly hope to be better about certain things in the Web 2.0 world in 2010. I guess blogging is as good a way as any to start. I've never been good about journalling and it has turned out that blogging is far too closely related to journalling that I've never been good about keeping up with a blog either. Hopefully this one will be better since there is an end date looming in the very near future and who knows, maybe I'll even just keep going. You know, the whole life-long learning thing. I can be a Teacher-Librarian in Training for life can't I?
I like humour. I like analogies. It's how I work ... I hope it works for you too.
For some reason I'm really anxious about this course. I think part of it has to do with the horrifically stressful time I had in my last course and not wanting to relive that. Then there is the whole new year, new resolutions type stuff ... oh, and the wee little annoyance of living in (or at least really, really close to) an Olympic venue bubble. February and March should be fun.
Okay, I'll also 'fess up that I no longer make New Years Resolutions. It's just too much pressure. I did however, quietly hope to be better about certain things in the Web 2.0 world in 2010. I guess blogging is as good a way as any to start. I've never been good about journalling and it has turned out that blogging is far too closely related to journalling that I've never been good about keeping up with a blog either. Hopefully this one will be better since there is an end date looming in the very near future and who knows, maybe I'll even just keep going. You know, the whole life-long learning thing. I can be a Teacher-Librarian in Training for life can't I?
I like humour. I like analogies. It's how I work ... I hope it works for you too.
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