I came to this course with no library
experience and started my learning straight out of the gate. I knew
so little that I did not even know where to begin my inquiry. When
we were directed to interview somebody in our district to understand
how our specific district works, I had to go back a few times as I
gradually began to better understand the questions I needed to ask –
never mind getting the answers! I was lucky to have a very patient
librarian at my disposal. I learned that we have a union catalogue
(and what this is) and how books are processed. I also learned much
more about the role of the teacher-librarian, and the t-l's
relationship with administration and the other staff. It was very
enlightening. It was here that I first heard of MARC records and
Follett and the role they play in organization.
I came to understand that the theme of
the course would be “access through organization” (so much more
than just cataloguing) and it was a good way for me to frame my work.
Having worked in a distributed learning school for the last number
of years, the concept of access has been central to my work. How do
you maximize access for a student who is not in front of you? I
suppose this is much the same plight for the t-l: how do you create
independent learners who are not sitting in rows in from of you for
an hour and twenty minutes a day? Clearly it is a question to be
perpetually posed.
I struggled mightily as we began to
delve into the technical aspects of this course. The meta-data article made me think I was out of my league and my confusion about
the ISBD frustrated me until I sorted it out. I suffered the same
angst when first trying to create MARC records. It was not until I
started creating MARC records of my own that things started to really
come together. I have found that since completing Assignment #2, I
cannot look at a verso page the same anymore. I depended heavily
upon looking at GVPL website and VPL website throughout this project
and they made me understand MARC records as well as how catalogues
and websites can be structured in a clear, user-friendly way to
increase access.
On the topic of the GVLP, as I have
been on maternity leave I have not had easy access to my school
library, but I have been taking my children to my local public
library branch every Thursday morning for story time. The branch is
located in a community centre and across the hall, kindergym runs in
the hour before. Moms and tots first blow off steam (and drink
coffee) there before crossing to mingle amongst the picture book
stacks before going into the activity room for story time geared at
children 18 months – 5 years. 30 minutes later there is another 15
minute break before baby time starts. Both family story time and
baby time are gear towards engaging the children, but also educating
the parents about children's literacy. As my husband takes the car
to work, we take the bus for outings and unless I am going to get
some real bang for my buck, I tend to stick close to home. The
programming is done in such a way as to clearly target the desired
audience and to make it workable. Through the morning's worth of
activities, myself, my 3 year old and my 5 month old are all able to
have our needs met: Access!
The other thing that I noticed on my
weekly jaunts due to the learning that I was doing in this course
were the renovations that were happening. When we first started
going to that branch, patrons checked materials out with human help.
Now there are self-serve machines. The reference desk used to be
directly in front of the main entrance. This has recently been
dismantled and instead the reference desk is facing away from the
door and to the left. Even the desk itself is very different in
design. It used to be a big solid half-wall in appearance from the
patron's point of view. It is now very open. All of these changes
seem to point to a change in philosophy. It feels like they have
taken the gatekeeper away and replaced her with a patron-centred
approach, where the user is the driver of the experience and the
librarians are there to support and guide as needed. The redesign
feels less like a place to do silent, solitary activities and more of
a place intended for people to come together in their use of the
space, much like is discussed in the learning commons article.
