[LM_NET] Cross-posting: organized media center

[Harry Coffill <HCoffill@EGRPS.ORG>]

I'd like to weigh in here, too. (Cross posting this to LM_Net, too--just to shake 
up the hive.)

I considered the question about "dumbing down" my MC when I eliminated the 
reference section this year, but I need to compare it to my experience getting my 
LMC endorsement.

One of our class projects was to create "Scavenger hunts" for each other (in my 
grad class) where we had to create a list of obscure facts for others to search for 
using on-line reference.

The tables were turned the following week when we were required to find the data 
ourselves using the reference library of GR public. It took me 3 hours to find what 
it took me 20 minutes to find on-line.

I don't think my professor meant for us to take the lesson from this that I 
did--which is that my tax dollars paid for a LOT of paper resources on the shelf at 
the GR public library that were TRULY unnecessary.

I appreciate the value of a reference librarian--but I'm not so sure I appreciate 
the value of high-priced, low-use reference materials. Better to spend money on 
things that circulate. Do we really need (just for one example) hard copies of 
almanacs any more? Really?

I have no compunctions about cross-filing any reference materials that we had onto 
shelves where students will discover and use them.

Are there still librarians who are worried about the day that this "fad" of using 
computers will end? I've never forgotten the librarian at my undergrad college who 
explained to me disdainfully that she'd gotten rid of the SIRS databases (on CD 
then!) because it was "too easy for students to find things."

Harry Coffill




Original posts from MAMELIST follow:

>Username Removed<< 
11/18/2008 1:34 PM >>>
yes - without elem media specialists, the lack of basic skills will
begin to show in the upper grades - I think this new idea promotes an
immediate response to needs that might be better be fulfilled with a
little thinking  and the use of common sense.  Also, with the lack of
support and student aides (in middle school), shelving into more
categories takes more time.  I would rather spend more time facilitating
student searches on our union catalog and other databases for these
popular topics.

>Username Removed<<
11/18/08 10:15 AM >>>
Finally I feel that I must respond to the organized media center fray. 
A couple of questions come to mind as I read this thread: Are we
teaching students to use the media center or just turning them loose and
"making it easy" for them to find things? Aren't we preparing them for
the world outside our sheltered walls?  Shouldn't we be teaching them to
use the media center so as they use other libraries (public, college,
grad school, etc) they have the confidence to find the information they
need?  What a sense of empowerment for students! They know the library
secrets! They can go anywhere and find the information they need because
the 'set up' is always the same!  I realize that this is a bit old
fashioned but I can't help but remember listening to Joyce Valenza and
thinking that she wouldn't let her student cop out or give up an
opportunity to empower her students. 
Having said this, I also realize that library media specialists are
stretched so far that they are practically transparent and many media
specialists at the elementary level (where we teach this) have been
eliminated or serve several buildings.  And so the problem is deeper
than just making things easier.
 


Harry F. Coffill
hcoffill@egrps.org
Media Center Specialist
East Grand Rapids Middle School
Drama Department
East Grand Rapids High School 

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."Benjamin Franklin 

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