Observe and Document a Program at a Library

Topic: Diversity
Program title: "Little Natives in the library" run at Gordon library in Sydney

I observed and documented a program run at my local public library for children aged 10 to 12 years called “Little natives in the library”. The program was run by four Aboriginal presenters and the help of two library staff. The program consisted of the presenters talking to the children about Aboriginal culture, presenting two Aboriginal dreamtime stories, getting the children to help perform a simple traditional style dance and the children creating dot painting art. The program went very well with about thirty children attending, who had lots of fun and learnt about another culture at the same time.

By observing and documenting this program as well as talking to the presenters and library staff afterwards I found that I had learned quite a few things some of these include:

• That culturally diverse programing can be fun and informative for parents, children and staff.
• That learning through play and fun activities is a very good way to teach children and attract them to the library.
• That a well-run program can increase customer satisfaction and attendance.
• That programs need to be interesting to children for them to work.
• But most surprisingly I learned that even though programs look like a group of children having fun they are also learning in such a subtle way that the children may not even realise it.

This activity was very relevant to children and young adult librarians, below are some ways this relevance is shown.

• Firstly running a culturally diverse program like this has the potential to help develop the children into well rounded adults. Because if they come to understand and appreciate other cultures they are likely to be more accepting and less prejudiced (Buttlar, 1994 ; Okoye-Johnston, 2011).
• Secondly running a program like this can help to fulfil their recreational and information needs of the community which is two of any libraries main goals (Cerney, Markey & Williams, 2006).
• Thirdly running this type of program has the ability to attract more culturally diverse clients because if they see the library is running a program on their culture it may make them feel more included and comfortable at the library which could lead to these groups of users becoming regular clients (Alexander & Kwon, 2010).
• Fourthly libraries see themselves as places that encourage learning in all forms and by running these culturally diverse programs the library can make learning more like a game. Because if the program is done in such a way that the learning is very subtle the children may not even realise they are learning until they talk to their parents afterwards (Smallwood, 2010).
• And finally when the library runs this sort of program they can use it as a bridge to the rest of the collection, by letting the attendees know what other resources the library has on the culture (Alexander & Kwon, 2010).

 I found that I need to do more research on how best to present multicultural programs and how to use these programs to attract non-library users. To bridge this knowledge gap I would talk to library professionals and review the research. I also need to find out which is the largest multicultural group in my area if I was to create a program like this. I would look at community statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for this.

References

Alexander, L. B. & Kwon, N. (2010). Multicultural Programs for Tweens and Teens. Retrieved from       CSU EBook library.

Buttlar, L. (1994). Facilitating cultural diversity in college and university libraries. Journal Of Academic Librarianship, 20(1), 10.

Cerny, R., Markey, P. & Williams, A. (2006). Outstanding Library Service to Children : Putting the Core Competencies to Work. Retrieved from CSU EBook library.

Okoye-Johnson, O. (2011). Does Multicultural Education Improve Students’ Racial Attitudes? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap. Journal of Black Studies, 42(8), 1252-1274. doi: 10.1177/0021934711408901

Smallwood, C. (2010). Librarians as community partners: an outreach handbook. Retrieved from CSU EBook library

Attend and document an event

Topic: Young people's book awards
Event: Pre book week extravaganza at NSW State Library

I recently attended a one day event at the NSW State Library  called Pre Book Week Extravaganza. The main idea of the event is was to show the books that have been short listed  for the Children’s Book Council Awards (CBCA) in each category and to give ideas and get the creative juices flowing for book week events that could be done in your library. The event had judges of the awards speaking about the way the books are selected and why.  The different categories for the awards were explained and each book in that category was summarised. There was also brain storming sessions on possible book week events with presentation by each group. The final part of the day was given over to two groups of library staff to present an idea they had for their book week celebrations. These presentations were very entertaining, fun and helped to get the creative juices flowing.

This event was very informative and fun some of the thing I learned include:

•             Who the Judges for the awards are, one from each state and territory
• 
  
•             How the judges are selected, selected by the CBCA branch for each state/territory and must match criteria of not being financially invested in the awards and have many years of experience with children’s books and children.
• 
  
•          What the judges do to select the books for the shortlist and awards, must read every single book that is nominated (300 – 400 books) and write a review for each which is circulated to all judges, then they meet to award the winners and short list for each category.
• 
  
•           What the CBCA short list books for this year are, see CBCA website for full list at http://cbca.org.au/Shortlist2013.htm.
• 
  
•            Lastly what the theme for book week is this year (Read across the universe) and got some ideas that could be used in a library for book week celebrations.

This event is highly relevant to children’s and youth librarians. Firstly we found out which books made it to the short list for the CBCA awards this year and we got a short summary of most of the books. This will be helpful when planning book week events and helpful for readers advisory to children and teens. 

Secondly we learnt about the judging process and the selection process for judges. These things could be helpful if a parent asks about the judging process or objects to one of the short listed books. Also if you were thinking about doing some judging in the future this information is helpful. 

This event also relates to outreach services for children and teens, because during book week where the winners of the CBCA awards are announced your library can invite local school classes to come to the library. Where you can present some of the books to the group, doing this will get more exposure for your library and possibly help to increase members. Also this will expose children to new authors and illustrators (Hateley, 2012 ; Lombardo, Bardossy & Pride, 2012).

I found before I went to the event that I didn’t have much knowledge about the awards or the judging process of the CBCA awards. Listening to the judges speak at this event helped me immensely to understanding of these areas.  I still think I need to do more research on how book awards in general help children and teens reading and development, to accomplish this I will look to journal articles and talking to librarians.

References

Hateley, E. (2012.) And the winner is ...?: Thinking about Australian book awards in the library. Australian Library Journal, 61(3), 189-199. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/searchResults;rs=1;rec=1;action=showResultSet.

LOMBARDO, C., Bardossy, E., & Pride, R. (2012). Book Repair: A How-To-Do-It Manual (Second Edition Revised). Public Libraries, 51(2), 47-48.

Read and analyse a peer reviewed article

Topic Censorship
Article: To Read or Not to Read: Understanding Book Censorship by Deborah S. Connelly

To learn more about censorship I read and analysed Deborah S. Connelly’s article titled “To Read or Not to Read: Understanding Book Censorship” (Connelly, 2009) which can be found on the EBSCO LISTA database. This article focused on America but is useful for all around the world. The main point of this article is to inform librarians what they can do to try and stop censorship in their library and also give some information on what to do if a book is challenged. The article is anti-censorship so is clearly biased but it gives good tips and points readers to more information on censorship via the appendix at the end of the article.

I learnt that it is not the libraries place to be censors but that we should be advocates for books. The article was very helpful because it gave information on what resources to use when a book is challenged such as the ALA Freedom to Read statement and also gave tips on ways to deal with challenged books. I also found that it is up to the parent to decide what a child reads and not the librarian, which I did feel was the case but it is nice to see it in black and white. The research done by Jocelyn Chadwick was also very interesting and helped to explain how we as librarians have to be objective about controversial books and not become censors ourselves. The suggested reading list at the end of the article is also very helpful for further study on this subject.

This activity was relevant to children or young adult librarians because it is important for librarians to know about censorship and how to deal with it in their library. The reason for this is that as librarians it is not our role to decide what people read especially children and young adults. This responsibility rests with the parents (Gutman, 2010). It is also important we don’t censor children and teens because it can have a detrimental effect on their development as free thinkers and well-rounded citizens, by not exposing them to controversial books which will help expand their minds and outlooks on the world (McNicol, 2007 ; McClure, 1983 ). This activity was also relevant because it gives information on the reasons behind people challenging books and how we as the protectors of knowledge can fight censorship. This fighting of challenges of books and potential banning of books is very important for the wellbeing of not just our users but also the book industry as a whole. The reason for this is if people don’t fight these challenges and banned books there is the potential for authors to start avoiding controversial topics and publishers to not pick up a potentially controversial book for print. This would be bad because the public would suffer if we didn’t have these books to challenge our views and entertain us (Jalongo & Creany, 1991). Saying this it is worthwhile to make sure that children especially are not reading books that are too advanced for them but we must make sure that we are not becoming censors ourselves.

I had no real idea about the issues around censorship or what to do if a book was challenged. This article helped to open my eyes to some strategies that could be used in this situation and the ALA “Freedom to Read” statement helped me understand the importance of not censoring. Now that I know some strategies that can be employed to fight censorship, I need to look at what information is out there relating to Australia and also what contingencies are in place at my own work place to combat censorship and what the policy and procedures are in place to help if a book is challenged in my work place.

References

Connelly, D. S. (2009). To Read or Not To Read: Understanding Book Censorship. [Article]. Community & Junior College Libraries, 15(2), 83-90. doi: 10.1080/02763910902832222

Jalongo, M. R., & Creany, A. D. (1991). Censorship in Children's Literature. Childhood Education, 67(3), 143-143.

Gutman, D. (2010). How I Corrupted America's Youth. School Library Journal, 56(5), 28.

McNicol, S. (2007).  An Open Letter: Teenagers' Views of Censorship in Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/kqwebarchives/v36/362/362mcnichol

McClure, A.(1983). Intellectual Freedom and the Young Child. Children's Literature Association Quarterly 8(3), 41-43. Retrieved  from Project MUSE database.

Learning a new tool or program

Topic: Emerging technologies

Program or tool: learning 2.0 online training program
Web address: http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com.au/.

I worked my way through the “learning 2.0” online program run by the NSW state library. The aim of the program is to learn about emerging web technologies.  The program consists of twelve modules that cover a different web 2.0 tool and gives examples of how it can be used by libraries.  

The twelve modules are:

1. Introduction to NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0;
2. blogging
3. exploring flickr, tagging and creative commons
4. RSS feeds
5. Wikis
6. Online video like youtube
7. Tagging, folksonomies, delicious and LibraryThing
8. Answer boards and social searching
9. Podcasts and audio
10. Mashups
11. Online applications and tools
12. Wrap up; social networks and catch up

(State library of NSW, 2008)

As you work through the program you create a blog and add posts about what you have learnt in each module. In some modules you also add different web 2.0 tools to your blog such as an RSS feed or imbed a YouTube video. This program is very well made and is good for people who have some or zero knowledge of web 2.0.  The program can be found at http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com.au/.

During the course of this online program I learnt about a wide range of Web 2.0 tools and programs, such as creating a blog, using RSS feeds, how wikis work and how to post to a wiki, all about social tagging, about YouTube, Flickr, podcasts and social networks. The program also explained how some of these could in a workplace setting. Here is an example form module 5.

“Some libraries have adopted intranet based wikis for their procedure manuals. Here is an example from Antioch University, New England. Please note many wikis like this one would be hosted on an intranet for staff only access.” (State library of NSW, 2008)

This online program is very relevant to children and young adult librarians. The reason is that children and young adults are using these web 2.0 tools almost every day, for entertainment, socialisation or communication. So the library could use Facebook to reach these users by adding photos from events, adding lists of new books for this age group or promote events (Fasick, 2011). This program is also helpful for children and teen librarians because it can give librarians a good idea of how these tools work so they can be more relatable to teens and tweens.  You could also use what you have learned about social bookmarking in module 7 to create a del.icio.us page, with interesting websites for teens and kids (Redden, 2010). Lastly this program could be useful for programming, for example you could run a program where the participants upload videos to YouTube or make a podcast, which could be very popular with teens and tweens (Helmrich & Schneider, 2004).

As I worked through this program I found that I knew less about Web 2.0 than I thought. But working through the modules I found that the information and exercises helped fill the gaps in my knowledge of web 2.0 technologies and how they can be used in a library setting. Some tools I am still not proficient with, but if I use the tools more I will get better at them and learn how they can be used in a library setting.

Finally if anybody wants to know more about Web 2.0 tools I think this is an excellent program to complete and the best part is it is free.

References

Fasick, A. M. (2011). From Boardbook to Facebook: Children's Services in an Interactive Age. Retrieved from CSU Ebook Library.

Helmrich, E., & Schneider, R. (2004). Create, relate & pop @ the library: services & programs for teens and tweens. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Redden, C. S. (2010). Social Bookmarking in Academic Libraries: Trends and Applications. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(3), 219-227. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2010.03.004

State library of NSW. (2008). NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0. retrieved from http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com.au/.