iLibrarian's toys and joys

Blogging and WordPress for Librarians

2012-01-24T03:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I offered a session on blogging and specifically WordPress to my collegues from a neighbour college. It was a great experience, a pretty intensve, 2-hour-long hands-on session.
My notes/worksheet/helpsheet (pdf, five pages)

Library for marketing college

2011-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Recently, I spoke to a colleague who, with her daughter, went to see all the schools and colleges offering A-Levels in the neighbourhood. Working in a library, she paid attention to what information/academic skills support learners get there – in addition to classroom activities. She was shocked that only our college and another one next door had a proper library service and all that comes with that – learning resources, support and guidance.
This made me to think that FE colleges should exploit libraries marketing and recruitment. Universities are critical about the quality of academic skills that schools offer, they invest a lot into remedial support in the first year. Our college is unique for Nuneaton in that sense: we offer full scale library, information and academic skills training and support. All that is done by staff experienced in working with HE students; no one else in our town could offer that. On top of everything, we are the only learning provider in Nuneaton actively and purposefully developing an e-book collection – it’s bigger than all public libraries of the county have on offer right now. This may be especially attractive to prospective A Level and Access students as when they go to university, they will have to start using library's digital content straight away.

From what I know, no schools and colleges in Nuneaton use their libraries in their marketing. Shame.

Two articles to share: on importance of digital literacy and Facebook for user engagement

2011-12-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

Digital literacy can boost employability and improve student experience - the title of the Guardian sounds dull, but it's full of goodness. How about that:

A recent NUS/Hefce survey found that students were concerned about the ICT competency of academic staff, with 21% thinking that their lecturers needed additional training. Some students also expressed dissatisfaction with perceived outdated technology in use in HE, and a lack of staff engagement with the institution's virtual learning environment.

From now on, digital literacy development must be on FE library menu cards alongside academic skills support.

Study Raises Doubts About Effectiveness of Facebook as Outreach Tool for Academic Libraries - this is a quick review of a piece of research from the United States. A conclusion is clear:

“If we consider how easily students ‘like’ a page, add a group, post personal information, or simply interact with Facebook pages, then we must face the fact that library pages are amongst the least attractive to students.”

After almost two years, my library's Facebook page has acquired about 100 friends. It generates very little of interaction, but functions well as one of the gateways for the library blog where the bulk of all support content is generated.

Resistance to blogging (guest post)

2011-12-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

My colleague, Fiona Casserly, an Early Years teacher, has shared her thoughts after the Blog of the Term award for her students.

The concept of informaland formal learning and preference for a particular kind of pedagogy seem fundamental towhether a student blogs or not.

In my observations today I can see that thestudents who find blogging an addition to their course are predominantly thestudents that - it seems to me - have high self-efficacy and are highachievers. This idea about theirabilities to perform academically may lead them with feelings that they canachieve highly awarded assessments or learning gains without the help of blogs. Their stimuli response to handing in work hasalways (or mostly) been one that is positive. Combined with this high self-efficacy, students may have a more behaviouristattitude towards teaching and learning. They may see that formal learning only takes place in the classroomwhereby the teacher can ‘pour’ in knowledge and that less learning takes placeoutside of the classroom arena. If learningactivities outside of the classroom are viewed as informal this may then beseen as an add-on to their already loaded studies, rather than being anintegral part of their course.

Students which may have low self-efficacy mayfeel that they need more guidance and support and therefore are more inclinedto view the work of others to create feelings of security, for example thatthey are on the right tracks. This doesrelate to their level of performance, as in terms of formal assessment they fallin the mid to lower brackets on the marking scale.

My immidiate reaction is that there can be another explanation why high-achieving learmers may be reluctant to engage into blogging for learning: they spend their time studying differently. This is not a judgement on blogging: it will be interesting to see the outcomes in two years time when that group leaves the college to continue their last two years of the course at university.

I was a celebrity (it was fun)

2011-12-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I was invited to a session with 2+2 Childhood Studies students. It is a HE course; students do two years at our college and then continue for another two at Warwick. I had seen them already, we did an information skills session– library catalogue, Google, e-books, reliability of information sources. They also had a session on blogging with a colleague of mine, our graduate trainee.

On this occasion, I was invited as a local celebrity (their tutor, Lin Armstrong, and I couldn’t stop laughing when planned all that) to present an award for the Best Blog of the Term. It was an important event as, according to Lin, this year she could observe a real break-through with her students: most of them used a variety of online tools, including personal blogs, to support their learning and did it in a collaborative way. Lin is a great believer in connectivism – a comparatively new learning theory for the digital age – and was very excited when found that her students had started discovering and generating knowledge as a network/community of learning. To celebrate their achievements and encourage further, the ceremony was put together.

Lin presented her analysis of blogging patterns, highlighted interesting aspects of each blog. According to her, quite a number of students have already consistently practised reflective writing and linked materials they found on their own to the content of classroom sessions. They also commented on each other’s posts and developed discussions. I found it fascinating: when I studied theology I couldn’t stop talking about my readings and thoughts on the subject; the same was when I studied information science – I hardly needed any hobbies on top of that. I could recognise excitement and passion in those students.

Obviously, I couldn’t just give the award and disappear. Lin had briefed me on two aspects of students’ writing, which she wanted me to highlight – reflective and analytical. I unpacked that and then spoke on two simple matters: how to break the paralysis many of us have when start blogging; and another topic –how to survive and continue writing when everyone else around you is doing the same.

A chapter on blogging in Richardson’s Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2009) has the simplest and most useful advice on starting blogging: step by step, from commenting to reposting links to explaining the content of the reposted material etc. Going back to basics helps also when we suddenly develop stumbling blocks: instead of keeping silent we should engage with others gently or post stuff in a Facebook-like manner.

And stumbling blocks… Competitions are good only in the sense that they play on our inherent human competitiveness, which is everywhere, surrounds us so that that we take it for granted, ignore, overlook. From my experience, some people stop blogging simply because they can’t write as well as others do – in their opinion; or they don’t get comments from others, they are not followed by people important to them. Strategies of dealing with that can be diverse, depending on the person, context etc. I encouraged the students to remember that in four years time they may not see each other and if any bitterness happens meanwhile it will probably be irrelevant eventually. Now is precious time to develop oneself, to be jumping up and down from excitement about insights they develop and – not least important – share that: knowledge resides in networks.

And then there was a huge amazement – Cher didn’t expect her blog to be awarded… I think it was a bar of lush soap and chocolates!

On marketing library service

2011-12-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Two years ago my colleague at that time, Peter Barr, and I started a project: to develop marketing of the college library in the way which would embrace both traditional and emerging media; all should have connected and worked together. Before that, the library produced a lot of helpsheets, guides and leaflets; it also had a well developed presence on Moodle and the college website. It was first in the college to set up a Facebook page even though Facebook was banned on the college network PCs. However, our marketing activities were disjoint: content for each media was prepared separately, often – occasionally and by different people.

My thinking was broadly prompted by the Guardian which was the first major newspaper in Britain to move away from publishing online the texts that as the rule had already appeared in the paper edition. Very early the Guardian adopted a multi-platform approach: as soon as the content is ready it is pushed to all available media, edited and re-packaged respectively.

I was looking for a solution which would allow convenient storage and sharing of the content. I tried Google Docs for online subject guides and didn’t like it. A blog seemed a more versatile option. I started with the wordpress.com, a free and somewhat limited web service. When it became clear that the choice was correct, I asked my IT colleagues to install a full version of WordPress on the college server; their support was invaluable and made the transition painless – WordPress has excellent import/export functionality.

I have come across many library blogs authored by one person. In our case, it would certainly be against the spirit of the project: library marketing should be the concern of the whole team. It should conduce collaboration and development of skills within the team, in addition to an obvious aim of promoting the service to its users.

Soon after the blog went online, I embarked on encouragement and training my colleagues. My message was: even smallest developments in the library deserved to be blogged about. The whole team had a go: publicising new e-book acquisitions, changes in opening hours, inviting learners to user education sessions, uploading new helpsheets and more. Blogging was a steep learning curve for some, but there was also a lot of pride in achieving it. An important development occurred when our user education working group (four people preparing inductions and information skills sessions) started using the blog for publicising their activities. Very soon the blog was full of not only news, but also support content – helpsheets etc. – we all could refer to.

When users get to the blog to check out a new magazine or database advertised, they are presented with other options: lists of academic skills sessions available from the library, ILT/ICT equipment for staff to borrow, helpsheets on Inspire and Sconul schemes and e-resources provided by local public libraries.

WordPress allows some pages and posts to be password protected. It is handy if they are linked to the content which can be shared with certain users only. For example, our subject guide for Access students contains a link to a streamed film from the library collection. Students could get the password for that page from their course page on Moodle.

A blog on its own would be ineffective – very few people, at least in FE, read them. A blog content, however, is easy to link to other media. In our case, as soon as a new post appears on the blog, its headline is featured on the library’s Moodle page (for that, a Remote RSS Feeds block is used). If appropriate, the headline is also posted to the Library’s Facebook page; it is done manually, but it rarely takes more than a minute. Each blog post consistently gets about twenty clicks from Facebook alone.

Also manually some posts are highlighted on the extranet dashboard which is the first the college staff see when they login into the college network.

It is very handy to point out to a blog post when replying to email enquiries. Posts and pages can be classified by subject and tagged; WordPress allows hyperlinking all posts with the same subject or tag, so it is possible to point our users to “More about e-books” where they will find all the content related to that topic.

Instead of multiplying pages on the college website, we are gradually moving to just a single landing page with all the links to either services like the online catalogue, or pages and posts on the blog, e.g. about e-books, Athens access, referencing etc.

In addition to contributing to collaborative working in the team, the blog allows us to ensure accuracy of our content: in the most of cases we have to make amendments only once, on the blog.

WordPress may not be the best place for storing large attachments. It is very capable of displaying images and video, but I prefer Dropbox for storing all my PDF files and PowerPoint presentations. Its Public folder allows sharing the content without unnecessary barriers. In fact, we don’t use Moodle.

The blog was very handy when we decided to produce an annual report. It was librarians’ third attempt: we never had enough time or imagination to make it meaningful to ourselves, our users, as well as management. On that occasion, we used the blog: it had dozens of posts which, when re-packaged, gave a clear picture – not so much figures and numbers, as attractive stories. And many useful images had already been on the blog too!

Among other things, blogging has helped us to realise that almost anything can present a marketing opportunity. One of the most discussed posts was on stock withdrawal: why the library discarded almost a quarter of its books in just one summer. For us it was an occasion to highlight how much observation and thinking goes in such seemingly unremarkable events, and how much impact this might have. Consequently, we managed to steer an interest in information seeking behaviour among some tutors.

User education is especially valuable for marketing the library service. I was wrong assuming that learners and tutors knew that the library was a place to get help with searching Google, working out licencing puzzles or taming panic from referencing. Each new poster and blog post brings few more enquiries. Our learners and tutors are more likely to go to the library web pages for advice on referencing, than asking for help with finding a book. The blog pops in again and again in my information skills sessions, one-to-ones and conversations with tutors and staff. I can’t even think now how I managed all that without one place, which has everything.

There are comparatively easy ways to create a wow effect associated with the library. My colleague, Deborah Cairns, spent few days working on an online version of a library induction for which she used Prezi. The result was very impressive: I used it routinely on auto-play on a big screen while waiting for learners for information skills sessions. Many were mesmerised by transitions and animation, and that was one of the very first impressions of the library they were exposed to.

No doubts, marketing must be an integral part of the library service, not an add-on to the core business. Kerry York, a librarian from a neighbour college, observed very well: we, the library, are the only department which has to market ourselves continuously to explain what we do and what value we add to the college offer.

Book Exchange in Paris

2011-11-14T02:14:00.000-08:00

During a short trip to Paris, I popped in to a cultural centre somewhere on outskirts of the city – exhibitions, workshops, a courtyard used for theatrical shows, bookshop and book exchange trailer: take what you want and leave what you’ve already read. Just like in my college where the Book Exchange has been going from strength to strength for over two years now.

User-driven acquisition practice

2011-11-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

Involving learners in shaping their college experience, including learning itself, has become an important aspect of educational process. This has affected libraries too.

A few years ago it was almost an axiom in my library that stock acquisition was driven by curriculum and tutors. The librarians kept some funding aside for replenishing the lost and damaged stock and subsidising collections for new programmes. We also kept a note of unresolved enquiries – to purchase the resources on the topics which were not covered in the library collection sufficiently enough.

On the surface, this is still mostly the same: the library allocates 2/3 of its budget to curriculum areas to spend on tutors' requests. However, the emphasis has moved heavily towards active observation of what learners borrow and enquire about. On that basis, I research available publications. While we rarely receive requests for particular titles from learners (despite encouraging that), I keep my eyes wide open to what is borrowed. Usually this observation takes place while I am at the enquiry/issue desk or talk to users in the library. Often I check bibliographical databases (Nielsen BookData is particularly good for that) what else has been published by the same author or in the same series. It is not unusual for the library to have superseding editions of the titles on reading lists provided by tutors.

Being at the issue desk has become for me an exciting time of listening to learners: what they borrow and what they enquire about, even – sometimes – what they talk to each other about. From all that I deduce what’s in demand now and what will be in demand soon.

This all will be impossible when we - hopefully, next year - introduce a self-issue station. Interaction with users will decrease, and with that - an immediate knowledge of what they borrow and why. This is unavoidable: what I described above is not cost-effective in a middle size college library as ours. Usage reports from the LMS in universities can be informative taking into account that those libraries can employ subject libraries who can make sound judgements based on those reports. Unfortunately, this is not the case in a FE college library employing one or two librarians. Therefore, a radically new acquisition model for FE is badly needed.

Free e-books - we are competing not only with Google Books

2011-09-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

When a couple of weeks ago bookboon.com, a source of few dozens of free e-books, was featured on TV, I received several emails from the college colleagues alerting me about the site, and few others stopped me on the corridor to share the same news. I was perplexed: what is so amazing about free e-books?! Our library has been offering few thousands of them for last two years. And Google Books has millions.

Just in case, I have added the link to the list of e-book providers on the library website our learners may find useful. I have mixed feeling, however: travel guides are definitely a big No (I checked Paris and Barcelona) - they can't compete with any guides produced by major publishers. Being free doesn't help - there are plenty of much more interesting free blogs, e.g. Europe a la carte. Information is thin and dry, nothing to suggest that proper field research had been done. The business section, especially personal development guides, seems more promising: bite-size titles have been produced by a consultancy company. I haven't looked at textbooks yet.

It seems to me that the only Bookboon's selling point is its being free. Contemporary retail practice has taught us not to trust full prices, expect discounts and freebies all the time. Widespread music and film piracy, perhaps, makes people to expect - by implication - that books must be free too. As with everything free, Bookboon's stuff has limitations: books contain advertisements and quite a lot of them. Google Books has limitations too - their under copyright titles cannot be printed out or copied and pasted. Arguably, fewer limitations are with library e-book titles - only authentication is required. The simpler it is, the more likely is that we'll be competitive with full-price and ad-supported services. Downloading to users' devices is also the must - that's what people expect when they ask me for e-books.

E-Learning: A Study Visit to Slovenia

2011-06-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

Professional development opportunities for FE librarians may be found not only in the traditional places like our own establishments, universities, CILIP or JISC.

Last March, I spent five full days in Slovenia as a participant of a study visit, Creation of Innovative E-learning Resources. The participants of the group came from all over Europe, from a variety of educational and business sectors. The visit was funded by the EU as part of its Transversal programme, similar to the better known Erasmus programme.

The purpose of the visit was to share knowledge and learn new skills in the area of our particular interest, namely – e-learning. My expectations about the visit were quite different to what the visit actually offered: it was surprisingly hands-on, more about practical skills than the theoretical side of e-learning. Despite that, it was useful and engaging.
It was extremely interesting to learn that the government of Slovenia, a tiny Balkan country, sees e-learning as a priority. It encourages the development of new materials and the conversion of existing educational content into new formats. As an example, we were presented with a course book on Statistics for the Travel Industry. Once published as a printed book, it has been transformed into a Flash-based interactive object with animation and tests.

The Slovenian approach requires a lot of money and generous funding is provided. Their example was an answer to the participants‟ unanimous opinion that one of the major barriers for e-learning is expectation – on the part of policy makers and educational providers in many European countries – that IT should make learning cheaper. It is the wrong expectation: e-learning requires a large investment; it is time- and resource-consuming work.

On a practical level, we learnt Adobe Articulate Studio for creating Flash-based interactive resources and saw very advanced ways of using Moodle. All this will be of great use in my own practice. It was fascinating to attend a classroom observation where a tutor and teenage learners easily switched from Slovene into English to make their class comprehensible to the visitors. There were no printed hand-outs, no white board and pencils – all the activities were posted on Moodle in advance and the tutor skilfully switched between VLE, web browser windows and writing facilities on an interactive smartboard (it was an IT class).

Another lesson learned was that successful Slovenian schools actively search for EU funding, open – as a rule – to anyone in the European Union. If they only relied on state funding, they would never be able to afford all their fantastic projects. This has given me a lot to think about my reliance on the College central funding.

My contribution to the visit was sharing with the participants my experience of promoting good copyright practice among learners and tutors; complimentary use of Facebook and Moodle for teaching and learning; sourcing free graphics for digital materials and utilising podcasts and iTunes U content for self-guided study. The visit reminded me again that librarians have unique and often very broad set of competencies which are useful in many projects.

Every year there are hundreds of similar visits available to anyone involved in adult education. They come in many “flavours” – sustainability, IT, additional needs, innovative pedagogical practice, leadership, entrepreneurship and business partnerships – to name just a few areas. Most of them will be useful for practitioners already involved in those areas; FE librarians should not have a difficulty in finding relevant visits – most of us wear several hats at the same time. If you are interested, check out transversal.org.uk for a more detailed programme. Twice a year Transversal accepts new applications and I am pretty sure most of us have every chance of getting one right.

Originally published in the CoFHE Bulletin, May 2011

Computers in a classroom - distracting or helpful?

2011-03-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

In the last few years, more and more learners bring their computers into a classroom and use them during a class, seminar etc. I found it peculiar delivering information skills sessions to such classes: the dynamic of interaction there seem to be different, not so straightforward comparing to a traditional classroom.

Yesterday I found myself - for the first time - in the role of a learner who had a computer with unlimited internet access in front of me. The most of the time I followed presentations quickly switching for Google to look up the mentioned topics and notions which I found interesting or confusing. I saved linked into Delicious to read some of the discovered content later on. When the presentation seemed to be going too slowly and during shored breaks between them I checked my email, but eventually felt that it was not helpful to deal with my Inbox right then.

As many other things, personal computers and the internet in a classroom has positive and challenging aspects. Ability to create my own flow of engaging with the classroom delivery and material, to enrich it by parallel searching for supplementary content was very helpful. Without a strong determination to learn in that classroom, however, I could easily be distracted with facebooking or online chatting. Hence, it seems to me, a tutor should decide at what extend computers are admissible to the classroom (I am not talking about computer-based learning in this case): not every learner or group has sufficient interest in learning to cope with temptations of socialising online; at least in the FE sector. Tutor should know the group to make such a decision.

Barriers for e-learning

2011-03-07T02:15:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that two main barriers for better implementation of e-learning are:

Fragmented and unequal IT experience and information skills of learners and teachers & the lack of systematic approach to addressing this across all the levels - national, particular educational establishment etc.
Most of e-learning solutions, especially those based on e-learning objects, require comparatively large initial funding or investment, e.g. time. Hence, employers and state funding bodies must learn from Google's "20% rule" - allowing time for development and innovation.

Professional development and progression opportunities in FE libraries

2010-09-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

My CoFHE Conference 2010 paper.

A year ago, when I was acting College Librarian, I had to look at the recruitment practice in my College and I was somewhat puzzled: only "good GCSEs/O-Levels" were expected from candidates for posts as Learning Resources Assistant (LRA). A minimal library-related qualification was expected from Senior LRAs.

I was puzzled because the vast number of learners coming to the library with enquiries were on programmes exceeding GCSE level. An apparent discrepancy in qualifications and skills of library support staff on the one hand, and learners’ needs – as I understood them – has bothered me. Our employers would not dream of allowing the same to happen in classrooms.

Another issue I got concerned with was the virtual impossibility for support staff to move up the ladder to professional posts in a library.

This paper is an attempt to look critically at the current situation with recruitment practice and professional progression and development opportunities in FE libraries.

For the purpose of the paper three in-depth interviews with librarians in Midlands – from Worcester College (Wendy Parry), Northampton College (Grazyna Kuczera) and South Leicestershire College (Lesley John) were conducted. These are very different colleges and each librarian commands a very strong personality and well defined professional views. Those interviews helped me to formulate nine questions for a survey I posted online. I used CoFHE and CoLRiC email lists to publicise it. I received 67 replies. Though I cannot claim they provide statistically accurate data, I believe the results of the survey are indicative of what's going on in the sector.

Further I will look at those responses and attempt to propose certain conclusions based on the data received.

1.
The first question, about the structure of a learning resources service (LRS) and any changes which have happened recently, gave me a rich picture of how diverse the arrangements of those services in FE are. Some call them libraries, others - Learning Resource Centres; there are librarians, managers, co-ordinators, assistants and senior assistants, learning facilitators, officers, administrators, directors, team leaders, IT learning advisors, library supervisors and resource developers.

Is this a sign of diversity or inconsistency? I think, both. The FE sector includes a great variety of institutions operating many different models, with different specialisations. Consequently, diversity of modes LRSs operate. Some of them include elements of IT support, reprographics, others are parts of e-learning or Learner Support departments. Quite a number of LRSs are parts of regrettably unexpected structures, like Estates - together with nurseries and refectories. This makes any generalisation only indicative.

Two tendencies in staffing appear in the responses. First, FE providers are cutting the staff, both at support staff level and at the librarians' level. Out of 66 responses 1 said that LRS is gaining extra hours; another has managed to upgrade three posts to reflect the change in workload and nature of work; and one library is increasing the number of professionals' hours while cutting the clerical post hours to compensate that. 24 said that they've lost posts or hours recently; in some cases library staff were required to switch to term-only contracts.

The second tendency - to extend and diversify otherwise a flat structure by introducing new posts, most notably ones with educational aspects. Among the job titles which do not contain words "library" and "learning resources", there is a large group of learning facilitators and learning advisors. It seems that those posts are slightly higher on pay scale than library assistants' ones. Such change shifts the emphases from manual, clerical jobs to those which are focused on user engagement, education and literacy. Libraries re-invent ourselves into more defined learning spaces and library staff - as educators.

2.On the second question, about qualifications expected from the applicants for professional posts in LRS in FE, 63 meaningful replies were received. An absolute majority of employers are looking for people graduated with library and information management qualifications or with corresponding postgraduate qualifications. However, 10% of those who replied said that no library qualification is required at all; another 10% said that a degree and willingness to work towards a library qualification is sufficient; in one case a foundation degree was enough.

Interestingly, a number of FE providers are looking for people with basic IT qualifications and experience of library work, as well as in management and teaching. This probably indicates that there is potential for professional progression without achieving a library degree in advance. To test this assumption, let’s look at where library staff may start from.

3.
A majority of FE providers (40 out of 67 replies) will be satisfied with "good general education" of candidates for LRA posts. What "good general education" means, varies between two and five good GCSEs, almost always English and Maths are mentioned specifically. As desirable competences, IT skills and qualifications are commonly mentioned, as well as experience of library work and customer care skills.

Interestingly, every fourth replied that they'd expect their LRA candidates to have A-Levels (starting from two good A-Levels) and/or level three qualifications, e.g. NVQ; and would even aim to get LRAs with a degree. Personally, I have come across very few such candidates; it makes me think that there must be some factors, e.g. geographical, which contribute to what qualifications FE providers may command from prospective LRAs.

One reply is a little bit off-topic, but it has drawn my attention as possibly an example of good practice. Someone wrote: "We have introduced practical tests at interview [for prospective LRAs] which is the best move we've ever made. Claiming knowledge is not the same as demonstrating it."

As a rule, Senior LRAs in FE are expected to have a Level 3 qualification, often – a library specific one.

4.
What does differentiate qualified librarians in FE? What jobs are reserved for librarians?
Judging from answers, cataloguing and classifying are the most common tasks and skills librarians practice. User education/information literacy, stock selection and collection management follow them; then curriculum liaison, systems management, copyright and license management and advice on those issues. E-resources management is mentioned specifically on a number of occasions; also managing VLE, website authoring and other forms of web publishing. Only one person mentioned web 2.0 by name which probably reflects the absence of such terms in our job descriptions rather that the state of our professional engagements.

Librarians in FE are engaged in staff and budget management, as well as strategic and quality development; most of professional librarians are managers or at least supervisors.
Surprisingly few respondents said that librarian's roles include staff development. If we take into account that the majority of our team members have no access to librarians' professional networks and organisations, and training offered by JISC RSCs, CILIP and its branches and groups is routinely focussed on professionals, not support staff, it is imperative that librarians should cascade their skills and knowledge downwards.

Quite a number of respondents said that cataloguing and classifying was not always done by qualified librarians in their institutions. Still, it remains FE librarians' most common skill. Personally, I think well educated paraprofessionals are quite capable of doing those jobs well. They require certain "general knowledge" and interest in the current curriculum on top of following a number of rules and conventions. However, I would argue that without professional input into development and controlling of those rules, conventions and controlled vocabulary, the result of paraprofessionals' involvement is likely to be unsatisfactory.

User education is also not the domain of librarians only. A large number of respondents said that librarians work with learners on higher courses, especially with HE students.

E-resources, perhaps, is quite a different story. Their management by librarians was mentioned several times; they provide a good example of what's unique about librarians. E-resources in their various incarnations are not something as straightforward and familiar to most of us as printed media. They cost a lot and - regrettably - have distinctly different interfaces; they often require users to be introduced to them first. Everything about e-resources is more complex than books; purchasing wrong e-resources cost dear and may bind the institution into a long-term contract. It's not the same as books where mistakes can be corrected almost painlessly. What good librarians offer in terms of e-resources is ability to research what's on offer, their quality and value, their appropriateness. In other words, librarians offer a value judgement based on appropriate knowledge and experience. This also gives us a clue where librarians come in cataloguing and classification: while almost everybody can follow clearly defined rules and conventions, professionals can actually define those rules and conventions, and link them to other aspects of LRS provision. Also proper management of library management systems involves professional knowledge of how those systems utilise cataloguing and classifying conventions; how the settings are linked to budget management, acquisition practice; how they reflect the type of users, curriculum and even broader - trends in the world of information and information management, education, human information seeking behaviour etc.

While many of the above mentioned skills and competences on their own can be acquired and successfully practiced by non-librarians, their mix define who a successful librarian/information professional in FE is.

As a rule, qualified librarians in FE command three sets of competences: information management skills, staff and business management skills; and teaching skills.

5.
This leads us to the following question: how likely it is that our colleagues in support roles and paraprofessionals can achieve further posts, namely those normally reserved for qualified librarians?

Almost half of those who responded to this survey had come across people who had managed to progress from clerical and paraprofessional roles to that of librarian.

A few went through ACLIP (CILIP Certification); it's clearly not the most common route. A few more did NVQs and Foundation Degrees. Some did degrees, but the majority went for a postgraduate qualification: either part time or as a distance course. In some cases employers contributed to the fees or - more often - gave some time off for attending the programmes. Did those who have completed professional qualifications stayed at the same institution as before? Some did, some did not - the responses were mixed.

One of the barriers to achieving professional qualifications, as the survey indicated, was that business management experience and qualifications are perceived as more important by employers. Information management and teaching skills are often overlooked by our managers.
It appears that LRAs with degrees are more likely to achieve further qualifications and move up the job ladder in our profession. And the opposite: people with just "good general education" are unlikely to progress at all.

A person with "good general education" would require seven or even more years to achieve a degree and then MA studying part time. ACLIP may be a quicker and cheaper route to progress to professionally recognised qualifications. However, less than 10% mentioned ACLIP/MCLIP route in their responses.

If we want to bring more dynamism and mobility into LRS structures in FE, I would suggest shifting the focus of paraprofessional posts from merely supervisory roles to being a preparatory stage for further development.

6.
The last question was about the difference in professional development opportunities for librarians and support staff. A large number of the respondents said that there were no difference at all. My personal experience suggests the opposite: only once I have seen library assistants at JISC RSC events.

One of the respondents mentioned the local CoFHE circle's annual assistants training day. One in Leicester earlier this year was fully booked some time in advance even though it was not free. Although there is demand, there is not much on offer! Several respondents put their fingers on the issue, in my opinion: "Management gets all the best training and opportunities"; "Support staff tend to get more in-house training and more general such as IT, college policies and procedures etc.; do a bit on Heritage, but I'd like to do more."

Perhaps there are valid reasons for that. Still, some important things can be done to encourage and empower our colleagues; and with empowerment greater job satisfaction, creativity and ambitions come.

Conclusions:

LRSs in FE should re-evaluate their recruitment practice. Just "good general education" for LRAs is not sufficient any more. Low job entry requirements are a missed opportunity.
Some libraries have gone the route of introducing learning facilitators and advisors to emphasise the interactive and educational nature of library work; and to remove purely clerical posts.
Diversifying the structure of LRSs and openness to internal promotions, to up-skilling our own staff will encourage professional development and ambition in our colleagues.
While many skills and competences on their own can be acquired and successfully practiced by non-librarians, their mix defines who a successful professional librarian is. As a rule, qualified librarians in FE command three sets of competences: information management, staff and business management, and teaching skills. Such professionals are capable of bringing a value judgement into their practice.
FE librarians should take seriously the responsibility for designing, and leading a programme of staff development for the team.

Library as a means of social change

2010-04-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Access to learning resources will be an important issue in education in the context of addressing the socio-economic inequality that a recently passed Equality Act is talking about. I hope libraries in FE colleges will have a chance to contribute hugely to giving free and equal access to learning resources, information and IT facilities to learners from all the backgrounds.

In the student's shoes

2010-04-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

One of unexpected outcomes of entering the Award for Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector course, PTLLS, was my ability to look at learning resources provision in the College through the learners’ eyes. It made me question some assumptions librarians get during their professional training.

Being a student in Atherstone, one of the College's outreach centres, means having a limited access to books; at the same time, very few core texts for Teacher Training have been published as e-books yet. To address the difficulties, the College library has done several things:

we checked all the resources on the reading list whether new editions were available;
purchased additional copies of the most popular texts even if it meant having a dozen or more copies of the same title (to make sure that nobody has to wait for more than a couple of weeks for a core text);
created a simple search (http://bit.ly/ptlls_read) on the library online catalogue, Heritage, which would bring up on the screen all the recommended resources in one click;
made it possible to request library books online for collection and return in Atherstone;
and finally, promoted all our efforts to students.

After seven months, we have looked at the results and they were astounding. We expected an increase in book loans by PTLLS students, but nothing like 643% we got, from 143 loans previous year to 920 in 2009-2010! (The increase in students' number was very small.)

Another way for literacy development

2010-04-07T01:59:00.000-07:00

The Guardian published a story of a (used to be) reluctant reader who found iPhone exactly what he needed for getting into reading. He also mentions why smartphones can be helpful for people with dyslexia. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/06/iphone-makes-reading-books-easier

Quick Reads return to library

2010-03-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the simplest ideas make a big difference.

A few years ago a section with books for emerging readers (those who would prefer shorter and simpler texts) was dispersed. The reason for this was a comment from a member of the college staff that it might embarrass less literacy-able students if others saw them going to the shelf with those books. The result was unfortunate: several hundreds of good books were buried among others and hardly ever used.

Librarians have tried teaching emerging readers and pathfinders catalogue searching skills. It was not successful, as searching requires a certain level of literacy which was not present yet in some of our users. It was sad to see that we had under-used resources and, at the same time, there were learners whose needs we could not satisfy. There was something wrong with our practice.

Eventually, we decided to remove Quick Reads publications and similar books from the main classification sequence. Instead of a shelf case at the back, as years ago, the most prominent spot in the library in Nuneaton has been allocated for that collection. Since then, hardly a day passes without Quick Reads being borrowed. Tutors come with learners to guide their emerging interests in reading, while learners come on their own to browse through a few shelves. Library staff now have opportunities for assisting our emerging readers in discovering ever greater possibilities. A simple idea has turned to be a real success.

Facebook in FE: a tutor on pros and cons (guest post)

2010-03-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Our College has produced a brilliant example of appropriate and very active use of social networking in education. A photography tutor, James Cunliffe, who initiated the whole project shares his experience and views on benefits and pitfalls of engaging with Facebook for supporting learning.

Advantages

It is a format most students are familiar with and use frequently. Before starting the page I asked how many of my group had a Facebook account and how often they used it. All but one of the 26 of them had an account and every single one of them checked it every night.

It is a private group. Students must request to join or be invited.

All content is private and cannot be viewed by other Facebook users.

Students can add content such as links to websites, create or participate in discussions or simple ask for help on the group’s wall. All of these things create a sense of ownership with the students.

Tutors can also create or add content such as links to TV programmes they should watch, websites they should look at or news articles of specific interest.

The creator can allocate specific members of the group (staff) admin status allowing them the ability to remove any inappropriate content. (For the record I have never had to remove anything posted)

My students use it a great deal in terms of asking for help from each other which is especially important as they only attend college three days a week. A question from one can elicit a response from three or four students offering help and suggestions.

It is a joint first and second year group page and many of the students converse with each other here first despite never having met formally or being in the same year. This develops both friendships and support networks, especially with the second years are more experienced.

All of the members can be messaged quickly and simply should there be any information that needs to be sent to all (or even just one.) It also allows individual students to contact you privately should there be an issue they wish to talk confidentially to you. It appears as a message in your Facebook inbox and feels less formal than an email.

Everything posted can be commented on by any member, often starting impromptu discussions which can be continued in class.

Photographs and videos can be posted. For us, as a creative course this is invaluable but we also post photographs from events such as visiting lecturers and trips.

Educational trips can be posted as an event with the students receiving an invite by email which also promotes a sense of belonging. Links to relevant websites can also be attached.

All member information remains private, i.e. whilst we are all in the same group the students cannot view any of the staff’s Facebook pages nor can we access theirs.

By embracing this social networking it has had the effect of “decriminalising” Facebook and whilst a year ago students’ sneakily looking on Facebook during a class was a problem, this seems to have diminished considerably.

I check the groups’ page most nights however when I have not done so for a few days the notification icon at the top of the page will direct me to any new posts or comments.

Disadvantages

Word documents and PowerPoint’s cannot be posted and only go on Moodle. It is more interactive than Moodle however it has not replaced it. Indeed all of the links posted on the Facebook page are put on to the group’s Moodle page.

Some students initially used it as a place to notify me of their absence however this has now been addressed.

Not all students have a Facebook account due to having no access to the internet or the possible disapproval of their parents.

Tutors may not have an account and may be unfamiliar with the layout and process of managing a page. They may also not have the time to manage the site. (In my experience however it does not take a huge amount of time or effort, especially as it is so democratic with other tutors and students contributing)

Conclusion

Whilst there are a few disadvantages associated with creating and managing a course Facebook page I am without doubt that the benefits far outweigh them. Since creating the page in October 2009 it has provided invaluable support to the majority of my students and has become a forum that they trust, respect and use to a potential I did not expect or even realise was possible.

Facebook can help pupils pass English

2010-02-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

School adopts experimental GCSE prep course that teaches language skills through social media (TES, 19 February 2010)

I liked this especially: “This is using what they already know and pushing them in the right direction” (about using social media for learning).

Copyright for creators

2010-02-11T08:27:00.000-08:00

This guide is available in print from the NWHC library.

As consumers of information, music, films and other works, we come across Copyright which is a measure protecting the authors’ rights.

Any content we create is also protected by Copyright. We take photos, compose and record music, create PowerPoint presentations, write blogs and computer games, twitter etc. Other people should not use the works created by us (e.g. publish our texts on their blogs, perform our music on public, use our photographs in newsletters) without our permission or at least acknowledging us as their authors.

There are exceptions to this rule, most notable are: performing, copying or lending works for educational purposes, and using works for personal study or research.

Copyright is an automatic right. The author does not have to do anything special for her/his rights to be respected and protected by law.

For more details about Copyright (as well as Top 10 Copyright Myths) see http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/

Creative Commons

The traditional forms of Copyright enforcement are often less helpful for digital works (digital photographs, computer stored music, website templates etc.) than for more traditional ones like printed books and films on DVDs.

Nowadays, we are happy to share our works with other people and upload them online where it’s easy to copy and make changes to them. At the same time we may want to be assured that other people do not present our works as their creation.

For this purpose, a new set of licenses was created. It is called Creative Commons. These licenses allow a creator to be quite specific about the ways he/she wants those works to be used; for example, it is possible to specify that a work can be freely copied or shared providing it is properly attributed to the author, that it cannot be used for commercial purposes and cannot be changed in any way.

All the Creative Commons licenses are explained in a formal, but easy to understand language at http://creativecommons.org/international/uk/.

Normally, it is sufficient to add to a work or its metadata (e.g. each mp3 file carries data about the title, composer, performer of the track etc.; this is called metadata; normally all the digital works like photographs, videos etc. carry metadata too) a short phrase like This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

There is a tool which can help to choose an appropriate license and its wording (as well as with registering a work if it’s to be uploaded online) - http://creativecommons.org/choose/.

A number of large websites use Creative Commons. The most notable is Flickr. Millions of people use those licenses for their simplicity and flexibility.

There are search engines which allow finding Creative Commons licensed works, e.g. http://search.creativecommons.org/. Also Google’s advanced search allows to filter down images according to their license, e.g. to look for only those which can be freely copied and legally shared.

For more information about Copyright for digital works, see a book Digital Copyright by Paul Pedley - http://bit.ly/5hdpYu.

Copyright for creators by Ihar Ivanou, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Library in virtual learning spaces

2010-01-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

Although academic libraries have been highly effective in supporting research, Professor McKnight said that they needed to prove equally adept at supporting learning and teaching.

This should include offering their resources to students in "virtual learning spaces" and via mobile phone as well as on site, she said.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409797&c=1

Moodle - the wrong tool for the job?

2009-12-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

Moodle - the wrong tool for the job?

A very interesting reflection on Moodle in teaching/learning. I agree that Moodle has more than the most of tutors realise and use. The lack of pedagogy for the age of online and collaborative learning is the main obstacle to better and creative use of Moodle, both by tutors and learners.

Lessons from last year

2009-12-24T04:08:00.001-08:00

Someone on LinkedIn asked what processes have been affecting the information profession most recently. This is my immidiate impression shaped by the experience of working in FE.

Information professionals' presence in FE colleges is still valuable, but the accents are changing; the last year taught me quite a lot.

Students on lower level courses almost disappeared from the library - those on vocational programmes like construction, hairdressing, catering used to use the library quite a lot for textbooks and as a learning space. Now a lot of the content of their courses is delivered on-screen as video and interactive products become cheaper and easier to use. I do not really see a place for librarians in that context.

Sure, many of those students would benefit from reader development and literacy programmes – that’s where librarians could offer their expertise, but funding for FE programmes is restrictive in what learners can get from colleges. I have entertained myself with an idea of a book club in the College until the recession brought me back to reality.

On the positive side, HE provision is developing in FE colleges and HE students are heavy users of learning resource services – both for content and support. Also Access students come often, ask many questions and spend a lot of time in our library. The level of literacy in general and digital literacy in particular among many students is low. Even the younger ones, who are supposed to be digital natives, seriously struggle with ALL information sources. Most often I see myself as an educator who teaches and guides people to find their way in the fragmented information landscape.

Many FE libraries would benefit from diverting some money to employing professionally educated librarians. Arrival of e-books has already made a serious impact – I have never seen so many requests for Athens access and questions about referencing online sources as since E-Books for FE was launched. Somehow, people grasp the concept of e-books very quickly and (my evidence is anecdotal at the moment) use them well. The majority of other e-resources we are subscribing to now are not likely to be in use next year – they can’t compete either in quality of content or usability with e-books. I will not be surprised if part of our printed resources budget is diverted to e-books provision next year too.

This leads me to thinking about a pressing need for developing new (at least - new for FE) ways of offering enquiry services. Obviously, these will be online ones. All our students are entitled to using learning resources; the proportion of online ones will be growing steadily. Consequently, there will be fewer reasons for learners to come to the college for accessing them - they can be accessed from anywhere. They still will require support and guidance... which will be offered online in the future.

Image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/493668

Virtual enquiry service

2009-12-22T05:56:00.000-08:00

Time for pupils to take screen tests, says watchdog - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article6959746.ece

It is logical to assume that on-screen tests will not be the end of the story. Why not to offer on-screen GCSE and A-Level programmes - as other highel level degrees were offered as distance courses?

This poses a question for libraries: what is the place for information professionals and learning resources services in such a world? An online enquiry service comes to my mind immediately - a chat room staffed with library staff for helping and guiding learners.

It's not exactly a new idea both for education and business (when I was buying my last computer online, a member of the Apple Store team from somewhere far away guided me through the process on a virtual chat - on deciding on configuration, warranty options, cables etc. - until my payment went through; it was the best online shopping experience I've had), but it has never been - as far as I know - tested in Further Education... while the majority of our learners are already on distance courses!

Cyberbullying on YouTube - an American case

2009-12-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

An interesting discussion about a case involving cyberbullying on YouTube is available on Slate podcast for 18 December 2009 (the best way to listen is to download it to an mp3 player; the discussion begins after 25:19 minutes). Journalists are talking about a recent American court case not directly applicable in the UK, however the podcast presents a couple of good discussion points, e.g. how far a school may be responsible for pupils' online behaviour outside its premises. The story was publicised by The Los Angeles Times. This discussion on podcast is followed by a story about another American court case dealing with sexually explicit text messages in the workplace.

Legal issues of using Web 2.0 + E-safety

2009-12-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

Two sessions orginised by WM RSC took placce on 17 December 2009 which I attended. Both sessions were led by Jackie Milne from JISC Legal.

JISC Legal provides guidance for use of ICT in education and research.

The morning session was on LEGAL ISSUES OF USING WEB 2.0.

One of the most obvious issues in that area is IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). A good video on that is available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/12/web2rights.aspx. The video refers to the IPR flowchart (PDF). More useful information about IPR on the web is available at Web2Rights website.

The intellectual property law sees a creator as the primary owner of the copyright. However, this may not be the case if the creator is an employee and created a work as part of his contract (e.g. a web designer creating a website layout, style etc.). Also the College may be liable for the copyright infringement if it happened using the College network, especially if not precautions were taken, e.g. to make users aware of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

The duty of care is another important issue to consider when one uses social networking in education. It's higher if the use of social networking tools and solutions is a requirement; lower if it's optional for a particular programme. If it's a requirement for the course, the necessary precautions have to be made, starting from a risk assessment.

With new technologies and information sources issue of accessibility comes too: all learners have to have a comparable experience. A long discussion about advantages/disadvantages of using mobile technology for learning from the point of view of SEN took place. Here, I was reminded about my own experience of a student with a visual impairment attending my information skills session. The session was heavily based on demonstrations - of using Heritage Online, e-resources etc. Clearly, that student did not get a "comparable experience". Perhaps a special podcast should be prepared which would guide a person with visual impairments step by step through the examples understandable by / accessible to such a person. Accessibility side of teaching must be anticipatory and proactive to enable access to the core materials in different ways. (Which means, e.g., that Power Point presentations must be backed up with something else).

Web 2.0 tools can be hosted or external. If hosted by the institution itself, there will be an issue of data protection and legitimate access to information.

Liability can take different forms: breach of contract (in terms of adequate provision of learning), negligence, copyright...

An example of YouTube videos use in classroom was looked at. The College may be liable for a secondary infringement of the author's right if a video shown in a classroom (or advised to be watched by students at home) was in fact illegally uploaded to YouTube. The content used in education must always be legal. Obviously, it would be illegal to download YouTube videos and store - either on storage devices or the network. YouTube videos can be imbedded only as a player without modifications.

On the other hand, the copyright law gives special exceptions for educational institutions and for research purposes (even more - to teachers and students on media programmes); they should be used.

It was advised that all Colleges have a Web 2.0 policy which would include procedures for staff, notices, content removal procedures, resolving external website difficulties (like fake identities, derogatory comments?), allocated responsibilities.

The afternoon session was on E-SAFETY. It's a big topic now since Ofsted made it a limiting grade, e.i. the overal inspection mark cannot be above the one for e-safety (as well as equality and diversity).

A few useful links:

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

Be Safe e-Safe video from Kenttv.com - free for personal educational use (i.e. it's fine to show it in a classroom as part of teaching).

Duty of care is a statutory duty for educators. Under this umbrella, safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults (and in a broader sense, everyone, I presume) comes. It means that we obliged to provide for others the right to be and feel safe, free from victimisation and discrimination.

Some issues were given as those to consider in relation to e-safety:

Data protection and privacy
IPR and Copyright
Defamation
Harrassment
Sexual Offences
Cyberbullying

E-safety measures should include (I presume it's not an exhaustive list):

Security (technology side)
Management of data
Acceptable Use Policy (JANET and NEN have their specific requirements for the associated institutions which may have implications for AUP)
Linked policies and procedures
Ways of reporting incidents.

E-safety material should have a tone and language appropriate for learners.

A special point was made that proper e-safety policy and practice will always include educational elements, not just access measures. How far in restricting access or allowing it while paying more attention to promoting appropriate knowledge, skills and good practice a particular institution may go depends on the culture of this institution - how much risk it's happy to take, how safe it wants to play. Ultimately, there is no one model suitable for everyone, therefore a discussion and thinking should take place.

A wiki page has already been created for this event by West Midlands Regional Support Centre. It's available at http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Staying_legal_with_Web_2.0;_A_legal_view_of_e-safety,_17th_December,_2009

Image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/498072

Participatory media

2009-12-11T03:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking session organised by a local JISC (the governmental agency promoting use of technologies in education).

Already the first conversation brought a surprise - one of the participants was a HR person from one of FE colleges (I did not expect to meet there anyone but librarians and a handful of teachers). She was after ideas for developing internal communication in the College as the traditional ways like newsletters and emails are not sufficient enough any more. It was refreshing to see that not only librarians are taking the reality of fragmented information landscapes seriously.

There was a lot of discussion around threats (to safety, traditional literacy), barriers (to information as experienced by less digitally savvy people), difficulties (bandwidth, waste of time) etc.

I was left with the question whether damage to an institution from not having a blog (or not being present on, let us say, Facebook; or discouraging employees from creative use of "participatory media") is greater than from having it and dealing with a number of serious chllenges and/or unwanted consequences. It's not even the matter of allowing or blocking access. It's rather a question of institutional culture: are creativity and responsibility encouraged or anything that is "un-official" is discouraged? are staff provided with help and advice on positive engagement with the web? is learners' voice - freely expressed, not pre-selected and beautifully pre-packaged - is present in the whole picture of what the institution (College) is like?

If such participation, responsibility and trust are encouraged, the whole discourse about the institution will be quite different - not as polished as we are used to see it in glossy prospectuses, but much livelier, first-hand accounts of people's experiences. It sounds challenging and even scary, but isn't it what we actually enjoy reading and trust the most? That's why the old school editorial control on the web seems to be of limited value.

Perth College's blogging experience is very interesting from a librarians' point of view. They have two blogs, for users and for their own staff. The first one is used for sharing news. I like the idea of emphasising the new resources purchased. Pity, Heritage does not allow current awareness output in RSS feeds at the moment, otherwise it'd be easy to embed such updates into Moodle pages and Facebook. Another blog is for staff development within the team. The weak point for developing a SD blog is Outlook which - in its current incarnation - does not allow RSS feeds import along with emails. It's not clear to me how to create just one space where all the content and messages intended for the library staff could come and sit together. Will we remember to visit a blog regularly if it's been created?!

An interesting discussion took place during the lunch break. What happens to all the profiles and pages if their owner dies, especially if dies unexpectedly? There was a lot of fun discussing wills which should now include something about Facebook profile management.

One memorable quote from the day? - It's from the Tame The Web blog: "a core value of librarianship - community building". People want to communicate, create and share, learn from each other... where other ways fail - teachers do not have time, insufficient funding, digital divide - librarians (in FE) create physical and virtual spaces for self-guided study and connecting.

One blog post that I made a note of to look at later on more carefully was Should You Friend Your Students? The Short Answer Is No by Josie Fraser from JISC in Leicester. I am pleased that some comments were critical - I do not believe in complete separation of personal and professional life. I mean, it's possible, but rather unhelpful, in my opinion.

Wikis... we used them with Early Years learners last year and it was not as successful as I hoped. Potentially, it can be a great way for keeping library procedures up-to-date and easily editable.

A fantastic characteristic of wikis which I will constantly use when talking to students about Wikipedia: it has a fluid content. It's its strength and weakness at the same time.

Another example of people's desire and need to speak, contribute, being heard - Write To Reply. We do need editors who would inspire learners and staff to write to bulletins, websites, Facebook pages...

A similar session will take place in Nottingham in February.

Image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1108254

Blogging boosts literacy

2009-12-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

At last we have a strong evidence of the usefulness of blogging. The National Literacy Trust has published a research, "Young people's writing: Attitudes, behavior and the role of technology" which had involved over 3,000 young people. Those who had blogs and were engaged in social networks had more positive view of their own writing abilities and were more likely to enjoy writing. To learn more about the research, follow the links below (the shortest reports are in the beginning, but if you have time, read the third one):

The most insightful educators and librarians have been saying for some time that information empowerment is the way ahead. This means to move away from the old style of controlling learning, reading, "information consumption" - away from broadcasting and transmitting - towards more open discovery, sharing, collaboration, trust- & skill-building. It's not good enough to create a website where only PR people can present the picture of a particular institution. It's dull, unattractive to the most of people and ultimately useless. A much better approach is to involve the "consumers" into becoming creators of content, storytellers... how great would be a story of a school told by its learners! Yes, it's more difficult than just a PR monologue, it requires imagination and a lot of networking, but this would ultimately be what we all in education - whether teachers, librarians or PR staff - are for: to empower our learners, to help them to discover their voices and individual skills.

Personally, I have not mastered that imagination yet... I am trying to imagine how I could do it. Meanwhile, everyone is welcome to comment on my post here, write "guest posts" and join the library's Facebook page, facebook.com/library.nwhc, to contribute to our shared pool of skills and knowledge.

Gosh, I love blogging! And it's getting easier and more rewarding with time.

About RSS feeds and reading each other's blogs

2009-11-15T03:21:00.000-08:00

How do you read each other's blogs? I use Google Reader which works beautifully with Blogger where the most of our blogs have been created. It supports commenting and sharing functions without you having to go to each blog separately. Great for keeping all the blogs together and saving time.

For years I have been using Bloglines to read my RSS feeds, but recently it became quite annoying - it cannot recognise quite a lot of RSS addresses. Safari and Mail (on Apple Mac) render those feeds perfectly. I have been reluctant to use computer applications for reading news as I use a number of computers at work + travel often, so Bloglines used to be a perfect choice for keeping all my RSS subscribtions "with me". Not any more, and what a pity!

What are RSS feeds? Here is what I wrote few years ago when created a website for a friend of mine:

RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication – opinions differ, is a comparatively new, but already widely used way of publishing, reading and sharing news on the internet. RSS feed is like a notice board on which the publisher leaves announcements of new items available for reading.

The beauty of using an RSS reader – a piece of software allowing to read these notes – is its ability to gather notes from as many RSS feeds as you have chosen and deliver them to you when you wish. If you like any of them, you click on the link which takes you to the full story. Arguably, it saves you a lot of time as, instead of browsing from one website to another searching for news or opening ten different email updates, you deal only with one media created according to your requirements.

There are many free RSS readers; some of them work as standalone software, others would integrate themselves into your browser or e-mail client. For a free and simple RSS service requiring no software downloads check, e.g. bloglines.com.

Well, and here I'll add - Google Reader is another good option. How to recognise where RSS feeds are? They are usualy indicated by an orange button (see on the left hand menu of my blog) which may look different depending on the web author's taste. Give it a go, RSS save lots of time!

PinkladyC's moment of fame

2009-11-15T03:03:00.000-08:00

Leicester Mercury published an article about campaign for better support of kinship carers - people caring for the children of family or friends. It mentions one of our 2+2 Early Years students, Sandy Chamberlain. Well done! It's so great when what we are interested in and are passionate about materialise in many different facets - personal life, education, job, hobbies, voluntary work!

Sandys' blog is http://pinkladyc1.blogspot.com/

Assignment - one week extention

2009-11-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

To all 2+2 Early Years, 2nd year:
Lin and I thought that it would be helpful to give all of you an extra week for completing literature reviews - for a number of reasons.
Please let your colleagues know as I do not have all their contacts.
Our next class is as usual, on Wednesday. Please bring your texts with you or send them to me before that - if you want a comment - they do not have to be completed by that stage. Enjoy!

Adding sound to PowerPoint presentations

2009-11-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me about adding sound to a PowerPoint presentation. I had no clue how to do it. Apparently, it's not as straightford as I thought it might be. YouTube has a couple of good videos explaining what to do step by step:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zDoa3H5TUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdig4XLUpFE

Fun!

Reading professional publications for Early Years

2009-10-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we had a very good session with the first year of 2+2 Early Years. We shared what publications/resources we read in order to develop our knowledge, stay in touch with the profession and get a competitive advantage (e.g. in developing the career). That's what we read, watch, listen and subscribe to:

Teachers.tv (http://www.teachers.tv; also available on Freeview) - a great source of video for teachers and teaching.
School research online - email update (a link needed! If you know it, please sent it to me!)
Times Education Supplement + TES Connect (http://www.tes.co.uk/) - arguably the most important British education publication
Every Child Matters - (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters) - the Department of Children, Schools and Families resource for Every Child Matters programme.
Governors' Updates - a number of students serve as school governors and as such receive valuable updates relevant to their role.
Scouting Magazine (http://www.scoutingmagazine.org)
Early Years Foundation Stage (http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears) - another resources from the Department of Children, Schools and Families
Social Text (http://socialtext.dukejournals.org) - a journal exploring social issues of the contemporary world
Early Years Education (EYE) magazine - http://www.earlyyearseducator.co.uk/
Fostering network (http://www.fostering.net) - some online services are available only to the paid members
Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) is a good tool for monitoring new content on the web
Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP) - http://ecrp.uiuc.edu - a peer-reviewed e-journal
iTunes U is a fantastic resource of video and audio materials, e.g. lectures, from the leading universities in USA and Britain. They can be downloaded to mp3 players and listened when you are cooking, commuting etc. learn more at http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/ and watch a video "An introduction to iTunes U" on the same page. iTunes works on non-Apple computers too.

There was a general feeling that the patters of reading and information discovery have changed since the beginning of the course (and it was only four weeks ago!), e.g. more time is spent on reading quality texts and quality newspapers; more documentaries and topical TV programmes are watched; however, reading and watching TV for pleasure is also present as good professionals have to stay in touch with reality in its diversity, as well as being able to retreat - when necessary - into comforting books and TV.

Sounds fantastic!

On being safe and respectable online - Google's attempt

2009-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Google's advise on improving your own online reputation. Some wise words and a sneaky invitation to create a profile on Google.

Primary v. secondary sources

2009-10-19T02:24:00.001-07:00

Some time ago I pointed out to the second year 2+2 Early Years students that a literature review should be concered with the secondary sources rather than primary ones. Please see short and helpful explanations about their differences: http://library.uwsp.edu/guides/webtutorials/primary.htm and http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1483.

However, thinking about application of those definitions to Early Years, it seems to me that it may not always be clear what sources are primary and which are secondary.For example, is the BECTA's report a primary or secondary source? (Probably yes, as such reports normally refer to what has been learned previously and conclusions are drawn for formulating recommendations, rules and policies.) Should a government policy document be analysed as part of a literature review? (Probably not if it does not explain on what knowledge those prescriptions are being founded. Essays and dissertations are more appropriate forms for discussing those documents.)

No doubts that almost anything can be mentioned in a literature review, e.g. to illustrate discrepancies in a policy with what researchers and practitioners were saying. However, the fact of those discrepancies is probably less interesting for a literature review. The problem of those discrepancies should be discussed in other parts of a research paper.

Therefore, the writings which constitute "scholarly literature" (those texts which explore, test, analyse etc. facts, statements and conclusions) should be regarded as the focal point of a literature review.

Google first things

2009-10-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we spoke with the first year 2+2 students about Google and using it for research. Here are several links and dome comments from that session.

Google advises to start searching with as few words as possible; then use a link "Search within results" in the bottom of the results page to narrow down your search. Put inverted commas (i.e. "") around the search phrase if you want Google to search for the phrase as you typed it (e.g. "Every child matters" which is the title of the policy document). For Google's own advice how to use it, see http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479

Note a radio button "Pages from the UK" just below the search box; very often it is very helpful to limit the result to only British websites, e.g. when researching the state of education, health system etc. in this country and nowhere else.

Use Advanced search (a link next to the search bar) to be more specific, e.g. search only for documents in a particular format, like PDF. Advanced search is very easy to use, but it is extremely powerful for doing research.

Note also a link "definition" just above the search results on the right side of the screen. It is a kind of dictionary, encyclopaedia and thesaurus at the same time. Well worth of using for quick enquiries.

Google Scholar (scholar.google.co.uk) searches only for what Google believes to be academic quality content. Most often these will be articles from peer-reviewed journals. Many of them are not available free of charge, but before giving up, check all the links under "all x versions" where x is the number of places a particular article has been published. Sometimes you'll find a free version. Before searching in Google Scholar, login into your Warwick system - the university may subscribe to some resources you'll find there; then you'll get free access to those texts.

Google Books (books.google.com) is another great place to find resources for research. Look for e-books on limited preview - you'll see large chunks of very useful books free of charge. E-books are great as you can search within them - a full text search.

A good place to keep all your online videos together

2009-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Try http://vodpod.com - it's a good place to keep all your online videos (e.g. from YouTube) together and have access to them from any computer with internet access.

Delicious bookmarks

2009-10-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

It's a terrible crime to send anybody a list of blog URLs in a Word file! :)

Delicious.com is a beautiful tool to keep all your bookmarks together and share them with the world. It allows to hide those bookmarks which you'd prefer people not to see; you can assign tags, bundle them, create lists and collections, like this one - http://delicious.com/nwhc/bundle:ChildStudies

It's green, ethical, kind and everything - to keep bookmarks online and share them, I think.

Turn on your iPod and learn

2009-10-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Some of you have already seen this article the link to which I posted on Facebook last week. It is good, it is cautious not to make overtly bold statements. The idea is quite basic, actually: the more ways of accessing information we use, the more likely we are to be able to assimilate it. The idea of podcasts is not new. I just came back from seeing a friend of mine in one of the Welsh universities; all the lectures there are vodcasted (taped on video and uploaded on the equivalent of our Moodle). The conclusion: each of us should play with as many toys as possible to find those which appeal to us the most; and do not be afraid to start using new ones time to time leaving behind some old ones.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/postgraduate/mbas-guide/turn-on-your-ipod-and-learn-1795521.html

Should we bother with professional jargon?

2009-09-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

I have been resisting another blog (I already have at least four, maybe more - not sure) for some time, but now it seems unavoidable - I have to write something with students to have an ongoing conversation with you. So I'll write time to time; most likely as a reaction on what I hear and/or see in the classroom. An idea, suggestion... I do not know.

So, for the beginning, I'll drop a link to a glossary specially written for the Early Years practitioners - http://www.childlink.co.uk/glossary.php. You'll need Athens access to see it. Get Athens from the College library.

It's a tiny glossary. I imagine, as specialists in Early Years you'll easily find more terms which could be there.

Just for sparkling a discussion, I'd like to suggest that all those special words, terms, used by very few people are totally useless. Why not to use natural, simple language? I am struggling to understand why people bother with jargon. Do you agree?