Reflection on helping students with the Reference Process

I do not think it is unreasonable to help students formulate questions and help them locate resources since the primary role of the TL is to work with students[1], managing the collection is secondary.

I think that empowering students by teaching them the steps for finding references appropriate to their grade level will eventually reduce the time you individually help each student.  The reading talks about life-long learning (pg 6 text) and in our information age this is more about knowing where to find the answer (pg 8 text) than knowing the answer to a question.  By teaching the reference process in a content areas[2], either collaboratively or by the classroom teacher, students would practice the reference skills they are learning. If there isn't an opportunity to teach in content areas games could be used.  At a secondary school in my district the TL has a game to orienting students to the library, which the grade 8 students enjoy.  One study[3] found undergraduate students will play games that are integral to course curriculum and help them learn about library research. 

I think making the reference process more transparent helps students, such as the steps in Research Quest[4].  In an elementary library in my school district they have a laminated list of the Dewey decimal system with the topics listed beside the number series, students take a card look for the topic they want (animals, weather, cars) and proceed to the number to find research materials.  Carole[5] also supports early information literacy.  I also found a school library website[6] that provides links for students to a variety of online reference sources like “Ask Jeeves” and “FactMonster”, I can see by pre-selecting authoritative online references you can quickly direct young students to appropriate sites. 

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[1] Leigh Ann Jones Blog Post retrieved Sept 15, 2010 from http://www.shelfconsumed.com/2010/09/what-i-wish-id-known.html

[2] Pamela Puska Libe467Sept 13 noted teaching literacy within content areas can save teachers time

[3] Markey, K., Swanson, F. Jenkins, A. Jennings, B.. St. Jean, B. Rosenberg, V. Yao, X. and Frost, R. (2009) Will undergraduate students play games to learn how to conduct library research?  The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 35 (4) 303-313.

[4] Annette Casper Libe467 Sept 13 notes Research Quest clearly lays out research steps which would be good for younger students.

[5] Carole Fleetham Libe467 Sept 15 talks about starting information literacy in K.

[6] Van Buskirk Elementary Library, Tuscan, Arizona, USA, Retrieved Sept 15, 2010 from http://sites.google.com/site/vanbuskirklibrary/research-help