Saturday 24 November 2012

Library Website

This week made me realize the benefits of having a library webpage. I came into this course as someone who would ask the teacher-librarian help finding resources on a particular topic or author, having no idea I could access the online catalogue.  I imagine a school library website with a wealth of information including access to the school's online catalogue.  Now, I am able to access so much more information on my own and I think my students have benefited from it.  Just this week, we were looking at World Book in French for info on the provinces and territories.
I enjoyed and found it informative viewing other school library websites.  I think the key to having a successful website,which is utilized by both staff and students, is to integrate it as much as possible into your daily work life.  By this I mean, having links to your school's OPAC, online databases your district subscribes to, grade level websites and webpages, etc... making it so most information you need for your lessons are at your fingertips.  Collaborating with teachers would be a good start so they can see first hand the benefits of the site and can help promote the site, too. Students need to interact with the site, too.  They need to be accessing better Internet sites and digital resources and what better way then starting in the library.  This really hit home for me last night when my sixteen year-old daughter said to me she didn't know why I had chosen to do a PREZI for my assignment.  She had looked at the PREZI site with a group for a class and they had decided it was too confusing.  I think she would have been far less intimidated with the site if she had been given some instruction and a chance to explore the site in class.  It took me a little work going through the tutorials, help feature and doing a practice PREZI first. Back to the website.  You need to get the word out as well. One of my run colleagues who is also a teacher didn't realize she could access the school's online catalogue from home.  It will take some time to set up but I do also see the school library website has something that can be a timesaving tool for the teacher-librarian.  Once the school community is familiar with the workings of the site and are able to access more resources on their own, this would hopefully free the teacher-librarian to concentrate on other areas.

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