Climbing the Mt Everest of outdated books

I have stated this before in previous post, but I work in an elementary school in Calgary Alberta where we do not have Teacher Librarians. Now as TL’s we all know how the Learning Commons is the heart of the school and how TL’s educate and support the school community on a daily bases.
 My school has a traditional library that is lacking resources, support, funding and trained staff. When I start to think about the action plan I would need to do to get my school library current and to a functional status I become overwhelmed with panic— how can one teacher accomplish such a big job with a lot of hesitation and resistance from the school community?

Reference Section accessibility
Presently my school library reference section is beyond outdated and severely inaccessible. When talking with the Librarian Assistant I was informed how our school body does not use reference materials or even know how to use them. This is an utter shame; I understand with the evolution of the Internet a lot of students use technology to do their research, we must not forget that books are still a form of technology. The entire reference section in my school library is outdated— the newest resource is from 2001. As stated in Rielding book Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips reference materials are only current within five years of publishing. If you look at the picture of the accessibility or lack there of is one of the first step I need to tackle before anything.
Possible accessibility of resources
Retrieved from Google

With the redesign of traditional libraries into Learning Commons the main focus is to open up the space to allow for movement and group work. Moving the bookshelf away from the wall and other debris will provide an inviting approach for the reference section to actually be used, for a starting point.  With opening up the reference section students and teachers may be aware of the resources that are available to them.  
During a meeting with my current school principal I discussed since we do not have a Teacher Librarian if this summer I can go through our library and weed the entire collection and start the transformation to a Learning Commons. Yes this is a massive job, climbing the Mt Everest of books, but I am ready to use my resources and tackle the challenge that will take me about 7-10 months to complete.

Inclusion is a big part of my schools values and my teaching philosophy so when it comes to weeding the collection and since we do not have a TL I will initially conclude a Ready-reference interview with the teaching staff. Asking them to come to the interview prepared with curriculum knowledge of their grade so I can ask them questions on what resources they need to support their teaching practice. As Rielding states in her book, “the reference interview involves human relations, communications and interaction” and it is important to build those positive relationships with the teaching staff (pg.106).  

Once the interviews are completed I will invite the entire teaching team to be involved in the actual weeding process, reminding them “[a] good reference source is one that serves to answer questions, and a bad reference source is one that fails to answer questions” (Rielding, pg.21). From my interviews I will be able to place all reference resources in grade or ability/curriculum groups with the according grade teachers. Having them first go through the references provided and setting aside the books that they use or would like to use; once completed then providing them a rubric to follow to weed further. When the collection has been weeded then the fun part starts, my turn to weed even further. I will use similar evaluation rubrics for weeding the collection as well as looking at the frequency the books are being checked out.















                                                                                 
The hard part is completed and the real transformation begins, changing the layout of the Learning Commons to become user friendly, welcoming and comfortable. Before the new school year begins I will invite the entire teaching community to tour the learning commons and have a lunch and learn. Providing mini lesson on the Learning Commons; for example, how to use reference materials, online resources we are subscribed to, information resources for teachers, what a TL is and how they can support their school community. This plan will show its success and pride from the student body and teaching staff taking advantage of the resource collection. For future projects updating policies and procedures, weeding the rest of the collection and purchasing new resources will incur over the next few years. As stated in our group discussions a teacher librarian has many roles and it is impossible to do by your self so educating your school community on how to use the Learning Commons can go a long way.
Works Cited

Riedling, Ann, Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Edition). Linworth.



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