The Foundations of Reference Services...Some Thoughts

It has become abundantly clear to me that the work of a reference librarian is complicated. There is a huge struggle to keep up with the vast amount of information that is being curated at an alarming rate. One has to scrutinize any new print resource that they are considering purchasing because the chances of it becoming outdates and/or obsolete are very high...and so is the price tag. We also have to proceed with great caution when it comes to online resources to ensure they are reliable and accurate.

There is no one-size-fits-all...

When it comes to selection criteria for resources there isn't a clear guideline that fits all resources. Not that it hasn't been attempted, but in the today's world 

with technology and access to information changing so rapidly it's impossible to keep an appropriate set of criteria for selecting resources and what types of resources we should have. It can be very overwhelming for a school librarian, especially when trying to meet the needs of so many different classroom teachers and students on a limited budget. It seems that the problem with creating a list of criteria that a librarian can use to select resources is that it quickly becomes outdated. Achieving Information Literacy by the Canadian Association for School Libraries has attempted to create such a list, but having been published in 2003 and updated in 2006, our technological needs and abilities have made sections of the list (DVDs and Videos, for example) obsolete.

It's an ongoing battle...

Teachers and parents are in such a strange position. We are raising and teaching children born into the age of technology but who really haven't got a clue how to use it. This is a brand new thing. We did not grow up this way and so we have no model to follow. We are pioneering the teaching of the digital native generation. What does this mean? Well, for one thing we have to be much more savvy than ever before. We ourselves need to to be the technology experts and impart those skills to our students. Parents think that because the one-year-old picks up their smart phone and knows how to unlock the home screen and select an app, that they have some kind of intuitive technological skill. In reality kids are just excellent mimics. Toddlers are copying the gestures they've witnessed hundreds of times and our older kids will do the same, be it good or bad. As teachers we need to show them how to find information in a variety of different resources and find good information on the internet.

Teaching students research skills is especially important now, when we know that curiosity-motivated learning (or inquiry-based learning) fosters a much more authentic learning environment than a teacher-directed one. If we're wanting students to wonder and follow their curiosities then we have the huge responsibility of teaching them how and where to find reliable information. 

Firstly, their instinct isn't to go to a book first, so it's important for the teacher-librarian to show them how to use books as reliable sources of information. Secondly, we need to teach students how to discern the great from the good from the fake on the web. When it comes to online research Wikipedia is probably the first stop most students will make. While this isn't a terrible choice there's a vas array of terrible options out there, so how do we teach student to get their information from reliable sources? In Reference Skills for the School Librarian Riedling writes that we should be checking for authority when using any website, meaning look at the author's credentials and check that they are referencing their work with reliable resources (p.110). When it comes to what to teach to students, and when, in regards to inquiry and research the BCTLA has an excellent document that outlines the skills that students should have, divided into age groups. Using this Points of Inquiry rubric is an excellent starting point for classroom teachers and teacher-librarians when diving into the depths of inquiry and research.



Works Cited

BCTLA. The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for Information Literacy and the 21st Century Learner. 2011.  Retrieved from https://bctladotca.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/the-points-of-inquiry.pdf

Canadian Association For School Libraries (2003). Achieving Information Literacy Standards for School Library Programs in Canada.Ottawa ON, The Canadian School Library Association and the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada. Retrieved from http://accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/ail110217.pdf

Riedling, Ann. Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 3rd Edition. ABC-CLIO. Kindle Edition.

* All pictures acquired through Creative Commons and are labelled for noncommercial reuse.