A New Course for the District

At its February 12 meeting the TUHSD Board of Trustees approved a new course which will be offered next year at Redwood. The course, called Advanced Library Research, will offer students an introduction to college-level research skills. While we teach students at Redwood, and throughout the Tam District, how to use information efficiently and effectively through class projects in a number of different subject areas, this course will allow students to go beyond the basics of research and explore the world of academic libraries. The course will be an independent study course, taught partially face-to-face and partially online. Students will be expected to work with partners or in teams to complete various projects using all kinds of library resources. As the course of study states: “Many college librarians and professors report that students are not prepared to undertake college-level research when they reach post-secondary institutions of learning.”

We think that we can help students make the transition to college a little less traumatic by providing them with the ability to determine the nature and extent of information they need; access needed information effectively and efficiently; evaluate information critically; use information individually and in a group to accomplish a specific purpose; and understand ethical, legal, and socio-economic issues surrounding information and use information ethically and legally.

A little story. When I went to graduate school to begin my library science degree I had to take a prerequisite course about basic library research since I’d never worked in a library before. It was the best course I took in library school and I wondered why I hadn’t had the opportunity to take such a course as an undergrad—it was really eye opening to find out about all the resources I hadn’t known about but could have used. Even though that was long before the World Wide Web was developed, the same conditions apply today. As a result of the Internet the world of information has gotten infinitely larger and more complicated so having a guided tour of all kinds of resources is even more essential than it was in 1974!

Eventually we would like to have the course available across the District to all students but for the time being it will be offered at Redwood only. Encourage your sons and daughters to talk to the librarian, Tom Kaun, about the course and sign up for it during course enrolment time.

Catching Up as Summer Begins

I've been off work since last Friday but visited the library twice this week for some final tasks.

Yesterday I found out from my principal that we may have a new part-time library specialist working in the library. It's complicated and since nothing is final (or even announced) I can't go into detail at this time. Suffice it to say that change may be coming to the BCL.

It's been very hot this week so I'm blogging downstairs in my bedroom at home this evening because it's cooler here than up in my office.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was working on a new course (tentatively called Advanced Library Research). I know it's not a very sexy title but it is a work in progress. I got the approval of our Instructional Council to continue developing the course so I'm forging ahead.

I met early this week with Joan Risch at the College of Marin because I had been told by one of our graduates that she was teaching a course at COM on information literacy. It was a fruitful meeting and she gave me some interesting websites to look at especially the OASIS research tutorial produced by the librarians at SF State. She has her student complete specific parts of the tutorial before she quizzes them or provides her own assignments to them.

I think I have found a primary text for the class along with several supporting texts for reference. The primary text is the 3rd edition of Research Strategies: Finding Your Way through the Information Fog by William Badke. I was able to get a copy of the 2nd edition from UC Berkeley and was very impressed by the style and tone of the book--it's practical, down-to-earth, and covers almost all the topics I want to cover in the course. When I discovered the 3rd edition had just been published I overnighted it from Amazon and it arrived today. It's a manageable 212 pages and only costs $18.95. The author is a librarian at Trinity Western University, Langley, BC.

Other texts I've reviewed and will certainly be consulting and directing my students to are:
Basic Library Skills (5th ed.) by Carolyn Wolf; The College Student's Research Companion (5th ed.) Arlene Rodda Quaratiello; and The Facts on File Guide to Research by Jeff Lenburg.

The Badke book is quite up-to-date--it mentions the Amazon Kindle--and has an accompanying website which will help keep the book current. I was just checking the site this evening and found out about Readius, a new e-book reader.

In case you haven't heard about Readius, which is only available in Europe currently, here's a YouTube video about this neat new hybrid--when's it coming here!?



I'd love to hear from others who have developed or are thinking of developing an advanced research course at the high school level.

Another, concurrent project I'm working on is a wiki for the International Baccalaureate Extended Essay. Next week I will be in Montezuma, New Mexico on the campus of the United World College for a week-long workshop about the IB program and the librarian's role in the program. I hope to post a few messages from New Mexico while I'm there. I'm hoping the new research course will blend nicely into the extended essay program of IB. I know that in many schools the librarian is the extended essay coordinator and I think that makes a lot of sense.

Any Extended Essay folks out there in library-land?

San Jose State Intern Working at BCL

I've been away from the blog for a couple weeks. Part of that was the Spring Break vacation.
I had a great time down in Puerto Vallarta enjoying the sea and sun. The photo to the right shows the church and plaza in the center of PV on a recent beautiful spring morning.

While in Mexico this time I got to fly to a small town back in the Sierra Madre which used to be a sliver-mining center. It just got a paved road a couple years ago and so is less isolated than it used to be but it's still a 2-1/2-hour drive from PV. Flying there takes 15 minutes. While there we visited an old hacienda which was once a silver mine, a coffee plantation (come by the library to sample some the local coffee), and, after a wonderful lunch in local "comida," we went into the center of town where there's beautiful old plaza and a 19th-century church.

So I'm back and for two weeks I've had a very nice student from the San Jose State library program interning at Redwood. Her name is Kathy Teree and she used to teach fifth grade at the Ross School. Some of our kids have recognized her from their days in grade school. She also interned at Mt. Tam School in Mill Valley and Bel Air School in Tiburon. Fortunately, the librarian at the Mt. Tam School is retiring and Kathy will be the new librarian there starting in the fall.

While at Redwood she has been helping me develop a course, which I've dreamed of for a number of years, that is designed to help kids get a leg up on doing a well as possible in their first year in college.

I'm tentatively calling the course Information and Communications Technology. The purpose of the project-based course will be to ensure that students are comfortable with basic college-level research skills and are also familiar with the types and organization of information resources available at the colleges they will be attending.

Keep an eye on this space for more information as the course progresses through the proposal and then the description phases.