reference materials
Reference Materials turned out to be one of the most useful classes I took through APU. I took the class before I began my current job as a TL, and I found the class to be extremely helpful is letting me become familiar with what my library had to offer in terms of reference both in print and online, what my library could offer in the future, and what a reference librarian really does.
reference librarian observation
One of the most useful assignment I encountered during my entire program at APU was the reference librarian observation. As a teacher, I found observing other teachers to be one of the most valuable experience I could have to inform my own practice, and as a student who had not yet stepped into the librarian role, I found the whole process extremely exciting and very informative.
I chose to observe the reference librarians at California State University Sacramento, my alma mater. My whole observation can be read below.
I chose to observe the reference librarians at California State University Sacramento, my alma mater. My whole observation can be read below.
reference source evaluations
Again, this was one of the most useful assignment is all of my time spent in the APU program. While at the time, the process was grueling, I found much of the information I gathered from this assignment has helped me to understand the reference section of my library. The assignment was to evaluate a variety of reference sources both in print and online and evaluate them based on subject, cost, ideal grade level, and CDE standards addressed.
In my report I evaluated the database Country Reports, Culturegrams, the website American President Life Portraits, and the print resources Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia.
One of the most important discoveries I made was finding Country Reports as an excellent alternative to Culturegrams. We currently have a subscription to Culturgrams, which costs us $939 per school year. By comparison, Country Reports costs us $139 per school year. By looking critically at both sources and eventually experimenting with classes once I became a TL, I have made the decision to make the switch next school year, saving us $800 in our budget that we can spend elsewhere.
In addition to this discovery, I also learned about how to use the Contemporary Literary Criticism reference books we have in the library. I specifically chose them because they are used constantly during the junior projects along with similar volumes, Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography.
One of the problems with students doing research with these books was the ability for the students to easily find they author they are researching. They all have to huddle around these worn out and beat up indexes and try to translate the acronyms they indexes give to the various reference books we carry. Some of the titles we carry are not listed either.
However, in doing this report, I discovered that Gale has an online literary index you can use HERE. All you have to do is enter the name of your author and ALL the Gale publication volumes they appear in are there. All I had to do was create a list of what volumes we carry and away the students went!
All of the junior English teachers were so excited to use this resource and get rid of those blue indexes! I never would have found this resource if I didn't do this report, and we'd all still be huddled around those blue indexes, fighting for possession.
In my report I evaluated the database Country Reports, Culturegrams, the website American President Life Portraits, and the print resources Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia.
One of the most important discoveries I made was finding Country Reports as an excellent alternative to Culturegrams. We currently have a subscription to Culturgrams, which costs us $939 per school year. By comparison, Country Reports costs us $139 per school year. By looking critically at both sources and eventually experimenting with classes once I became a TL, I have made the decision to make the switch next school year, saving us $800 in our budget that we can spend elsewhere.
In addition to this discovery, I also learned about how to use the Contemporary Literary Criticism reference books we have in the library. I specifically chose them because they are used constantly during the junior projects along with similar volumes, Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography.
One of the problems with students doing research with these books was the ability for the students to easily find they author they are researching. They all have to huddle around these worn out and beat up indexes and try to translate the acronyms they indexes give to the various reference books we carry. Some of the titles we carry are not listed either.
However, in doing this report, I discovered that Gale has an online literary index you can use HERE. All you have to do is enter the name of your author and ALL the Gale publication volumes they appear in are there. All I had to do was create a list of what volumes we carry and away the students went!
All of the junior English teachers were so excited to use this resource and get rid of those blue indexes! I never would have found this resource if I didn't do this report, and we'd all still be huddled around those blue indexes, fighting for possession.
putting my studies into practice
As I have already mentioned above, there are some ways I am already putting my discoveries of this class into practice through the use of the Gale Literary Index website.
Another item I have added to our library is a subscription to Country Reports now. In fact, as I type this, there is a class in the library using Country Reports to research their culture report in Sociology.
I am using the teacher and the students to use both Country Reports and Culturegram in their research, and I'm excited to hear back from them if there were any gaps in the information between the two databases.
Another item I have added to our library is a subscription to Country Reports now. In fact, as I type this, there is a class in the library using Country Reports to research their culture report in Sociology.
I am using the teacher and the students to use both Country Reports and Culturegram in their research, and I'm excited to hear back from them if there were any gaps in the information between the two databases.