Blog Entry #2: "I need to find my 'Big Boy" voice"

Being overwhelmed is a strange feeling for me.  That's how I feel when I go on the wiki discussion boards and get lost in all the talk.  It seems like everyone is far beyond me in terms of how to express themselves in intelligent well thought out posts.  I do the readings, I try to keep pace... but retaining the information is so difficult.  It is so much at once.  I think all my memory is full.  I think it’s time to delete my early childhood to make room.  Goodbye Mrs. Gunther, my kindergarten teacher, thanks for the snacks!  That’s why I like this blog.  It gives me an opportunity to just put down thoughts without worrying about being judged.  It's like I'm talking to myself... but not.

This week of readings was pretty interesting.  I see a lot of what I am learning in class at my work when students are asked to do research for a project.  The article about the 'information behavior of the researcher of the future' was spot on concerning how kids look for information.  They can find some information quickly but they can't evaluate the information they find.  On top of that the really don’t know what they are looking for in the first place so the just throw as much stuff into Google and use the first few matches on the search list.  The speed in which they find information gives the illusion that they know what they are doing.  As educators, it is up to us to teach the skills that these kids will need.  Only when we work together, library staff and classroom staff, will we be able to be successful in giving these students the IL skills they will need in the future.  That’s where things get sticky.  For years, teachers have been protective of their classrooms and librarians have been looked at as secondary staff.  The culture must change so that everyone can come together for the benefit of the students.  In the school I work at, it seems like everyone is content doing their own thing.  In fact, we do not even have a qualified SLMS on campus.  It's just not on the priority list.  This is putting our students at a disadvantage.  My hope is to be able to wake my school up to the fact that things need to change.  I know that is a huge task.  I even started to lay the groundwork.  At our "Media Center Meeting", where we are suppose to discuss issues concerning our SLMC,  I brought up the fact that we need to get some kind of collection policy in place and was told to hold that thought while we decided "What kind of posters we can put on the wall".  I tried to push the issue only to find out from my supervisor a few days later that people at the meeting were upset at me for making them feel "uncomfortable".  That was my clue that my school is in desperate need of a culture change.  Can I do it?  I don't know, but I'm going to try.