This unit comes at
the end of my Masters journey, and in many ways pulls together the many varied
threads that run through the MEdTL course. As a teacher librarian I live and
breathe information. Whether it’s locating resources or developing units of
work on information literacy skills, information is my life. It is my role to
provide excellent library and information services management. I have a
responsibility to provide quality information resources and facilitate
effective access to those resources (Australian Library and Information
Association & Australian School Library Association, 2004).
I began this unit, having just moved
into a full time teacher librarian role, excited about developing practical
experience with cataloging resources. The reality was, I struggled with developing
the skills necessary for describing resources according to Resource Description
and Access [RDA] (Joint Steering Committee for the development of RDA, 2015). I felt deflated with my results in regards to RDA in the first
assignment and resentful of having to spend time on a skill that appeared to be
beyond the scope of the teacher librarian role. This was reinforced on my recent
study visit in Sydney, where a number of the libraries we visited do not engage
in cataloguing at all, with resources arriving to them shelf ready. I began to
think what is the point of this.
Then I visited a library where one
of the librarians talked passionately about the role of subject headings, RDA
and understanding classification systems. This was a light bulb moment for me.
This librarian explained resource description within the context of her
educational library and I was suddenly astounded with myself, that just because
something was proving hard for me to learn, I thought it perhaps had no place
in my role as teacher librarian. I re-evaluated the libraries I had seen, the
roles the librarians played in a wide variety of contexts and the resource
description access they engaged in. I finally began to clue in to the critical
role that resource description plays in the provision of access within these
contexts.
Over the past two weeks I have
approached this unit with a renewed sense of focus. I can see the potential for
using the SCIS (Education Services Australia, 2013) subject headings as a
teaching tool towards developing more efficient search skills not only for
myself, but also for the students and teachers who access the school library
OPAC. I have thoroughly enjoyed working my way through the Dewey, and it has
given me a much deeper understanding of the workings of the non-fiction
collection in my library. I have begun using SCIS in a more effective way, and
I can see now the importance of understanding how the subject headings work and
using them to my advantage. It will also help me to identify any gaps within my
collection and whether the needs of the users in my context require the gap to
be filled.
Overall, this unit has been
challenging, and yet rewarding for the personal growth I feel I have made in
understanding the role of resource provision and access within the school
library. I believe this strengthens my ability to teach information literacy
skills to my end users, enabling them to access the resources within the school
library with more success.
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