Roberta Harris Teacher Librarian

  The reference resource I decided to evaluate is a very old reference called The International Wildlife Encyclopedia, An Illustrated Library of all the Animals, Birds, Fish, Insects and Reptiles of the World, edited by Dr. Maurice Burton and Robert Burton, published by B.P.C. Publishing Ltd. and printed in London in 1969.   When choosing a reference to evaluate, it was very easy to decide because there were so many examples of "bad resources" to choose from.  The reference section in our school library leaves a lot to be desired and would receive a below standard grade based on the Achieving Information Literacy, Standards for School Library Programs in Canada [AIL] (2003, p. 26).  The majority of the collection is very outdated and generally unused.  I believe the only time the reference section was used was when I conducted a lesson with my students where they had to find information from an encyclopedia.  I was shocked to learn that many students didn’t know what an encyc

  At the Heart of Things:  The Honour of Being A Teacher Librarian As outlined in lesson one, to be a successful teacher librarian we need to know 3 things:  understand the research process, have patience and positivity and the knowledge of and the eagerness to share information.   Are these unreasonable expectations?  No, they are not.  I believe as teachers we already strive to accomplish these things.  In my experience, becoming a teacher was because I wanted to share knowledge and inspire a thirst for knowledge in the children that I work with.  Unfortunately for too many years we have not had teacher librarians at our school.    For many years school librarians were not a priority.  Teacher librarian's roles were "downgraded to simply signing out books and possibly reading a book to students if time permitted."  https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/bc-teacher-librarians/   Thankfully things have changed and the importance of teacher librarians has again been re