Reference Materials; The Digital vs The Physical

Research Skills

    In her article How to Teach Online Research skills to Students in 5 Steps Kathleen Morris states the following "All of the skills involved in online research can be said to come under the term of information literacy, which tends to fall under a broader umbrella term of digital literacy. Being literate in this way is an essential life skill."  (2018). 

How to Evaluate Websites by Kathleen Morris 
From: http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2018/02/23/research-filter/

    One of the most important takeaways students will learn in school is how to find information. Our job as teacher librarians is to guide students through this process, help them think critically about sources and not only find answers to their questions but be able to question resources and information. For a lot of students and myself included our first stop when we begin research is on Google, the easily accessible and quick search engine that is known to have all the answers. I catch myself saying "Let's Google it" almost on the daily. However, what I did not originally know is just how some site are lying hidden away and can not be retrieved through Google. Unsurprisingly there is an enormous amount of information available to us through the internet yet "when you search for information on the Internet using a search engine, you only tap the tip of the iceberg. Although Google is gigantic it cannot index everything on the Internet and much of those files and resources are indexed within other databases or sites, such as government sites." (Mueller, Lesson 8) The truth is Google is gigantic thus it uses keyword searches as its primary mode of finding websites. Although the breadth and depth of the websites found through these searches can not truly be assessed for their value to our students. There are a number of problems, the websites could process not student friendly language or be out of date and even offer wrong information. This is why we want students to be critical thinkers who can ask questions and evaluate resources. We must also teach our students that there is information that exists outside of their reach this Deep Web and this leads us to using specialized search engines such as OER Commons where searches have the option to input a Grade level and subject. 

                                          

    A great free website that offers teacher resources on media literacy is Common Sense Education. There are lessons created for each grade level that deal with topics that are suitable for that grade level. Common Sense Education also has a Youtube channel with lots of great videos to spark conversation with students. The following playlist is filled with Teaching Strategy Video.

The New vs. The Old

 Throughout Theme 3 we have looked at a number of different reference resources including: 

- Indexes
- Abstracts
- Full-text Databases
- Bibliographies, Biographies and Dictionaries
- Generalized Encyclopedia's 
- Specialized Encyclopedia's 
- Dictionaries
- Thesauri
- Almanacs
- Yearbooks
- Handbooks
- Maps
- Atlas's 

    Although currently I am not working as a school librarian it feels like it would be a huge job for one person to not only keep these reference stocked but up to date. With so many different reference resources to account for it becomes a huge job for one person. Riedling states that "in general, the library's collection emphasize up-to-date information that reflects a variety of viewpoints" (p. 18) 

General Selection Guidelines Include: 

• Relevant to students, teachers and the community
• Suitability of subject
• Reputation and qualifications of the author, artist, publisher, or producer  Current or historical significance of the subject or author
• Relationship to the existing collection
• Value of material in relation to cost
• Library budget
• Suitability of format for library collection (Riedling, p.18)

Aspects to Consider about Reference Resources: 

• Purpose and scope
• Subject content
• Comparison/duplication of other works
• Level of audience for which source is written
• Authority of author
• Publisher
• Timeliness
• Cost
• Format
• Bibliographic control
• Demand or user need (Riedling, p.19-18)

    Along with the lists provided by Riedling above we must also account for the updating of reference resources. Keeping in mind that informational reference resources such as the ones we reviewed during Theme 3 go out of date quickly and most will need to be updated after about 5 years at the latest. Due to all these parts building a library collection really is a constant on going activity. It is the librarian's job to choose appropriate resources to meet the needs of their learning community. 

Should this reference collection be digital or physical?

     I find that my current students run towards using computers even when I bring relevant book resources into the classroom. The often times zoom towards Wikipedia which I believe is a perfectly fine place to start but no end. Thus if students are going to be using online resources it is out job to make sure proper credible reference resources are easily assessible for them. A lot of publishers are going online with their work which is great because one database or book can now be shared among more students. This same resources can now be accessed not only in the library but also in their classroom and at home. Thus, when purchasing online resources it is important to see if a publisher allow multiple accesses of the same resource at the same time. A digital resource also has the ability to be updated  faster by the publisher while physical books can quiet quickly go obsolete on the bookshelves. I remember looking at the reference section in my library and flipping through an Encyclopedia of Technology which had been published in early 2000, I tried finding a more up to date Encyclopedia of Technology but nothing similar was being published. Thus there isn't an option left to update so our choice is to either leave this outdated physical encyclopedia on the shelf or take it off the shelf and try to find a digital replacement. However, I am not always "Team Technology" there are other factors to consider such as cost for physical vs. digital and the space available in our libraries. Some schools might not be equipped with enough technology for students and so buying physical copies of resources might still be the best way to get students resources. Just like when we look through a physical book to make sure that it contains the appropriate subject content we must look at our electronic resources and make sure they are easily usable by students. There are also skills we don't want our students to lose out on developing such as finding a word in a dictionary or reading a map in an atlas. I found the following documentary which interviewed two librarians about the changes of moving towards a more electronic reference informative. Overall we will need to make some tough choices as we build our reference collection due to budget and physical space restraints. 

                                        

"Preference for physical and online resources is determined by ease of access and usage" 

Maps & Atlas's

    The above picture is the World Map I grew up using and most of us are familiar with. I have noticed this same map in most of the atlas I looked through it did not matter if they were digital of physical. Personally I had never questioned the authority of these sources, I never even occurred to me to ask "Who drew this map?" or "Is this map accurate?" after all we had used it throughout my whole educational journey. However, authority can be incorrect and just because something has been a certain way for years does not mean it is the only way or the right way. The picture below uses the Peter's projection which shows the World Map to proper scale and overall less Eurocentric. 

Here is an interesting article by CCN titled  "Why do Western maps shrink Africa?"  

The following video explains how our current map was created and explains the real size of countries. 

So next time remember: Who is the source? 

References:

Morris, Kathleen. “How to Teach Online Research Skills to Students in 5 Steps (Free EBook and Posters).” Kathleen Morris | Primary Tech | Resources to Help Teachers with Technology in the Classroom, 30 June 2020, www.kathleenamorris.com/2018/02/23/research-filter/. 

Mueller, A. (2020). Lesson 8: Digital Resources, the Web and Grey Literature [Online Class Module]. Retrieved from Canvas: https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/55041/pages/lesson-8-digital-resources-the-web-and-grey-literature?module_item_id=1950671

Riedling, Ann; Houston, Cynthia. Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 4th Edition. ABC-CLIO. Kindle Edition.