I can hardly believe that I am typing not only my final assignment for LIBE 465, but also for my entire library diploma. It has been a long haul since I took LIBE 461 in January of 2007. As far as this course is concerned, I believe my blog will show that I have struggled throughout, but worked with the content of this course to the best of my ability. For me, it was by far the most challenging of the 10 courses, and (in my opinion) the most difficult to navigate if you have never actually worked in a library in any capacity.
Overall I found the balance of readings, activities, and assignments to be an effective method of getting the material across. As far as the discussion postings go, I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to respond much to the comments of others, but I did rely heavily on their postings to help me through the various activities. In fact, I think this is the only online course I have taken where I read practically every single comment that was posted by every student. I had to! For this course (especially in respect to Activity 3, and assignment #2), the postings of other members of the class were absolutely invaluable to my learning process. Not only was the practical advice essential, but the simple reminder that I was not the only person struggling with the tasks was encouraging. I never had the confidence (or the knowledge) to help others the way they helped me, but I learned many many things from the other students in this class. The collaborative atmosphere made me miss the rest of my own T-L Kelowna diploma cohort (who graduated back at Christmas).
Many elements of this course were difficult because I had no actual context for what I was learning. Activity #3 and Assignment #2 (even when they were completed) were uncomfortable because I could not link them to the "real world". I learned enough from the comments of other students to trust that creating cataloging records by hand is a valuable skill, but I really wish I could have gotten down to our district's Information Media Centre before it closed for the summer, to try and give LIBE 465 a bit of real-life perspective. In September I am honestly going to work with the T-L in my own school to catalog all of our literature circle novels for English 12, and this will really help me grasp the relationship between so many of the organizational elements that we learned in this course. Though the course itself will be over, I know that this activity will one of the most enlightening parts of LIBE 465.
Activity 5 was a challenge (as was a similar activity in LIBE 467) because the UBC online catalog is not particularly easy to navigate. I am a good reader, and a good problem solver, and yet so much of my experience with UBC's Library Catalog seems to end up as guesswork combined with trial and error. I am an impatient person (when I search for online articles at least) and the experience was still frustrating (despite my previous experience with UBC's library catalog). I can completely understand why most people default to google. As I mentioned in my LIBE 467 ramblings, if I am ever designing an informational skill set that I want to teach to secondary students, I will have to be very very careful how I approach the use of online catalogs. I will have to decide how to "sell" it and how to teach it because most students would be reluctant to even bother with the complications of something like UBC's online catalog.
In a nutshell, I found LIBE 465 to be frustrating at times, but obviously an essential part of any teacher-librarianship program. I have a feeling that I will only truly understand how helpful it is when I work in an actual library. I think the organization of the course was very appropriate and it suited my abilities as a learner. I'll now say goodbye to this program. I'm quite proud of myself for sticking with the diploma over the past two and a half years while raising 2 kids, teaching senior English full time, and coaching basketball. It has been quite a ride.
I have linked my assignment #3 (a library website) to this blog. It is in the side column under "Websites of Interest."
Naryn signing out!
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