June 11, 2008 8am – 12pm
Competency:
Candidates facilitate access to information in print, non-print, and electronic formats.
During the visit, I was able to help the MS catalog donated books and DVDs from the state that were time consuming to process due to having to create the records, barcode, and label them. Because of the time involved, the materials had been sitting for some time because the MS just hadn’t found the time to devote to the process that needed to be done. I also worked through downloading records from vendors (a 288 book order from Follett ☺), downloading records from other sources (using the PINES network), copying records manually and creating records from scratch. My host did a really good job of having me work through a variety of different mediums too – books, DVDs, etc. When we downloaded the records from the vendor she then had me scan several of the books to make sure that the records were in place. When we edited records, we did need to make sure that the funding source was entered into the record. This affected what happened to the money collected for a lost book due to the county regulations – state funds were turned back into the county, local funds or donations could be keep at the school level. My host also explained the process of giving batches of barcode numbers for processing to different vendors and keeping a batch of numbers for the media center to use when having to complete the processing on their own.
Competency:
Candidates plan and organize library media centers according to their use by the learning community.
My host and I were able to spend some time discussing the organization of the library. Some of the ways in which it was organized were chosen by the MS weighing what students really need to know about how a library works (the shelves being alphabetized vertically instead of horizontally in the Everybody section) and what is going to put the books in their hands (having pull out sections for ghost stories, holidays and series books). We also talked about inheriting a library that has had several media specialists in it and therefore there are several ways that books have been labeled with reading levels, AR tests, different colors to identify E books v. emergent reader books, and how you make choices between what is important to fix and prioritizing the work that needs to be done for organization. This is another aspect of the media center that makes flexible scheduling invaluable – being able to tackle large projects that will help the MC to better serve the learning community.
Competency:
Candidates incorporate technology to promote efficient and equitable access to information beyond print resources.
--and-- Candidates organize the library media facility and its collections - print, nonprint, and electronic - according to standard accepted practice.
I was greatly impressed with the ease of using Destiny. Downloading records, searching for records, editing and creating records were much easier than I expected it to be. For the MARC record tags you did not need to insert the tag number or the punctuation – it was all set up in a drop box format. I know that the county that I will be working in uses InfoCenter, which is not web based the way that Destiny is, so it will be interesting for me to see what the difference between the two systems is. My host did a great job of helping me search through and determine the correct headings for the records that we were creating. She was very patient and a great teacher!
Competency:
Candidates demonstrate the potential for establishing connections to other libraries and the larger library community for resource sharing, networking, and procedures.
We discussed the importance of attending the media meetings that are set up through the county and how valuable it is to be able to learn from other people that are already in the field. We also talked about the need to have access to other library systems (LC, the PINES network, etc) and that without access to the records on these systems smaller libraries would suffer without use of their records. As usual, my host and I talked about publication (she has another article coming out this summer) and attending and presenting at conferences. It is only a benefit to build and maintain networks and connections with other MS not only in the area, but across the state and across the country.