Librarian+Interview

After spending 45 minutes with the recently retired librarian from the Austin Area School District (Pat Denniston), I remembered what writer's cramp felt like. She did a lot of talking and I did a lot of writing. I started out with a few basic questions and ended up asking a lot more by the time we were through. She was the librarian for 30+ years before retiring at the end of this past school year. I found that our school has more to offer than what I knew about. Me being the phys ed teacher, I rarely went into the library. I knew about a few of the digital resources that were available at school, but not many. Some that are available are Access Pennsylvania, United Streaming, Videoconferencing, Smartboards, and Promethean Boards. The on-line database, Access Pennsylvania, allows the school to be able to access and order books from basically anywhere in Pennsylvania that is part of the program. For example, if I found a book from a library in Pittsburgh and wanted to read it, the school could order it and have it shipped to the school for me to read. United Streaming videos can be downloaded from the main site and then shown to classes and used for their lessons. Videoconferencing can take place between different schools, or anyone who has the technological capabilities that you want to be able to see and hear from. And the Smartboards and Promethean Boards should be installed in just about every room soon. When I asked Pat about what strategies she used for locating and evaluating information, she tries to stay away from wikipedia, and to check the copyright dates and works sited. She doesn't like wikipedia beacause the information can be altered by anyone, thus giving false information. And when I asked her how she teaches the students about the reliability, accurracy, and appropriateness of information from sites, she pretty much went over the same information that I've learned about in the last two weeks. I told her that and she laughed and said "I've been teaching it for so long and so often that it just comes natural." She mentioned that when she tells kids about their research in school, that "pretty much if it doesn't end in .gov, .edu, or .org, that it probably isn't going to be a good source of information." She said, "that it doesn't mean that there isn't other good information out there on the web, but you have to look more closely at it to see if it is good." She also mentioned that the site you are looking at should have minimal ads (the fewer the better), if any at all; have up-to-date links; and an author with credentials listed or that you can find and a way to contact the website. I learned a great deal from the interview and enjoyed it. I wish I would have spent more time with Pat before she retired. She's full of information that can be used for research and developing my educational background.