Virtual library: e-ssential

By Carol Grantham

ACCESS, Vol. 21, Issue 3, 2007, pp. 5-8.

(The views expressed in articles are those of the author(s) concerned and do not necessarily represent the views of ASLA.)

Introduction
The students who are currently being educated in our schools are accustomed to using the Internet to meet their information needs. The teacher librarian can harness this reliance on the digital world by developing a well-designed virtual library, the purpose of which is not only to provide a wealth of quality online resources that complement the traditional library collection, but also to be used as a tool to teach information literacy skills.

What is a virtual library?
The integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into teaching and learning is a hallmark of education in the 21st century that should be reflected in the school library. If one of the roles of the teacher librarian is to organise and provide access to information then this should not be confined to the physical collection.

Gunn (2002) suggests that school libraries can exist in two spaces: a physical space and a virtual space. Valenza (2004) defines a school virtual library as a ‘customised, structured online environment/community, developed by a teacher librarian to improve and extend the services and mission of the school library program to the school community’.

Why do we need a virtual library?
The generation of students we are teaching in our schools choose to function through ICT (Macbeth 2004). The Internet has opened the door to an abundance of online resources and the school library can either respond to the needs of students by embracing these new technologies or be seen by students as irrelevant.

Many students choose the Internet as their preferred information source but most have a limited understanding of how to search effectively and efficiently.

If students are going to be effective seekers and users of information, they need two types of guidance: information skills critical for the 21st century; and customised, appropriate and well-designed online learning environments. Virtual libraries do the job on both fronts. (Valenza 2005)

What does a virtual library look like?
Just as the library's physical collection will vary from library to library, depending on the needs of the school community and the curriculum it is designed to support, then so too will each school's virtual library look different. However, Valenza (2005) and Clyde (1999) suggest that there are some common elements that are shared by well-constructed virtual libraries:

  • navigation that is simple and intuitive
  • search tools and electronic database pages
  • school library catalogue link
  • bibliographic and citation guides
  • research guides such as organisers, rubrics, hand-outs, subject gateways and web quests
  • reference services such as e-mail link for students to ask a librarian for suggestions on how to research a topic or locate information
  • reading lists, book reviews and promotions
  • pathfinders, which link students to physical and online resources for a particular assignment.

It needs to be remembered that the presence of a virtual library does not automatically mean that learning will occur. It should be used for teaching online information skills in the context of a unit of work.

What are the benefits of a virtual library?
Resourcing the curriculum
A virtual library offers curriculum support for students and teachers by providing access to quality online resources that complement the library’s print resources. The teacher librarian's knowledge of the school curriculum, understanding of resource selection criteria and organisational skills mean that the virtual library is customised to meet the needs of the particular school community. Gunn (2002) refers to this as ‘just-for-me learning’, where resources have been selected to match research topics as well as the age and reading levels of students. The virtual library should also offer students and teachers access to validated sources in the form of subscription databases and online encyclopedia. Here, students are able to retrieve journal and newspaper articles, reference materials and primary sources not available from the free Internet.

Directing students to relevant resources limits what Jamie McKenzie (2003) calls ‘search rage ... identifying the most promising sources so that students may spend 95 percent of their time thinking about information rather than the same amount on mere wandering’.

Catering for different learning styles
Digital resources enable students to access material in a variety of formats. With the introduction of interactive whiteboards into many classrooms, the teacher librarian can add interactive websites and learning objects to the subject links, enabling teachers to seamlessly integrate ICTs into their teaching and cater for various learning styles.

Availability
A virtual library is available anytime and anywhere there is an Internet connection, enabling students and teachers to access the online library resources in the library, classroom or from home.

Immediacy
Information can be updated immediately and more frequently, giving it an advantage over the print collection. The teacher librarian is able to respond to the immediate needs of teachers by providing resources for particular assignment at short notice.

Accessibility
A virtual library offers an alternative for students who are reluctant or have a physical difficulty accessing the resources in a physical library.

Teaching tool for information literacy
A study (Fidel et al. 1999, cited in Valenza 2004) states that ‘students know little about the various search choices available to them and are glad to be told where they might start’. A well-constructed virtual library enables students to find their way more easily around the various search choices and this, coupled with an information literacy program that guides students to refine their search skills, will enable them to become independent learners. Using the virtual library as an instructional tool, students can be taught the skills of selecting and using appropriate search engines, reading URLs, and deciding when and how to use an online database at the time of need. They can be taught information ethics including why and how to avoid plagiarism, selecting reference sources and copyright issues. These skills should be embedded in a unit of work to ensure the skills are relevant to their immediate needs, and has the added advantage of teaching the teacher at the same time.

Presenting student work
The virtual library can be a focal point to share and showcase student work.

Library Links
St Aloysius College, located in the centre of the city of Adelaide, South Australia, is an R–12 Catholic girls’ school with a student population of almost 1000. The school attracts students from across the metropolitan area and includes girls from refugee and indigenous backgrounds as well as international students.

The SAC Catherine McAuley Library website was developed by my predecessor Barb Burr in the late 1990s but by 2002 it needed redesigning to improve navigation around the site. I began by surveying staff and students as to what they found useful about the old website and what changes they would like to see. These suggestions, along with the Research-based web design and usability guidelines (US Department of Health and Human Services 2006), were used to design the new website.

The home page was designed to give users an overview of the entire site and to ensure they were no more than three clicks from the information they were looking for. This was based on advice that it is better to flatten a website’s hierarchy to provide users with information sooner (US Department of Health and Human Services 2006). Many of the criteria mentioned by Valenza and Clyde were also included in the website redesign.

The purpose of Library Links is to provide online curriculum support as well as a resource for teaching information literacy skills. Library Links is the gateway to the library catalogue, bibliographic guides, online databases and encyclopedia, career information, Internet searching, primary and secondary subject links, and links to good books.

At the beginning of each term, a topic form is distributed to teachers enabling library staff to check if there are sufficient library resources for the units of work. Teachers are also able to indicate if they want Internet resources available on Library Links. Many teachers forward links that they have found, which makes the jobs of library staff much easier. As many classrooms now have interactive whiteboards, interactive and multimedia links have become a useful addition.

Subject support material is also available through Library Links. Literature-circle and class texts are listed with links to online teacher notes as well as printable student worksheets. This is an ongoing project that should be finished this year. Literacy across the curriculum has been a professional development focus for our school for the past two years, resulting in faculties taking responsibility for explicitly teaching particular genre and text types. The Key Literacy Team has developed a checklist for each text type that can be accessed from Library Links for use with interactive whiteboards.

An online discussion group for year 12 biology, managed by the science co-ordinator and myself, was set up this year. The idea for this group came about as a result of my participation in a similar forum as part of my studies in the Master of Applied Science (Teacher Librarianship) course at Charles Sturt University. The biology group is hosted by Edna and students access the group through Library Links. The purpose of the discussion group is to allow students to consolidate and clarify the concepts taught in class by responding to questions set by their teacher as well as to act as a space for homework help. I have been able to respond to students who were having difficulty finding relevant information on research topics, thus offering an ask the librarian service.

Considerations and concerns
Skills and time
Designing a virtual library requires web design and web publishing skills, Acquiring these skills can mean a steep learning curve for a teacher librarian. A school-specific virtual library is the ideal but the design and ongoing maintenance of such a website is a time-consuming task. Teacher librarians must decide if they can justify the time spent on searching for quality websites to support the curriculum or, instead, rely on generic gateway sites such as UQL Cyberschool and Edna, and subscription services such as LinksPlus.

Equity
Virtual libraries require Internet connection and not all students will have Internet access at home. ‘The term digital divide describes the gap between those people with access to the Internet and information technology tools, and those without.’ (‘Digital divide basics’, cited in Gunn 2002).

The digital divide also exists between schools, as those with fewer resources will not be able to afford subscriptions to expensive online encyclopedia and databases, thus disadvantaging their students in their access to current information sources.

Internet instability
The instability of Internet sites means that regular checks should be carried out to ensure that web links are still active. This, again, is time consuming. I tend to check and update them when I know a class is starting a particular topic.

Copyright
The Copyright Amendment (Digital Act) 2000 automatically gives copyright to owners of material on the Internet (Copyright Agencies Limited 2006). CAL suggests that before linking to other material or using images from the Internet, checks should be made to determine if a copyright notice exists and, if so, permission should be sought.

Selection policy
A selection policy is essential in order for the virtual library and the physical library to be compatible. As a result of deficiencies in the authority and accuracy of information on the Internet, it is important to ‘select materials which meet the standards the library expects of all materials in regard to excellence, comprehensiveness, and authoritativeness’ (Pearlmutter 1999). Pearlmutter (1999) suggests that selection criteria might include:

  • relevance and use – in relation to whether the material matches the school curriculum, enhances the reference collection, is used regularly by classes or is a useful resource for teachers
  • redundancy – whether the material already exists in another format or whether there is a need for multiple formats
  • content – whether the material meets the traditional selection criteria with regard to quality, comprehensiveness and authority
  • ease of use – whether the format and reading level is appropriate for the students as well as its ease of navigation
  • stability – whether the resource has been available for a long time and how often it is updated.

Recommendations
Teacher librarians need to harness students' enthusiasm for ICTs by embracing the technology to not only provide access to quality online resources, but also to teach information literacy skills for an online environment. Building a website might seem an enormous task but it is achievable if taken in small steps:

  • look at other school library websites and take the best ideas for design, content and navigation
  • be realistic about what you can achieve
  • start small and build up over time
  • develop a selection policy for online resources
  • consult journals with reviews of Internet resources
  • select from the Edna theme pages as a source of authoritative web links
  • encourage teachers to send relevant web sites to add to subject links
  • promote the use of the school’s virtual library site to teachers and students and incorporate its use in resource-based learning lessons
  • allocate a time to work on the virtual library web pages – don't let it take over from face-to-face interaction with students.

Conclusion
For the school library to be seen as relevant by students, the teacher librarian must embrace new technologies and offer students access to quality online resources that support the school curriculum. This can be best achieved by a virtual library that not only meets the learning needs of the students but is also used to teach valuable information literacy skills that will enable them to become independent learners.

References

Blumson L, McLeod P and Turnbull D 2006, From cloisters to cyberspace –- the UQL Cyberschool, presented at Visions of Learning: ASLA Online II Conference, Australian School Library Association.

Clyde LA 1999, ‘The school library website: on the information highway or stalled in the carpark? in Unleash the power! Knowledge - Technology - Diversity: Papers presented at the Third International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), Birmingham (ERIC Document Reproduction Service ED437072).

Copyright Agency Limited 2006, Copyright and the Internet, Copyright Agency Limited, Sydney, accessed 10 September 2006, <http://www.copyright.com.au/info%20sheets/PA20_copyright%20and%20the%20internet.pdf>.

Education Network Australia 2006, Theme pages for Australian schools, Edna, Dulwich, South Australia, accessed 30 May 2007, <http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/school_theme_pages>.

Grantham C 2007, Catherine McAuley Library, St Aloysius College, Adelaide, accessed 21 May 2007, <http://www.sac.sa.edu.au/Library/Library/library.htm>.

Gunn H 2002, ‘Virtual libraries supporting student learning’, International Association of School Librarianship, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 27-37.

Macbeth A 2004, The world of ferals and dotcoms, Annimac, Perth, Western Australia, accessed 30 May 2007, <http://www.newvisionaries.net/articlelive/articles/3/1/The-World-of-Ferals-and-Dotcoms/The-World-of-Ferals-and-Dotcoms.html>.

McKenzie J 2003, ‘The techno-savvy, book-rich media centre’, From Now On, vol. 13, no. 7. April 2004, accessed 29 May 2007, <http://fno.org/apr04/technosavvy.html>.

Pearlmutter J 1999, ‘Which online resources are right for your collection?’(electronic version), School Library Journal, vol. 45, iss. 6, pp. 27–29, retrieved from ERIC database.

Pledger Consulting 2006, LinksPlus, Pledger Consulting, Kangarilla, South Australia, accessed 6 September 2006, <http://www.weblinksresearch.com.au/>.

US Department of Health and Human Services 2006, Research-based web design and usability guidelines, accessed 24 May 2007, <http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html>.

University of Queensland 2006, UQL Cyberschool, University of Queensland, Brisbane, accessed 4 September 2006, <http://www.library.uq.edu.au/schools/>.

Valenza JK 2004, The influence of school virtual libraries on the information-seeking behaviors of high school students, accessed 2 September 2006, <http://joycevalenza.com/virtualstudy.pdf> (no longer available), now included in JK Valenza 2007, ‘It’d be really dumb not to use it. Virtual libraries: their influence on high school students’ information seeking and use’, in MK Chelton and C Cool (eds) 2007, Youth information seeking behaviour, 2nd edition, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland.

Valenza JK 2005, ‘Find your path! Making research easy with virtual libraries’, Connected Newsletter, April, accessed 28 May 2007, <http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/pdf/virtuallibs.pdf />.

Carol Grantham is the co-ordinator of information services at St Aloysius College, a Catholic R-12 girls' school in Adelaide, South Australia. She has been at St Aloysius for six years, with previous experience in co-educational and boys' schools at primary and secondary levels. Carol is a member of the School Library Association of South Australia committee and is currently studying by distance education at Charles Sturt University for a Master of Applied Science (Teacher Librarianship).

Copyright of articles published in Access is jointly held by the Australian School Library Association Inc. (ASLA) and the author(s).  The author(s) retain copyright of their articles but give permission to the ASLA to reprint their works in collections or other such documents published by and on behalf of the ASLA.  Author(s) who give permission for their articles to be reprinted elsewhere should inform the editor of Access and should ensure that the following statement appears with the article: Reprinted, with permission, from Access, [volume, issue, date, pages].

Last updated 11 October 2007