Week 9 Evaluating the Reference Section of the Library

I honestly thought our school library was in pretty good shape until I took this course and realized that we seriously need to update our reference section! I knew our World Book encyclopedia set was getting dated, but when I actually looked at some of the dates in our dictionaries and atlases, it was a little shocking! We have 2 dictionaries that were published in the early 1950s! If TLs are going to teach information skills, which includes locating and accessing information in print form, we need to make sure that our libraries are accurate and up to date! This will be my goal for the fall- purchasing a new set of encyclopedias, a dictionary, an atlas, and a thesaurus.
This is a big benefit of coursework; sure there's assignments and homework which might infringe on your personal time, but the pay off is big.  Not only from the course itself, which has been a timely reminder for me to check the reference section of the library and see if it is up to standard, but also learning so much from fellow students.  Website recommendations, favorite dictionaries, online newspapers, all these things help all of us to be better at our jobs.  In a time where there are budget cuts and lay offs, the more we can build each other up in knowledge will certainly help to validate the role of teacher librarians in the school library.