I was just rereading one of the first articles from my ETL401 class about the role of the teacher librarian (TL). I had a note there which was about the role of the TL as a curriculum leader. The text described one view of the TL as a curriculum leader in that he or she worked to promote information literacy development in the school. Not just plan, teach, and evaluate collaboratively with teachers, but to work with principals and senior staff to ensure the school's focus and emphasis on information literacy. This came from Learning for the future (ASLA 2003). My initial response was that I did not see myself in the TL position as a curriculum leader. I felt it was an equal partnership with teachers.

Recently when working on my ETL501 paper, and analyzing what I've learned about my own information literacy skills (well, I was looking at the skills I employed during, and got into some pretty interesting articles), I've come to realize that my own research strategies are lacking. I always thought I was pretty good, but they could be so much better. I found a few studies which analyzed the search strategies of prospective teachers and college students. I am not alone! It seems so many prospective teachers (and I'm assuming many people in general) use "casual" search strategies like my own. We rely on one main search engine, and just use keywords for the most part. Another article explained that many people use similar search strategies, and don't seek to improve them because they are content with what they are doing. It works. However, I've learned about search engine optimization, and how relying on one search engine can really give you skewed results in such a discreet way.

In reading these articles and working on this paper, I've learned that I need to become an advocate for improving the search strategies of my school community. It sounds like a daunting task. However, in order for students to become more effective and aware of the searches they are doing, they need to see that their teachers and peers are also using these strategies. If I don't take on this task, who will?

This brings me back to the first article I was referring to in the first paragraph. I can see that at first, I was feeling reluctant to take on leadership in curriculum. However, I've learned that there are some areas that really fall under the expertise of the librarian. These things cannot be expected to be handled equally with classroom teachers, as they are busy and it doesn't really fall under their "umbrella." Everyone's got their area of expertise, and I should not feel reluctant to recognize what might become my responsibility (by default). I'm beginning to see the need for leadership in some areas for the TL.

Cahill, K., & Chalut, R. (2009) Optimal Results: What libraries need to know about Google and search engine optimization, The Reference Librarian, 50: 3, 234-247.

Martzoukou, K. (2008) Students' Attitudes Toward Web Search Engines - Increasing Appreciation of Sophisticated Search Engines, Libri, 58, 182-201.

Şahin, A., Çermik, H., & Doğan, B. (2009) Crawling in the virtual environment: prospective teachers' usage of Google search engine, Egitim Arastirmalari - Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 35, 77-92.

I'm writing my final paper for ETL501. I've just created a pathfinder for a grade 4 class at my local school. It didn't seem like too daunting of a task, in fact, I quite enjoyed it. What I'm finding particularly challenging right now, however, is having to write part two, which involves reflecting on the process of creating the pathfinder. Particularly, having to support all of my work with academic literature--this part is killing me!

To be quite honest, I'm not a fan of having to support all of my ideas with academic literature, but I suppose that it's good to know the research. As a librarian especially, I should be able to back up all of my ideas and good practice with professional references. I find this to be redundant though, in a way. I'm probably doing this backwards, but I've worked on the task, and am planning my papers (so I know what I want to say) but I'm not using the literature to give me ideas. I'm writing my ideas and then trying to find literature to support them. Seems backwards doesn't it? I dont think it will be a big problem though, because I believe there will be literature to support any of my ideas. It's like how some people say you can cite statistics to support any claim. I think literature works the same way. There has been research on so many topics, surely there will be some literature to support my arguments (unless I'm completely off the wall!).

Anyway, in writing this paper and the many coming up in the next few weeks, I'm finding that I'm having to reflect on how I function as a student. I haven't quite found a system that works for me in my research. Do I use online tools like Noodlebib, do I just type up my notes and reorganize, do I physically write out note cards? How do I go about this? I certainly don't feel like I'm following the information literacy models that we are studying in ETL401. I have, however, identified well with Kuhlthau's emotional markers in the Information Search Process (going from apprehension, to confusion, uncertainty, optimism, confidence and increased interest, to relief and satisfaction).