Medical library placement - the reference desk

I recently finished my placement at a medical library. The library has quite a different feel from other libraries I have been in. The library predominately provides an on demand information service rather than a place where people would go to spend time browsing and reading like in a public library. The clients were medical professionals and university students on placement at the hospital. They generally have well developed research skills compared to patrons of a school or public library. We discussed the changing nature of the reference desk in libraries. The questions I answered most frequently during my placement were not ‘reference’ questions but rather computer trouble shooting, printer and scanning issues and how to use the self-borrowing system.

This issue is further highlighted in the article ‘Reference service without the desk’ (Arndt, 2010) which discusses how one academic library responded to this issue through the use of on-call and consultative reference services.

Reference questions that we did respond to came via email or phone the majority of the time. If the request was simple enough we could send the information back to them quickly otherwise we could book or conduct an over the phone reference interview.

You may find this video humorous about reference/ help desks.

Arndt, T. (2010). Reference service without the desk. Reference Service Review, 38(1), 71-80. doi:10.1108/00907321011020734

ETL504 Module 4

Communication and Resolving Conflict

You have developed a new digital literacy program that you believe needs to be used across the school. How will you communicate this program to your staff?

I am the ‘sender’, the information I will need to send is about the new digital literacy program that has been developed. The means of communicating this program will be two fold; verbally in a face-to-face meeting and in written form for the staff to take away with them. The written document would be encoded in a way that suggests it is a professional document about what the program is, why it is important and how it will be implemented. An executive summary is provided at the front of the document for quicker communication. When delivering the message it is important to remove noise and distractions from the surroundings as much as possible. While discussing it with teachers I would use open body language to invite them into the conversation and use language that is clearly understood by those in the room, but not too casual as to seem unprepared or uninterested. The sender needs to make eye contact with the receivers to show respect and gain feedback on reception. It is the role of the receiver to interpret the message both the oral and supporting written documentation. The way I can determine my message has been understood is by looking at body cues, such as nodding and by asking questions. Open ended questions would better demonstrate the receivers understanding.

Resolving Conflict

While reading the points given by Levine – believing in abundance and with some creativity we can do anything - I reflected on a video I had recently watched. You may find this humorous too.

Beinerts, L. (2014, March 23). The Expert (short Comedy Sketch) retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution turning conflict into collaboration. (2nd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Like most couples my husband and I have the odd argument. I used to find it frustrating when we would have arguments, because I thought my husband was such a good communicator and made logical arguments and I could not clearly express how I was feeling and why I felt that way. I would be more frustrated with how I was arguing than what the argument was about. We learnt a bit about communicating and negotiating in our pre-marriage counselling course (LifeWorks). A simple assertiveness activity to use when in communicating was suggested:

I feel…When you…Because… And what I would prefer is…

Another activity to try was the ‘ten steps for resolving conflict’:

1. Set a time and place for discussion
2. Define the problem- be specific
3. List the ways you each contribute to the problem
4. List past attempts to resolve the issue that were not successful
5. Brainstorm – list 10 possible solutions to the problem, to not judge or criticize them at this point
6. Discuss and evaluate each of these solutions
7. Agree on one solution to try
8. Agree how you will each work towards this solution
9. Setup another meeting to discuss your progress
10. Reward each other for progress

While the above ten steps have been written for couples I think they could work in a workplace setting too.

It is often harder to negotiate or persuade when you cannot share all the information you have. My husband is a lawyer and one of the problems he faces is confidentiality. He may gain certain information from one client that would be useful or beneficial to a second client but he can’t share that because of confidentiality issues. I think this is sometimes an issue in schools because certain pieces of information are not shared for privacy reasons, it leaves teachers in the dark. At one school I worked at we had a scary situation on a camp where a student became extremely violent towards other students and teachers, police ended up taking the child away. When all the staff were getting debriefed back at school we found that this student had a history of violence and was being handled by an external agency. They didn’t feel we needed to know this information. A lot of teachers were mad, frustrated and hurt that they did not know this. I think there is more chance of problems when there is not proper communication in schools.

My survey result: Competing. You tend to express above average assertiveness and below average cooperation. Some of your associates may think of you as a shark because you like to have things your way. What answering questionnaires tell me the most about myself is I am indecisive with how I view myself. I thinking internally I am a competitive person but externally I am more compromising and collaborative. 

ETL504 Assignment 1 Reflective Critical Analysis

Why even study leadership in a teacher librarian (TL) course, all we do is manage books, right? This wasn't too far from what I came into this course thinking, not having worked in a library. I have come to learn over this subject and others leading up to it how wrong I was.  

Very few schools these days would have one person making all the leadership decisions. One of the first schools I worked at used a distributed leadership model.  The school was led by four principals, one head and three assistants, each principal was delegated an area of school life to run. Each faculty had a leading teacher who attended curriculum meetings then passed the information on to those under their leadership. Other teachers were leaders in areas of domain, ICT, and student wellbeing. It was in this school situation that I noticed the role of the TL as leader the most. The TL was given a role on the leadership and curriculum committees. As part of the leadership team they were involved in decisions regarding teaching and learning practices and other school wide issues. It was also in this school and possibly because of this role in leadership that the school library had an effective collaborative teaching programme. The classroom teacher and the librarian planned and presented lessons to help students undertake inquiry activities. The library nearly always had a class using it and was highly valued by the school. The TL promoted the library and its activities which resulted in a library which is nearly always full.  The TL in this setting modelled the instructional style of leadership. They communicated the vision, goals and potential the library had, they provided the resources and training needed to use the library effectively for teaching, and they were a visible presence around the school and on committees (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 18).

I have also unfortunately seen the opposite situation in schools, where the TL is not a leader; the library does not have the same value to the teaching staff and goes underutilised. I think the difference here is the TL is functioning as a manager, ‘managers manage things, leaders lead people’ (Brocker, 2012). Teacher librarians have technical expertise to manage the library, but they must also be able to motivate followers.  This contrast in schools has made me reflect on the importance of having a TL who is a leader. We know that student achievement is increased when the leadership ability within a school is increased (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 11). We also know that the school libraries can have a positive impact on achievement (Lonsdale, 2003; Oberg, 2002; Todd, 2003). It is not much of a leap then to suggest that improving the leadership quality of TL in schools will also be beneficial to learning outcomes. Through the use of distributed leadership the capacity to lead is enhanced in principal and teacher alike (Townsend, 2011, p. 95).

Key thoughts to take away from assignment 1 are that a teacher librarian who is a leader and not just a manager;

• embraces and leads through change,
• builds balanced teams to navigate change (Belbin, 2012),
• provides training with ongoing technical and social support to personally develop others (O'Donoghue & Clarke, 2009)
• uses open leadership to empower and collaborate with those they lead (Tapscott, 2012), and
• has the emotional intelligence to understand individual’s needs and help motivate followers (Cameron & Green, 2009; Orridge, 2009). 

References

Belbin, M. (2012). Team roles at work. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Brocker, B. (2012, March 22). Leadership theory and critical skills [Video file]. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAzhiEsZtY

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2009). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to models, tools and techniques of organisational change. London: Kogan Page.

Lonsdale, M. (2003). Impact of school libraries on student improvement: A review of the research. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.asla.org.au/site/defaultsite/filesystem/documents/research.pdf

Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Oberg, D. (2002). Looking for the evidence: Do school libraries improve student achievement? School Libraries in Canada, 22(2), 10-13.

O'Donoghue, T., & Clarke, S. (2009). Leading learning: Process, themes and issues in international contexts. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Orridge, M. (2009). Change leadership. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group.

Tapscott, D. (2012, June). Four Principles for the open world [Video file]. Edinburgh, Scotland: TEDGlobal.

Todd, R. (2003). Irrefutable evidence: How to prove you boost student achievement. School Library Journal, 49(4), 52-56.

Townsend, T. (2011). School leadership in the twenty-first century: Different approaches to common problems? School Leadership and Management, 31(2), 93-103. doi:10.1080/13632434.2011.572419