Assignment #1 LIBE 467
Part 1 - Evaluate a Reference
As I go about completing each library course, I hope to make the process benefit my practice as a Teacher Librarian. For this activity, my goal is to investigate a reliable resource for science classes to use. I have a special interest in doing inquiry based research with science classes as I have been a science and chemistry teacher for twenty years. Investigating and evaluating a reference has been a challenging exercise; the main difficulty being which references to choose. After much deliberation, I have chosen to evaluate The World Book Encyclopedia of Science. The World Book Encyclopedia of Science is displayed in the non-fiction (503) section of my library.
The World Book Encyclopedia of Science
Background: The World Book Encyclopedia of Science is a six volume set with the following titles: "Chemistry Today"; "Physics Today", "The Plant Based World", "The Human Body", "The Animal World" and "The Heavens". This encyclopedia was published in 1984 and is the most current print science encyclopedia set in my library. The volumes are categorized according to the major branches of science and contain text, visuals, vocabulary and references. Each volume is about 150 pages long, contains an index and a glossary. The information in each volume is organized into topics and subtopics and contains around 50 articles, colour photographs, drawings and graphs.
Relevancy: Each book contains out of date photographs and text in a small, unappealing font. Between the layout of the page and the sheer volume of information, the books may appear daunting to students in grades 8-10. As much of the information in the encyclopedias has not changed in some fields of science (for example "Plant Life") and other branches have had major changes (for example "The Heavens"), these books would only be useful when researching certain topics.
According to a review on Amazon.com by School Library Journal The World Book Encyclopedia of Science is "suited to grades 5-9 in the degree of detail" and "to advanced grade 8 for reading level". Each volume contains articles organized by topic and although each topic is covered in detail, there is a narrow scope of subject matter.
Purpose: “As a reference tool, it does not compare to the competition” (SLJ Review).
With only one set of these encyclopedias the number of kids that can access the information from them is limited and because of the layout, it would be hard for kids to use to do quick references or general research. According to a review by Booklist, it may be useful for:
- Individual enrichment projects
- Diagrams for teachers to help explain difficult topics
- Science buffs
Currrency: Although The World Book Encyclopedia of Science is in excellent condition, as an encyclopedia published in 1984, it is not current. Guidelines from Reference Skills for School Librarian suggests that print encyclopedias be replace every 5 years (pg. 24, Riedling). In some topics, the information in the reference would still be relevant, but in other subject matter, new advances in science and technology have created new, more relevant topics or resulted in changes to other topics. The glossary still contains relevant vocabulary for many science topics.
Curricular Connection: Students would benefit from using a resource with more current information to do research and inquiry projects. Each of the volumes in this encyclopedia would connect with some content in the curriculum but not necessarily at the level of complexity appropriate to the age group. One of the volumes, "Chemistry Today", contains information relevant to Science 9 (Elements) but at a level that is more appropriate to Science 10 or Chemistry 11. This volume also has a section on organic chemistry and biochemistry which are topics touched upon in Chemistry 11 and Biology 12.
Efficient Use of Library Space: After evaluating this reference set, The World Book Encyclopedia of Science does not deem worthy of library space. Although it does not take up very much shelf space, it is a reference that has rarely been used over the past 34 years. As 1989 is the most current version of this encyclopedia set I could find for purchase, The World Book Encyclopedia of Science did not stand the test of time. The more current Discovery Science Encyclopedia by World Book, has a price of 399.00 (US) and is geared for the K-6 age group.
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Exceeding
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Meeting
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Not Meeting
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Relevance
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Information is very relevant, age appropriate, includes the right level of detail, useful topics
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Information is relevant, mostly age appropriate, many useful topics in the right level of detail for target audience
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Information is mostly not relevant or age appropriate. Topics are not at the right level of detail for the target audience
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Current
Information
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Information is up to date and in a format that is appealing for students to read. Has an appealing layout and text features that appeal to students of today.
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Information is mostly up to date and in a format that students find appealing. Information is mostly accessible to students.
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Information is out of date and format is unappealing and difficult to read. Information is not very accessible for students.
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Purpose
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Information is excellent for student inquiry projects. Topics are well organized and easy for students to reference.
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Reference has some information in it that students could use to do research. The information is organised and may be useful in some situations.
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Reference is not suitable for student research. It is poorly organised and/or contains limited amounts of information for students to use
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Curricular
Connection
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Provides excellent curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is suitably in-depth for student research.
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Provides some good curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is mostly given to the right amount of detail.
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Does not provide good curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is not written to the right amount of detail.
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Part 2 - Replacement Reference
With a limited library budget and ongoing developments in science and technology, I have moved toward using more online databases when doing science inquiry. Students can access online databases such as EBSCO and Gale through the library website. Students can access this resource both at school and at home and there is a copy for everyone to use at the same time. Although the schools in our district used to share the cost of this resource (our portion based on the size of the school population), the district is now paying for it directly. From looking at past records, I know we used to pay around $1100.00 for our Ebsco and ERAC subscriptions for the year.
For this assignment, I would like to focus on Gale Science in Context as it is a new database that has been added to our digital resources.
"Gale's Science in Context database presents more than 22,000 topic overviews, 8,000 biographies, and 1.5 million periodical articles on an integrated platform aimed at supporting school curricula and university coursework. This resource, like others in the series, is a high-quality website. Overall, this is a great resource for any library serving high-school or undergraduate students."
— Booklist
Relevancy: Gale Science in Context contains current science topics in a digital format. It has a large scope of curricular relevant topics and makes connections to further readings. By providing the content in different formats, students are exposed to multi modal ways of communicating information. Gale Science in Context provides real world connections and applications of the content to make it more meaningful for students. The material is very accessible to students as this platform provides optional tools that will read the article to the student or translate the article into another language. The highlighting and note taking tools are also very useful for student research.
Purpose: Gale Science in Context could be a very useful tool for students to use for science inquiry. This database could also be used as a quick reference or for general research. The links, video and audio could be used to generate student interest or to introduce a topic. The curricular connections make this a very useful tool for teachers gathering resources for the new BC curriculum.
Currency: The articles in Gale Science in Context are kept current by regular updates although when browsing the list of topics, Astronomy and Cosmology was the only topic that had been recently updated. The list of topics is relevant to current topics in science and technology and the layout of the webpage is appealing to read.
Curricular Connections: One feature of this resource is that it organizes and connects content according to the curriculum standards in your province. Once you select the country, province and course, it provides you with an outline of the course and links to content specific topics for that course. It also provides you with a collection of references, images, statistics, experiments, audio, news, video, academic journals and magazines on the topic of choice. A citation is provided for each document for use in your bibliography.
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Exceeding
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Meeting
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Not Meeting
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Relevance
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Information is very relevant, age appropriate, includes the right level of detail, useful topics
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Information is relevant, mostly age appropriate, many useful topics in the right level of detail for target audience
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Information is mostly not relevant or age appropriate. Topics are not at the right level of detail for the target audience
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Current Information
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Information is up to date and in a format that is appealing for students to read. Has an appealing layout and text features that appeal to students of today.
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Information is mostly up to date and in a format that students find appealing. Information is mostly accessible to students.
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Information is out of date and format is unappealing and difficult to read. Information is not very accessible for students.
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Purpose
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Information is excellent for student inquiry projects. Topics are well organized and easy for students to reference.
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Reference has some information in it that students could use to do research. The information is organized and may be useful in some situations.
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Reference is not suitable for student research. It is poorly organized and/or contains limited amounts of information for students to use
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Curricular Connection
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Provides excellent curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is suitably in-depth for student research.
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Provides some good curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is mostly given to the right amount of detail.
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Does not provide good curricular connections for science inquiry. Information is not written to the right amount of detail.
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In conclusion, I would highly recommend Gale Science in Context as a resource for inquiry in the science classroom. As a reference, it gets an excellent score for relevance, currency, purpose and curricular connection. Gale Science in Context is useful for 21st Century learning and encouraging students to use reliable resources for their research.
References
Riedling, Ann Marlow, et al. Reference Skills for the School Librarian Tools and Tips. 3rd ed., Linworth, 2013.
