What can I create to highlight the vision I have of my future as a teacher-librarian? The question comes at an appropriate time as this will be my last project for my last course for my Teacher-Librarian Diploma. Reflecting back on this course, as well as the others I have taken, I have learned a lot about what it means to be a teacher-librarian in the 21st century. I think the main thing I have learned is that leadership is a big part of a teacher-librarian’s role; leadership in literacy, professional development, advocacy, information literacy, digital literacy skills and the ability to create a welcoming place for all within the school community.
As a TTOC my future is uncertain. I don’t know where or when I will have my own library. On deciding what platform to use to showcase my vision I need to think about my goals as a new teacher-librarian. Initially I would want to create a welcoming space for staff and students, highlighting the library services my program can offer them. In terms of digital technology, to me this means creating a library website. A website gives library users access to library services 24/7, while highlighting what the library has to offer both virtually and physically. However, for one of my courses last year, LIBE 465, I created a library website as my final project, but I took a look at it this week and realized that there is a lot I could do with it for this course. When I created it, the goal of the assignment was to focus on information architecture not content. Consequently, it is pretty bare bones with little digital content I created myself.

It’s Your Library Website @https://itsyourlibrarywebsite.wordpress.com
There are some pages listed as “under construction” with ideas about what I would like to do with the space. Others are pretty text heavy, but I wasn’t sure at the time how I wanted to convey the information. You can read about my reflections on the process I went through on my blog.
I can now think of a number of ways I would like to update the content using digital technology, creating an artifact that I could use once I get my own library.
- About Your Library page: my purpose for this page was “to link the physical and virtual spaces of the library.” Instead of static pictures I think it would be more effective as a slideshow or movie to highlight what users can expect from the physical space.
- Research tools page: these pages are text heavy and offer a good opportunity for me to create an instructional video which I have never done before.
- Teachers page: as this page states, I plan on having resources for teachers concentrated here. I could maybe start with something about visual literacy (the topic for my reading review). Perhaps creating something to showcase ideas for using picture books in the classroom.
- Homepage: I would like to keep this page as a blog to highlight events happening in the school and wider community. I don’t really like the set up as it is, and it seems like a good space to add more social media components.
I don’t know if I will be able to accomplish all these changes for this project, but I am looking forward to doing what I can. Even though this is a “fake” library website, I am confident I can create content that I will be able to transfer and use once I am running my own library program.
Image Citations:
Springer LibraryZone’s Photos (2013). Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151332165023844=pb.59229643843.-2207520000.1359667560=3
Vaidyaratnam (2013). Digital Library. Retrieved from http://www.vaidyaratnammooss.com/pages.php?menu_id=6