Aspergers Syndrome

During the Easter Weekend this year, Good Weekend (The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age) had a feature report on how Aspergers Syndrome is now regarded as "cool" to have and also looked at how this form of Autism impacts on those who suffer the condition and their families.

What has concerned me as of late are plans to classify it as a remove Aspergers Syndrome from the Autism Spectrum and classify it as a "social anxiety disorder". This has implications for sufferers, their families and for us as teachers.

My mother, a teachers assistant has attended inservices on Autism and has amassed a collection of resources relating to Aspergers Syndrome.

I also have done my own research as part of my university studies plus I also have read the book "The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome" by Dr.Tony Attwood. It is a must read.

I do have a huge interest for Special Education hence my interest. If I wasn't going to be a teacher librarian, I'd most likely be a Special Education Teacher.

At least 1 % of children have Asperger Syndrome. Some of the characteristics found in those with the syndrome include:

• Obsession with routine and order.
• Special interests which can be obsessive.
• Difficulty understanding non verbal communication.
• Poor social skills.
• Difficulty controlling emotions.
• Academically they perform at average or above average levels.
• Difficulty with fine motor skills.
• Can be clumsy.
• Hypersensitivity with their senses (taste, sight, smell, touch, hearing)

There is not just a social or mental impact, but there is a physical side too.  If it was to be classed as a "social anxiety disorder", then how is one to account for the broader characteristics of Aspergers Syndrome within the definition?

To move Asperger Syndrome away from the Autism spectrum I feel will impact on students with the condition within the classroom because I feel that they will be denied the support that they might have under the current definition.

Flickr - A photographers dream?

I love my recreational photography and enjoy sharing photos on the Ozscrapers forum of cityscapes, architecture and more.

Until recently, I had been using Imageshack but had found for instance that you could not organize photos effectively with a 100 photo limit per album nor your edits with the images would be recognized. I found I would rotate an image and then the photo was "out of service" with the change or edit not accepted.

I enjoy the relative freedom that Flickr gives you in terms of editing your images and organizing them into sets. There is no limit to how many photos can be placed in a set for instance and hundreds of photos can be viewable on the one page. Few clicks are needed to reach your image.

The 1TB of storage space (and its free) should serve me well for a long time. My ten years of photography has only taken 100GB of my hard drive unless I opt for bigger photos. Even if you are not an active photographer, the 1TB is extremely generous compared to your rivals. You could easily fit a lifetime of photos within the 1TB.

Another big advantage is the fact that it allows for third party apps that allow you to control how you use flickr and even let you use the desktop to do so. The options are completely endless. The apps also allow you to be creative with the images. You can make albums, create effects and mosaics. For those like me who have many photos, desktop managers allow the albums to be managed on the desktop and are automatically synchronized. Upload managers allow you to upload a countless number of photos, much more effectively than the website upload feature (200 photos max per upload).

As a classroom resource, I would highly recommend it for photo hosting or to host any visual files that might support ones learning. I think the fact that the user can have a lot of control and flexibility allows it to be use effectively as well,

I'm obviously continuing to learn about its features and obviously if anything of interest pops up, I'll comment on them.

A few links of interest are included if you are interested in downloading apps to support the Flickr experience. However you may find that some are no longer available for download.

The App Garden (Flickr hosted)
Hongkiat.com
"Flickr Toolbox"

My Fix to shelving books in setting up a library

One challenge faced in the setup of the library last term was how to allocated shelves for items belonging to a collection.

My colleagues and I were given a list of shelves and bays to be allocated to items within the fiction collection. It based on the allocation of items within the former site We stuck to it to begin with, but as we worked along, we found that some letters required fewer bays. Other letters required more bays. We were making changes using pen and paper.

Then we finding that there was no balance. Sometimes we would end up with empty bays or sometimes there were none left. Pen and Paper amendments were not going to work at all for me. It only made me and colleagues more confused.

I went to Excel and wrote the original list, then our list with amendments, The numbers had to balance on both columns (in filling the total number of bays available) otherwise I had to start again. I also did this for a set of letters that needed to be re shelved.

The numbers balanced and we had our shelf allocation done with no fuss. I was happy and everyone was happy.

I decided to repeat the approach for the Non Fiction Collection because we ended up with more bays allocated than originally planned. We actually got the room to fit some more in. I applied some mathematical formulas (basing it on original percentages) and again done with little stress. 

We did make some changes along the way but it was never going to be an issue.

If your stuck with allocating shelves and bays, never be afraid to use excel and let it do the number crunching for you.

Blur by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

There is a book I'm going to recommend not just to Teacher Librarians but to everyone because of its relevance.

It is: Blur: How to Know What's True In The Age of Information Overload by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel.

Why? In this age of 24 hour news cycles, abundance of information in many formats and differing views, it is so important that we take time to examine the information that is presented to us.

Society is fast paced and people want to get their information quickly. Those involved in getting the information like journalists are also required to meet tight deadlines.

The book encourages us to be more critical about we see, read and view. It encourages us to determine if the information fulfills its purpose. Does it inform us? Does it answer the questions that we as the viewer are seeking. Is there truth in the item? Is the information accurate?

Do we get the full story which is balanced? Do we get detailed information? Was it well researched?

Even characterisation is looked at. Some journalists especially on TV like to assume roles of characters in order to get points across and we need to see how that impacts on the information we get from the story.

The two part telemovie Power Games (Nine Network Australia, 2013) allowed me to reflect on this particularly Sir Frank Packer's insistence that his Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph favour the Liberal Party and be anti communist when it was part of Consolidated Press (the paper joined News Limited in 1972). There was also the battle between the same paper and the now defunct newspaper The Daily Mirror operated by Rupert Murdoch in advocating for candidates for the Australian Prime Minister ship following the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967.

Would a biased approach to an event be fair? For someone like me, its not. I want to hear all sides of a story, not one. Both Packer and Murdoch went for one side by focusing on a particular candidate. Packer choose William McMahon because he was a personal friend while Murdoch supported John Gorton. If I was around in that time, I want to find out about both contenders and find out why they are suited to the job; like I would in the current battle for the Labor Party Leadership between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese. I also think bias leads to distortion of the truth as well, not good.

I find its similar to the approach that historians undertake in historical research where they need to assess a source for its usefulness and reliability as part of their research. This includes the fundamental questions of any investigation - Who, What,Whee, When, Why and How? If we can have this information, then we can determine if there is truth in what we see, view, read and listen.

Store Room Setup

During this past week, my main focus has been to set up our library stack or storeroom. It has seen me work in isolation away from the hum-drum of school life but has allowed me a chance to really learn something in managing a library collection.

This is the first time and the first school where I have been involved in the setting up of a library stack. Being in a temporary location does have it's setback; that there isn't necessarily the full space to stock a full collection as in the past on the main floor of the library. Weeding is not really a fair solution to a space problem as it does consign rather useful resources to their "death".

But then big libraries have faced that challenge. I know from my Study Tour last year the limitations in making a full collection available like the State Library of NSW, where most items are stored in a library stack or offsite and only bought up into the public areas when requested by a person.

I am happy at the fact that a large collection is still being maintained and that the access will be instant. A student or teacher merely has to request the item from the catalogue and within minutes would be located and one can borrow the item.

Also it has allowed me a chance on something that I can be proud of especially at this early stage of my career. Even though I was working mostly in isolation during the week, I enjoyed "building" something even though it was just unpacking boxes and placing it onto the shelves. I recall just a few weeks ago, the rooms were dusty, dirty, stuffy and empty and lacking soul. Now its become apart of the library. A collection of items is now available for use. With my period of employment at the school coming to the end, I can leave feeling that I have done something very positive for the school apart from the other duties which I have fulfilled as part of my role.

I've also made sure that the yearbook collection which had been merely kept in shelves in back of the old AV room were labelled on the shelves just in case someone wants read them. I remember in Year 12 that I was part of a group that enjoyed viewing old school yearbooks mostly to see photos of our teachers as they may have looked in the years gone by. Apart from the school's yearbooks, it also tells me which other schools have provided yearbooks. Labelling makes their location and retrieval much easier.

This week I will have to do a shelf check to make sure all items are at their precise location. I for one want everything in their exact place.

I hope to reflect on some other aspects of the past ten weeks as well.

Library Maps - Easy As

I was asked to do a map of the new library this week and place this on OLIVER. I'm no CAD expert (software you can use to make maps) but I decided to do it on Microsoft Word.

I could not believe that even though it takes a bit of time to draw it (using shapes to represent shelves etc) it was straightforward.

After converting the map to a jpeg file, I then placed markers using the Softlink software in which to do so. I tested it with a few titles using the OPAC and could not believe the accuracy of the markers in determining a books location.

I have to admit that the map feature is probably one of the most underutilised features of OLIVER & the OPAC because it can tell someone where a book can be found and this cuts out the time searching through many shelves.

It will even tell you too if the book is on loan through the map as well (and if you forgot to read the "status" listing!!!

Given we are at a new location, the students and teachers will need to rely on that map. I hope it helps them and I will aim to encourage them to make use of come the time they want to borrow a resource.

I've retained a copy of the word version because if the layout changes, I can move the shelves etc to reflect those changes. The shelving itself is largely movable especially those for the DVD collection. Some shelves are fixed but whats on them can change easily.

I'm looking forward to drawing some more library maps in the future!!!