Suitable Geography Books for school libraries.

About one and half weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with a student undertaking the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) Degree who is currently employed at a school that I work for. We have had some discussions about the coursework as they are in the early stages of their study, and were keen to find out some insights into my experiences ten years ago.

They currently have an assignment that requires them to organise a lesson (or lessons) focusing on inquiry skills and also have to apply relevant pedogogies that have been explored in their coursework. While I'd help them with resources etc or share examples of work that I have done, 

I also investigated suitable resources for the unit of work being covered. It is from the unit Place and Livability in the Stage 4 Geography Course. Students are also undertaking project based learning as part of the unit.

The school library lacks any resources to support the students including books on urban spaces but also referene books such as Almanacs which can provide basic yet useful and accurate statistics for research. I challenged myself as well to locate and recommend suitable books for future acquisition. Many of the items that I located were well above their reading level and would usually be read by adults or those at tertiary level. Even searching for items through Educational Booksellers was also difficult and again, not many items to be found, if not nothing.

It's disappointing that no publishers or authors have stepped up to provide books with factual information that can be used by students for this unit of work that reflects the reading level etc of the students. I hope that I am wrong on this.

My concern though, is that there will be too much reliance on Google for this unit of work. 

What Is The New Role Of A School Library In The Digital Age?

Ron Leunissen wrote an article last year that tries to answer the role of a school library in a school.

Certainly it is easier to access information than ever before. You can access library services from your own home or your own device.

But school libraries will always have a big role in a school. One comment stood out for me:

"The role of a librarian will be more to teach students how search properly in the ocean of information and  to evaluate the value of the source of the information."

I've noticed this in my work to date. Some students don't know where to go to begin their research for a learning task. They need a librarian to sift through what is available and provide a recommendation or the skills that they need to undertake an effective search. I also encourage students to reflect on what they have used in their learning and determine their relevance to the task at hand.

Libraries support the technology driven curriculum. Some would say this reduces the need for one to visit the school library. This is where libraries also have a big role to play. Why? They can provide the resources that one needs to create information. It might be the mp3 recorder that they need to create a podcast or seminar rooms to create a presentation that they might present to a class. We can also guide one in how to present that information as well.