Marcia Mardis Explores Digital Resources in the Library

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 8/31/2009 2:10:00 PM

Former media specialist Marcia Mardis wants school libraries to continue being the center of learning. That’s why the assistant professor at Florida State University’s (FSU) School of Library and Information Studies is using a $400,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to explore how K-12 media centers can integrate digital resources into their collections and services as quickly and easily as they collect traditional resources.

How did this study come about? 
When I was a media specialist at a science and math school, the Internet was just starting to explode and I had no good way to integrate all of the new science-related Web sites into my collection. Let's face it, the html "link farm" approach to collecting digital resources just doesn't cut it as an organization tool!

I also have the great opportunity to work with the National Science Digital Library and want to get all of the great resources we have into the hands of teachers and students. I firmly believe that the best way to do this is to integrate them into the school library's collection.

Being an FSU professor played a role, too, I’m sure. 
I have had the pleasure to teach the next generation of media specialists in my classes, and I don’t want them to avoid digital resources, but to embrace all resources equally so that school library services and media specialists can continue to be at the center of learning. I think of the school library as a learning lab where children use print and digital resources to explore ideas and create new knowledge.

What do you hope to achieve? 
This project reflects my desire to use these experiences to help media specialists increase their confidence with digital resources. In the first phase of the project, I will survey media specialists across the country about their current uses of and desires for digital resources. (SLJ readers—if you see an announcement about the survey, please take a moment to complete it!)

Concurrent with the survey, I will work with programmers to develop a tool that digital library developers can use to alert people to resources in their digital libraries right from the desktop. Now, I'm thinking that the tool will probably be RSS-based. It will do more than just give them descriptions of the resources, it will include links to downloadable MARC records that can be ingested into the OPAC.

Is there a professional development aspect to it?
In phase II, I will use the results of the survey to design professional development experiences for a corp of media specialists to help them use the tool to find and integrate resources into their collections. This phase will also include professional development for using the resources like editing video and audio.

In phase III, I will work with the media specialists and their science teachers to create learning experiences with the digital resources. My hope is to get students involved in this phase so that we can get kids excited about using digital resources in the media center. Throughout the project, we'll be documenting our processes and outcomes and will prepare to scale up and out the tool and professional development (as well as the successes!).

The emergence of online digital libraries has made more free resources available than ever before, so why is it that few make it to student classrooms or computers?
The answer to this question is complicated. All educators work in a time crunch. They have many demands on their time and simply don’t have the opportunity to go beyond what they know they already do well. It's well documented through a variety of studies that time shortage, and its reinforcing effect on established practice, is a main reason why technology integration lags.

This applies to media specialists as well.
Through my own research, I have some pretty compelling evidence that media specialists contend with the twin challenges of time and tradition. The tradition of the print collection in the school library runs deep and, while media specialists are by nature pioneers, I think they lack the time to find ways to effectively integrate digital resources into their collections or to attain the professional development they might need to promote the resources confidently and effectively.

How do you expect your research to change this? 
At the very least, I will be able to share with everyone what I learn about the current use of digital resources in school libraries. Currently, that's an area we don't know much about. There's not too much I can do to put more hours into educators' days, but I can work on the skill and confidence end of things. My hope is to make collecting digital resources as easy as collecting traditional resources and to empower media specialists and teachers with the core, necessary skills so that working with new resources and instructional styles won't be a time sink.

How will it work? Can you explain a little more about how school libraries can integrate digital library "open content" in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM materials) into their collections and services?
Here's how I envision it working: Mary R., a middle school media specialist, subscribes to the environmental science RSS feeds from her selected digital libraries. In the feeds, Mary sees descriptions for video clips and images about protecting the environment that supplement books and DVDs she has in her school library collection. Mary clicks on the links in the RSS entries she likes to download the metadata records to her desktop in MARC format. In her school library’s OPAC, Mary uses the import function to ingest the records she just downloaded from her digital library RSS feed. Now, her users will find those digital library resources along with the other environment resources in her library OPAC.

How does Mary work collaboratively with a teacher?
John Q., a middle school science teacher, asks Mary if she has any exciting resources for his students to use in their environment projects. Mary and John search the school library OPAC and find records for some books with old copyright dates and for the video clips and images that Mary just located via her RSS feeds and imported. John finds resources he likes in the records for digital open content. Mary helps John download the video clips and images. She shows him how to edit these elements into a digital video. She also shows him how to transfer the video to an iPod. John is thrilled! He knows this activity will engage even his least-motivated student. He brings his class back to work with Mary and the students make videos for iPods for the class project on the environment.

How will librarians gain the skills to do all this?
The survey is going to give me a great idea of where media specialists are in their thinking about digital resources in their practice and collections. From that basis, I'll build empowering professional development experiences that will help media specialists build on what they already do well to remain not just relevant, but to lead digitally-mediated learning in schools.

What kind of professional development do you plan to provide and how will it be delivered? 
I'll have a set of participants in the FSU area, but we will eventually make the technology and professional development content available to media specialists across the country. I want to be personally involved in the professional development because I consider it to be the absolutely key to the success of the project.

Is it your goal that the library becomes a "one-stop shop"?
Yes and no—I think teacher support is very important. But, I also have two other very important goals—I want media specialists to continue to grow and evolve because they are so crucial to transforming learning in our schools. And I want children to understand that the school library continues to be very relevant to the personalized, digitally-mediated way they like to learn. I want them to know that their media specialists are guides to inspiring learning experiences, whether those experiences involve books, periodicals, the Internet, or their own creations.

How does e-books fit into all this? 
E-books are definitely a resource that could fit into this project if they are free and downloadable. I'm sure that's a route we will investigate.

Will this kind of digital content save a lot of money for schools?
Absolutely—the whole point of this project is to get the plethora of free, high-quality resources into the hands of students and educators. These resources are untapped wealth and right now, schools need wealth! I don't think the for-profit folks need my help with promotion.