Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Open Educational Resources: Redefining the Role of School Librarians


Hulten, Alicia

Throgmorton, K. (2017). Open Educational Resources: Redefining the role of school librarians. American Libraries, 48(9/10), 16-17.


As more school’s use OER’s librarians role is becoming more of a digital content curator. The role of a librarian fits well with curating OER’s:
·         Librarians have curation skills that can be applied to online resources.
·         Librarians can find, evaluate, and curate information in a way that is helpful to others.
Librarians have a unique point of view with regards to the school library:
·         They work with students across all grade levels. Because of this, they can easily disseminate information to everyone.  
·         They foster equity between students, and ensure that classroom materials reflect diverse perspectives, free from bias.
Teaching curation:
·         Librarians play an important role in teaching kids how to be curators of their own information
·         They also teach children to be critical thinkers
·         There is an overwhelming of content out there, and librarians can serve both students and teachers by helping them make sense of it all.

Opinion: The world of OER’s has only recently been opened up to me. I am still learning about these educational materials in the public domain. I find this type of “interactive bibliography” a fascinating source of information for students and teachers. If curated well, it can be a one-stop shop for a students’ information needs. For example, in 6th grade in my district, students learn about Ancient Egypt. A librarian could curate a Libguide which links to several OER’s about the pyramids, King Tut, the embalming ritual, the science of mummies, local museums, etc. complete with text and videos. I think librarians are the ideal curators of OER’s because they are experts at finding, evaluating, and curating information in a way that is helpful to others, as the author suggests.

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