Indexing

Discussion question for Module 2: "Pick one concept that you find difficult to understand from the Chu reading this week, and write an entry on the discussion board about it, as if you were explaining it to someone completely unfamiliar with it."

My previous knowledge of the word index was the place in the back of a non-fiction book that has keywords in alphabetical order and page numbers that help the reader locate information in the book easier and more quickly without having to read the whole book over or flip pages throughout the book looking for information. That is what I teach my 2nd graders what an index is and how to use it. I had known index as a noun, a place in the book.

Now I am the student learning what indexing means in the world of library science and information representation. Here, index is used as a verb, indexing. It was difficult for me to distinguish between the different types of indexing. Derivative indexing, assignment indexing, free indexing, automated indexing, automatic indexing, the intellectual part of indexing, the mechanical part of indexing, machine indexing, manuel indexing, computerized indexing, citation indexing, string indexing, monkey indexing, indexing, indexing, indexing. It was just a blur of indexing. OK, so there is no such thing as monkey indexing it but it seemed like there was with all the different types of indexing. It was difficult to remember what each type of indexing was, much less how they compare and contrast. How can I explain what all these indexing terms mean to someone unfamiliar with it?

Well, I had to get all these indexing terms straight in my head first, so I created a flow chart so that I can see how the terms interconnect. Here is a jpeg of a Microsoft Office Power Point slide of a flow chart I created to help me learn the terms. Indexing

Chu, H. (2003). Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc p. 25-27, 32-33

Competency 2: Related Blog

My career goal is to become an elementary school librarian. I focused my search for blogs written by elementary school librarians. I tried all four of the search engines provided for us in our module. I tried the Google and Yahoo search engine links first because I familiar with them. I did not find any blogs that were of interest to me using them. I then tried Technorati and found a blog I liked on the first try. I used elementary libraries as my search criteria. The blog Voices from the Inglenook interested me because it is one I can relate to easily as an elementary school teacher and what I aspire to be as a teacher librarian. The blog does offer an RSS feed and it also has a Visitor's Map and FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed.

The blog author Janet Reid is the school librarian for Cold Spring School in Santa Barbara, California. She writes about the lessons each grade level is working on each week in the library. She even has students write book reviews and posts video blogs of students reading their own book reviews. She has many links posted and I found a few other blogs I found interesting. Ms. Reid is very adept at writing and posting blogs. She also has a blog for library skills and research skills. The blog Cold Spring School Library Skills Blog has assignments posted that include library skills for students to complete and respond by writing comments. The blog The Research Blog is for research projects posted by the students of Cold Spring School

Here is an excerpt from the blog Voices from the Inglenook

News From the Library--January 25, 2010
Third Grade--In order to learn about the literary concept of plot, third graders heard Tomi de Paola's enchanting book Adelita. Before reading the story I asked the students to summarize the plot of a Cinderella story which they did easily. Then as we read Adelita we compared and contrasted the difference in this Mexican version.


These three blogs are excellent examples of a superb teacher librarian.

Introduction

Hello Readers, I am a second grade teacher who is studying to be an elementary school librarian. I have created this blog for my graduate level class, Information Storage and Retrival. This blog will be used to communicate with classmates, professors, current and future librarians of all types, and anyone else who happens reads this blog. I will also use this blog to demonstrate competencies for my class.

I have been an elementary school teacher for 14 years. I have taught first, second, and third grade. I have taught 2nd grade for 9 years. I love teaching second grade, it has been my favorite grade to teach. I love children's literature and I want to be an advocate for it as both entertainment and as a learning resource for information. My topic area of interest is teaching elementary students research skills.

A few years ago I attended a staff developent that focused on teaching elementary school students how to research and organize information. I successfully implemented those strategies and skills into my teaching and I was amazed at the academic growth of my students. I enjoyed teaching my students how to locate information from various sources, such as encyclopedias, books, magazines, the internet and online databases. I then taught my students to use the information they had learned and how to organize and present it to their peers.

I appreciated the guidance and collaboration from my school librarian. I learned a lot from her and I decided I would like to continue my career as an educator in the role of librarian. One of my goals as a teacher is to teach students how to learn and inspire them to become self-motivated to learn and seek information independently. As a school librarian I will be able to work with students from different grade levels and be an instructional partner with classroom teachers.