Librarians should consider themselves professionals and, as such, they should take advantage of opportunities to learn, grow and stay current in their fields. I have always embraced various methods of professional development in my career as an educator. In fact, in a field as ever-changing as ours, it is crucial that we librarians take advantage of professional development in as many ways as possible. One way to keep up with the latest happenings is through professional associations. I am a member of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), the Association of Independent School Librarians (AISL) and the Maryland Association of School Librarians (MASL). I attend conferences and I read the major professional journals regularly. But it was not until I took the Action Research course that I delved into reading actual research in professional publications. This was an enlightening experience for me. Our main task was to conduct our own action research project, and once we selected a topic, we were required to complete a literature review to see what other professionals had written about it. We were to review journal articles found in current literature. They did not need to be about other action research projects; they just needed to provide us with some professional knowledge on our topics. It was through this exercise that I became passionate about my topic and eager to start my own research.
My proposed topic was whether or not I should teach research skills to first and second graders at my school. We were asked to write a paragraph description of our topic and compose annotations for at least five related articles. We also had to relate what we had read to our own project idea. At first I had a tough time finding appropriate articles. After I did some more digging, I discovered five articles that inspired me to move forward with my plan. The best was one called “Research: Why Wait Till High School?” in a publication called Phi Delta Kappan. The author discussed the many advantages of teaching research at a young age and mentioned that the final product could be something very simple. I had not realized that the natural curiosity of first and second graders lends itself perfectly to the basic steps of research. Young students could certainly handle the process, and they could build upon their skills each year thereafter. I took the question “Why wait?” and ran with it. After completing the action research project, I discovered that, indeed, there was no need to wait, and as a practicing librarian, I had the pleasure of implementing my findings immediately. What a thrill it was to introduce a research component to the curriculum in first and second grades.
This literature review taught me a valuable way of developing myself professionally. I can use the research and publications of experts in my field to stimulate my own research in my very own library. All librarians should take advantage of the vast amount of research conducted by people in their own profession.
My proposed topic was whether or not I should teach research skills to first and second graders at my school. We were asked to write a paragraph description of our topic and compose annotations for at least five related articles. We also had to relate what we had read to our own project idea. At first I had a tough time finding appropriate articles. After I did some more digging, I discovered five articles that inspired me to move forward with my plan. The best was one called “Research: Why Wait Till High School?” in a publication called Phi Delta Kappan. The author discussed the many advantages of teaching research at a young age and mentioned that the final product could be something very simple. I had not realized that the natural curiosity of first and second graders lends itself perfectly to the basic steps of research. Young students could certainly handle the process, and they could build upon their skills each year thereafter. I took the question “Why wait?” and ran with it. After completing the action research project, I discovered that, indeed, there was no need to wait, and as a practicing librarian, I had the pleasure of implementing my findings immediately. What a thrill it was to introduce a research component to the curriculum in first and second grades.
This literature review taught me a valuable way of developing myself professionally. I can use the research and publications of experts in my field to stimulate my own research in my very own library. All librarians should take advantage of the vast amount of research conducted by people in their own profession.