Accessibility Tools, What Are They?
Accessibility tools come in a variety of shapes and forms. To some, they are features that you let you adjust the brightness or text size on digital screens for people who may visually or hearing impaired. To others, they are structural tools such as a button to open doors or ramps for disabled people. They are everything in between these two examples. They can also be different resources to assist different types of users.
Featured Accessibility: Catalogs to Navigate Accelerated Reading (AR) Books
Image Source: Giphy.com
As a programmer in a public library, myself and my other department colleagues are seen as the go-to children's librarians. Sounds lovely right? Unfortunately we are not affiliated with the local school board and system so we are not the best at finding recommended books for school. However, what we can do is assist you, the student, in your Accelerated Reading journey! I created a little screencast as my artifact to share the lovely (and a little convoluted) way to find books with a specific AR book level for you, the student!
Image Source: Screencast by Author
I forgot to mention that
besides patrons who are parents- this is a wonderful feature for
educators and other
school librarians to use! Another great resource is actually using
NoveList and NoveList K-8. Unfortunately these websites have to be accessed through your library and require a library card, but that's okay- it's free to get a library card.
It will always be a struggle to find reading materials for students no matter their age, but especially for younger students or children beginning to read. Technology may emerge and books may look more aesthetically pleasing with pictures and covers but both are required to come together to enhance a student's literacy skills. We can see this relationship in the form of a library's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC/catalog). These OPACs enable users to conduct detailed searches for books by author, subjects and topics, series,
AR book levels,
Lexile measures, and more filters. These help to access materials that are most needed by the patron.
Why Is This Important Though?
As a quote, unquote children's librarian, it important to me personally to help patrons and their literacy development. A lot of the time it is helping parents find books for their toddlers, learning what
sight words are, recognizing trends both educational and pop culturally in books and other reading materials. All of this comes together to make a new generation of readers who are prepared for the future with their amazing comprehensive and literacy skills. I am not exactly the best on staying up-to-date with new literacy development books but rather keep up more easily with popular reading materials. It has been a challenge for me to take time to learn more educational and literacy development materials. It has become a personal and work goal of mine to stay more updated on these educational materials so that I can better help the patrons I interact with in the children's area!
Something that always kind of bugged me was that the school wants the library to be involved but as a completely separate entity. For example, at my last library we weren't allowed to have any connection with the school except for school visits at the end of the year to say this is the library and how you use it. At the end of the school year. It didn't help. They created a separate reading level guide purely so it wouldn't match the library's, causing confusion for students and parents alike. None of this was accessible. We ended up using Novelist and places like GoodReads to start recommending books that the kids might like, that might cover some of the things they were going over in school, and all at a reading level they were actually comfortable at. It made things easier on our end (probably harder on the school's end) and the kids actually wanted to come to the library to get books instead of relying on the school librarian who was actively discouraging them by making them read their reading level and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteMacKenzie, I love how you've not only included resources for greater accessibility for students, but also addressed the larger issue of connecting and communicating with teachers and parents to better mee students needs! This is an often overlooked aspect of accessibility, and I'm happy you've chosen to highlight it!
ReplyDeleteHi Mackenzie, I enjoyed the most is how you were able to make the connection between the novelist resources and the reading journey. This is a helpful and resourceful accessibility for students and parents. I have mentioned to my parents about the novelist resources and the parents always give a high praise. At the end of your post you highlighted about sight words and the importance of reading. Thank you for sharing insightful accessibility resources.
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