Roadmap to Blithwap: Doing More with Less
My older sister and I, sitting on the old wicker settee joining my mother’s voice in squealing ‘Not by the hair of my chinney chin chin!’. Alternatively, in the deepest voices we could muster, ‘I’ll Huff! and I’ll Puff! and I’ll blow your house down!’. These are my memories of childhood story time, an interactive, participatory and entertaining event in which a literary world of untold delights was opened to me. Of course the uncensored version of the three little pigs was always one of my favourite stories as a child; it wasn’t so much the understated violence that appealed to me, rather the resourcefulness and chicanery of the major protagonists.
In an age when libraries and library staff are not always considered an essential component of the literacy program, it is more important than ever that we as library staff rediscover the ‘joys of literacy’ by developing exciting, resourceful, and engaging literacy programs.
It has been my pleasure over the last decade to visit a large number of schools as a librarian and storyteller, working predominantly with three types of literacy: information literacy, oral literacy, and reading literacy. In nearly all of these visits I encounter what many commentators are referring to as the new ‘media savvy’ child. The influence of a powerful and organised media has led commentators such as Hymowitz to lament the deconstruction of childhood and the reconstruction of a new breed of child called the ‘media child’ or what David Rushkoff has called the ‘screenager’. Yet, for all the lamentation about the reconstructed media child or the screenager, one should not forget to celebrate the positives. This is the same media that incited many children and teenagers to swoop upon copies of the latest Harry Potter novel and read a 700-page work of fiction. Throughout the literature concerning the new media culture, it is clear there are three common threads: people crave participation, interaction and entertainment. To create literacy programs that reach our audience we must ensure our programs are participatory, interactive and entertaining, just like my early childhood story time.
In a recent conference paper at VALA (Victorian Association for Library Automation), I was able to talk about my lessons from the Three Little Pigs (lessons in resourcefulness, chicanery, and entertainment), placing them under the broader heading of blithwapping. According to the British Council, blithwapping is a verb meaning ‘Using anything BUT a hammer to hammer a nail into the wall, such as shoes, lamp bases, door stops, etc.’ (British Council 2000) Blithwapping is in many cases about doing more with less, about using resources in a different way. In summary my VALA paper proposed the following roadmap to blithwap.
The roadmap to blithwap
Ingenuity
Look at everything in a new way – people and products. Both are often much more than they seem. Do you have the ingenuity to connect your needs and your resources? Often library staff have led the way in the ingenious use of resources to meet a client need. Counter-balanced against this, we often work in organisations that stifle ingenious and innovative solutions, or we become trapped in the belief that we
must throw vast sums of money at a problem: anything else is not good enough. We lose our jack-be-nimble-jack-be-quick resourcefulness, instead becoming slow, ponderous dinosaurs unable to change and at risk of extinction.
Ingenuity is about using all the resources of your organisation and not just the library. It does not mean that your costs will necessarily shrink, or that you will have the latest hardware and the best software. Often the ingenious solution will not produce your ideal or best solution, but it should provide a solution that you can implement quickly, efficiently and often with low start-up costs. Ingenuity may not provide a solution that is scalable into the future, but it should enable you to prove a concept and provide a service that integrates you into the future of your organisation.
Seduction
Information only becomes knowledge when someone cares to make use of it. It is time for library staff to realise that seduction is a mode of communication and management that overlaps and interacts with information. Gone are the days when libraries could rely on their market dominance – when functional
information was enough. As library staff we must constantly evaluate the way we present information and our service. Is it seductive? Do your clients feel enticed and fulfilled? Is their library experience memorable?
Humility
We must be open to experiencing an individual and collective feeling of professional humility. This
experience of humility, or acknowledgement of a lack of competence, must be managed so that library staff look for a solution that relieves the effect of that feeling. In this way, humility becomes a potential source of creativity in the acquisition and deployment of resources. This is not to say that library staff are incompetent, but one of the greatest hindrances to creative thinking is professional arrogance. Be
prepared to learn from others within your profession, even those in a different type of library. More importantly, be prepared to learn from those outside your profession and work cooperatively at every opportunity.
Fantasy
As library staff we must be able to expound and live our own and our organisation’s dreams. These dreams must be inspirational and emotionally involving, allowing us to develop a powerful visual and verbal representation of what the future could be. We need this process to be a normal part of our professional
lives and our organisational practice – not as is so often the case, an annual or once every-five-years event. Can you currently expound a vision of where you believe your library can be within the organisation?
Excess
We as library staff must be entrepreneurial – taking risks, going beyond the use of existing resources, and taking simple incremental steps. We must formulate visions where at the point of departure one cannot
necessarily see the point of arrival. Public librarians have for generations provided reader adviser services, so why do so few library automated catalogues provide a digital equivalent? Why was it the entrepreneurs at Amazon.com who led this development? Why are so many public libraries now following bookstores in the development of user-friendly environments rather than leading the charge? Being excessive and controversial does not always come easily to library staff: we must stand-up and be
counted, not in arrogance but in conviction.
Subversiveness
To succeed in the difficult task of driving radical innovation and growth, library staff need a subversive strategy which transforms their environment by changing the rules of the game. Re-embrace the art of librarianship, break the mental paradigms we have locked about us, go beyond present frames of reference and conventional library thinking. What resources are being created in your institution that you are not aware of? How do you document informal conversation and chat sessions in a meaningful way? Find ways to integrate yourselves into your organisations, not just as the stereotyped librarian, but also as the mind mapper, the recorder of organisational knowledge, the resource manager, the integrator of the matrix. No longer look only to off-theshelf products, purchased databases, and the Whitaker’s Almanac. Live and breathe the knowledge that your organisation creates on a daily and hourly basis.
Blithwapping: a state of mind
The great problem with blithwapping your library system is that technological skills and budget initiatives are not enough. Blithwapping is ‘a state of mind not a state of play’. It is about changing the way we view our environment, connecting the dots in a different pattern. Many library staff need to become more flexible about library programming. We need to recognise that traditional library programming has in some cases become part of the folk culture it helped to preserve, and in worse cases, a yoke and
tradition that rigidly holds us back. In these traditions, the library staff nearly always use a book or other library item as a source, and maintain a calm tone with few or no gestures. This is normally followed by some extremely simplified activity, preferably one that doesn’t make too much mess. There may be times when this kind of program is exactly the kind required, just as there may be library staff who
always wear bright clothes or funky hats to such activities, but they should not become a straitjacket that we cannot break out of.
The new breed of library and literacy programs needs to engage our users in agreeable experiences. We must realise that libraries need to socialise through seduction: we have to engage our users’ minds towards our objectives. If users are engaged, they will be persistent, see obstacles as opportunities rather than impediments and, most importantly, continue to learn and gain in literacy when not forced to do so. They will self-actualise their need to understand and be entertained. Blithwapping our library and literacy programs to make them entertaining and interesting for our users should not be misunderstood as an end in itself. Out of this we hope to promote learning and literacy.
Andrew Wright
Andrew is the Access and Information Services Manager, NILS (National Information and Library Service). Prior to this he held a number of library management positions in New Zealand libraries, including tertiary, public and special libraries. Andrew also works as a professional storyteller in schools, libraries and theatres. He provides workshops and presentations for educators, curriculum advisors, librarians, children and business people.
References
Magazines in a Muddle?
In this article, ‘periodicals’ refers to periodicals, magazines, journals, serials and newsletters. |
Periodicals: hard to shelve, easy to steal, easily torn, and costly to purchase. But an attractive source of information on current events and themes that might not be easily available anywhere else. The appealing format possibly combining graphics, photographs, puzzles and text, make periodicals very attractive to most of us, children and adults alike. We can find a comfortable chair and flip through a periodical and it doesn’t seem to matter if it is dog-eared with crinkled covers.
Keeping track
Those of you belonging to school library listservs will be familiar with the number of messages from library staff sharing information about appropriate periodicals to contribute to a well-rounded and appealing library collection. But how do you keep track of periodicals in a library and should you bother? The cost involved in just a few subscriptions can be expensive. If you have an automated system with a periodicals function or module, it can take care of this work for you and also integrate the information with all of your other catalogue records and information, thus making the management of the resources easy
while increasing the use of the collection.
There is certain information about your periodicals collection which you will need to record regardless of whether or not you are going to circulate them. A comprehensive and flexible periodicals management function will provide for the recording of a range of information about periodicals received: the titles, the issues for each title, issues missed, location of the periodicals, the cost, subscription renewal date, the number of subscriptions per title, and the supplier. You may also want to record who the journal was ordered for, the budget area from which the subscription is paid, the lead time from publication to arrival in the library, any previous title information of the periodical, the current status of individual issues to indicate whether they are missing or disposed, a circulation regime, and when a complete set of issues has been sent for binding.
With this level of detail recorded, automated periodicals management will provide for a range of reporting on the collection: subscription details and renewals, outstanding issues, claims, circulation lists, and binding lists. The ability to monitor the collection in this way, and to print reports and claims letters, takes care of a large number of manual tasks.
If your library management system also has a SDI function or module, user access to the periodicals collection can be enhanced and encouraged by sending notifications of new issues of individual titles, either by print or email.
While periodicals are well-loved, they can also easily be overlooked when students are researching an assignment. Yet they may provide information at the most suitable level and in just the right amount of detail for a school research assignment. With the details of the periodicals in the library database, users can easily see, and be reminded of, the title, the holdings and their locations.
Effective information mining
Periodicals modules and functions mayalso link to a journal indexing function in alibrary management system, allowing further information mining of the periodicals. By seeing the full list of articles indexed for a specific title, the library staff can manage the journal indexing in the library more
efficiently, but more than that, aid the students by providing access to the articles within journals by title, author, subject and keyword of relevant articles. A student doing an OPAC search on a particular topic can be alerted to all the relevant resources in the library, for example books, websites, periodicals, and also articles within the periodicals collection. The money spent on a periodicals collection can become much easier to justify when you are assured of efficient management of the collection and also better access to it. Investigating the options within your system is worthwhile, even if you have to purchase an additional module to achieve these
Catherine Leonard
Softlink Pacific
Email: Catherine@softlinkpacific.co.nz
Tel: +64 9 415 7790, 0800 476 385 (free call)
website: www.softlinkpacific.co.nz
Catherine Leonard is the Manager of the Softlink office in Auckland, New Zealand. She holds a Diploma in Librarianship from Victoria University (Wellington), and an MSc in Information Science from UCL, London University. Catherine has had many years experience in libraries – in positions which have included cataloguing, acquisitions, indexing, reference, and sole charge work. Before joining Softlink she worked for the National Library of New Zealand as an adviser to schools. A special interest over the years, and a feature in several of these positions, has been the area of automation and library management systems.
E-journals for School Libraries
The availability of digitally published journals (e-journals) is becoming increasingly important for school libraries. In this article the processes involved in selecting appropriate e-journals are explored. |
Over the last decade there has been an information revolution using digital methods of publishing and online access. This has led to certain printbased journals being available online and the frequent appearance of new e-journals. Schools can benefit greatly from this publishing phenomenon, particularly with the utilisation of high-speed Internet access. Busy library staff are faced with the task of selecting e-journals appropriate to the needs of teachers and students.
Broadly defined, an e-journal is a journal that is published electronically and available using Internet technologies including World Wide Web (browser interface), email and listserv. The ease of publishing in this format has led to a proliferation of e-journals, newsletters, ideas forums and themed websites. Sometimes the difference between these four terms becomes blurred, with newsletters being refereed by peers and themed websites being cited.
A significant role of the school library is that of a portal offering guidelines and information to enhance effective curriculum support for teachers. As school libraries increasingly move core services from holdings to access, the reliance on paper-based journals is diminishing in favour of those available easily and cheaply on the Internet. While paper journals are popular with clients, the cost of multiple subscriptions, their management, and storage can become excessive. If teachers can easily access a variety of e-journals or quality newsletters these can supplement, or replace, existing print-based resources.
Benefits in accessing e-journals
The benefits in accessing e-journals are significant, including:
Problems in accessing e-journals
There is also a down side to accessing e-journals. Some e-journal publishing sites may be somewhat ephemeral and the availability of back copies cannot be guaranteed. Although updating current issues
offers benefits, it can create a whole range of problems too. Links that are embedded in articles are often integral to the article yet with the vagaries of Internet publishing these can disappear. Printed journals are portable and easier to read (they have a higher graphical resolution) than e-journals
– this is a significant factor for many readers. The sheer quantity of e-journals that can be accessed may also overwhelm clients.
Dual-publication choices
Profit-driven commercial publishers are now offering dual-publication choices, sometimes included in one price. Their e-journals are usually only available by subscription; however in many cases they offer part of the content for fee-free public access. This access can range from showing the contents of the current
publication to viewing whole key articles. This valuable option allows library staff to judge the relevance of the e-journal for their clients or to view articles from a wide variety of publishers. School staff enrolled in university courses can often access an enormous amount of e-journals from university libraries by keying in their appropriate student identity passwords.
The ease of producing e-journals or newsletters has given smaller publishers the ability to cheaply publish content electronically. These publishers are usually non-commercial and often fall intothe realm of professional associations, educational institutions or individuals.
Standards for selecting e-journals
When selecting either a commercial or noncommercial e-journal, library staff need to apply the same rigorous standards as they do to other facets of the collection.
Finding the right e-journal
The task of locating appropriate e-journals can be exhausting. A good starting point is to use a search engine such as Google™. Results can be rewarding, but searching often requires time, thoughtful selection of search terms and patience to obtain the most suitable resources. Gateway searches through
university-subscribed databases are often of the required academic level, but access can be restricted to current students of the university. Portals and journal search sites such as The Australian National Library’s Australian Journals Online and Education Network Australia (EdNA) provide users with a searchable database, giving details of e-journals. Annotated lists of journals provide a précis of e-journal sites, which can aid in the search for appropriate journals. A selection of e-journals sites for library staff is included at the end of this article.
When you find particularly useful e-journal sites, advertise them to your library users. Highlight the fact that these additional resources are available to teachers. This may take the form of promoting new e-journal sites (with a brief abstract) in your school’s Intranet or library newsletter, adding the e-journal cataloguing record to the library’s catalogue or placing it on suggested resources lists.
As school libraries move further along the continuum from holding resources to accessing resources, e-journals and quality newsletters can significantly enhance curriculum content and the professional development needs of library staff, teachers and other school staff. By sifting through the multitude of publications and subscribing, or selecting, only the best material, library staff can introduce their library users to a range of timely, cost-effective and relevant e-journals. Library staff can add significantly to their own knowledge-base with access to relevant library, education and technology e-journals.
E-journal sites
Ariadne
www.ariadne.ac.uk/
Curriculum Leadership
www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/
D-Lib Magazine
www.dlib.org/
From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal
www.fno.org/
The Horn Book
www.hbook.com/
School Library Journal
www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
School Library Media Research
www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/schoollibrary.htm
Teacher Librarian
www.teacherlibrarian.com/
Newsletter sites
The Big 6 Enewsletter
www.big6.com/enewsletter/
Connections newsletter
www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections/latest.htm
Search portals
Australian Journals Online
www.nla.gov.au/ajol/
Education Network Australia
www.edna.edu.au/edna/search
Annotated lists
IASL E-journals
www.iasl-slo.org/journals.html
Western Libraries – Western Washington University
www.library.wwu.edu/ref/subjguides/ed/edfreejrnls.htm
Nigel Paull
Teacher Librarian South Grafton Public School
Tracy Tees
Librarian and computer programmer
Beam Me a Book Please
Increased security at airports means it is now possible to watch fellow travellers unload their pockets to reveal money, keys and other numerous items of a technology nature. The mobile phone is just as likely to be joined by a laptop or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). If they are a library borrower from Yarra Plenty Regional Library, their PDA might well have several eBook titles on loan from the library. Even non library members may be carrying not only paper books but books in electronic format on their laptops and PDAs.
Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL) is a large public library serving a diverse community made up of three councils – Nillumbik, Banyule and Whittlesea – in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. YPRL has been recognised for some time as being innovative in the field of eBooks. My role incorporates the planning and management of the eBook program as well as being the Children’s and Youth Resources Librarian.
In 2002 the library service received a grant to introduce eBooks which was primarily used to purchase online eBooks. The library now has an extensive collection of eBooks including many of the Cliff Notes and Bloom’s study guides. These eBooks can be read on the library PCs or at home at any time by logging onto our library website. Another collection of eBooks focuses on children’s picture books from Tumblebooks (www.tumblebooks.com). This is a collection of animated children’s picture books, popular with the after-school crowd. Children will often sit at a PC and read or listen to multiple titles.
YPRL was also able to use some of the grant funding to trial the lending of eBooks onto PDAs. PDAs, a type of mini computer, are becoming more common with the Palm and Pocket PC models being the highest sellers. Most PDAs come pre-loaded with some free eBooks – usually a title which is out of copyright, such as Alice in Wonderland. In the past few months YPRL has seen around 50 borrowers register to borrow books to their PDAs. Borrowers log on to our website from home, choose one of around 300 titles the library has and download it immediately onto their PDAs. If it is on loan they may place a reservation. They will then receive an email when their chosen eBook is available. The title will stay on their PDAs for the standard loan period of three weeks. There are no overdues as the title automatically disappears after that period. On average we are lending one book every second day.
Another 15 borrowers would have been keen to borrow a PDA device but that was not an option, as they are more than just devices for reading books. I use my PDA for storing my address book, a chess game, a ‘to do’ list, keeping track of my expenses and a diary. I still love my paper diary, although having spilt a cup of cold tea over my paper diary recently and having key appointments dissolve, I am converting to the electronic form. Everything, including my diary, has a backup stored on my laptop. I also download favourite web pages using www.avantgo.com. I regularly download the newsletter from the University of Alberta Library.
The feeling that people do not read on screens appears to be changing, with an increased tolerance for reading longer text as the quality improves. Borrowers are requesting specific titles and subject areas for the library to buy, such as travel guides, short humorous stories, business books – indicating that they are prepared to read on the screen.
How does this apply to schools? Laptops are already used extensively by students in many private schools and this may change to the lighter PDAs. Most teachers also have a laptop. Students and teachers of the future will be buying text books in eBook format. They will expect the library to also know how to download or ‘beam’ them an eBook.
If you already own a PDA and are interested in our trial, follow the instructions at www.yprl.vic.gov.au/Ozebook1.htm. |
Pam Saunders is the Children’s and Youth Resources Librarian at Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne. Pam also has over 12 years of experience as a teacher librarian, previously working in state primary schools and a private secondary school. She is an avid and voracious reader (traditional and eBooks). In 2000 she was awarded the Barrett Reid Scholarship from the Library Board of Victoria to study eBooks.
Educational Lending Right 2003–04
School Library Survey
Educational Lending Right (ELR) is a program of the Commonwealth Government’s Book Industry Assistance Plan. |
ELR has two objectives:
* TAFE and university libraries are surveyed separately.
The 2003–04 Survey
The methodology used for the 2003–04 survey involved a rigorous statistical survey.
A representative sample of schools was surveyed to identify their holdings in relation to a list of book titles supplied by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA). Schools were selected on the basis of State or Territory, level (primary, secondary, combined), sector (government, independent, Catholic), region (urban/rural) and then proportionally according to enrolment. In addition, the sample was restricted to schools with an enrolment of 100 or more students and those schools which used one of the specified library management systems.
The methodology used for the 2003–04 survey closely followed the model developed for the 2001–02 survey and used in 2002–03.
The current ELR survey once again produced an excellent participation rate from schools and all target response rates for individual strata were met.
Finally, an independent statistician’s report states that the survey results are sufficiently accurate to be used as the basis for ELR payments in 2004.
Recommendations
The final report on the 2003–04 survey submitted to Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) included the following recommendations by Curriculum Corporation:
Curriculum Corporation would like to thank all schools that participated in the 2003–04 Educational Lending Right School Library Survey. Your support for the growth and development of Australian writing and publishing is gratefully acknowledged.
For more information about the ELR project, visit: www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/partnerships/elr.htm. |
Internetting Corner
ASX – Australian Stock Exchange
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/homepage/index.jsp
The ASX site offers teachers of economics and business studies a portal to associated stock information, school competitions, country programs and investor information. Mathematics teachers could also investigate the website for real-world examples of graphs.
SCIS 1166468
Basic Steps to Creating a Research Project
http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/
Secondary students will find this website for creating a research assignment a handy guide. The two-page site is well organised with additional information available from the embedded links.
SCIS 1166479
BOM Learning Activities
http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/Students_Teachers/learnact.htm
Part of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, these pages are designed for a variety of subject areas for students in Years 3–10. Interactive models, experiments, lesson plans and quizzes are a feature.
SCIS 1166486
EcoKids!
http://www.ecokidsonline.com/pub/index.cfm
Contemporary environmental information is presented on this long-running website. Students are encouraged to increase their environmental knowledge via interactive games and activities. A section of the website is aimed at teachers and parents.
SCIS 1166517
EdRugby
http://www.rugby.com.au/edrugby/
Following the success of the Rugby World Cup, senior primary and junior secondary teachers and students who want to participate in playing rugby will discover interactive student activities, lesson plans links and tips on how to be involved in the game.
SCIS 1166521
Edward de Bono’s Authorised Website
http://www.edwdebono.com
Edward de Bono is a world leader in the areas of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. Teachers wishing to understand and apply these principles, including the CoRT Thinking Programme, will find appropriate information and links on this website.
SCIS 1166646
The French Connection
http://ausarts.anu.edu.au/french/
Designed for use by students studying most aspects of French language and life, this site will also appeal to Francophiles. The collection of links covers a variety of topics including French literature, gastronomy, French government, maps and learning the French language.
SCIS 1166665
Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/
The organisation responsible for this site is a leading New Zealand environmental research agency. Of particular interest to teachers are the education pages that focus on animal conservation, animal pests, native plants, satellite imagery and maps, fungi and pest plants.
SCIS 1099051
Famous New Zealanders
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Childrens/FamousNewZealanders/
Containing biographical and background data on almost fifty pre-eminent New Zealanders, this website has been developed under the auspices of the Christchurch City Libraries. Additional links include the source materials used.
SCIS 1166672
Global SchoolNet Partner Program: Online Expeditions
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/expeditions/
Students can follow exciting adventures in real time on this website. The regions explored are diverse, the adventurers are often from a variety of countries, and the reasons for each expedition unique.
SCIS 1166681
International Children’s Digital Library
http://www.icdlbooks.org/
Aimed at primary students, this website allows students to access a diverse range of digitised books in their original language. Ultimately students will have access to ten thousand books in one hundred languages. Tips on downloading are available.
SCIS 1166685
NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/premiersreadingchallenge/
Although this reading incentive scheme is for students in Years 3–8 in New South Wales, the annotated list of one thousand suitable books to read is a handy guide for library staff in other Australian states. Books can be searched by title, author or category.
SCIS 1166693
SA Premier’s Reading Challenge
http://www.premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/
The South Australian Premier has issued a challenge to all South Australian students from Reception to Year 9 to read twelve books this year. At least eight of those books must come from the comprehensive and annotated booklists for selected year groupings.
SCIS 1166693
The Holy See
http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm
Teachers of religion and senior students undertaking religious or historical studies can access a variety of material from this official Vatican website including the museums, archives and library. Other links include The Vatican City State, News, Saints and a comprehensive search facility.
SCIS 1166729
Reviewed by Nigel Paull, Teacher Librarian, South Grafton Primary School, n.paull@bigpond.com. The Internet sites abstracted in Internetting Corner are often of a professional nature and should be initially viewed by teachers and library staff to determine suitability for students. The links, content and address of sites reviewed may not be permanent.
SCISWeb Handy Hints
Using navigation functionality to use SCIS OPAC more effectively
Search and navigation buttons in SCIS OPAC are used to navigate within a search session. They are located below the page banner and in the body of the search pages. Links at the footer of each page correspond to the buttons at the top. More detailed information can be located by clicking on the Help button.
Save time by using SCIS Authority Files
SCIS Authority Files is a CD-ROM that contains the entire subject authority file and name authority file from the SCIS database. These files are used by the library system to add see and see also references relevant to local subject headings. It may also be used as a look-up tool of allowed subject
headings when library staff catalogue locally generated resources. SCIS Authority Files therefore saves library staff valuable time as they do not have to type references into the local OPAC. Use the time saved to:
SCIS News
Invoices for SCIS subscriptions
Arrangements for all bulk subscriptions for 2005 have not been finalised. As further information about subscriptions becomes available a notice will be placed on our website at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/productinfo/sciswebsubs.htm.
Invoices will be despatched to schools not involved in a bulk subscription in October 2004. Payment is due within 30 days of receipt of the invoice. If payment has not been received by 4 February 2005, access to SCISWeb will not be available after that date. There are several options for payment for schools in Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Look on our website at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/productinfo/payment.htm#payment for more information.
SCISWeb and SCIS Subject Headings Online availability over holiday period
Access to SCISWeb and SCIS Subject Headings Online will be available until 31 December 2004, 5 pm EST. Access will become available again 10 January 2005, 9 am EST. You will be able to use the same password in the year 2005 as for 2004. The counter in SCISWeb for catalogue records downloaded will be reset to zero.
Free websites on SCIS database
Over 5,000 websites have been catalogued to date. Click on the Website lists button on the SCISWeb Menu page to quickly download catalogue records for websites. This method will save significant time in locating suitable websites. Please do not hesitate to call SCIS Customer Support if you require assistance. Website records can also be retrieved through SCIS OPAC.
Subscribe to SCIS Authority Files now
Forty per cent of Australian schools subscribe to SCIS Authority Files. The use of SCIS Authority Files within the library system saves library staff significant time as they do not have to manually insert the see and see also references into their library system. Most importantly, it ensures that maximum usage of library resources is achieved when students and staff do local OPAC searches.
Customers subscribing to SCIS Authority Files will receive the first edition by 28 March 2005 if payment has been received by 4 February 2005. SCIS Authority Files is a standing order and invoices will be despatched in October 2004. Payment is due within 30 days of receipt of the invoice.
Subscribe to SCIS Subject Headings
There are limited copies of the fifth edition of SCIS Subject Headings left in stock. As a decision has not been made about producing a sixth edition, schools wishing to use an up-to-date list should subscribe to the online version. Details are located at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/productinfo/subheadsonline.htm.
Email addresses
SCIS is broadening its communication to schools through an email alert service. Library staff had the opportunity to provide an email address when they logged on to SCIS for the first time in 2004. The majority of schools provided an email address; however, some email addresses contained errors so we have not been able to contact some library staff by email. Please access Customer profile on the SCIS Customer Centre page to review the email address you provided. If you did not provide us with an email address please access the Customer Profile section on the SCIS Customer Centre page and enter your email address.
What’s New
Remember to check What’s New every time you connect to the website. Updates will advise you about the latest list of catalogue records for websites, SCIS products, demonstration dates and library conferences. Visit What’s New at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/news/whatsnew.htm.
New and Revised Subject Headings
Headings marked with an asterisk are existing allowed headings which have been updated with changes to references or notes. Headings which were USE references in SCIS Subject Headings Fifth Edition but are now headings in their own right are indicated with an A. Previously allowed headings which have become USE references are marked as U. New headings are marked as N.
For full details of these headings, see the SCIS website at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/productinfo/supplists.htm. A cumulative list of all new and revised subject headings approved since publication of SCIS Subject Headings Fifth Edition is also available at this site.
* Amusement parks
U Athletes
* Athletics
* Australia – Biography
* Australia – Historic buildings, sites, etc.
U Autobiographies
N Autobiography
* Autographs
* Bicycle racing
* Biography
N Biomes
A BMX
U Boxers (Sport)
* Boxing
* Conduct of life
* Cookery with poultry
* Cooperation
* Coral reefs and islands
N Cricket – Autobiography
* Deserts
* Diaries
* Ecology
* Encyclopaedias
* Environmental protection
* Extreme sports
* Game protection
* Gymnastics
U Gymnasts
N Helpfulness
* Historic buildings, sites, etc.
* Human behaviour
* Kindness
* Marae
* Marketing
* Mediterranean Region
* Melbourne (Vic.) – Biography
* Monuments
* Motorcycle racing
* Mountain biking
N Musicians – Autobiography
* National Estate
* National parks and reserves
N New Farm Park (Brisbane, Qld.)
N New Zealand – Autobiography
* Parks
N Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve (N.Z.)
* Poultry
* Real estate
* Recreation area
s
* Regional geography
* Social ethics
* Sports
N Sportspeople
N Sportspeople, Australian
N Sportspeople, Jewish
N Telemarketing
N Thorpe, Ian
N Turkeys
* Victoria – Historic buildings, sites, etc.
* Wharenui
* Wilderness areas
* Wildlife conservation
* Wildlife parks
* World War, 1939–1945 – Personal accounts
Museum in a Box®:
An Outreach Program of the Australian Museum
Museum in a Box® is a dynamic outreach program aimed at schools and students in New South Wales. The program has evolved considerably over its life of more than 30 years, with the current version enjoying greater dimension through online content support at the Australian Museum’s website. Currently there are 82 boxes covering 24 topics, as shown on the website http://www.amonline.net.au/outreach/miab.htm. There are also a number of new topics being researched and produced to broaden the scope of Museum in a Box® in the near future.
As part of this process, Museum in a Box® is producing new content specifically for pre-school users. This new dimension to Museum in a Box® will be launched during 2004 with the boxes being developed to complement the New South Wales Curriculum Framework ‘The Practice of Relationships’. The Australian Museum is also in the initial stages of researching a potential range of other specialised boxes for various groups including visually impaired students and third age community groups.
While there are a number of museums that run educational loan programs, Museum in a Box® remains a unique entity and Registered Trademark of the Australian Museum. As the Australian Museum is principally a natural history and cultural anthropology museum, the Museum in a Box® program focuses on native Australian animals, environments, Aboriginal culture and human evolution. The material in the existing boxes is designed to follow the school syllabus for primary or secondary schools in New South Wales.
Booking the boxes
The Museum in a Box® program is principally aimed at regional and rural schools in New South Wales outside the nominal Sydney metropolitan area. Priority booking is given to schools located in these areas
and bookings can be made by Internet, fax or mail. There are seven specified loan periods each year: one in first term, and two in each of second, third and fourth terms. Confirmation and agreement notices are then sent out to the school from the Museum. As Museum in a Box® is a very popular program that
maintains a strong user base, it is always important to indicate second and third booking preferences when selecting box topics.
Dispatch of the loan boxes is a very simple process, well assisted by TNT Couriers who are contracted to deliver the boxes to schools throughout New South Wales, and at the end of the loan period collect the boxes for return to the museum. Some schools are in quite remote areas or considerable distances from towns, therefore loan boxes may take several days to get to their destination.
A two tiered booking, handling and freight charge applies to all Museum in a Box® bookings: $66 (including GST) per box currently for New South Wales regional and DSP schools and $110 (including GST) per box currently for Sydney Metropolitan schools. As a guide, the Australian Museum usually applies the designation of Sydney Metropolitan schools to those with school postcodes up to and including 2234.
Boxes remain in the schools for three weeks and are collected by the courier company on a set date and returned to the museum for checking and repair prior to the next loan period. All schools are encouraged to make best use of the box during the loan, and boxes are very frequently shared between classes within the school.
The team
Museum in a Box® has a very dedicated team that works behind the scenes at the Australian Museum to maintain, innovate and develop new content for this important program. The Coordinator organises the
bookings and administration, and coordinates the scientific and educational development of new boxes. Highly trained and skilled technicians undertake all repairs, moulds, casts and preparation of materials for new boxes. Museum in a Box® is currently upgrading its computerised storage system that will considerably increase its storage capacity for additional box numbers and streamline the dispatch and receipt process.
Treasure trove in a box
All boxes are made of high grade fluteboard with robust aluminium frames, clips and case handles. Boxes vary in weight with an upper limit of 30 kg when full. An exciting and diverse range of items is included in the boxes: a treasure trove of real museum specimens, casts of real specimens, models, dioramas, moulds to make plaster casts, CD-ROMs, audio CDs and tapes, videos, books, posters, games, information panels,
fact sheets, teachers’ notes and activities.
The boxes may be used in a variety of ways: in the classroom with individuals, small groups or whole classes; in the library with individuals, small groups or whole classes; or in home schooling. The contents may be used in displays around the walls of classrooms and libraries, and the activities are designed to be cross-curricular.
The educational aim of the boxes is to teach the students, for example, about an animal or aspect of Indigenous culture with activities using the materials provided in the box. The newer boxes use these activities to build knowledge about the subject in order to allow the students to write their own scientific information report, a literacy requirement in the English syllabus.
The boxes are very popular, particularly with primary schools. Around 60,000 students at more than 250 schools in New South Wales use the boxes every year. The Australian Museum relies upon feedback from schools to continue its innovation and refinement of the program. As part of that important commitment members of staff from the Museum in a Box® program have over the last year been engaged in on-site workshops with staff and student teachers from a number of regional NSW universities. Much of the feedback from this interaction increasingly forms an important component of the continuing development of the program.
Enquiries about the Museum in a Box® program should be directed to the Coordinator
Museum in a Box, Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney, New South Wales: Tel: +61 2 9320 6197; Fax: +61 2 9320 6069;
Email: museuminbox@austmus.gov.au.
Glenn Ferguson
Manager, Touring & Outreach Programs
Australian Museum
Helen Beare
Coordinator, Museum in a Box
Australian
Public Libraries and Schools
All those who work in libraries with young people can see that there is a clear overlap between what the public sector has to offer and what schools and students need in terms of resources and information literacy. There always, however, seem to be hurdles to overcome, and the hurdles seem to largely come down to those old perennials: time and money.
The hurdles
Time: because teachers and teacher librarians are always pushed in terms of how much they have to do, the curriculum they have to cover and the distances to cover to visit a local library. Because many Children’s and Youth Services Librarians work part time and may have their available time tightly rostered with desk shifts to cover reference duties, pre-school story times and after school book clubs or homework clubs. Often a public librarian spends an hour trying to contact up to half-a-dozen schools, where it is difficult to establish who is the most useful person with whom to negotiate – and then to actually get to talk to this person may prove impossible.
Money: because for many schools the only way to visit a public library is to hire a bus. Because of legal requirements, extra staff may be required to accompany a group of children.
Taking the library to the school
These hurdles can be overcome, but we need to ensure that what public libraries are offering is attractive enough to gain cooperation from schools. There are various ways this can be done. If the school is too distant from the library to visit without using private or public transport – take the library to the school. Using a data projector, the library’s web page can be shown to a class introducing them to the ‘homework help’ links that most library services provide. For secondary schools, all public libraries in Victoria have online databases that will prove a wonderful source of information for students in the senior years. These can be a great source for teachers too.
Public libraries offer
What does the public library have to offer that a good school library does not?
Teachers and librarians working together
Generally, I think it would be true to say, that children who use libraries have parents who use libraries. What to do then about those who don’t have that guiding parental hand? The responsibility must come down to schools and teachers working in concert with public librarians to introduce students to what is available in public libraries which will be of use to them, not just now during their years of formal study, but throughout a lifetime. Most public libraries will have programs on offer to their local schools and students: ‘Introduction to the Library’; ‘Homework Help’; visits to the schools for those not able to physically get to the building.
Primary aged children can participate in the Summer Reading Club program, designed to keep children motivated with their reading over the long vacation by recording the books they read, having a party, and offering generous prizes. Teachers can encourage children to join up at their local branch before the end of the school year. Many primary school libraries are very under-resourced, so being able to access a much larger collection can be an excellent motivator to children to read more widely.
Especially in these times of the downgrading of teacher librarian positions in many schools, teachers and students need to make use of the expertise and resources available in public libraries. Public libraries can be havens for the readers who are always to be found among the young across all ages, ethnic groups and genders. Where schools no longer have a teacher librarian, or find their library is being run by a volunteer, a stressed part-timer or an untrained librarian, then the time has come to turn to your local public library for a fantastic range of resources and a trained Children’s and Youth Services Librarian. Try us – you’ll find it’s a rewarding experience.
Sian Smith
Children’s and Youth Services Librarian
Watsonia Library
Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service
ALIA Schools Victoria: A Voice for School Libraries
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) is the professional organisation for the Australian library and information services sector. It seeks to empower the profession in the development, promotion and delivery of quality library and information services to the nation through leadership, advocacy and mutual support.
Group structure
ALIA membership provides a range of benefits for both personal and institutional members. Groups of members throughout the country underpin the activities, communication and mutual support between members. ALIA Groups have a geographic, special interest, special purpose, issue or sectoral basis. Groups have the support of, or serve, at least 25 members of the Association, and are endorsed by the Board of Directors. Members of ALIA are affiliated to as many groups as they wish. The conveners and members of these groups work voluntarily and are committed to making a contribution to the profession.
ALIA Schools Victoria
ALIA Schools Victoria is the group within the ALIA structure that has been formed specifically to represent school libraries. It provides a voice for school libraries within the broader library and information services community. The group’s stated goals are:
Professional development
Professional development is a key area of the group’s activities. Based on members’ requests and feedback, over the past three years seminars have included the following sessions: Characteristics of an information literate person, Learning for the future, CSFII, Intranets, Copyright, Leadership, Catering
for individual differences and Electronic notemaking. Another focus for this period has been on evidence based practice as advocated by Dr Ross Todd. Two learning modules were first offered in 2002 and as a result of their success, similar modules were offered in 2003 and 2004. In October 2003 a Celebration of evidence based practice was held so that participants from the 2002 and 2003 seminars could present and celebrate the results of their projects in both information literacy and literature. Participants in all these seminars have been appreciative of the group’s commitment to sharing expertise and supporting collegiality.
Providing a profile for teacher librarians
Through their work within ALIA, members of the group have raised the profile of school libraries within the broader library and information services community. Papers focusing on important trends or issues for teacher librarians have been regularly presented at the ALIA biennial conferences. There will be at least two papers delivered at the 2004 Biennial Conference, Challenging Ideas, to be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland from 21 to 24 September.
The Information Literacy Forum has been another area within the ALIA structure where teacher librarians have been involved. The work of the group in developing an Information Literacy Statement for all Australians and Information Literacy Standards is pertinent for all teacher librarians. These documents, along with the Forum’s advocacy for information literacy, represent a considerable contribution to the work of the profession.
Along with all other groups within ALIA, teacher librarians have been represented at the National Policy Congress since its inception. This peak body for setting directions and policies has provided a forum for groups to share ideas and concerns about common issues relating to the profession generally. These issues include pre-service education, continuing professional development and the free exchange of information.
Representing ALIA on committees
Members of the group have represented ALIA on a range of Committees or forums.
A joint ASLA/ALIA Committee was formed to revise Learning for the Future: Developing Information Services in Schools. From this collaborative venture, the second edition was published in 2001 and it remains the most significant policy statement for school libraries in recent times. The credibility of this national document is derived from its joint authorship and the subsequent support of the two national associations that represent teacher librarians.
A National Meeting of Professional Educators was held in April 2002. This two day Canberra conference aimed to enhance a number of initiatives related to teacher standards, quality and professionalism. In 2003 a follow up meeting was held and once again the group provided the ALIA representative. This meeting affirmed a previous decision for a joint ALIA/ASLA effort to develop Professional Standards of Excellence for Teacher Librarians.
In 2002 two joint ALIA/ASLA Committees were formed to continue collaboration between teacher librarian associations at the national level. Anne Girolami reviewed the work of the Task Force and Policy Committee in detail in Connections issue 49. At the beginning of 2004 the two groups were merged and the working life of the new committee was extended for two years. The group regularly liaises with SLAV to run the successful annual School Libraries Day Dinner and we value this collegiality at the local level.
ALIA Schools Victoria is open to all members of ALIA with a special interest in teacher librarianship. There are interstate as well as international members. Increasingly, communication is taking place through electronic mail and discussion lists, making it easier for members to be involved.
Sandra Ryan and Barbara Bugg
Co-conveners, ALIA Schools Victoria
NetAlert – The Australian Internet Safety Advisory Body
NetAlert Limited is an independent community advisory body established in late 1999 by the Australian government. NetAlert aims to promote a safer Internet experience, particularly for young people and their families. |
A key focus of NetAlert is to provide users with sensible, helpful and reliable advice and information about potential problems, dangers and threats present on the Internet and ways in which users can act to minimise or avoid these problems.
How can NetAlert help?
NetAlert runs a number of programs that assist the community with Internet safety. The relevant programs for school libraries include:
Internet safety helpline
http://www.netalert.net.au/00917-Internet-Safety-Helpline.asp NetAlert provides an email and telephone helpline for the community. The helpline offers information and advice about the benefits and hazards of the Internet. It has a particular focus on the methods (including filtering) of managing inappropriate content and providing children with safe access to the Internet. The helpline is accessible through a toll free national telephone number: 1800 880 176 and an email address: enquiries@netalert.net.au.
Materials available to be ordered through the helpline program and which can be used in libraries include Internet safety posters, brochures, and Internet safety information sheets.
The helpline featured on a recent Community Service Announcement (CSA) which NetAlert produced to raise awareness of Internet safety in the community. The CSA was broadcast throughout Australia in 2004.
NetAlert website – Internet safety advice
http://www.netalert.net.au
The NetAlert website is filled with advice and resources on Internet safety. The site is intended to help members of the community find relevant information on Internet safety and solutions to specific problems.
Within the website, resources that are available for download include information sheets, user guides, reports, conference papers, and educational materials.
All resources can be downloaded and used in a school library as required.
Netty’s World – Internet safety for young children
http://www.nettysworld.com.au
Netty is the star of a new NetAlert website designed to help young children learn about Internet safety. Netty lives on the Internet in Netty’s World and guides children in an online storybook – Netty’s Net Adventure – through a range of Internet safety issues. Parents are encouraged to join with their children in Netty’s Net Adventure and further develop the Internet safety concepts presented. It is a great way for children and parents to enjoy the Internet together while at the same time communicating about Internet safety.
Netty always wants children to enjoy themselves on the Internet and at Netty’s World, find fun and interactive games. Each of the games reinforces the Internet safety messages presented in Netty’s Net Adventure and have been designed to appeal to younger children just starting out on the Internet. Put the pieces back together in ‘Net Jigsaw’, complete the puzzle in ‘Net Slider’, colour in the safety messages in ‘Net Painter’ or collect the ‘safety messages in a bottle’ with Netty in ‘Net Surfer’. Each game has different levels making them suitable for beginners to experts.
Netty’s World can be used as part of any early learning ICT literacy course run in libraries or as a stand-alone resource for library staff.
Online resources for library staff
The following sites represent a small sample of online resources that deal with Internet safety.
How to contact NetAlert
For more information or help with an Internet safety issue, contact NetAlert.
Email: enquiries@netalert.net.au
Website: http://www.netalert.net.au
Tel: 1800 880 176
Freecall Monday to Friday, 9am – 4pm
Martin Chambers
Content/Research Manager
NetAlert
Digital Content for an Online World
The Le@rning Federation, an initiative of the Australian, States and Territories governments and the government of New Zealand, is in the process of releasing its purpose built interactive multimedia curriculum materials for students in Years P–10. Digital learning objects for Science, Mathematics and Numeracy and Literacy are now being trialled in a range of pilot projects across both countries.
Building on current research about how teachers teach and students learn, The Le@rning Federation materials aim to:
It was fantastic as part of the students’ language lessons; they were completely engaged in the learning object.
(Teacher commenting on Finders Keepers from the Literacy project)
… and the engagement is just absolutely fascinating. They are just really switched on and they just love it … I think because learning objects are often showing them things that they haven’t seen visually before. The digestive system is a great one.
(Teacher referring to In digestion for Years 3–4 from the Science project)
I don’t think there was a kid in the class that hadn’t got the concept. There was a lot of other Mathematics that was happening at the same time in terms of the kids’ capabilities with decimals … so it has turned out to be quite a rich mathematical activity and the kids have also used it as a springboard to do other things.
(Teacher referring to Park Fractions for Year 5–8 from the Mathematics and Numeracy project)
The role of the teacher librarian
Teacher librarians can play an integral role in assisting teachers to successfully discover and integrate new digital content into curriculum programs. Teacher librarians are in a prime position to find out about the digital materials as they are released, and to disseminate this information to the relevant staff in their schools. Moreover, feedback from teachers in the trials repeatedly state that learning objects
need to be wrapped in sound pedagogical frameworks and be supported by a range of other resources. One comment from a teacher:
An online learning resource is just that, a resource. It should either be used as a preliminary to work you are doing in the classroom, a support or a catch-up … to do that in isolation is meaningless and useless.
Teacher librarians thus have a pivotal role to play, not only in sifting and sorting the new digital resources and aligning them with current online and offline resources that work, but also in assisting teachers to embed them into quality learning sequences.
For further information about the learning objects released to date and how to access them, visit The Le@rning Federation’s website at http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au.
SCIS Subject Headings Online |
Resources
How to Teach Thinking Skills
Upper primary teacher resource, 112 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $32.95
SCIS No: 1111021
This practical guide features a range of readyto-use activities and worksheets designed to really get students thinking. It includes step-by-step techniques and sample lessons that address critical and creative thinking and creative problem solving. Strategies and skills investigated include Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and Sternberg’s Triarchic Intelligence theory. The detailed appendix provides a scope and sequence chart, a thinking skills overview, a reflections log and more.
Brain Busters
Upper primary teacher resource, 32 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $21.95
SCIS No: 1089592
Class forecast: Brain storms and showers of ideas when you introduce your students to these problem-solving and decision-making worksheets. This resource encourages group work and provides opportunities for individual expression in class or as homework.
Analyse it!
Upper primary teacher resource, 48 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $25.95
SCIS No: 1089589
Analyse It! encourages thoughtful and detailed mental reconstruction or revisualising, as well
as analytical thinking. Using classifying skills and Venn diagrams, students view things from different perspectives to find commonalities. Students enjoy this resource because they can actually see their thinking skills improve.
Thinking About the Human Brain
Upper primary teacher resource, 52 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $29.95
SCIS No: 1113235
This exciting resource addresses problemsolving and critical and creative thinking skills through a variety of activities and extenders. It includes tasks based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, and ready-to-go planning and self-evaluation forms.
Inventions Unlimited!
Upper primary teacher resource, 36 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $29.95
SCIS No: 1148715
Inventions Unlimited! is designed to extend students’ creative and critical thinking skills
through a variety of stimulating activities on Bloom’s Taxonomy plus worksheets to inspire students to create their own inventions. This flexible, photocopiable resource also includes techniques that provide the basis for an unlimited series of inventions.
The Advertising Big Book
Upper primary teacher resource, 48 pp
Author: Jean Edwards
RRP: $29.95
SCIS No: 1112948
This fully photocopiable resource is filled with classroom and extension activities that address problem-solving and creative and critical thinking skills. It features advertising techniques such as persuasion skills, and activities such as designing and making an effective cereal box. The Advertising Big Book is a ready-to-go resource with planning and self-evaluation templates included.
Thinking Lessons
Upper primary to lower secondary teacher resource, 96 pp
Authors: John Langrehr and Jan Langrehr
RRP: $25.95
SCIS No: 1142095
ISBN: 1 876973 83 8
Written by an internationally renowned educational psychologist, this book offers a wide range of exercises in all significant thinking skills: categorisation, ordering, generalising, problem solving, summarising, analysis, making distinctions, decision making, cause and evidence, creative thinking, and so on. A must for gifted children and a stimulating add-on to mainstream class work.
Thinking Challenges
Upper primary teacher resource, 68 pp
Authors: John Langrehr and Jan Langrehr
RRP: $25.95
SCIS No: 1094985
ISBN: 1 876973 31 5
Thinking Challenges is the all-purpose thinking skills resource for middle school.
It sets a series of fascinating challenges to stimulate cognitive organisation (categories, similarities, differences, ordering, analysing, predicting, etc) as well as critical and creative thinking. A range of high interest, across-the-curriculum topic areas (animals, plants, whales, weather, planets, communications, food, energy, dinosaurs, etc) are used as the focal points for these enriching exercises.
Have you seen Curriculum Corporation’s new-look online catalogue? Features include:
Bookmark the catalogue at: http://www.curriculum.edu.au/catalogue. |