LIS 5183: Information Resources and Services for Children

Description, Analysis, & Reflection

Description 

The course description for LIS 5183: Information Resources and Services for Children states  

Childhood development and information needs of children; children’s information behavior, learning, and reading; contemporary children’s literature; digital media and technology; early literacy, information literacy, and 21st-century skills; selection/evaluation of information resources; and information services for children; and 21st-century trends in children’s services (Edwards, 2022). 

For LIS 5183: Information Resources and Services for Children I selected the Storytelling Project assignment.  For this project we were to select a children’s book, record a video telling the story of said book (which is not the same as reading it out loud), and write an essay explaining our rationale for our selection.  Instead of picking one book, I decided to go big or go home and chose three, the Knuffle Bunny trilogy by Mo Willems.  My rationale for selecting these books was entirely personal.  For starters they’re awesome (seriously if you have never read these books, do yourself a favor and check them out from your local library, you’ll thank me later) but more than that, these were books that I read to my children so they hold a special place in my heart.  The challenge with this assignment was twofold: 1) remembering the plot and characters of three different books and 2) performing on camera.  I don’t know about you, but I hate being on camera.  Somehow though, I made it through and am really proud of the end result.  Not long after making this video, I was asked to cover a story time program.  In that program I used the skills that I learned from this project and it went surprisingly well.    

Analysis 

I often referred to this as my “children’s literature class” but that wasn’t a completely accurate description.  Yes, this class was about children’s literature, but it dealt with child development, information needs, early literacy strategies, and programming for children.  Since I wasn’t a reader as a child and hadn’t gotten into children’s literature for fun as an adult, taking this class was a no brainer.  And while I loved the books that we read, it was learning about the stages of child development that added to me understanding of kids and how/what they read.   

Reflection 

As I mentioned above, I never had a children’s literature phase.  Sure, I read the Harry Potter series and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but that was because they were fantasy classics.  I also read Property of the Rebel Librarian because I saw it one day while working at the Noble Public Library and thought it looked cool.  But beyond that, children’s literature was a blind spot.  That is what I was hoping to get out of this course, a better understanding of children’s literature.  What I didn’t expect was to learn about the developmental stages of childhood.  This information proved to be incredibly valuable and immediately applicable to my job.  The Noble Public Library is in close proximity to the local middle school and across the street from the 4th and 5th grade elementary school, meaning we have had lots of kids in the library after school.  Understanding the developmental stages helped me to better communicate with the children after school.       

Personal Learning Goals 

Where this course was the most beneficial for me was in developing knowledge and skills for Goal 3: Increase reference and user services skills by expanding my knowledge and understanding of child development and children’s literature. 

MLIS Program-level Student Learning Outcomes 

Information Resources and Services for Children helped towards SLO 1 Core Knowledge by covering child development and children’s literature; SLO 3 Professional and Scholarly Communication from the discussion posts and course assignments; and SLO 6 Diversity by examining the importance of literature with diverse characters and from diverse perspectives.  

ALA Competencies 

This course advanced me towards 2. Information Resources by explaining child development thus aiding in understanding age-appropriate material and 5. Reference and User Services through the examination of the various children's literature titles. 

Edwards, B. (2022). LIS 5183: Information resources and services for children [Syllabus]. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma.  

Artifact: 
Storytelling Project: Knuffle Bunny