Fernie Secondary School Library Website (Portal Site)

Image courtesy of Sam Marcus

Wow, here I am, writing the final post for LIBE 477.  My final vision project, a Fernie Secondary School Library Website (portal site), has been been both a joy and a challenge.  My voice is now hoarse from spending the past two days creating the video overviews of our School District #5, District Learning Center's online resources for the website's "Digital Resource Tutorial" page. While these videos are far from perfect, a key take-away for me is the ability to accept something less than perfect in the interest of being of timely service.  The videos could be a lot more polished, but they do what I wanted them to do; they provide a conversational "Cole's Notes" version of our DLC online resource links and they are published in a place easily and always accessible to teachers and students at my school and in my district. 

After arriving at the idea of creating a portal site for the library (an idea which felt like a light bulb had been switched 'on'), I went to work adding content to the homepage which has links to our District Resource Center.  It also has news and special announcement features which are broadcast to all portal site users.  I was able to add a new feature item (I chose a digital citizenship poster) image links (a slide-show with rational for the existence of copyright), featured links on copyright (copyright is the digital citizenship theme of the month), and shared documents outlining classroom activity ideas for teaching about copyright and fair dealing in Canada, 

There are several other website pages.  These include a "Gallery" page (where I have placed photos taken this year to promote reading), a blog "Reflections of a New Teacher Librarian," (I've begun to post portions of this blog, starting with my personal learning network), a "Library Catalog Access" page, and a "Resource Bookings" page.  Finally, there is a "Digital Resource Tutorials" page, which was the original plan for my final vision project. 

The "Digital Resource Page" provides a brief synopsis of each District Resource Center online resource and is a compilation of a number of video tutorials already in existence.  At the beginning of the page I have included two video overviews - the first one a video overview of the DRC resource links on the homepage, and the second one a video overview of the database links provided by ERAC (also accessed through one of the links on the DRC homepage).  It took quite a lot of time to research each of these resources, check the availability of tutorials on the resources, and link to or embed these tutorials.  It was definitely a good way for me to deepen my own understanding of digital offerings from the DRC.  I used Screen-cast-o-matic to create the video overviews.  Although I purchased the professional version (which allows for more complex editing), for this project I ended up creating a fairly basic video with next to no editing.  Creating the script and doing the initial filming took so much time that I gave up on the idea of creating fancier, more polished video overviews so that I could complete the project on time.  This goes against the perfectionist in me, but I also recognize that in my "real" Teacher Librarian life I will always be juggling between my role as an English teacher, TL (for only one block of the day), wife, and mother of two children. I will need to let go of perfection in order to be of service.  The video overview does the job even if it is not as smooth, pretty or professional looking as I wish it to be.  Now that I am more familiar with the basics of screen-cast-o-matic, when I attempt the next few videos (part of my longer term plan) I will experiment more with the editing features and go for more polish.       

While creating our library website I consulted with a number of tech experts (our Director of Transformative learning and Scholantis Help).  I needed to learn how to work with the formatting of my homepage as well as solve the problem of sharing access to the website with all of you (I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the site public).  I used on-line video tutorials to work with Screen-cast-o-matic.  I also met with our public librarian to learn more about the digital databases.  

All in all, my final vision project brought together many of the skills I have acquired over the course of LIBE 477, from linking to web-pages, to embedding images and video, to the creation and sharing of video clips.  I expanded my personal learning network and was able to create a website to help others expand their own personal learning networks.  I have already shared the library portal site with staff at my school, and I have already had a request from the photography teacher to give a lesson to his class about copyright rules and fair dealing.  I did this on Thursday afternoon and I was able to use a number of resources I had linked to in the FSS Library portal page.  I'm grateful for having taken this course and look forward to continuing to develop my ICT skill-set in the months and years to come. 

Work Cited 

Brighton West Video. "How to Use Screencast-o-matic: Overview." Online video clip.
          You Tube. 12 April 2017. Web. Accessed 9 November 2018. 

Froehler, Kim (Teacher of Transformative Learning, SD5). "Using the Portal." Interview by 

          Karla Germaine, October 2018. 

Hayes, Tina. "Digital Database Tutorials." Interview by Karla Germaine. November 2018. 

Hide, Jamie. "Creating a Website." Interview by Karla Germaine.  November 2018. 

School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay).  “Fernie Secondary School Library.”  

          Sd5.bc.ca.  Web. Accessed 23 November 2018. 

School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay).  “My Site.”  Sd5.bc.ca.  Web.

Accessed 23 November 2018. 

School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay).  “District Resource Center.”  Sd5.bc.ca.  Web. 

            Accessed November 2018.