1. Contact Info
Melissa Poremba is delighted to speak on the topic of numeracy skills support and development at school and public libraries. She can be contacted via
In addition, many of her lists live on the Oakville Public Library site ( ) and you may also send her a message via that platform. (Look for ‘math’ lists from ‘melissapowl’ and then click on ‘Send melissapowl a Message’.)

2. Numeracy Skills Development @ Your Library
Melissa Poremba
OLA Super Conference
February 26, 2010

3. What is Numeracy?
The International Adult Literacy Survey defines numeracy as:
“The knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, using numbers embedded in printed material, such as balancing a cheque book, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan.”
Numeracy, in other words,
is largely about our ability to
deal with the basic calculations
in our daily lives.
**Note about terminology!

4. “Over 40% of the population has difficulty with everyday tasks such as reading prescription instructions or measuring volumes for household chores. This means that approximately four out of 10 Canadians are at a basic or low numeracy level.”
~ABC Canada: Workplace Literacy – In Brief

5. Why should we be concerned?
Libraries traditionally associated with literacy skills support and development
Reading
Writing

6. Canadian Council on Learning: Reading the Future
~Report Resources – Fact Sheet

7. Canadian Council on Learning: Reading the Future

8. To be considered “literate” today…
Must have
TRADITIONAL LITERACY
AND
NUMERACY SKILLS

9. Conference Board of Canada: Employability Skills 2000+

10. As a library professional, do you use numeracy skills?
Everyday!
Budgets, circulation stats, staffing, acquisitions, programming, …
“E-Library Economics” (Feb 10, 2010)
Library Value Calculator

11. Numeracy skills development
It’s not just for “mathies”!
Everyone needs these skills
But don’t forget the “mathies”!
We don’t have to teach the math!
We don’t teach reading and writing in the library, we facilitate them; we don’t have to teach the math either
Libraries provide the resources and a rich supportive environment for numeracy skills development just as for traditional literacy skills

12. As a library professional, do you promote numeracy skills development?
Absolutely!
Dewey Decimal System
Every time you train a page…
Every time you help a patron locate a book in the stacks…
Story time
“Count Us In” (Jan 1, 2009)
Database/Internet searching
“Search Engine Math”
Boolean operators (Venn Diagrams)

13. How else can we support numeracy skills development in our libraries?
What I want to share today
What I won’t be doing

14. What symbol is this? !
Exclamation mark
What else?

15. What symbol is this? !
In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative integer n, denoted by n!, is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n. (~
In other words
n! = n (n-1) (n-2) (n-3) … (3) (2) (1)
6! = 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1
= 720

16. My point?
It is the same symbol, just viewed from different perspective
You don’t have to know the definition, just be aware that others may see the same thing differently
You already have the resources,
programs, and promotional tools
—just need to view them through
a new lens

17. My goals:
Increase awareness of the potential of the library to support numeracy education
You have the skills, resources, programs and promotional tools necessary to be an advocate for numeracy in your library
You might simply need to see them from a different perspective
For “mathies”
For everyone
Take the ideas presented here and adapt them to your particular situation
Inspire you to come up with more ways to integrate numeracy into your library’s collections and programs
Establish your library as a destination for numeracy support and resources

18. We would never dream of saying that about reading!
Please…
Whether in your capacity as a library professional, parent, teacher, or anyone with influence on children, please stop saying that you…
Don’t like math
Can’t do math
See no need for math
Don’t understand the new math
Etc., etc., etc.
Don’t pass along your “math anxiety”!
We would never dream of saying that about reading!

19. What can libraries do to further promote numeracy skills development?
Depends on:
Type of library
Demographics of patron population
Collections
Resources
Promotional tools

20. A mishmash of ideas and resources
School library
Public library
Adults
Students
Pre-schoolers
Parents
Teachers/Homeschoolers
There is always something that can be done!

21. Let’s start with the obvious
Where do you expect to find the “math” resources in your library?

22. In the 510s:
510 Mathematics 511 General principles of mathematics 512 Algebra 513 Arithmetic 514 Topology 515 Analysis 516 Geometry 517 [Unassigned] 518 Numerical analysis 519 Probabilities & applied mathematics
And also in:
372 Elementary education
373 Secondary education
793 Indoor games & amusements 795 Games of chance

23. What is the first resource that comes to mind when thinking about numeracy skills development?
Mathematics instruction, even at the post-secondary level is text book driven.
Students and parents come in looking for text-like materials (lessons, drill, practice, problems)

24. Variety is crucial There are many different formats
to support different learning styles
Print
Multi-media: CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs
Subscription databases
eLibrary, CPI.Q, Gale Virtual Reference Library
Learning Express
eBooks
Internet

26. Internet sites Portals: No point re-inventing the wheel
Canadian Mathematical Society: Mathematics for Students and Teachers
Ontario Association for Mathematics Education: Math Links
Discovery Education
KidsClick!
BJ Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper
Math Central
Kathy Schrock

27. For visual learners Free online resources:
(N.B. This collection of online videos can be accessed through the Discovering Collection database by clicking on the Streaming Video icon.)
Obviously need to warn patrons about exercising caution when using web resources

28. Issues “Math Wars” – be aware! Discovery Rote/”Drill & Kill”
Strive for balance (examples)
Local preferences/needs
Beware of traditional focus on
European males
Watch for “contrived” stories; that is,
just because they say “math”…
Consider level of mathematical rigour required
Watch for inconsistencies in series
Include Canadian content whenever possible

29. Canada, eh! Some very inspiring stories: John Charles Fields
Donald Coxeter
John Mighton
Eric Demaine
Ravi Vakil
A. K. Dewdney
Kim Rossmo
Don’t forget the
databases!

30. You never know who you will inspire!
“When I was quite young, I believe no older than 11, I came across two books that would determine how I thought about mathematics for the next 20 years, until, at the age of 31, I found the confidence to return to school and start a degree in the subject. One book was a collection of science fiction from the local library. It contained a story about two children who construct a Mobius strip that enables them, by a process I unfortunately can’t recall, to travel in time….Though I haven’t reread the short story since I was a child, I would be surprised if it was well written, and even more surprised if the mathematics behind it was sound. But the story awoke a greater sense of wonder than I have felt reading anything since: from it I gained the conviction that mathematics was a magical subject that would allow me, once I had mastered it, to transcend the everyday.” (9)
~ Mighton, John. The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child. Toronto: Anansi, 2003.
John Mighton, a Canadian, is a mathematician, author (The Myth of Ability, The End of Ignorance), playwright (Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama), actor (Good Will Hunting), and educator (JUMP) ~

31. Weeding A frequently neglected area Sunlink Weed of the Month
“Math publishing has changed significantly in the scant years since the first edition was released [2002]. Back then, I’d draw the graphs and illustrations on paper and hope that a graphic artist could understand what I was trying to communicate. Now, however, I can electronically create the illustrations myself, ensuring that they are accurate and reliable.”
~Kelley, Michael, W. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calculus. 2nd ed. New York: Alpha Books, 2006.

32. Where else might you find resources to support numeracy skills development?
We all use math everyday, no matter what we do
That is the key message: that the “math” materials are throughout the collection!

33. You’ll find math here…

34. And here…

35. And here… Geometrics: A New Way to Crochet By Ruthie Marks
Product Description Mathematical craftwork has become extremely popular, and mathematicians and crafters alike are fascinated by the relationship between their crafts. The focus of this book, written for mathematicians, needleworkers, and teachers of mathematics, is on the relationship between mathematics and the fiber arts (including knitting, crocheting, tatting, and quilting). Each chapter starts with an overview of the mathematics and the needlework at a level understandable to both mathematicians and needleworkers, followed by more technical sections discussing the mathematics, how to introduce the mathematics in the classroom through needlework, and how to make the needlework project, including patterns and instructions.
Making Mathematics with Needlework: Ten Papers and Ten Projects
By Sarah-Marie Belcastro, Carolyn Yackel

36. And still here… Crocheting Adventures With Hyperbolic Planes
By Daina Taimina
With more than 200 full color photographs, this non-traditional, tactile introduction to non-Euclidean geometries also covers early development of geometry and connections between geometry, art, nature, and sciences. For the crafter or would-be crafter, there are detailed instructions for how to crochet various geometric models and how to use them in explorations.
Short-listed for the Diagram Prize (oddest book title of the year).

37. Mobius strip   
A Mobius strip, an object with only one surface and one edge; such shapes are an object of study in topology. ~

38. And even here! Group Theory in the Bedroom and
Other Mathematical Diversions
By Brian Hayes

39. Not sure where to start? Textbooks: chapter introductions, sidebars
Authors of popular math books: Theoni Pappas, Ian Stewart, Martin Gardner, Calvin C. Clawson, Clifford A. Pickover, Keith Devlin, A.K. Dewedney
Ziauddin Sardar
Johnny Ball

40. Word Problems (Story Problems)
Where else?
What was one of the most challenging type of math problem in school?
Word Problems
(Story Problems)

41. Math in context Mathematics in FICTION Plot Characters Central
Incidental
Characters
Everyday people
Math teachers
Mathematicians

42. Literacy + Numeracy = Success

43. Example

44. http://opl. bibliocommons

45. For teens

46. Historical Fiction

47. Romance Story of Polly Nomial and Curly Pi

48. Safety in Numbers Ooops…
Ooops…
“I belong to the 8% of the world population who calm their apprehension by drowning it in numbers.” (p. 301)
Sometimes you think they will have something to do with math and they don’t!

49. Don’t forget the databases
Novelist Plus
What Do I Read Next?
mathematic*
Adults
Teens
Older Kids
Younger Kids
Total
Fiction
275 31 66 78
450
Nonfiction
353
272
253
944
Combined
628 97
338
331
1394

50. “Mathematical Fiction”
The best web site!
“Mathematical Fiction”
maintained by
Alex Kasman
College of Charleston

51. How are we going to promote these resources?

52. Displays Picture books: counting, shapes, time, size, patterns, …
Use in story times (for older students, too!)

53. “Books You Can Count On”

54. “Noughty but Nice!”

55. Displays Staff Picks shelf Fiction and/or Nonfiction Consider timing
Exams

56. What promotional tools do you have?
BiblioCommons (patron input)
Bookmarks/lists
Print
Electronic
Pathfinders
Blog
Site of the Week
Database or Wiki
Pamphlets
Presentation/Outreach
Parent’s Night
Family Literacy events
Summer Reading promos
Add a Trip to the Library and Your Skills Will Multiply

57. Reading Programs DEAR, DIRT, SSR Get the math teachers on board
Read-alouds for older students
Don’t forget the Mathematical Fiction site!

58. Booktalks

59. 100th Day of School Books Sites

60. “Take Your Chances @ the Library!”
Games day – learn about probability, statistics, game theory, logic puzzles

61. World Math Day http://www.worldmathday.com/
World Math Day Video Challenge (Teacher Tube)
Be the driving, coordinating force just as for Family Literacy Day
In Australia, the government sponsors a combined National Literacy and Numeracy Week
Real World Math Contest (Teacher Tube + Texas Instruments)

62. Pi Day (March 14 = 3.14) Books Sites Also Einstein’s birthday!
Also Einstein’s birthday!

63. “Math is Beautiful” Tesselations (Escher) Origami Quilting Fractals
Read about Eric Demaine (Canadian now at MIT)
Quilting
Fractals
Doodling
Golden Ratio/Divine Proportion (nature, art, architecture)

64. Sidebar for library professionals
Merchandising
shape, patterns, symmetry
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Chapter on “The Library as Shape”
(p 129 – 161)
Discussion of the geometric patterns of the Laurentian Library’s tile floor designed by Michelangelo:

65. “Double the Fun” Dress up as twins
Books about the number 2 and/or multiplying by 2
Books with “two” in the title

66. Make Connections Hot topics The Olympics are all about the numbers!
Lewis Carroll =
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
(mathematician)
First Wikipedia logo included quote from Dodgson’s “Euclid and His Modern Rivals”. ~

67. Googol/Google
Google’s search algorithm—PageRank considers more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. ~

68. Combining Literacy and Numeracy
Teachers/parents short on time
Combine lessons
“Story Problems”
Research supports theory
What If Your ABCs Were Your 123s?:
Building Connections Between
Literacy and Numeracy
By Leslie Minton

69. More resources
Connecting Math with Literature: Using Children's Literature as a Springboard for Teaching Math Concepts Grades 3-6
By Lisa Crooks
Literature-Based Math Activities: An Integrated Approach
By Alison Abrohms
Math Links: Teaching the NCTM 2000 Standards Through Children's Literature
By Evans, Leija, Falkner
Some of these are dated but you may still have the referenced books in your collection
Math Through Children's Literature
By Braddon, Hall, Taylor

70. A few more to consider
Check out books by David J. Whitin, Phyllis Whitin and Sandra Wilde
How to Use Children’s Literature to
Teach Mathematics
By Rosamond Welchman-Tischler
Literature-based activities for integrating mathematics with other content areas
By Robin A. Ward

71. Marilyn Burns Math and Literature series
Math and Nonficton series
Chart of children’s literature featured in Math Solutions Publications series
EVERY SCHOOL BOARD SHOULD CONSIDER OWNING THIS SET!

72. Series
Greg Tang
MathStart
Stuart J. Murphy

73. Find lists online Booklist Online: Math in Fiction
Library Booklists: Math in Children’s Fiction:
The Math Drexel: Literature and Mathematics
Math Books for Children
Mathematics Council of Alberta’s Teachers’ Association: Mathematics and Literature
Investigations in Number, Data and Space
Children’s Picture Books that Teach Mathematics Concepts
Math and Children’s Literature
Middle and High School: Literature in Mathematics

74. Taking it to another level
Issues
Discussion
Compare/contrast
Character development
Cross-curricular connections
Provide a positive, integrated experience with mathematics

75. There’s Nothing in the Library!
Books about ‘zero’ and/or ‘nothing’

76. Book Lust by Nancy Pearl includes a chapter entitled:
“Zero: This Will Mean Nothing to You”
The Hole in the Universe by K. C. Cole
The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe by John D. Barrow
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Number by Charles Seife
The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert Kaplan

77. #1 (One) By Vladimir Radunsk
“The Power of One”
Link to topic of “bullying”
Link to discussion of
“uniqueness”
One
By Kathryn Otoshi
#1 (One)   By Vladimir  Radunsk

78. Self Acceptance
Dissatisfied with its shape, a triangle keeps asking the local shapeshifter to add more lines and angles until it doesn't know which side is up.

79. Social Studies Booklist
Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. To make the idea of a world of 6.2 billion people more understandable, Smith suggests that children imagine the population of the world as a village of just 100 people. That's one person representing 62 million people in the real world. Surprising, even shocking statistics follow--for example, many kids in the U. S. take computers for granted, but only seven people in the global village own one. Each double-page, picture-book spread relates a few consciousness-raising facts about such topics as nationalities, food, language, and religion. With the aid of a calculator, even younger kids can do the math; the tricky part is to get children to really understand the ideas. Armstrong's large acrylic paintings, nice complements to the text, look like stained glass windows, with blocks of intense color outlined in thick black lines. This highly informative book will get kids thinking and asking questions, and it can easily be incorporated into a middle-school social studies curriculum. The endnote suggests related activities for home and classroom. Lauren Peterson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

80. Fiction vs Nonfiction Math Prodigy Savant
How are mathematicians portrayed? Math teachers?

81. Putting mathematical skills to work
Is it legal?
Is it ethical?

82. Discussion topics for older students/adults
Euro-centric approach to mathematics education, especially history of mathematics
Concept of infinity as presented in The Tortoise and the Hare
The power of numbers in our contemporary, data-driven society

83. Dodecahedron or A Frame for Frames by Paul Glennon
Regular dodecahedron: a polyhedron (solid with plane faces) with 12 faces, each of which is a regular pentagon
Finalist, 2006 Governor General’s Award for Fiction
Can you construct the dodecahedron that links the characters in the stories?

84. Information Literacy Opportunities for incorporating
numeracy + literacy + information literacy

85. What if there is an error in the math?
Take advantage of a ‘teachable moment’
Information literacy lesson
What is the error?
What correction is necessary?
Why is it easy to overlook the error?
Who should we inform?
What are their credentials?
How can we contact them?
Can we write our own story?

86. Literal translation Reference to ‘Pi’ in the Bible
Try ‘Google’ this topic for an excellent discussion on the objectivity, reliability, authority of web sites
‘Pi’ in the Old Testament:
“And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the
one brim to the other: it was round all about,
and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty
cubits did compass it about.” (I Kings 7, 23)

87. Physical Books
How many numbers can you find on/in a book? (ISBN, price, pages, chapters, reading level, date, Dewey number, edition, etc.)
What did we gain by switching to ISBN-13? How many more items can we uniquely identify?
Reference collection is excellent place to study concept of ‘relative size’ as ‘biggest books’ usually located there. What does ‘biggest book’ mean?
Use duplicate copies and Big Books (read aloud size) to demonstrate ‘similar’ and ‘congruent’

88. Dewey Decimal System Base 10 number system: 10 then 10 then 10 …
Arrange books in numerical order: place value, greater than, less than
Every time you train a page or explain to a student how to locate a book using call numbers, you are teaching math!
Evaluate expressions involving decimals and search for items with corresponding Dewey numbers
Take several books and perform operations with their Dewey numbers
Organize scavenger hunt matching math question answers to call numbers
“Dewey Decimal Sudoku” in School Library Media Activities Monthly

89. Patterning
Collection can be categorized based on many ‘attributes’ (hardcover/soft-cover, fiction/nonfiction, reference/circulating, etc.)
Arrange selection of books into various patterns based on attributes
Overlap with Venn diagrams

90. Physical Collection
Ratio problems: proportion of collection in various genres, formats, etc.; compare with number of shelves in various genres
Rate problems: if purchase books at rate x and weed at rate y . . .
Estimation: number of items in collection – what information would you need?
Problem solving: what information would you need to calculate the approximate value of the books in the collection?
Have students graph findings of proportions

91. Sample application Activity: Book Drive
Sort books: fiction, non-fiction, picture books
Tally books in each category
Use Excel to make chart and graph
Submit to newsletter

92. OPAC Learn to use OPAC features by answering questions such as
How many books do we have by Robert Munsch?
How many items that come up under a keyword search for ‘bears’ are fiction?
What is the oldest book we have on the subject of mathematics?
How could I find out the average age of a portion of the collection?
Explain that all electronic resources are founded upon the binary number system
What other subject headings might be used when searching for ‘math’ books?

93. Databases Mathematics articles in the databases
30 journals in Academic OneFile on subject of mathematics including “Teaching Children Mathematics”, “Mathematics Education Research Journal” and “Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education”
Don’t forget CBCA and Canadian Reference Centre
Popular
Pedagogical
Technical
A fantastic way to attract the attention of teachers!
Alerts, RSS feeds
Send to staff meetings/put in mailboxes

94. Research strategy parallels
From OSLA’s Information Studies
Zimmer, David, et al. Mathematics of
Data Management. Scarborough, ON:
Nelson, (page viii)

95. Remember
Some of these activities may leave the shelves in a shambles, but they are well worth it if patrons/students gain exposure to the collection and find something that they would like to borrow

96. My goals:
Increase awareness of the potential of the library to support numeracy education
You have the skills, resources, programs and promotional tools necessary to be an advocate for numeracy in your library
You might simply need to see them from a different perspective
For “mathies”
For everyone
Take the ideas presented here and adapt them to your particular situation
Inspire you to come up with more ways to integrate numeracy into your library’s collections and programs
Establish your library as a destination for numeracy support and resources

97. Eratosthenes—My hero!
Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the Earth. While he is also known for the Sieve of Eratosthenes, an algorithm for identifying the prime numbers, his main occupation was as the librarian at Alexandria.
You might not be the librarian who measured the earth, but perhaps you will be the library professional who inspired a patron to make a mathematical discovery!

98. Divide and conquer! Go forth and multiply!
Thanks for coming!
Divide and conquer!
Go forth and multiply!

99. Contact Info
Melissa Poremba is delighted to speak on the topic of numeracy skills support and development at school and public libraries. She can be contacted via
In addition, many of her lists live on the Oakville Public Library site ( ) and you may send her a message via that platform. (Search for ‘math’ lists from ‘melissapowl’ and then click on ‘Send melissapowl a Message’.)