Recently I was told that I should not be too friendly to students in the Library. As a teacher trained librarian I feel that there is much to show that engaging with students in the library as well as in the classroom has much benefit. There is a lot of information and advice about greeting students to the classroom, not so much about libraries.
Below are links to the articles that I have looked at regarding greeting students in the classroom
All suggest that that greetings at the door of the classroom can have a very positive effect. Although there are many articles about encouraging use of the library and how to engage students to become readers I could not find similar advice for school librarians
I would suggest that acknowledging students as they enter the Library and positioning yourself bythe exit door at the end of periods should beable to create the same effects for Libraries
We are in the 21% of schools whose budget increased
We are now in the 68% of schools that now provide access to the library from outside the school
We are in the 66% of schools that now include eBooks in our collection
We are in the 52% of schools that include eResources (subscription databases) in our collection.
Here is a snapshot of what Library staff believe are the most important services that they offer
1. Providing an engaging & welcoming space for learning & leisure with 63% of respondents indicating that this is an
important or very important service,
2. Developing & managing the schools resource collection with 52% of respondents indicating that this is an
important or very important service,
3. Developing or teaching information literacy programs with 46% of respondents indicating that this is an important
or very important service.
Emerging trends show that Increased Technology integration and Cloud based technologies are the most important. Our shift to the Infiniti system means that we are “on trend”.
Australia Day, January 26, is considered to be a commemoration of nationhood by many Australians. For other Australians, however, it marks a deep loss – of sovereignty, family and culture. Here are some titles from the SCIS catalogue which look at the clash between European settlers and the Aboriginal peoples:
1788 to 1809 : from First Fleet to Rum Rebellion by Victoria MacLeay ; [edited by Lynn Brodie].(SCIS No. 1552979). The first 22 years of the colonisation of Australia began with the arrival of the First Fleet and ended with the aftermath of the only military insurrection Australia has ever experienced. This book covers the major events: the arrival at Botany Bay, the settlement at Sydney Cove, the battle to survive, heroic explorations, and tensions between the new arrivals and indigenous peoples. ISBN 9780864271136
A commonwealth of thieves: the improbable birth of Australia by Thomas Keneally. (SCIS No. 1627531)
The history of the first four years of the convict settlement of Australia. Using personal journals and documents, Keneally re-creates the overseas voyage and the challenges Governor Arthur Phillips faced upon arrival: unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, bewildered and hostile natives, food shortages and disease. He also offers portrayals of Aborigines and convict settler. ISBN 9781400079568
That deadman dance by Kim Scott.(SCIS No. 1595239)
Told through the eyes of black and white, this is a story about a fledgling Western Australian community in the early 1800s, known as the “friendly frontier”. It shows that the first contact did not have to lead to war. ISBN 9781408829288
Rethinking settler colonialism : history and memory in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and South Africa edited by Annie E. Coombes (SCIS No. 1638689)
Focuses on the long history of contact between indigenous peoples and the white colonial communities who settled in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. Looks at how histories of colonial settlement have been mythologised, narrated, and embodied in these countries in the twentieth century. ISBN 9780719071690
A failure to understand: early colonialism and the indigenous peoples by Margaret McPhee. (SCIS No. 1659262). A look at the monumental clash between European colonalism and the Aboriginal peoples; from the first tentative and difficult interactions of the early explorers to the arrival of the First Fleet. ISBN 9781742455136
The Australian frontier wars 1788-1838 by John Connor (SCIS No 1112716). From the Swan River to the Hawkesbury, and from the sticky Arnhem Land mangrove to the soft green hills of Tasmania, this book describes the major conflicts fought on the Australian frontier to 1838. ISBN 0868407569
The other side of the frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia by Henry Reynolds (SCIS No. 1311253). The publication of this book in 1981 profoundly changed the way in which we understand the history of relations between indigenous Australians and European settlers. ISBN 0868408921
Forgotten war by Henry Reynolds (SCIS No. 1623535). Australia is dotted with memorials to soldiers who fought in wars overseas, but there are no official commemorations of the battles fought on Australian soil between Aborigines and white colonists. ISBN 9781742233925
The Black War : fear, sex and resistance in Tasmania by Nicholas Clements (SCIS No. 1659002)
Between 1825 and 1831 close to 200 Britons and 1000 Aborigines died violently in Tasmania’s Black War. It was by far the most intense frontier conflict in Australia’s history, yet many Australians know little about it. ISBN 9780702250064
All images and summaries provided by SCIS Syndetics
The Australian frontier warsThat deadman danceCommonwealth of thievesThe other side of the frontier
At end of the 2017 school year, the school made the decision to fund a new Library Management System. I had recommended three cloud based systems and based on my SCIS experience arranged for a demonstration from Infiniti on the basis of, ifthis was not the system for us we would spend further time evaluating the other two systems.
Happily all went well and we acted fast in securing an end of term changeover which involved moving the database to the new system. Supported by an excellent team we have been operating the circulation system since the third day back at school. We have one more webinar session and then we switch on the full system. In the meantime we are handling our borrower changeover and working to clean up the data to enable a cleaner version of the catalogue and of search results.
We will now be able to offer the school a cloud based landing page with federated search facilities which students can access via Compass our LearningMangement System thus providing 24/7 access to the collection. Our task is to make our online space as attractive as our physical space.
We are very conscious of the opportunity this gives us right now to work with faculties and introduce the new access to the library and emphasise our Libguides to students and of course staff.
2007 and it all changed for us in Education. We had technology and with Facebook Social Media went mainstream and we had to adapt.
For professional development I was an early adopter of Twitter settling on the moniker Larry the Librarian. I could connect with librarians and educators, I was exposed to ideas and could share thoughts.
Somehow my Twitter feed has become a mish-mash and I now question its value as professional development. As a school librarian I regard this as very important for building up my VIT hours. I intend to remake my professional twitter account as an learning tool. I will expand on this further and outline my intent and results in a post..
Facebook is troublesome for privacy, data and security issues and its sheer might it concerns me. It can be a very useful professional tool but I wish to sort it out for personal reasons to make it a more useful social tool for me. A post will follow.
This leads me to LinkedIn and my professional presence. My third task this break is to tidy up my websites and look at how I am presenting myself. This will hopefully lead to a focused professional and social media focus. Resharpening the brand as they say.
Here is a post on advocacy that I have copied and pasted across from OZTL posted
It’s vital to support arguments promoting school libraries and TLs with sound evidence. Demonstrate the outcomes of TL activity, school library programs etc – beyond listing input, ie. what you do.
Evidence can include: statistics, qualitative evaluations and anecdotal feedback. Even NAPLAN can be your friend! Real examples and quotes are particularly powerful.
Supplement the evidence you gather within your own school with research findings from wider afield, Australia and internationally. Look to: reports from Softlink; articles by researchers like Lyn Hay, Ross Todd, Barbara Combes; advocacy resources from organisations like ASLA, SLAQ, ALIA, The Hub<http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/tls/advocacy/>, AASL<http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/resources>
This article summarises international research that provides compelling evidence about the impacts of TLs and school libraries on literacy and learning outcomes: Hughes, Hilary, Bozorgian, Hossein, & Allan, Cherie (2014) School libraries, teacher-librarians and student outcomes : presenting and using the evidence.<http://eprints.qut.edu.au/74876/> School Libraries Worldwide, 20(1), pp. 29-50.
This report provides evidence from Gold Coast schools: Hughes, Hilary E. (2013) School libraries, teacher-librarians and their contribution to student literacy development in Gold Coast schools.<http://eprints.qut.edu.au/60260/> SLAQ, Brisbane.
Ann Gillespie’s research demonstrates how TLs can be effective evidence based practitioners: Gillespie, Ann M. (2013) Untangling the evidence : teacher librarians and evidence based practice.<http://eprints.qut.edu.au/61742/> PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology.
— and look out for her forthcoming article in Access
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