Engaging and Empowering School Libraries

Great School Libraries: Campaigning, misconceptions, AI and a way forward

This week we are talking about campaigning for school libraries and why it is important. The Great School Libraries Campaign was set up 4 years ago as a joint venture between the School Library Association, CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) and CILIP SLG (School Library Group). 

Tonight I am joined by my co-host and school librarian Sabrina Cox and our guests this evening are the joint Chairs of the campaign, Alison Tarrant, CEO of the School Library Association and Mary-Rose Grieves, a school librarian working at the Hartland International School of Dubai.  

We talk campaigning, misconceptions, Ofsted, AI and the future of school libraries. The future is bright...

Great School libraries campaign https://www.greatschoollibraries.org.uk/ 

 

Letter to the mp is on the 'how can I help' page 

https://www.greatschoollibraries.org.uk/how-can-i-help

 

https://twitter.com/GreatSchLibs

https://twitter.com/uksla

https://twitter.com/CILIPSLG 

Check out my membership here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership 

Empowering Learning through ChatGPT and AI: Insights from School Librarians

This podcast is about ChatGPT and AI within education and the role that the school librarian can play in helping students and teachers engage with with it. After initially deciding that I needed to know more about all of this back in December the AI world has exploded and it is virtually impossible to keep up to date with everything new that is now available. We felt that another conversation about what the school librarian can and should be aware of going forward.

Tonight I was joined by my co-host school librarian Sabrina Cox as well as John Royce a freelance consultant and trainer,  Susan Merrick a teacher-librarian who is at an international school in Surrey and Jeri Hurd is a teacher-librarian based in Korea.  We are very grateful that she has got up at 4am to be with us. 

Resources spoken about during podcast discussion

https://elicit.org/

Google Scholar on Speed

 

https://www.ib-schools.com/our-services/blog/7/the-international-baccalaureate-and-ai-chatbot-technology

IB Blog

 

https://ditchthattextbook.com/ai/

Ditch That textbook

 

https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2023/01/22/chatgpt-with-my-students/ This one is pretty interesting too.

 

Jeri Hurt's post about the ChatGPT student chart

and this to (and graphics) about Elicit

 

Matt Miller's AI post at Ditch That Textbook.  The graphic about levels of student AI use is good, but the whole post is worth reading.

 

Other podcasts

If you want to listen to previous podcast about ChatGPT you will find them here. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-tz753-1361bb0 https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ki5s3-138719d 

 

My membership information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership  

 

The school librarians role in organising an author visit

This podcast was recorded on Twitter Spaces in May 2022. Ruth Maloney and Elizabeth Hutchinson chatted to author, Ann Bryant about the role the school librarian plays in making an author visit something memorable for both the visiting author and the students. 

We had a wonderful conversation about how to make sure the questions your students ask are of value to everyone. Some great ideas to ensure this happens. 

Ann Bryant. https://www.annbryant.co.uk/

Find out more about me on my website https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

World Book Day: How do we balance silliness with seriousness

This podcast is about World Book Day, a day when many schools take the time to celebrate books and reading. Over the last few years, the interest in World book day has been dominated by the craze of ‘dressing up as your favourite book character’ and whilst this is fun it can cause much angst among parents and children who don’t have the time or money to join in. We have many school librarians who do love this practice so tonight's chat is not about saying we should not be dressing up but exploring other ways to celebrate world book day. 

Tonight I was joined by school librarians Ruth Maloney, Sabrina Cox, Emma Whiting and Cath Skipper who shared some wonderful ideas for WBD that we hope you will take and use as your own.

If you want to listen to the podcast about author visits mentioned in this podcast you can check it out here https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-g4dpp-13b58a9 

My membership information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership  

 

ChatGPT, School libraries, inquiry and questioning skills

This podcast is about ChatGPT and how the skills needed to navigate it well are part of the skillset that school librarians already have. 

I want to welcome back Domonic Sunderland Headteacher Capella House school who joined me a few weeks ago on my previous podcast about  ChatGPT and my other two guests who have got up rather early to talk to us from Australia, Andrew Herft who is a curriculum advisor and Leon Furze who is an Educational Consultant. 

Webinar - A beginners guide to ChatGPT for school librarians 

Leons resources:-

Blog - full of useful information and resources https://leonfurze.com/blog

PD February 16th will be live and recorded: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/practical-strategies-for-chatgpt-in-education-tickets-528941106087 

 

My membership information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership 

 

Graphic novels and their role in supporting literacy

Are graphic novels just comics and do they have a place in our school libraries? In this episode, Ruth, Sabrina and I unpack the power of graphic novels on students reading and are joined by experts Paul Register, school librarian and founder of Excelsior awards and Rebecca Simpson-Hargreaves, Lecturer in Education, University of Manchester. 

Resources mentioned in the podcast:-

Richard Ruddick https://padlet.com/rruddick9zra/graphic-novels-73uh2srzpbia 

The Excelsior Awards https://www.excelsioraward.co.uk/ 

Some favourites graphic novels from Rebecca :-

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (2 vols)

Minecraft  Stories from the Overworld – different authors in the anthology

When Stars are Scattered- Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

The Weirn books - Svetlana Chmakova

Beowulf – Stern, Steininger and Studabaker

Hilda (any of them)-Luke Pearson

Pilu of the Woods - Mai K. Nguyen

Tom’s midnight garden by Edith

The Animation Game Alan Turing Decoded – Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis

Darwin: An exceptional voyage - Fabien Grolleau and Jeremie Royer

Coven – Jennifer Dugan

Information about my membership can be found here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership 

 

School libraries - too essential to lose

Today I talked to guests Sean McNamara, CEO of CILIP Scotland, Dr Dorothy Willaims, Emeritus professor from Robert Gordon University and school librarian Anne De’Ath about the essential role of school libraries and librarians within education looking at the impact of school library closures across Scotland. 

Great School Libraries Campaign website https://www.greatschoollibraries.org.uk/

 

Some of the research that Dorothy was talking about:- 

Lance  K.C. and Kachel D.E. (2018)  Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us.  Phi Delta Kappan, 99 (7), pp 15-20.   Available at:  https://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

Teravainen, A & Clark, C. 2017 School Libraries:   A literature review of current provision and evidence of impact. National Literacy Trust, 2017 https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/school-libraries-literature-review-current-provision-and-evidence-impact-2017/          

Williams, D A, Wavell, C and Morrison, K  (2013) Impact of school libraries on learning.  Critical review of published evidence to inform the Scottish education community. https://scottishlibraries.org/about-us/our-publications/special-studies/impact-of-school-libraries/  Or  https://scottishlibraries.org/media/1211/impact-of-school-libraries-on-learning-2013.pdf  (Also available via the School Library Association website and RGU’s OpenAIR repository)

Research portals to USA studies

• Overview of USA studies https://antiochlis.libguides.com/schlibcert/research
• The Lance studies - https://www.lrs.org/data-tools/school-libraries/impact-studies/
• The Todd studies - https://cissl.rutgers.edu/research/impact-studies/

School Library Association - Impact of school libraries.   Links to research reports, summaries and infographics from the School Library Association’s webpage: https://www.sla.org.uk/impact

Membership information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership

Supporting school libraries from the top. Can senior leaders make a difference?

Do head teachers have a responsibility to ensure that their school library and librarian are understood and valued in their schools? We talked to two esteemed leaders in education. Richard Gerver, an award-winning speaker, bestselling author, and School Library Association President, and Peter Middleton Headteacher of Oswestry school about the critical role senior leaders have in supporting their school library and librarian.

My membership packages can be found here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership